Remembering George and Lillian Brandt
George and Lillian Brandt, along with their seven-year-old son Bob moved to Old Homestead Farm Resort in 1936. George had been a milk and butter salesman in Ridgewood, Queens, just a few blocks from where United Revival Mennonite Church is today, making $100 per week. With no opportunity for advancement in the dairy business, the Brandts were looking for an existing business that they could own and operate as a family. They enrolled their son Bob in the Port Orange School at the bottom of the road. If you look closely you can still see the front steps and foundation of the one room school as you turn from Route 209 onto Brandt Road. Bob later attended Otisville High School and Cornell University.
Church and the Cuddebackville Fire Department.
The Brandts moved into the big house with their bedroom being the current office and their son staying in what was the first camp office, a tiny room off of the living room that is now part of the dining room. George and Lillian renamed their home in the country Brandt’s Pleasant View and welcomed visitors from Brooklyn and Queens. Guests remember calling them Uncle George and Aunt Lillian. Every summer the Brandts were joined by their extended family. Grandpa and Grandma Deer always lived in motel #1. Grandpa Deer owned a bar and restaurant in Ridgewood which included a bowling alley in the basement and several families living on the second and third floors. Some of the table and chairs here at camp when the Mennonites arrived originally came from the restaurant in Ridgewood. Lillian’s brother, John, along with his wife Margaret and their children, Carol and Jackie, pitched in as well. Margaret was the baker, Lillian handled guest services, George was the summer cook, and John was often leading the singing as folks gathered around the living room in the evenings with the steps leading upstairs filled with children and teens. On special nights the casino (chapel) would be unlocked and the entire group would enjoy dancing, games, and John’s lively piano playing. Back in Ridgewood, John Deer owned a music studio on Knickerbocker Avenue.
During the day the adults would play golf, pitch horse shoes, or sit in the shade. The children would often hike up the road to pick blueberries or catch orange newts after a rain. Some of the young adults would walk down the road to pick wild strawberries which they would drop into their drink for a refreshing summer afternoon cocktail. Everyone swam in the old stream fed pool. The guests tried to convince Aunt Lillian to join them, but she maintained, “I only swim once a year.”
Every evening after dinner there was a men versus boys softball game out on the ball field. One day circa 1954, to everyone’s surprise the ball field became a landing zone for a military helicopter. Howard Germilth was stationed at a nearby military base and decided to visit his parents who were vacationing at Brandt’s. No one found out if he got in trouble for taking the helicopter. The highlight of the evening for the children was when Uncle George would invite them to climb on top of a rusty old red wagon to help take the garbage to the dump.
Uncle George was also a jokester. When a new guest would visit Brandt’s Pleasant View, George would begin to talk about the beautiful springs out in the woods. After much hyperbole, George (and everyone in the know) would lead the new guest out into the woods following the signs leading to the springs. Somewhere near the yellow trail they would eventually come to an old wooden box filled with rusty car springs. The new guest would be properly initiated and would be part of the joke the next time. At night the boys would sneak into the chicken coops (motels 2–7) and catch the rats that were eating the chicken food. Sometimes they would release the five cats and let them catch the rats.
With no internet or televisions, the radio was a main source of information. Bob Brandt vividly remembers sitting at the dining room table when his uncle was listening to the radio news. His Uncle John later announced that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Guests also remember the Saturday night when the radio announced the end of the war. The next day all of the staff and guests dressed up and attended church services in Wurtsboro.
Family Style Dining
The Brandts always served meals family style. If you only had a family of four you would sit at one end of the table and another family may sit at the other end of the table, and each family would be served separately. George and Lillian hired local residents to help serve. The Skinner daughters from up the road often worked as waitresses, and everyone remembers a retired gentleman from Cuddebackville named Joe who had been a waiter at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. Although Lillian’s sister-in-law, Margaret, was doing most of the cooking, Lillian was known to walk around the dining room asking guests, “How do you like my chicken?” Most guests stayed for a week, but they all seem to remember the weekend meals.
Saturday Night Menu: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Fried Onions, Raisin Bread
Sunday Lunch Menu: Baked Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Corn on the Cob
Sunday Night Menu: Hot Open Roast Beef Sandwiches, Fresh Cole Slaw
Monday Night Menu: Chicken A La King on Toast
In 1964 George discovered that he had cancer. After an afternoon nap he was out in the field with the tractor and hay rake. He was found beside the tractor in May of 1964. He is buried in the Westbrookville Cemetery. Bob Brandt along with his wife, Joanne, and their five children had already made their life near Rochester, New York where Bob took over his father-in-law’s furniture business. Bob knew his mother could not manage the business alone and convinced her to sell the property in June of 1964 for $65,000. Aunt Lillian operated through the 1964 summer season before moving away.
Legs Diamond
One day while the children at Old Homestead Resort were out playing on the front lawn, they saw five black cars racing up Brandt Road. One black car racing up the road would have been strange, but there was no explanation for five cars. About an hour later the same five cars went racing back down the road. The next day the children and youth decided to walk up the road and explore the incident. At the very top of the road, nearly a mile from the big house at Old Homestead they found a small log cabin. They didn’t dare go in, but peering through the windows they saw dishes and chairs strewn across the cabin as though a hurricane had hit. Later in the week they learned that Legs Diamond, the famous bootlegger and New York gangster, had been captured by the federal police. They believed that the black cars racing up the road had captured Legs Diamond and the little log cabin on Brandt Road had been one of his many hideouts.
Sources: Brandt’s Pleasant View guest: Around 2000 a woman visited Camp Deerpark who had been a guest at Old Homestead and Brandt’s Pleasant View from the time she was eight years old until she was thirty-eight. We have since lost her name. When she walked into the living room at Camp Deerpark she started crying and said, “It still smells the same.”
Al Mann, the current resident of the alleged Legs Diamond hideout.
Note: Several artifacts left in the basement and barn indicate that the small cabin at the top of Brandt Road was a location for boot leggers during the prohibition era. In his book “Jack Legs Diamond—Anatomy of a Gangster” Gary Levine notes that Mr. Diamond did indeed hide out in the Hudson Valley. However, we have not found any verification that he was ever on Brandt Road.
Bob Harper and Lynn Tostado remember coming back for a few years after Uncle George and Aunt Lillian were gone. It was called Winkler’s Country Club, and while it was the same place it just didn’t feel like home anymore. George and Lillian had a special gift of hospitality. They made everyone feel like family.
Article source: visits from Bob and Joanne Brandt on October 10, 2012; Carol and John (Jackie) Deer on May 31, 2010; Bob and Judy Harper and Lynn and Joe Tostado on July 10, 2009; Herb and Carol Stubman on July 9,2003; and several visits from long time Cuddebackville resident Bill Flieger.
Written by Ken Bontrager, current director.