Ingalside
Farm
160 Ingalside Rd
Warren & Margaret Ingalls - 1913-1947
Gerald & Annella Ingalls - 1948-1971
Franklyn & Joyce Roth - 1972-1990
investment firm - 1991-2001
Riverdale Tennis & Golf Club - 2002-2009
Camp Malka - 2009-
(photos courtesy Paige Ingalls)
Margaret and Warren Ingalls with their son Gerald bought this farm in 1913 and almost immediately began to take guests. The main house burned on Christmas Day, 1924. Many local people responded with a bucket brigade but it was a hopeless situation and all was lost. Yet at once in a flurry of activity, new buildings were started which has continued on to the present. (This year a racket-ball court was added.) Warren Ingalls died in 1947 and Gerald and Annella Ingalls were the owners until 1972. Ingalside was a working farm as well as a “boarding house” until 1951. It continues to receive many guests throughout the summer. Franklyn and Joyce Roth are the present owners.
circa 1924: original Ingalside House -- Remodeled in 1922
http://ingalsidefarm.com/
pdf file: Jim Albetta's memoir
two page history of improvements at
Ingalside, 1982, Gerald Ingalls
pdf file
StoryCorps link
https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/lmn002858/
James Albetta, Bob Hoffman, and Paige Ann Ingalls
Recorded September 24, 2011 --- 41:58 minutes
-- from Paige Ingalls (daughter of Gerald and Annella); February 2011
Brief History of Ingalside Farm
When the “Main House” was
rebuilt following the fire on Christmas Day in 1924, it
contained indoor plumbing and was ready in time for the
guests’ arrival the following summer.
Electricity, which had been self-generated since 1922,
was added in 1932, and a swimming pool, the first in the
area, was built in 1933. The ice house became the
North Cottage once there was refrigeration.
The resort
eventually accommodated up to two hundred guests at a
time. In 1990, the Roths sold it to members of a
New York investment firm, who operated it as
“Ingalside Resort." In 2002, the
Riverdale (Bronx, NY) Tennis and Golf Club bought it and
ran it as a tennis camp for two summers. It was
then used as a summer camp for Ultra Orthodox and
Chasidic Jewish groups. In 2009, it was sold again
and is being run as “Camp Malka,” a camp for
girls who attend Bnos Bais Yaakov, a school in Far
Rockaway, Queens. continued below)
circa 1928: South Annex Built in 1925
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As noted above, Ingalside was run as a working dairy farm until 1951. The farm also grew most of its own produce until the mid-1940s. The barn became the recreation hall for the resort in 1959, and, in 2009, it was turned into a synagogue.
The East Annex was razed in 2011, with a new structure built on its footprint. In 2012, the South Annex was torn down and another building was constructed on the site. A large catering hall and several bunk houses now stand on what used to be the Ingalside baseball field.
Ingalside Farm Boarders in front of the Main House: 20 Aug 40
Gerald on the farm tractor
Gerald & Annella Ingalls
Aerial view
Silo of Barn
Dining Room