Today, an unassuming apartment building stands at 579 Lakeside Avenue in Pompton Lakes. From the 1920s through the 1940s, however, this spot was widely known as Kirby’s Pavilion, a popular lakeside gathering place.

Alfred W. Kirby, born in London in 1874, came to America as a boy and grew up in Jersey City. He later married Elizabeth Bush, and in the early 1920s the couple moved to Pompton Lakes with their daughters, Velma and Dorothy.

The Kirby family’s modest home on Grant Avenue sat beside a 1.25-acre lakeside property where they built the pavilion, which included a general store open all year. During the hot summer months, the bathing beach was a welcome retreat — a place to swim, picnic, boat, or just relax by the lake. (I’m told there was a dance hall as well.) “The swimming area was pretty much where the gazebo is today,” recalled Ball, and the launch for canoes and rowboats is the same one we see today. Some would try fishing from nearby Schuyler Bridge.

Howard Ball remembered Pompton Lakes in those days as “a summer resort for folks from the cities who eventually moved here.”

The family sold candy and snacks and made sure visitors enjoyed their time. While many Pompton Lakes residents spent time there, the pavilion also drew busloads of visitors from nearby cities and towns, including Paterson, Passaic, and Newark, making Kirby’s Pavilion a lively local destination.

During the day, canoes and rowboats were available to rent. (Howard recalled “Victorian types who dressed up to row a boat.”) Most stayed nearby, or dared to get close to the dam, but on one occasion two enterprising fellows rowed up the Pompton River to Pleasureland in Oakland (where one nearly drowned).

Kirby also offered moonlight motor boat trips for the romantically inclined.

Like many other lake venues, Kirby’s had its share of trouble. Accidents, drownings, and near-drownings, while rare, were a danger; at one time, a girl dove to the bottom, only to get her foot tangled in a waterlogged root. Her tale ended well when a local boy rescued her, but some others were not as lucky. The Kirbys installed a fence in the water to give small children a place to play in safety.

If you’ve seen photos of beach-goers during this era, you probably noted that swimmers wore more clothing to go into the water than they wore in public. Pompton Lakes enforced a dress code as well; in 1935, some local boys were actually fined for not wearing the upper half of their suits.

Alfred Kirby passed in 1947, two years after his wife. The pavilion property and his other possessions were willed to his daughters. The property eventually ended up with borough resident Harry Feinbloom. His plans to “beautify” the buildings met with considerable resistance, with petition-signing residents citing “what goes on at the place during the summer” and urging him to build houses there instead. The property now houses two large apartment complexes.

Do any of my readers remember Kirby’s? What was it like back in the day? Got photos? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

-30-