Silver Lake — A Remembrance by Joel E. Gingold (published in The Croton Historian, Summer 2019)

Source: https://www.crotonhistoricalsociety.org/blog/2025/7/12/silver-lake

Gingold describes Silver Lake as "neither silver nor is it a lake" yet deeply integral to Croton's community for nearly a century. Historical features (1940s-1950s): Three natural rocks (First, Second, and Third Rock) serving as swimming milestones. Deep End with a diving board, water slide, and two wooden rafts. Rope swing anchored to a tree on the Cortlandt side. Primitive facilities: pit toilets and wooden changing stockades. Annual swim meets organized by the Recreation Department. Children spent entire days at Silver Lake independently, cycling there with packed lunches. The Good Humor man visited daily. In summer 1956, Gingold secured a lifeguard position working alongside director Joan Burguiere and lifeguards Ellen Mitchell and Alberta Whitfield — all-female leadership "practically unheard-of" in the 1950s. They received coverage from the New York Daily News.