Looking Back: Idylease pool

A great deal of constant community involvement was visible when Dr. Arthur Zampella operated a nursing home and medical office at the Idylease building on Union Valley Road.

For example, about 1967, the Lakeland Valley YMCA provided swim lessons there for children living in West Milford and surrounding areas.

The lessons were offered free of charge in a beautiful indoor pool in the main Idylease building.

Children enjoyed a summer day camp on the property too, and there also was a day care center available.

Adults who experienced long ago good times at Idylease recall building campsites in the woods behind the main building and participating in activities such as archery.

Those in day care might remember napping on mats at the day care center.

Six weeks of beginner swimming classes under sponsorship of the YMCA were held in an indoor pool in the basement of the Idylease building.

Instructors included Tom Duckworth of Wayne and Lin Stearns of Bloomingdale.

Among those who earned beginners YMCA certificates in 1967 were Sandy Moffett, Kenneth DeKaney, Michael Ligus, Keith Currier, Cindy Laycock, Tammy Laycock, Barbara Kicel, Theresa Moscatello, Doris Dawson, Marey Magill, John Wiggins, Robert Donovan, David Carota, David Edwards, Paul Francza, Steven Francza, William Malan, Wendy Schaefer, Craig Schmidt, Jason Vandertoorn, Ricky Vandertoorn, Joseph Carr, Nancy Nykamp, John Nykamp, Roy Ambrister, Diane Chapman, David Kronyak, Gene, Kronyak, Elliot Haynes, Ralph Milch, Paul Neilssen, Eileen ad Susan Rodgers, Dana Whitehead, Susan Rodgers, Dana Whitehead, Charles Wassmer, Dennis Wassmer, and Edward Wassmer, Bruce Rhinesmith and Chris Rhinesmith.

When Idylease opened in the last quarter of the 19th century as a modern health resort, “all forms of hydrotherapy and massage” were offered. It was established as “a quiet homelife facility.”

A staff of Brooklyn physicians made referrals.

The facility boasted Norwegian-trained massage therapists and “most approved scientific apparatus for administering baths and sprays.”

The original hydrotherapy suite is where baths were administered to alleviate symptoms of overeating and drinking or for various ailments.

Zampella purchased Idylease in 1954 and opened a nursing home. He also had a medical office on the property and was the primary care physician for many local families.

He had the pool in the basement created in the space formerly occupied by the hydrotherapy suite.

When the West Milford Police Department was organizing a scuba-diving team in the 1970s and ’80s, it used the Idylease pool for practice as team members studied water rescue techniques.

Zampella and his community projects provided facilities and programs for people in West Milford when it was experiencing some of its greatest early growth challenges.

Major changes and needs came as West Milford grew from a rural municipality to suburbia, and Zampella was there to provide help by offering Idylease programs and facilities to the public.

To contact Ann Genader, send email to anngenader@gmail.com