By Peter Lyons Hall
In the coming months residents and visitors to the area will be treated to two exciting events that commemorate Greenwood Lake’s Centennial and the renowned residents who made a name for themselves while expanding the reputation of Orange County’s largest freshwater lake throughout the world.
Artists
19th Century painter Jasper Cropsey fell in love with Greenwood Lake in 1843. He ended up marrying Maria Cooley, the daughter of his landlord, and made his home in the area until 1884. In that time he produced over one hundred works from rough sketches to large, museum-purchased oils of Greenwood Lake’s beautiful glacial body of water and its surrounding mountains and woods.
From April 1-May 20 permission is granted for artists to set up easels and sketching materials at several locations around the lake. There will be a champagne reception to close the show, and a special drawing will be announced. The results of the work will be exhibited at the Greenwood Lake Community Center on June 2 from 10am-4pm and may be offered for sale. The size of art work cannot exceed 20×24” and a list of available locations will be sent with registration acceptance.
Registration: https://gwlcentennial.org/art-show/
Athletes
The First Annual Greenwood Lake Centennial Boxing Match will be held on Saturday, May 11, 2024 from 4PM – 6:30PM at the Greenwood Lake Middle School, 1247 Lakes Road, Monroe, NY 10950. Weigh-in will commence at 1PM and doors will open at 2PM. This event is sanctioned by USA Boxing, together with Floyd Patterson Boxing Club. Food and beverages will be available for sale during this event. Each of the 10 bouts will be three rounds each, from pee-wee categories (8 years old) to masters (over 40). The pee-wee rounds last 1.5 min each; masters are 2 min each, featuring both men and women boxers, at all age groups.
Joe Murchio operated a boxing training camp at Greenwood Lake, starting in 1939. Many famous boxers trained there, including Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Floyd Patterson. The boxing camp attracted lots of interest from the locals, who would seek out autographs, signatures, and photos of these men, and they added to the community life of the Village. The Murchio camp was sold to Eddie McDonald and renamed “The Long Pond.” Murchio’s was a training camp for boxers of all races and ethnicities, and as such, it helped erase boxing’s “color line.” Joe Louis was one of the superstar boxers who helped the cause of integration in the sports world.
On December 9, 1956 the Steve Allen show televised Sugar Ray Robinson from Greenwood Lake, then a middleweight champion, going through a sparring session at Long Pond Training Camp, in preparation for his upcoming title bout against Gene Fulmer. “Long Pond has been the training quarters of such famous names of the boxing world as Joe Louis, Rocky Graziano, Rocky Marciano, Paddy Demarco,” stated the Dispatch, as well as the then new world heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson, who maintained permanent quarters at Long Pond.
The event will include VIP Tickets: table of eight: $500 (Includes dinner, beverages, dessert); VIP /Single Ticket: $100 (Includes dinner, beverages, dessert); Ringside Banner Logos – $200 (four available); Program Ad (Full page): $100; and Program Ad (Half page): $50. Regular adult tickets are $25, kids $15; kids with boxing passport, $10; kids 5 and under are free.
To register for any of the above events and to learn more about the Greenwood Lake. Centennial, click on https://GWLCentennial.org.
