Kaplan's Pond

The park today

Kaplan's Pond is a quiet 8.5-acre natural site: the small pond itself (under two acres of water), a wetland area, and a short 0.2-mile walking path. The village's parks inventory describes it as a unique natural site rather than a developed park — there are no facilities.

The surrounding woods connect to the village's Jan Wines Memorial Trail System: Kaplan's Pond Trail links the pond to the Mount Airy trail network, and trail access points are marked with the Croton trail blaze. Birdlife and wetland plants are the draw; at the time of the village's acquisition the property was noted as habitat for endangered and threatened bird and plant species.

History

The pond at the corner of Lounsbury Road and Giglio Court first appears on topographic maps in 1937, impounded by a small dam on the brook that feeds it. Through the mid-20th century it served the surrounding Mount Airy neighborhood as a local swimming hole. The name is generally attributed to Jacob Merrill Kaplan (1891–1987), the New York businessman and Welch's Grape Juice president who had ties to Croton's Mount Airy community as a benefactor of the Hessian Hills School — this account comes from the Kaplan's Pond neighborhood group rather than a village document.

The Village of Croton-on-Hudson acquired the pond and its surrounding property in 1991 from a private developer, at about the same time it acquired the wetlands immediately north of the pond, preserving the parcel as open space. In 2005 the village and Westchester County jointly replaced the old outlet structure at the Kaplan's Pond dam and built a new emergency spillway; the pond is now also part of the village's stormwater and flood-control infrastructure.

Water quality has been a recurring concern since at least the mid-1990s. In 2025 the village proposed installing an aeration system in the pond, holding a public town hall on the project that September — a proposal that drew organized neighborhood debate.

Visiting

Hours

No posted hours were found; the village treats it as a preserve/open-space area.

Fees

Free.

Parking

No dedicated lot; limited roadside parking on the neighborhood streets.

Getting there

At the corner of Lounsbury Road and Giglio Court in the Mount Airy neighborhood; also reachable on foot via Kaplan's Pond Trail from the village trail network.

Rules

Swimming is not permitted — village park rules allow swimming only at Silver Lake, and only when a lifeguard is on duty. Alcohol is prohibited in village public places (Village Code ch. 72).

Accessibility

Links

• Village Parks, Trails & Open Space — Kaplan's Pond
• Kaplan's Pond Aeration System (village project page)
• kaplanspond.org (neighborhood group)