Two Years and Halsey Pond

I'm proud to say that this little blog has made two years old. There has been a bit of a lull in activity, but lately inspiration has struck. I found myself on two adventures very recently. This first one is my brief stroll around Halsey Pond. The second was a two-part adventure up to the Catskills. More on that one to follow. Unfortunately, I didn't have my real camera on me for this first adventure, just my phone.

About 2 months back or so a friend of mine mentioned that him and his buddies used to frequent this park back in the day. Apparently it's a popular drinking spot for young High School students. I had vaguely forgotten about it until flipping through my book "Walkable Westchester" looking for a quick place to explore. Side note, I had gotten it as a 'secret santa' gift at work. Clearly my gifter did a a great job.

Halsey Pond is located in Irvington. In the early 1900s, Melchoir Beltzhoover, an influential and successful businessman involved in the cotton and oil industries, commissioned a local architect to design a stone German-inspired castle. The 44-room building became "Rochroane." Beltzhoover later sold the estate to Benjamin Halsey took over the estate and renamed it "Grey Towers." It is after Benjamin that the pond is named. (Obviously.)

Unfortunately all that remains is the little "Beltzhoover Teahouse" that was refurbished in the '90s. The original building was abandoned in 1976 and subsequently burned. It sat vacant until it was tragically demolished in the '90s. The estate had changed hands several times, but eventually ended up with a developer. In an effort to gain the right to develop the land surrounding the pond, the developer donated the pond and Teahouse to the Town.

I have to say I'm grateful, as I'm sure plenty of Irvington/Dobbs Ferry residents are as well. It really is a special little place, which was quite gorgeous in the snow. I suspect that it's even more beautiful in the summer when the pond is alive with, uh, grass carp.