All he needs is a damaged tree and a gathering space. Then comes a Knickerbocker bench

ROCKLAND LAKE ‒ A damaged tree and a space where people would want to gather. Those are the main ingredients for a Knickerbocker bench.

The benches, hewn from old wood in a functional design that harkens nature and history, now dot open spaces around the Hudson Valley, including Rockland Lake.

Timothy Englert, a Valley Cottage resident, conceived of the Knickerbocker benches and creates them for use in trailside seating, outdoor classrooms and amphitheaters like one in Bear Mountain State Park. Tables can be built along with the benches, too. The fallen trees used — mostly black locust, but also white oak or Eastern red cedar — would otherwise be discarded.

The benches, during the building process and beyond, allow people to gather in nature, Englert said. "The essence of it is to bring people together, so they can work together and create a space that allows them to be together."

Englert hopes to build more benches, and seeks sites and volunteers who want to help. (More on that at timothyenglert.net.)

The help includes finding a location, helping secure funding (Englert notes there's often grants available) and doing the actual work.

"When people work on these projects, they love it," Englert said. "They have a sense of ownership."

Genesis of a Knickerbocker bench

An environmental preservationist who once worked for the Palisades Interstate Parks Commission, Englert has long had an affinity for Rockland's state parkland.

Englert co-founded the Knickerbocker Ice Festival that took place at Rockland Lake at the height of winter until 2012 with ice sculptor Rob Patalano.

Knickerbocker, a nickname for New Yorkers, is also the name of the company that operated a once-thriving ice-harvesting industry based at the lake.

Englert's first Knickerbocker Bench was built in 2007 in the Rockland Lake State Park, near the ruins of the former Knickerbocker Ice House. He's made more than 100 since. "They're used to bring people together in a naturalistic setting, sitting on something that was made from a tree right in the woods nearby and made by people nearby."

Frozen in history

Englert has affinity for history in general, but a dedication to and near-PhD in all things Knickerbocker Ice Co.

He recounted the industry's glory days during a recent visit to an outdoor work space next to Knickerbocker Engine Co. 1, the volunteer fire department formed in 1862.

Knickerbocker Ice started tapping the clean spring-fed frozen water of Rockland Lake in 1831. The ice would be hauled down to the Hudson River and taken by barge to New York City and beyond.

Rockland Lake was an ice hub until modern refrigeration led to the industry's demise in the 1920s. In 1926, a fire, sparked during demolition of an ice house, destroyed the village of Rockland Lake.

Englert likes to envision the Knickerbocker ice clinking in fancy cocktails at NYC soirees and beyond. He posits Teddy Roosevelt grew up drinking beverages chilled with Knickerbocker ice.