Location: 72 Mountain Ave

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Description:

Mountain Valley Park Pond offers visitors a beautiful pond to walk around and admire. The "Mud Hole" is no longer open for swimming, but it is a great place to fish (the Mendham Borough Police Department hosts an annual fishing frenzy where they stock the water with trout). Besides fishing, this is the perfect location to park to walk Patriots Path since it connects right to the path. A short distance down the path, you can find two playgrounds and cross a bridge to Pastime Fields. One of the playgrounds was worked on by Girl Scout Senior Troop 95084 for their senior award - the park is called "Welcoming Woods" and was officially opened on May 23, 2021. The playground has many features and attractions.

In the winter, if it's cold enough, the "Mud Hole" will freeze and be open for ice skating. More information about the ice skating conditions can be found here.

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History:

Today’s Mountain Valley Park Pond, the "Mud Hole", built mainly by citizen labor - from contractors to children - on land donated by Pietro Clementi, used to be a popular center of activity. Even before the pond was built, you may have seen the Cillos shooing away cows from Clementi’s nearby pond so they could swim, or maybe there was a baseball game to be played after cutting down the hay on what is now Florie Farm Road. Much like the Borough pool that did not get built in the 1970s, there were objections to the building of the "Mud Hole", with many deeming it too expensive. In August 1948, Cora and Phil Parrillo, along with the Cramers, Halls, Moshers, and Cillos, organized a parade down Main Street which turned the tide to support the "Mud Hole". The parade, complete with cars, signs, and children on bikes, followed Mayor Bowers and Marshall Brill to the Borough council meeting at Hilltop School. The group presented a petition to the council, which pledged $7,500 for construction. Men came home after work to clear the land, and although the Belton boys plugged the drain and used the pond for a prededication swim, the facility opened for official swimming on Memorial Day in 1949. Operating expenses were raised through a fund drive and a Coke machine located on site. Once the “pool” was built there, it attracted passive recreation - many recall the area as a great place for a friendly stroll. But there was more active recreation as well.

As Michael Ackerman remembers, "There was a sandy shore that ran into shallow water. It was here that the mothers set up chairs, talked, sunned, and looked after the smaller kids. A quarter of the way down the bank, the sand petered out, and there was a stretch of grass before the deep end. In the deep end was a concrete dock, at the end of which was a diving board. It was here that as a child you aspired to play, but first you had to pass the seemingly insurmountable Deep End Test.

"If you could pass the Deep End Test—four lengths of the dock wasn’t the tough part, the tough part was the entire town would watch—you were immediately drafted into the swim team. Note, we were not the only "Mud Hole". Our swim league was composed entirely of other teams that swam in ponds—except Bernardsville, who had a concrete pool. Bernardsville was always skeeved out at away meets.

"The swimming season wrapped up with the Labor Day festivities. The day’s events started at 8:30 at the "Mud Hole". First was the potato hunt. The Jaycees would jam pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters into potatoes. The potatoes were then thrown into the sandy, shallow end of the "Mud Hole". Since potatoes sink and visibility was four to five inches, you felt around with your feet for the potatoes. I always thought it was strange that the Jaycees would do this because all those nickels and dimes were then squandered at the Pastime Club’s booths at the Borough field later in the day. After the potato hunt, there were the final swim races and even a diving contest. Then it was up to the Borough fields for the bike and running races, ending with the fireworks. The next day school began, and the brown water of the "Mud Hole" was forgotten until December. On weekends a fire was built alongside the rock. Nonskaters and pregnant mothers would gather at the rock while those who skated were out on the "Mud Hole". If there was a hockey game, that took place on the northernmost side of the pond and was a place of fitful action. As was the case with most athletic activities of the day, it took a smattering of all ages between eight and thirteen to get a team together.

"Runoff from horse and cow farms upstream and changing expectations eventually made the "Mud Hole" impractical as a community swim hole. But when it did exist, it was as much a focal point of activity for Mendham residents as the Borough fields are today."

 

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Sources:

• The Centennial Book Committee. Reflections on a Community: Mendham Borough - the Centennial 1906–2006. Online PDF

• Emmons, Catherine M. Through the Years in Mendham Borough. 1973.

• Various Photographs from Daniel Malikov through his Eagle Scout Project