Glacier Hills Association
Who We Are
Glacier Hills Association is more than a neighborhood pool — we’re a community built on connection, care, and shared spaces.
Since 1954, generations of families have gathered here to swim, celebrate, volunteer, and enjoy the beauty of our 21 acres of parkland and trails. Whether you live within Glacier Hills or nearby, membership means belonging to something timeless — a place where neighbors become family.
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Our Story: From Vision to Tradition
Nearly seventy years ago, a small group of neighbors imagined something rare — a community that would protect open land, create a place to gather, and offer families a way to grow together.
From that vision, Glacier Hills Association was born. In the 1960s, the pool was built, the parklands secured, and summer days filled with laughter and swim meets. Over the decades, volunteers have continued to care for and improve every path, playground, and pavilion — each generation adding their own chapter to the story.
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Today, we carry that same spirit forward, preserving our heritage while shaping the future of Glacier Hills.
The Park Lands
Our parklands are the heart of Glacier Hills — eighteen acres of woodlands, ponds, and meadows that make our community feel like a retreat from the everyday.
Here, neighbors meet on shaded trails, kids chase fireflies by the pond, and families gather under the pavilion for summer evenings that stretch long and easy.
Every path holds a piece of our shared story — from the first trails cleared by founding families to the new memories made at every picnic, bonfire, and walk in the woods.
This landscape connects us — to nature, to our history, and to one another.
How it All Began
“This sylvan settling cried to be developed. Into the breach stepped Edwin R. Closs, part visionary, part snake oil salesman, part rosy-cheeked optimist, and, some said, all baloney. His dream was that of a middle class Smoke Rise, to be created by medium income do-it-yourselfers, and he had no trouble finding a supply.
The first houses to be built were six in number and were located in Section 1. This promising start fizzled and building languished while the Ecloss Company tried to solve problems of finance (first and foremost), political road blocks, and an inadequate water supply. Finally, ln 1951, the builder started again, this time in Section 6 with the promise of bridle paths and a stable for your steed, a lake with boating and fishing, a ski run and toboggan slide, and - believe it or not - an airport for the flying enthusiasts. As proof of the reality of the dream, a sales contract of that period admonished “On Lake front properties, no docks or summer houses of any kind nay be constructed or maintained…”
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Interested in reading the full article? Click Here
The Glacial Glacier Hills
"These 'Hills' we live on date back to the Wisconsin Age of the Pleistocene Epoch.At the time, as a result of mostly unknown climatic factors, thick masses of ice invaded the North American continent. One of these continental ice masses, approximately 6,000 feet thick, spread out from near Labrador and advanced as far south as New Jersey. As the prevailing temperature increased the melting of the continental glacier equaled its rate of advance. Consequently, the incorporated soil and rock fragments carried forward within the ice were deposited at the edge of the glacier. One lobe of this melting ice mass extended in a broad arc from Denville to Summit and, therefore the resulting glacier deposit between these .towns took the fon-n of a rough semi-circle. Glaciologists ten-n such a deposit 'End Moraine or Terminal Moraine or Glacier Hills.'
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"The present terminal moraine, in New jersey extends from Perth Amboy to Belvidere, however, our part is certainly nearest to home. This 100 to 200-foot ridge, about l/4 to two miles wide contains a heterogeneous mixture of materials ranging in size from clay to boulders. Locally, as near as Morristown, the hills are silty, whereas in
other areas clean sand and gravel prevail. The barrow pit just off Route 53 near Morris Plains is partly in the terminal moraine. It is interesting to note the composition, structure and type of material we live on."
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 glacier |  moraine |  Arete |  Glacier |
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 Tarn |  Drumlin |  Arete |
An Invitation to Neighborliness
"...Our name stems from a glacial deposit formed some 10,000 years ago? The many pools, sand pits, barrows, and terminal moraines (rock piles) are mute reminders of our unique geological origin.
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In the not too distant past, our lands were part of the areas known as Littleton Comers, a small settlement at the crossroads of Littleton Road (now Route 202), and Mt. Pleasant Avenue (Route 10). Here was a small group of stores, rural post office, and a cluster of modest homes. Just beyond this, north on Route 202, was the great Ballantine estate, employing many local residents whose wagon trails are still clearly marked in certain areas. Abounding our land were fox, deer, mallards, flying squirrels, muskrats, oppossums, and raccoons. Some of these woodland denizens can still be spied by the wary naturalist. Tinker's Pond in Section 6 was the scene of many a duck hunt and deer hunting here was renowned, for the hillocks and water holes provided an ideal habitat for game. This was the setting for the pioneers of modern Glacier Hills in 1945...."
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Newark Sunday Times Article, January 1954
"A community where ingenuity is commonplace and hard work is a byword."
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