- City:
- Englewood Cliffs, NJ
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation, Picnic and Other Facilities, Bathhouses
- New Deal Agencies:
- Civil Works Administration (CWA), Work Relief Programs
- Started:
- 1934
- Completed:
- 1934
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Civil Works Administration (CWA) built the Bloomer’s Beach Bathhouse and Refreshment Stand in the Palisades Interstate Park in Englewood Cliffs NJ. The Palisades Interstate Park Bathhouse served swimmers in the Hudson River until swimming at the beach was terminated during World War II. Since then, the Bathhouse has fallen into ruin, but the refreshment stand remains.
The CWA also built the picnic pavilion at the nearby Englewood Picnic Area. By the 1920s the Englewood Picnic Area and Boat Basin was a vigorous facility with swimming, boating basin, picnicking, and ferry service that brought visitors from upper Manhattan. New Deal workers added a snack bar at the entrance to the facility in addition to the bathhouse and snack bar at Bloomer’s Beach in the northern end of the complex. Approximately ¾ of a mile north of the Englewood facility, they built picnic tables at the Under Cliff picnic area.
The boat basin adjacent to the picnic area built before the New Deal is still in use. Bloomer’s Beach at this site was popular for swimming until it closed .
Source notes
“From the Hard Winter,” Cliff Notes, April 2014, (https://www.njpalisades.org/hardWinter.html), accessed August 2020.
“Alphabet Soup," Cliff Notes, Nov.-Dec. 2004, (https://www.njpalisades.org/alphabetSoup.html), accessed August 2020.
E. Emory Davis Davis and Eric Nelsen, "New Jersey’s Palisades Interstate Park" (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2007), 71-73, 76-77, 79, 82-83.
Commissioners of the Palisades Interstate Park, “Extensive Civil Works Program in Interstate Park,” 1934, Palisades Interstate Park Archive.
Site originally submitted by Robert Snyder on August 8, 2020.
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