WELCOME to Pleasant Valley Lake
Pleasant Valley Country Club is a deed restricted and private lake community of approx 500 homes located in Vernon Township, NJ. Pleasant Valley features a 5 acre beach and waterfront with sugar-like sand and a pristine 36 acre lake. This signature of Pleasant Valley Country Club is complete with a pavilion, barbecue grills, rest room facilities, volleyball court, playground and horseshoe pits. The beach is also bordered by two full size boat launch ramps, a 200 foot long boardwalk, and storage racks for 60+ boats and canoes. Red Cross certified lifeguards are on duty from June to September.
PVL also features a 3,800 sq ft club house and office facility which is available for rent throughout the year. It is complete with restrooms, full kitchen amenities, banquet tables and seating for up to 120 people.
Pleasant Valley Lake is located off Route 94 in the McAfee section of Vernon Township, NJ, approximately 5 minutes North of Route 23, 40 minutes from Rt. 287 and 75 minutes from NYC. Officially established as a residential community in 1957, ads could be found in a number of newspapers boasting homes starting at under $3,000 and were geared toward city-folk hoping for a piece of the country. Today, nearly 500 families call Pleasant Valley Country Club their home. Our community continues to maintain its rich and storied history – one that actually began nearly 125 years earlier.
McAfee History (circa 1833): Early-day McAfee would see one of our original property owners, Mr. Joseph Sharp, selling his land (now East Shore Dr.) to Mr. Nathan Smith. Mr. Smith would soon discover a precious natural resource highly sought after in those days – Iron Ore. Shortly thereafter, this property would become known as “The Pochuck Mine”. Pochuck was a surface cut mine that was estimated to be 600 feet in length and about 40 feet in depth. Its Limonite (or brown hematite) produced a superior grade of iron compared to the other mines in the area and as industrialism and capitalism would have it, made many men wealthy. These future PVL properties would change hands nearly a dozen times over the next 40 years; with each of its owners hoping for a piece of the American dream. And if all of this wasn’t interesting enough, you might be amazed to know the last deed holder of the Pochuck Mine in 1889 was an inventor with great imagination and true vision who lived in West Orange, NJ. His name was Thomas Alva Edison.
Modern day McAfee/PVL (circa 1951): A developer and land owner named Gilbert Dollar began excavation of what we know of today as Pleasant Valley Lake. Using primitive means compared to today’s technology such as simple backhoes and wheel barrows, the 36 acre tract was cleared and dug. Several years after lake construction completed, Dave Pollack then purchased the lake property. At that time in 1957 the lake was incorporated as a private lake community along with deed restrictions filed with Vernon Township. Bob Baldwin, founder of today’s Baldwin Sand and Gravel then purchased Pleasant Valley Lake and it’s commonly owned properties. Bob was responsible for laying the groundwork necessary for the early day mapping and grading of our roadways. In August 1979, Pleasant Valley Lake Association, consisting of all of the members of Pleasant Valley Lake, purchased the lake and all commonly held properties from Mr. Baldwin. The housing boom of the 1980’s and 90’s saw PVCC develop into the 500+ units we now have today.