Lake Hopatcong: a love story

February 15, 2023| Community, People

By: Caitlin Doran / Cliff Lundin

On Tuesday, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we asked our members to tell us their Lake Hopatcong love stories – romances that started or blossomed here at Lake Hopatcong. We received lots of sweet replies, and we’d like to share this love story, which spans two generations, from longtime lake resident, Cliff Lundin…

Part I - Cliff meets Monica

Clifford C. Lundin, born in 1903 in Jersey City, started coming to Lake Hopatcong in 1908 on trains from Jersey City to Nolan’s Point, to picnic with his mother and six siblings. The picnics became an annual event, and Cliff fell in love with the lake. By his late 20s, he was renting a bungalow in River Styx with his buddies, spending his days sailing and his nights at The Mad House, a popular bar with music and dancing, located near the River Styx Bridge, where the Townhomes at Lakepointe are today.

On July 16, 1934, Monica Schloesser, from Brooklyn, came by train to visit the lake with a friend for a girls’ weekend. The two found themselves at The Mad House, purported to be the wildest place on the lake. There, she met Cliff. He offered to take her photo out on the dock. A press photographer at that time, he hoped he could get the photo published in an NYC newspaper (at least, it was a clever line)!

That summer, Monica became a regular visitor to the lake. She remembers sailing with Cliff and paddling down from “The Styx” to Crescent Cove - while he serenaded her on the ukulele.  The weekend romance continued and included occasional dinners in NYC, where they both worked.

On Valentine's weekend, 1939, they eloped to Lake Hopatcong, where they were married by Hopatcong Mayor Fred Modick (their best man was Jimmy Francomacaro, Hudson Maxim's former chauffeur). From that point on, they visited the lake each summer and every weekend. When Cliff retired in 1969, they became permanent residents.

Part II - Cliff meets Lauren

Clifford R. Lundin, Clifford C. and Monica Lundin’s son, born in 1951 in Jersey City, first came to Lake Hopatcong at three weeks old and spent each summer and every weekend of his first four years in “The Styx”, while his Dad built a bungalow in a then-remote area of Byram Cove.

Lauren Brucker, born in 1954, first came to Lake Hopatcong in 1955 with her family to visit their summer home in the Knollwood section of Byram Cove. Her family had been coming to the Lake for years, picnicking on Littells Beach on Chestnut Point in Mount Arlington. At some point, her grandmother Ethel decided she wanted a place “away from the tourists,” and the family bought the property in Byram Cove. Thereafter, Lauren would spend every summer and free moment at the lake. She became quite an accomplished water skier, canoeist, and – to her father’s dismay - took the family fishing boat all over the lake. They disagreed on what was meant by "stay in the cove.”

July 16, 1970, Cliff traveled from the southern end of Byram Cove to the northern end to visit his friend, John Mortensen. There, he met all of John's friends on the Knollwood Club dock, including Lauren.  Lauren was the first girl that he met who could ski better than him. Lauren says it was love at first sight (since Cliff had a car, a boat, and worked at Bertrand Island).  Over the years, they would continue to disagree as to who was the better water skier. Twenty-two years after first meeting, they were married by Mount Arlington Mayor Dolores Rivinius, in the Brucker family house. They had planned to get married on a patio boat in the middle of Byram Cove on the lake, but Tropical Storm Danielle had other ideas!