Historic Noe Pond Club in Chatham Township to be purchased, preserved by member group
A group of club members has teamed with a local service business to purchase and preserve the historic Noe Pond Club in Chatham Township.
Members and residents in the area rallied early last year to encourage community support after the family owners of the club in late 2020 announced a sale to developers and said it would close after 65 years.
The drive to save Noe Pond began shortly after, with organizers forming a Facebook Group and staging a march past the property on a frigid morning in January 2021.
"It was pretty devastating to find out Noe Pond was going to a developer, given the legacy, the history and the environmental aspects of the property," said former Deputy Mayor Tracy Ness, who said her children grew up there.
Some feared more commercial development in the area that would impact traffic and possibly the environmentally-sensitive Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge next door. Others just wanted back their club and summer haven where members could swim, play tennis and participate in family activities one member described as "reminiscent of the Eisenhower Era."
The property sale from the Silverman Group is still pending, but a contract has been signed, according to a Facebook post on the Save Noe Pond page.
"Noe members Scott Readlinger and Larry Palumbo, along with Boxcar, Inc. formed a partnership to negotiate the purchase," they wrote. "We will be forming a group of investors to close on the property in 2022."
Based in Chatham, Boxcar provides a variety of "suburban services," including commuter transportation and parking, car detailing and more.
"Our understanding of and familiarity with our Morris County customers and our focus on operational excellence make us a natural fit to partner with The Noe Pond Club," Boxcar cofounder Owen Lee said.
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Meanwhile, the buyer group has secured permission to reopen for the summer as usual, including casual and competitive swimming, tennis, paddle tennis and other activities.
"We are currently working through the property closing process, scheduled for later this year," Lee said. "The current owners are graciously allowing us to lease the facilities for the interim 2022 summer season. There should be no further interruption to the community being able to enjoy the Noe Pond Club."
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Pre-Revolution property
Bailey Brower Jr. and his wife, Taz, opened the club in 1955 on a 35-acre parcel of land owned by the Noe family, which settled in what was known as St. John's Bridge before it was renamed in honor of the first British Earl of Chatham in 1773.
Five years later, an act of Congress protected the surrounding 7,768 acres of the Great Swamp as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1960. Another grassroots organization, led by Morris County housewife Helen Fenske, successfully prevented a government-supported project in the 1960s that would have replaced pre-expansion Newark Airport with a massive "jetport" on the Great Swamp wetlands. It was declared a National Natural Landmark in 1966.
The Noe family eventually accumulated 800 acres in Chatham Township, much of which was farmed. The property included Noe Pond, used for irrigation in the summer and to harvest ice during winter. The ice was needed for the thriving 19th-century rose business that colored the Gilded Age with regular train shipments of fresh blooms to New York, just 25 miles away.
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At one point, the Brower family owned three swim clubs in the area, but only Noe Pond remained open.
Citing economic uncertainty after the COVID pandemic affected operations, the family announced it had entered into a contract to sell to an unnamed buyer, later identified as the Silverman Group. The Silverman Group did not respond to a request for comment.
"The challenges and risks of operating the club have been more than expected," Kim Barton said. "COVID was the tipping point for us. In the spring, members were requesting refunds, new membership interest sharply decreased and state/local officials were not sure if summer recreation facilities would open."
A "Summer Committee" was formed to operate the club during the summer of 2021 as the property's fate remained unsettled. The sale agreement to the group was announced last month.
"We are all looking forward to preserving the Noe experience for many years to come," they wrote.
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com Twitter: @wwesthoven
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Noe Pond Club in Chatham Township to be purchased by member group
