Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve is a nature preserve of manmade wetlands. The park contains many different species of animals and plants within these wetlands, and their visitor center has opportunities for recreation and educational programs. 

• The Native Americans known as the Lenape were the first to settle in the area. 

• In the 1850s, Balthazar Kreischer founded the Kreischer Brick Manufactory, which was in business through 1927.

  • The brick company would dig up sections of clay to make bricks, leaving behind crater-like pits that they filled with water. This is how the ponds turned into a wetland ecosystem. 

  • The bricks manufactured here were used to build P.S. 4, Columbia University, and Barnard College.

• There was a free-black community called "Sandy Ground" that got its name from the area's sandy soil. 

  • It's also the first and oldest continuously inhabited black community in the United States.

• This preserve has the only pine barrens in New York City.

• The pine trees make the ground acidic, which allows carnivorous plants to grow around the area. 

• The Winant/Gericke farm dates back approximately 150 years. The Gericke Family purchased the farm in 1946 and established an organic farm.

• The state purchased the land and made it a state park in 1979.

Photo Gallery

Student Quotes

• "It's beautiful and the nature is amazing." --Lee

• "I enjoyed Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve because I like to take hikes in the woods and I enjoyed it because it feels good to get out and go for a hike." --Owen