Before the Millridge Swim Club existed, it was known as Reggie’s Playland Farm, and we found a strange real estate listing from 2002 that read:
After what was Reggie’s Playland Jazz club was sold, the name changed to the Millridge Club. Struggling to stay in business, the property went up for sale again. In 1993, under new ownership, the establishment renamed and rebranded as the NEW Millridge Swim Club, a place where thousands of local families would spend their summers. Children learned to swim, teenagers worked their first jobs as lifeguards, swim teams competed, and generations returned year after year. What had once fed families through agriculture was now creating memories instead. Eventually, even that chapter came to an end.
The story of the old Millridge Social Club property moved into its next chapter after its days as a popular social club destination. The roughly 21-acre property along White Bridge Road began assembling several other pieces of landover the years and eventually became the home of Fred and Margaret Dauth and the Millridge Club, a private swim and recreational club.
Millridge Swim Club Teams and Success
Millridge Swim Club was more than a place to cool off on a summer afternoon. Its competitive teams became a source of pride for the Millington community, with young members representing the club in both swimming and softball. Newspaper accounts followed Millridge athletes as they set pool records, captured league championships and built impressive winning streaks, including the swim team’s 22nd consecutive victory in July 1969. Together, the swim and softball teams helped make Millridge a lively center of summer recreation, competition and community spirit.
Swimming at Millridge wasn’t the only game at the club. In 1974, the Millridge Swim Club softball team captured the Passaic Township Men’s Fast Pitch Softball League championship. Led by pitcher Jack Miller, Millridge defeated the Old Blinker Inn 11–4 to sweep the best-of-three playoff series. The victory was the team’s 14th of the season against only three losses and marked a measure of revenge after the Blinker had eliminated Millridge from the playoffs the previous year. Miller allowed 12 hits but repeatedly escaped trouble, while Billy Martin powered the offense with a three-run homer as Millridge claimed its first league title.
Brazilian Society, Inc. – Downfall and Foreclosure
After the Dauth ownership, the property came into the hands of the Brazilian Society, Inc., but by 1991 Society organization was in serious financial trouble and First Fidelity Bank foreclosed on the property, beginning a legal process that would take almost two years to resolve.
Finally in 1993, the Morris County Sheriff put the former Mill Ridge property up for public auction. First Fidelity Bank, which was owed the money, submitted the winning bid of just $100. That figure wasn’t the property’s real value; it was essentially the bank taking control of the property through foreclosure. The bank then assigned its winning bid to Penelope Mudd and Donald Rosol, who became the new owners of 1526 White Bridge Road.
Rossol’s Millridge Swim Club
Donald Rosol and Penelope “Penny” Mudd-Rosol would become the property’s final private owners opening the Millridge Swim Club, before its most dramatic transformation in 2002, where the property would be bulldozed, filled, planted, and returned to what is the Great Swamp of New Jersey.
Outside, the 22-acre property was equally impressive. The grounds included a 20-by-40-foot in-ground swimming pool, a 12-foot whirlpool spa, a pool house, a cabana, a covered patio, a party room, a double tennis court, a baseball diamond, barns, and beautifully landscaped gardens with mature specimen plantings. Surrounded by open space, the estate blended luxury living with recreation, preserving many of the features that had made Reggie’s Playland Farm and later Millridge Swim Club a beloved gathering place for generations.
Our researchers opened a social media discussion on swim clubs in the area and found some interesting responses. Most of them centered about the great memories of the pool, of which a 2nd was added, the tennis courts, ping pong, baseball field, and the clubhouse ammenities including a beautiful poolside bar.
A number of people let us know that they held their high school graduation party’s at Millridge including Watchung Hills and Ridge High Schools. And almost every comment was positive but there were a few that had to admit that their family couldn’t afford the more expensive Clover Hill Swim Club nearby, while also feeling Millridge was a step up from the Stirling Lake Swim Club.
2002 – The Great Swamp Purchases Millridge
In 2002, approximately 21.1 acres were sold by the Rosols to the United States National Park Service for incorporation into the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, while a small 0.83-acre parcel was retained. Within only a few years, the pools, clubhouse, tennis courts, and many of the remaining structures disappeared. Nature slowly reclaimed the landscape.
Views over the Last Century
Each generation saw something different when they looked out over this property on the original White Bridge Road just to the East of Lord Stirling Road in Basking Ridge. To early residents, it was simply a farm, one of many scattered along the edge of the Great Swamp. The earliest aerial photographs from 1931 reveal open fields, a farmhouse, barns, and agricultural land that had probably been worked for decades.
| Date | Owner / Operator | Evidence | What We Know | Research Questions That are still under investigation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Warren C. Haeseker & Wallace F. O’Reilly | Liquor license and DB 1963, Pg. 240 | Operating the MillridgeSwim Club before selling the property and liquor license to Fred and Marge Dauth. | When did Playland Farm become Millridge Club? |
| 1965–1967 | Frederick G. & Margaret L. Dauth | Deed and liquor license notices | Dauths purchase and continue operating Millridge Swim Club. | |
| By 1977 | Brazilian Society, Inc. | Van Treek survey | Brazilian Society owns the property. | When did the Dauths sell to the Brazilian Society? |
| 1979 | Brazilian Society, Inc. | Aerial photograph | Millridge Swim Club fully developed. | What improvements were made during this ownership? |
| 1988 | Brazilian Society, Inc. | Mortgage records | Property mortgaged to First Fidelity Bank. | Why was the property mortgaged? |
| 1991 | Brazilian Society, Inc. | Superior Court Judgment | Foreclosure entered. | What caused the foreclosure? |
| 1993 | Donald Rosol & Penelope Mudd | Sheriff’s Deed DB 3803, Pg. 97 | Property acquired following foreclosure. | What remained of the club at this point? |
| 1990s? (Needs Verification) | Bailey Brower Jr. | Personal recollection | Reportedly owned Millridge Swim Club, Clover Hill Swimming Club, and Copper Springs, and developed several hundred acres in Millington. | Verify ownership dates, purchase documents, corporate records, and whether Brower owned Millridge before or after the Brazilian Society. |
| 2002 | Donald Rosol & Penelope Mudd-Rosol | Federal acquisition deed | Approximately 21.138 acres sold to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, retaining a 0.83-acre parcel. | Did the retained parcel contain the original farmhouse? |
| 2003 | United States | DB 5827, Pg. 298 | Property officially becomes part of the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. | When were the remaining buildings demolished? |
“Map of Property for Brazilian Society, Inc., Long Hill Township, Morris County, New Jersey, prepared by Walter J. Van Treek Jr., Professional Land Surveyor, dated February 18, 1977.” (still searching for this map)
The Sale That Returned the Millridge Swim Club to the Great Swamp and Now it’s like it was never there.
In 2002, the Millridge Swim Club estate offered an extraordinary combination of historic charm and recreational amenities. The three-level brick Southern Colonial mansion featured a welcoming front porch, hardwood floors with decorative inlays, nine-foot ceilings, crown moldings, crystal lighting, multiple fireplaces, a gourmet kitchen with granite countertops and custom cabinetry, three bedrooms, a renovated master suite, and a finished third-floor attic. A separate two-story carriage house provided four additional bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a living room, making it ideal for guests or extended family.
Millridge Swim Club Closes
Following the closure of the Millridge Swim Club, the property’s future took a very different direction. On April 8, 2003, owners Donald Rosol and Penelope Mudd sold most of the approximately 22-acre property to the United States for $900,000, adding it to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Rather than being redeveloped, the land was acquired for conservation and habitat restoration.
In its February 2004 newsletter, Friends of Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge announced that the refuge had acquired the property at 1526 White Bridge Road, describing it as the former Mudd/Rose house and once the site of the Millridge Swim Club. The newsletter noted that plans for the property were still being developed and that “some of the outbuildings will be demolished.” Over time, the former pools, clubhouse, tennis courts, and other recreational features disappeared from the landscape, leaving little evidence today that the once thriving summer destination ever existed. What was not sold to the Great Swamp was 0.83 acres, including the house, garage, and some of the land, but that would also be sold later and demolished.
What’s the Millridge Swim Club Look Like Today?
Today, visitors driving along White Bridge Road would never guess they are passing a place that has lived so many different lives. The fields became a farm. The farm became a private retreat. The retreat became one of the area’s favorite swim clubs. The swim club became protected wildlife habitat. Perhaps that is the property’s greatest story. Rather than disappearing, it simply kept reinventing itself, each generation leaving its own mark before passing the land to the next.
Now….History Needs Your Help
Be Part of This Story
If you belonged to Millridge Swim Club, local historical societys have nothing to share regarding photos, badges, patches or stories about this lost icon. So now it’s your turn to help. If you have any information we’d love to pass it on to the Long Hill Historical Society. Just fill out the form below, attach your photos, and send it in.
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