On the 25th Year Anniversary: Dr Arthur Zampella

 

Dr Arthur Zampella
Arthur Zampella, Robert Lax and Barry Ulanov Editors of the Columbia Review in 1938

My dad worked as a tour guide in Rockefeller Center while he was a pre-med student at Columbia University. He knew John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who would ask him about his studies. As a child he would stand me before the tablet in Rockefeller Center and read to me the credo he believed in from a man he knew.

“I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.”

Life is a series of moments – and as time passes some moments are indelibly seared in our memory. Some moment we can plan for, but the ones that hit us on idle Wednesday are usually the most unexpected and significant.

The last time I saw him at the age of 25, I remember wishing he were young and vibrant like the photographs I had seen of him as a young man.

For all intent and purpose, I was raised by the grandfather I never had. Arthur Dante Louis Zampella was born to Filomna & Erminio Zampella in Jersey City, NJ in 1917. I was raised with an appreciation of a different era. The influences of fashion, music and history were from a different time. Something I would not fully appreciate until I grew older.

Time has a way of making you forget some things, but I can recall that moment 25 years ago as if it were yesterday. Standing beside his lifeless body and knowing that whatever life force that made the man I adored stir… was no longer with me or within him.

I dream sometimes that I see a figure in the distance on the grounds at Idylease. I think it is him as my mind is prone to play tricks on me. As I approach, it is not him… but rather a stranger. A painful reminder that he is no longer with me. He did not leave me willingly.

As I sit at Idylease on this eve of this anniversary. The words he spoke to me two days before he left
are still with me. “One day you will own Idylease and your vision for the property will become true.”

Most people I speak with that have lost a parent often tell you that there is no such thing as closure, or “getting over it”. Closure would mean forgetting the past and moving forward, For me, the loss itself reinforces my compassion, especially when I see others lose a loved one. Even though you may fill that void, you will never touch, or talk again. It becomes a part of who you are – like where you grew up or remembering reading a good book or a seeing a play.

We should always tell those close to us how we feel about them, even if they have heard it from us before. Tell them why you love them, speak with them like it’s the first time – and the last time.

Moments matter.

Richard Zampella
On the 25th Anniversary of the Death of
Arthur Dante Louis Zampella

Continue Reading

The Indoor Pool at Idylease

Idylease Indoor Pool

Idylease was widely advertised around the turn of the century as a modern health resort, offering “All Forms of Hydro-Therapy and Massage.” Idylease was established as “quiet, homelike facility with a staff of physicians that made referrals from their respective practices based in Brooklyn, NY.” The facility boasted Norwegian-trained massage therapists, and the “most approved scientific apparatus for administering baths, sprays, and douches.”

The original Hydrotherapy suite (pictured above) where baths were administered to alleviate symptoms of overeating, drinking or for various nervous ailments. After a hydrotherapy session, the now relaxed guest could seek simple pleasures like a game of billiards, reading before Idylease’s impressive hearth during the winter. For communicating with the outside world, the Hotel was equipped with telephones, but most guests relied upon the more conventional, letter or postcard.

On September 3, 1909, E. O. Wakley used one of Idylease’s hand-tinted postcards to write a friend. Wakley spoke of strong wind and nippy 48 degree weather, but indoors, radiant heat, sunshine, and “hot boxes in the treatment room” prevailed. “I’m improving. steadily,” Wakley wrote, and “hope to be my old self some day!”

idylease-poolAs time passed Idylease developed a reputation primarily as a medical facility. In 1954, Dr. Arthur D. Zampella purchased Idylease and converted the resort into a nursing home.

For therapeutic purposes, he constructed a pool in the basement in the space formally occupied by the hydrotherapy suite. Many local resident of West Milford Township learned to swim as part of a YMCA program that utilized the indoor pool at Idylease. The West Milford Township Police Department also utilized the pool in the 1970s and 80s to train for scuba rescue.

Continue Reading

Idylease: A Historic Landmark

cropped-idylease-banner-blog.jpg
Idylease c. 1903

Welcome to the Idylease online blog.

Most local residents are aware that Idylease has stood on Union Valley Road for many years. When she opened her doors on New Year’s day in 1903, there were 45 stars on the flag, Teddy Roosevelt was President and Orville Wright took flight at Kitty Hawk.

It is not uncommon for me to run into people of a certain generation that either had their tonsils removed by my father, Dr. Arthur Zampella or learned to swim at the indoor pool at Idylease.

I sometimes wonder if local residents are aware of the rich and varied role of Newfoundland’s most impressive historic structure. I hope that this new online repository of memorabilia will solidify and inform local residents about her rightful place in the annals of West Milford History.

Since April of 2016, when I purchased Idylease I have researched many documents and records in the hope of resurrecting memories, personalities and places that have been lost to history. Considerable time has been spent scanning original glass plates, digitally restoring photographs and repairing tattered documents. Over the coming months I will share the results of those efforts with you all.

I fully encourage you all to ask questions and volunteer information that may pertain to previously unknown facts and family histories that are part to the lineage of the place we call home.

Richard Zampella at Idylease
www.idylease.org
July 2016

Continue Reading