A portion of Wanaque Valley before the Monksville Reservoir covered the land is shown in a drawing by Barbara Van Der Sluys, who grew up there. (Photo courtesy of Ann Genader)
The landscape visible along Greenwood Lake Turnpike (Passaic County Route 511) from the bridge connecting Ringwood with the Hewitt section of West Milford is very different today than it was before that section of the Wanaque Valley was flooded to create the Monksville Reservoir in 1987.
Barbara Welti Van Der Sluys, a professional artist, grew up on the land before it was acquired from her family by eminent domain.
It became part of the Two Bridges Pump Station operated by the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission and part of the reservoir system completed in 1929.
Her childhood memories are of a thriving self-sufficient community that was a gateway to the Greenwood Lake resort area of the 1930s and ’40s.
Hewitt had a one-room schoolhouse, church, general store, train station, restaurants and other businesses.
Barbara’s maternal grandparents were Thoms Francis Xavier Creevy, an Irishman, and Maria Richter, who was from the Bohemia part of Germany. Their daughter, Dorothea “Dot” Creevy, married Charles Welti of New York City.
Named for his father, he was the son of Charles Welti of Switzerland who married Marguerite Bauer of Hungary. Barbara Welti Van Der Sluys was the only child born to the couple.
“The Creevy family moved to the valley about 1934,” Barbara said. “Their home was an old farmhouse that came with a riding stable business. Gramps was a great horseman! The house was in the Borough of Ringwood and the barn stood in the Hewitt section of the Township of West Milford.”
Barbara’s parents lived in Bergen Country when her grandparents had the farm in Hewitt. After she was born, the family continued to spend weekends and summers with Dorothy’s parents until they moved to the farmhouse permanently in 1946.
Barbara graduated in the Butler High School Class of 1952. She married Henry “Hank” Van Der Sluys of Glen Rock, a graduate of Ridgewood High School. He passed away in 2002.
They raised their three sons - Glenn, who died in 2023; Kenneth of Virginia; and Roy of Dingmans Ferry, Pa, - in the farmhouse.
Barbara said her sons have thanked her for “a wonderful childhood growing up in the country on the family farm.”
Her response: “That’s all I needed to know!”
As the children grew up and moved on with their lives, Barbara and Hank continued to live in the two-story farmhouse on the eight acres of land they owned on Greenwood Lake Turnpike. One of her sons had a welding business there.
“All was good,” Barbara said. “I’d be there yet if I wasn’t told I had to move because the area was going to be flooded for the reservoir. There wasn’t anything a property owner could do to stay on their land if a government order declared eminent domain status.
“They offer a price and you try to negotiate but in the end, one can’t bargain and must take the amount officials say it is valued at.”
The Van Der Sluys bought a home at Hi-Lo-Acres in West Milford and reluctantly and sadly moved on.
Tales of Ruth
The 1930s and ’40s were an amazing time for Greenwood Lake. People, many of them celebrities, came from New York City by train and stayed at the many luxurious hotels and traveled around the lake on a steamboat.
Baseball great Babe Ruth was known to enjoy staying in a cabin across from Wanaque Valley Stables. He also at times was booked in Room 3 (his New York Yankees baseball uniform number) at the New Continental Hotel and at Greck’s Inn, having been friends with young Teddy Greck, the owner’s son. He was like a little brother to Ruth, who took the 14-year-old boy hunting, boating and fishing.
Barbara remembered a time when she and another child started what would be a long walk from home along Greenwood Lake Turnpike to an ice cream store. Ruth was in his fancy car pulling out of the parking lot of Phillips Inn (now Jessie’s at 1555 Greenwood Lake Turnpike).
Barbara wasn’t sure if the car was a Lincoln or Cadillac, but she knew it was top of the line. He offered the girls a ride to wherever they were going, and they happily accepted.
Ruth sometimes stopped at the Wanaque Riding Stables, and with a horse from there, he rode through the woods and fields. He frequently took time with the children and donated money for local benefits and causes, such as the Boy Scouts and Fire Department.
Barbara remembers Teddy Gleason and his Brown’s Hotel and the boxers who trained there. Teddy’s son Bobby was three or four grades below her at the Hillcrest School, which opened in the mid-1940s after the rural schools were closed.
She recalled his older brother Teddy having only one leg.
Parties for neighborhood children given by Teddy Gleason and his generosity to them are highlighted in Barbara’s memories.
The Wanaque Valley Inn, dating to the late 1700s (later known as the Holy Mackerel Restaurant), the Klinger House and the summer cabins are among the places that disappeared when Monksville Reservoir was created.