Listing Category: Parks, Gardens & Trails ,
Description:
Magnificent view of the Neversink Valley and the Delaware River. A great place to see an overlook of Historic Port Jervis. Hiking trails, picnic, and barbecue areas.
The History
It was also during the Gilded Age that the largest park in the city was developed, the Elks-Charles Brox Memorial Park, located on what was then called the Twin Mountain Tract, or Point Peter and Mount William. As early as 1911, local citizens became concerned with the future of the property that overlooked the city and had an important view of the Shawangunk and Kittatinny mountains, along with the Delaware and Neversink river valleys. At that time, the owner, Almira St. John Mills had just died, and the property was about to be disposed of by her estate.
Port Jervis residents turned down a proposal to buy it, by a vote of 191-123, but immediately after the vote, Port Jervis Lodge No. 645 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks began discussions to purchase the property. In 1914, the Elks, seeing the possibilities of the development of the area as a public park, raised the necessary funds to purchase the tract under the leadership of the Rev. William J. Donohue, then pastor of the Most Sacred Heart Church. The property was named Elks Park.
In the years that followed, Skyline Drive, a four-mile road that ran along the crest of the two mountains, was built and other improvements to the park were made. In 1932, Sarah Belle Thorne made a substantial donation in memory of her brother-in-law, Charles Brox, and the property was conveyed from the Elks to the city and became known as the Elks-Brox Memorial Park. In later years, part of it was used as a Girl Scout Camp and as late as the 1980s, a public campground. In 1996 the park was reopened and new picnic areas, trails, and bathrooms were constructed. Of all city’s parks, none is as beautiful or serves as such a focal point of interest as the Elks-Brox Park with its panoramic vistas of the Neversink Valley.
