Rock Lodge Club

Rock Lodge Club is a nudist club located on 145 acres (59 ha) of privately owned land in the New Jersey Highlands of Northern New Jersey, about 40 miles (64 km) from Manhattan, New York. Rock Lodge Club and Sky Farm, also based in New Jersey, were founded in 1932 as the first permanent nudist communities in the United States. Both clubs are active today.

The eponymous Rock Lodge Stone House was built as a model fireproof farm house by engineer A. L. A. Himmelwright in 1907, and presently used as a residence and overnight rental facility at Rock Lodge Club. In the late nineteenth century, A. L. A. Himmelwright, an engineer at the Roebling Construction Company, bought the land that today is used by Rock Lodge nudist club. Prior to this, the property, located in the area of Hardyston Township, New Jersey in the New Jersey Highlands, was used for timber and agriculture. There is also evidence of iron prospecting, possibly connected to a Thomas Edison mine works located nearby.

In 1904–1905, Himmelwright used oxen to dredge a swamp, and built a dam to create a lake fed by a stream located near the lake, as well as by 17 underwater springs. This main spring is mentioned in deeds and early leases as a water supply for surrounding neighbors as well as for Rock Lodge.

In 1907, Himmelwright erected a "model fireproof farmhouse", now known as the Stone House, which features a poured concrete roof, stained glass, a basement with coal furnace, and a state-of-the-art (in its day) water supply system which pumped water from the spring to a holding tank on the third floor. In 2007, to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the Stone House, the original plans for the construction of the building were reproduced.

Other historic buildings that are maintained and in use today included a stable (now known as the Hacienda that houses the Club's office), an ice house, where, prior to the availability of refrigeration, ice harvested from the lake in the winter was stored for use through the summer. Around 1919, Himmelwright built a bungalow (clubhouse), when the property was being used as a training camp for boxers—during the Roaring Twenties the property was a training camp for Jack Dempsey and other boxers. Amenities for the boxers included an indoor handball court and coal heat, with a fireplace and living room. Two historic cabins from the 1940s build from kits produced by the E. F. Hodgson Company are on the grounds and used as residences.

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