SCHUYLER HOUSE

On Erskine-Dewitt maps made for the use of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, there are roads or thoroughfares that run from Kings Ferry on the Hudson River to Morristown and Philadelphia, at that time the U. S. Capitol. The roads as we know them today are Lakeside Avenue, Terhune Drive and Wanaque Avenue. On the map a house is marked "Aaron-Aron Schuyler". He and Anthony Brockholst formed a company with Samuel Bayard Ryerson, John Mead, Samuel Berry, David Mandeville, and Henrick Mandeville to form a settlement in Pompton. This was in 1695 when they purchased a large tract of about 5500 acres from the Indians.

The house (marked Aron Schuyler) is at the northeast end of Lakeside Avenue just west of where the Schuyler Bridge of today crosses Pompton Lake.

This crossroad was part of an important thoroughfare on which marched many detachments of the Continental Army. General George Washington and the army first passed the house in July 1777 on a march northward.

In August they passed moving southward to the unsuccessful defence on Philadelphia. Again in June 1780 the army moving northward passed the house. They then turned about and camped in Lower Preakness.
In the Revolutionary War Aron Schuyler supported the Patriot cause. In August 1781 the French Army and the right wing of the Continental Army used the thoroughfare on the march to the south and Yorktown. A French officer, Alexander Bertier, drew a detailed map of the route. The house still stands.

Pompton Lakes received international publicity because of the establishment of a boxers' training camp by Doc Biers in 1920 on the Schuyler home property. Many boxing champions trained at the camp, starting with Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Kid Gavilan, Beau Jack, Lew Jenkins, Ezzard Charles, Primo Carnero, Jersey Joe Walcott, and others. The training camp was closed in the early 1950s when the property was sold to the Elks Lodge.