Edgewater Colony, a unique cooperative community, is 'a little hideaway' on the Hudson
If modern rebuilds disguise Edgewater Colony’s past, its close confines give it away.
Developed on the remnants of a summer camp under the southern edge of the Palisades, the secluded suburban neighborhood east of River Road has aged beautifully over the past century. Once a decidedly low-rent bungalow community, the colony has become a high-end cooperative holding some of the most sought-after homes on the Hudson.
Edgewater Colony isn’t home to sprawling estates, though. Its tidy homes crowd small lots that since the mid-1900s have remained unmerged due to the rules of the community.
Decidedly inconspicuous, the riverside community is hidden from the main drag by forest. It's also outshone by the towering Colony Apartment House in Fort Lee. Edgewater Colony is so low key that its private roads aren’t mapped on Google Street View. Its residents like it that way, said Danielle Fenimore of Foremost Management, the colony’s management company.
“It’s a little hideaway,” she said. "It is pretty cool that the people on Shore Road, on the cliff, have an unobstructed view of the city, and no one even knows they're there."
Marked on the south end by the Caribbean House apartments and on the north by Palisades Interstate Park, Edgewater Colony has a history akin to the lake communities of New Jersey’s northern Highlands. The colony transitioned from summertime resort to year-round bedroom community.
Origins as a retreat for city dwellers
In 1878, the riverside just south of Palisades became home to one of the state’s great country resort hotels, the Fort Lee Park Hotel and Pavilion. Built to capitalize on a port that shuffled George Washington to New York City during the American Revolution, the resort lured city dwellers each weekend. The resort's controlling company boasted its own side-wheeled steamship and the promise of picnicking, performances, billiards and bowling at historic Burdett’s Landing.
The revelry only lasted 20 years. In 1898, fire claimed the hotel’s majestic portside pavilion and ended the hotel's run. Traces of the once-famed octagonal structure are rumored to remain. Foundation stones were allegedly incorporated into a home on Shore Road.
Amid the ashes of the resort and under apathetic ownership, a summer commune took root. It was called O’Brien’s Camps after Harry O'Brien, a town councilman and the property's manager. The campground gained a new name around 1920, when retired Fort Lee police sergeant Patrick Hartnett replaced O’Brien as the new estate manager.
For about $30 a season, Hartnett permitted vacationers to build makeshift shelters on the riverfront. Hartnett’s Camps gained a reputation for poor sanitary and health conditions and for inviting municipal intervention and tax appeals from the controlling estate.
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The community began to take its modern shape during the construction of the George Washington Bridge, when day workers built their own bungalows. Due to the establishment of Palisades Interstate Park in 1900, the colony’s homes remain the first waterfront residences south of the iconic bridge. They exist as rare single-family homes with unmarred city views.
Today, some of the homes in Edgewater Colony date back decades. Others represent the latest in modern architecture. Weathered cedar shingles live alongside translucent garage doors.
“After 9/11, people moved out of the city and the colony really took off,” Fenimore said. "You have a lot of different types of homes [and] all walks of life down here. I don't believe there's anything like it.”
When it started to form in the early 1900s, the colony drew locals and out-of-towners alike. Even when the borough shut its beaches in late July 1931 over fears linked to elevated pollution in the Hudson, Hartnett’s Camps welcomed Edgewater residents and city dwellers, The Record reported. Barges controversially docked along the shore.
Throughout the 1930s, the camp association held an annual carnival at the end of each summer with swimming races, a community tug-of-war and the crowning of “Miss Edgewater.” A July 1937 report in The Record said 120,000 people visited Palisades Interstate Park and Hartnett’s Camps one hot summer day.
In the handful of years after Hartnett’s death in 1940, about 100 families remained on site all year, according to The Record. Rumors of their eviction started in 1946, when one of the controlling landowners, John Goetchius, died and willed his interest in the campground to a school in New Hampshire.
While the bequest didn’t force a mass migration from the colony, it did leave Morgan Goetchius as the only surviving family member with an interest in the land south of Palisades Interstate Park. The following year, the Goetchius heir moved to divest.
In 1947, the estate offered the roughly 120 residents the opportunity to buy the property for $150,000. Of them, 94 agreed to divide the parcel into cottage-sized lots they would collectively own.
Transition to cooperative living
The following year, Hartnett’s Camps became Edgewater Colony, Inc., a cooperative housing company. Colonists own their homes. They maintain their “areas” by mowing lawns and maintaining their gardens. But there are no official property lines. And they don’t own the land.
The company, now governed by a nine-member board of directors, owns the 26 acres and is responsible for its nearly $550,000 annual tax bill. Rather than control deeds, the company sells shares. Since its founding, the cost has been $1,300 per share, or lot. People can own more than one. There’s one key restriction: Homes can only occupy a single lot.
"One couple, they built two homes next door (to each other)," Fenimore said. "They wanted to connect them by tunnel. The board said, 'No way.'"
The limitation has not prevented tear-downs in the exclusive riverside community. It has, however, curbed the size of the million-dollar homes that sprout along its winding private streets.
There are other rules, akin to co-op apartments. Tree removal requires special permission from the board. Home improvement upgrades require neighbor approval —mainly to avoid obstructing views, Fenimore said. Shared maintenance fees cover trash pickup, snow removal and infrastructure repairs. Divesting requires a board supermajority.
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Though the colony hasn’t been interested in selling, it has had prospective buyers. In 1972, Glick Corp. of New York City collectively offered the community’s then-116 homeowners $12 million, a transaction denied by fewer than 10 ballots, The Record reported. Anecdotally, it was the old-timers who refused to move.
The payout, at more than $100,000 a home, was appealing to many. Home prices at the time ranged from $25,000 to $75,000. Today, homes are more in the range of $500,000 to $4 million.
The company’s plan was to build a high-rise complex of 2,500 riverside apartments on the colony. Unlike other properties east of River Road, Edgewater Colony sits on solid rock rather than a mushy riparian (waterside) zone.
Edgewater's mayor in the early 1970s, Francis Meehan, spoke out against the potential for increased density, citing the potential impact on infrastructure. The opposition didn’t stop Glick Corp. officials. They came back in 1974 with a $13 million offer. Six naysayers prevented the required two-thirds majority needed to sell, according to The Record. Moreover, borough officials refused to rezone the property for condos or apartments.
The colony continues to be zoned only for single-family homes; a majority of the new houses have been built by the same contractor, Frank DeCarlo of FDC Development. A maximum of 3,355 square feet are permitted without special allowance. Residents share a clubhouse with a gym, game room and a lounge.
It may be the only cooperative community in the state formed, managed and maintained in its mold, Fenimore said, adding that the residents like it that way.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Cooperative community of Edgewater Colony hides in plain sight
