Palisadian., 1923-09-21
SOME HISTORIC "REMINISCENCES
BY THE PIONEER RE SIDENT WHO HAS
ONLY PLEASANT THOUGHTS FOR ALL
Pasade Born April H. 1905 the Day Being One of Blue
Sky, White Clouds and Snow Flurries-Interestng
Story of How Quickly the Start Was Made Then
Came Era of Depression and Today Almost Boom.
BY CHARLES T. LOGAN

odue is young III years, IL mas QdQ an
interesting and, at times, a highly
colored career. The makeup of Pali-
sade's population at the start was
somewhat peculiar and it has always
been a bit different. Dating its birth
from the day the first family moved
in, the village was born April II, 1905,
the Charles T. Logans being pioneer
residents from that date, | shall not
to speak of that glorious
day, and yet mention of it might not
be amiss. 1t was a cold day, north.
west wind blowing great gusts with
occasional furries of snow nearly all
day. The clouds, however, were never
dark and through them the sun would
break at odd times so that the hours
of the first day were somewhat mixed
between sunshine, blue sky and
shadow. II was cold enough for fire
in our furnace and we were comfort
able because in those days we had
an ample supply of coal for about
$500 per ton.
Early History
The earlier history of Palisade,
counting in the first three years, were
quite lively. In fact they were at
times little bit more than lively
almost heroic, but always interesting.
The Hudson River Realty Company
which founded Palisade, with E. H.
Ryan, formerly Syracuse lawyer, as
it's first president, had begun to find
themselves and early in the summer
of 1905 started to do things in an ad-
vertising way. Palisade was the
largest suburban development in
America, and consisted of 1,020 acres.
They used much space in the New
York City papers and it was not long
before Saturdays, Sundays and other
days found great hordes of people
coming over to look the new Model
Suburb" over. The name of the
realty agents for the company was
from New Jersey and past masters
in the art of promotion. They did a
wonderful job selling lots for the first
two years but after that things began
to fall off considerably and for long
number of years not gret deal was
done. Palisade has simply grown Of
it's own momentum, having had
good start and slow growth after it's
first three years. The first year there
were some 40 OF so families to move
in, which gave population of be-
tween 200 and 800 people. 1t was a
very sociable community, however, and
everybody mingled with each other.
There were no cliques or rivalries to
disturb the social status. Everybody
was proud of Palisade and there were
no ructions to amount to anything un-
til the organization of the Tax Payers
Association, which as usual brought
out some belligerent elements, and
while l personally know great deal
of interesting history connected with
that organization l shall not under
take to repeat it here because it is un-
necessary. The Tax Payers Associa-
tion was without any question the
most useful body ever organized in
Palisade and should be alive today.
Discordant elements, however, that
broke out in it's membership finally
caused it to quietly cease functioning
and it went the way of all things of
like character where harmony does
not exist.
In opening Palisade the Hudson
River Company did things on big
scale. They had thenr own saw mill
at Watkins pond, half way to Fort Lee,
hirad hai- htrild
ers, and built some forty-five houses
which were thrown on the market and
at prices most reasonable-not one
third of what the same houses would
cost today The ony house built at
that time outside of the company
houses was that of the w. r. Good
mans at Bluff road and Edgewood lane.
Before Palisade Was Born
l had considered buying a home in
Grantwood on the Cliff Front, Lafay.
cite street, before closing the deal
for a home in Palisade, but gave it up,
a fact have never regretted Before
Palisade was born | used to come over
with my family frequently to the hill
top section and roam through the
woods with my young son, his mother
and daughter. We had a great time
with a % calibre rife shooting at
trees and stumps, and enjoying the
air and scenery. 1t is interesting to
know that where the Ebell house now
stands was once skating pond, and
where the Frew and Logan homes
are standing today was once a swamp
so dense and so deep in mud and
water that it was tropical in appear
ance. There was a perfect tangle of
dead wood fallen trees and growing
vines that made it a place beautiful
to look at but hard to get through.
The Hudson River Realty Company
began its development in 1904 by fill
ing in the entire section between
Palisade avenue and Dearborn road
with stone and a top covering of soil.
Where the Brady house stands there
must have been fill of Is or more
feet and after the Brady house was
one corner of it sunk so
much it had to be shored up and pro-
tected against future lowering of the
level on this account The Pinaud
house was built in a very swampy
place and had to be constructed upon
piling. The Logan home cellar was
a foot deep in water shortly after
they moved in but this was taken out
when the sewers were completed a
little while after. Also the Douglas
house, now the Frew house, and the