Greenwood Lake, New York

History

Greenwood Lake was settled by Europeans as a farming community in the 1700s in the area of an earlier village occupied by the Munsee Indians. The Munsees, considered a branch of the Lenape people (also known as the Delaware), were Algonquian speakers who called the lake Quampium.

Some of the farms at the head of the lake were purchased by the Morris Canal and Banking Company in 1837, and portions of these properties were inundated after a dam was built that same year. It greatly increased the size of the lake to its current condition. The enlarged lake attracted tourists, and a grand hotel operated by Theron Felter was operating within the area of the village by at least 1851. The development of the village dates to 1856, when most of the available land was purchased by Solomon Caldwell. He divided the land for sale as “hotels, villa sites and town lots.” Subsequent plot plans suggested renaming the community the “town of Avington” in 1884, and “Montelac Park” in 1890, but it remained Greenwood Lake, becoming incorporated as a village in 1924. In the ensuing years many prominent people, such as baseball star Babe Ruth and actress Greta Garbo, regularly visited the resort. Author and composer Satella Waterstone was born in Greenwood Lake in 1875.

From the History section of Greenwood Lake, New York on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.