What of Jersey City to-day? It has been said that when the plan of
the tide-water canal on the western border of the little city started
on Paulus Hook failed to be carried out, that it was a blow to the
prosperity of the city. Perhaps it was, but when the consolidation
of all the towns in Hudson County was started in 1869, the movement
embodied greater possibilities for the city than were ever dreamed of
by the associates. The first effort failed of its complete realization,
but it will eventually be carried out. Last winter legislative action
was begun looking to the including of the whole of Hudson County in the
Jersey City of the future, thus giving it an area of nearly thirty-nine
thousand acres, and a magnificent water front of about seventy miles
along the Hudson, the Kill von Kull, Newark Bay, the Passaic and the
Hackensack, giving the city almost unlimited business possibilities.
The city is already the center of several of our great railroad lines,
and year by year is steadily growing in commercial strength and
population, which is now nearly one hundred and ninety-six thousand.
Situated as it is, it combines magnificent residence locations along
the Heights, from the northern limit of the county to Bergen Point,
with the business sites of the lower portions of the city on either
side of the dividing ridge. Nature has been lavish of her gifts to our
city; from almost any point of the Boulevard are magnificent views,
unsurpassed in any city in the country. We already have many beautiful
streets and buildings, both public and private residences, and each
year is adding to their number.
An interesting feature of the city, and one that is a matter for
congratulation, adding, as it does, to the historic interest of the
town, and is a connecting link between the city of to-day and the early
settlers who founded here the first village in New Jersey, is the fact
that there are still in the limits of Jersey City quite a number of old
houses built upon the Dutch plan, although there are but few dating
beyond the present century. The Gautier house, on New York Bay, for
some years the home of the Greenville Yacht Club, was built in 1760 by
Captain Brown, and called "Retirement Hall." In the old days it was
the scene of a lavish hospitality, and gay hunting parties were often
gathered there. Captain Brown was the owner of slave ships, and the
slaves were kept in the large cellar of his house, where the rings
and staples to which they were chained were still in the walls, and,
with the large fire-place, remained until a few years ago. The house
became known as the Gautier house through the marriage of his daughter
and heiress with Mr. Gautier. It has been held by several different
owners, the latest of whom, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, are
about to remove it. People who have resided there tell interesting
stories of hearing the "swish" of oars and grating of boats upon the
beach, followed by the tramp of feet from the shore to the cellar,
and groans, with the rattling of chains. Originally the house had a
double veranda across the front, and within the memory of the present
generation it was still a beautiful place, with fruit trees and
grape-vines planted by the original owner, still in existence not many
years ago. Mr. Brown was a devoted patriot, and served the country in
many capacities. Then there is the old Midmar house, between Gates
avenue and the Morris Canal, probably built by a Vreeland, some time
in the last century. The Daniel Van Reypen house, at 320 Fairmount
avenue, was also built before the Revolution; a story and a half Dutch
house, originally with two wings. When the street was laid out one wing
was cut off, leaving it with the gable end to the street; otherwise
the house has not been changed much, only as time has brought ruin and
dilapidation.
[Illustration: RETIREMENT HALL.]
[Illustration: OLD SIP MANSION.]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF OLD SIP MANSION.]
The other old houses that are left date from the early part of the
present century. The Van Reypen house, 201 Academy street, a little
west of the site of the original house built in 1660-61, was built in
1802. The Sip house on the corner of Bergen avenue and Newkirk street,
which, like the Van Reypen house has sheltered four generations, is
probably about the same age. The Van Horn house near Philip street,
fronting the New York Bay, was built in 1804, on the site of an earlier
house. It was here that Washington Irving wrote his "Knickerbocker
History of New York," and it is to this house he refers in his sketch
of "the House of the Four Chimneys." It has been remodelled, but the
lower portion remains not greatly changed. 631 Bergen avenue was built
in 1805, a square two-story brick and stone house, with an extension
at one side. The old tree which formerly stood in front of this house,
about which were clustered many stories connected with Washington, was
an English elm and probably set out about the time that the house was
built.
Then there are the Newkirk houses, built by the two families of that
name. The one on Newkirk street and Tuers avenue, a little northeast of
the site of the original house, was built in 1810. In the parlor is the
high, carved wooden mantle, and the wide hall has the Dutch half doors,
although the upper and lower portions are now nailed together. It is
said that the father of the present owner, Mr. Gerritt Newkirk, who
died in 1893, shot in Greenville, in 1873, the last wild deer seen in
Hudson County. The house 52 Sip avenue was built by Mr. John Newkirk,
on part of the Newkirk farm. The stone house at 36 Church street was
built in 1829, by a member of this family, Mr. Henry Newkirk. The other
Newkirk family built the old house on the east side of Bergen avenue,
between Magnolia avenue and the bridge, also the house on the southwest
corner of Bergen and Jewett avenues, which has been remodelled and is
now one of the prettiest houses in Bergen.
Another very interesting old house which has been remodelled is the
Halmagh Van Houten house, west of the reservoir, on Summit avenue
near Germania street. On the southeast corner of Bergen Square stands
the DeMott house, still in most excellent condition. The old house on
the southwest corner of Glenwood and Bergen avenues, was built about
seventy-five years ago by Mr. George Tise, upon the site of the old
Stuyvesant tavern, largely of the material of the former building; in
the rear wall is the date stone of the old house, marked "P. S. 1762."
This house was a tavern within the memory of comparatively young
people and was quite celebrated for the good dinners and suppers served
there. Fricasseed snapping turtle and roast pig were among the choice
dishes. The barns and sheds were on what is now the opposite corner of
Glenwood avenue, and here, the people who came from a distance, put up
their teams during the Sunday services.
At the Five Corners are several interesting old houses; Riker's Tavern
on the southwest corner of Newark and Summit avenues, and Coulter's
general store, now a grocery store and dwelling house, on the southeast
corner of Newark and Summit avenues. Coulter's Tavern was on the site
now occupied by the Avenue House; the old stone house built for a
tavern by Mr. John Tise, on the northwest corner of Newark and Summit
avenues, and the old building, formerly a store kept by Nicholas
and Justus Jerolaman, on the northeast corner of Summit and Hoboken
avenues. It is said that at the Corners, just in front of the point
where stands the Avenue House, there was formerly a Liberty pole,
probably erected about 1812-14, but at a St. Patrick's celebration, not
long before the Civil War, there was found in the early morning a St.
Patrick hung in effigy upon it; the indignant Irishmen cut the pole
down and it was never replaced.
Many of these old houses are a story and a half, some fronting the
street, others with the gable end to the street, with dormer windows
in the sloping roof which extended out over the porch, sometimes upon
both sides of the house; in others the porch was only in front, and
in the rear the roof sloped to within a few feet of the ground. One
peculiarity in many of these early houses is that instead of using
lathes, the "brown coat" of plaster was mixed with straw and thickly
plastered on to the stone. Almost invariably an extension was built
at one end, with the roof a few feet lower than the main part. In
later days this was the kitchen, but in olden times the kitchen was
a detached building, and the slaves slept in the loft. In the main
part there was a wide hall, usually through the center of the house,
but sometimes at one end, with the Dutch half doors at either end.
During the summer months the family meals were usually served in the
hall; they used a "comfore," a sort of chaffing dish with hot coals,
upon which the kettle was set to boil the water for the tea. During
the winter the living room was also the dining room. There are still
preserved in some of these old houses, choice heirlooms of quaint
furniture, rare old Delft, Prints, Psalm books with great silver
clasps, a few old Dutch Bibles with board covers, and interesting
relics of many kinds, of which an occasional glimpse is given at some
loan exhibition, but usually they are carefully guarded from profane
eyes.
In 1806 the United States Government became possessed of the property
on Palisade avenue between Hoboken and Newark avenues. Here was
situated the old building known as the Arsenal, which served as
arsenal, barracks, and hospital during the war of 1812-14, and once
again as barracks in the war of 1861-65, the Anderson Zouaves and the
New York troops being quartered there. Several of the soldiers who died
there in 1812-14, are buried in the west corner of the cemetery on the
southwest corner of Vroom street and Bergen avenue. After 1865 the
old Arsenal was used as a tenement house until it was torn down, about
twenty years ago. Although all trace of it is now lost, the memory of
it should be preserved.
Two very interesting houses in lower Jersey City are on Wayne street,
of Ionic architecture, built about seventy years ago--one, No. 95, by
Cornelius Van Vorst, and the other by Dr. Barrowe--and so carefully and
well built that to this day they have needed no repairs. The houses
are forty-seven feet front by fifty five feet deep. The columns in
front are twenty-eight feet high. The doors are of solid mahogany,
and it is said that the original window glass was tinted and imported
from Venice. The veined marble mantels were also imported. In the
wide central hall was a great stove, with pipe running up through the
hall above. This, with the grates in each room, was the only means of
heating the house. When built the houses were the only ones on the
block, but that was too limited a space for houses as large as those.
Another very interesting old place was the Tonnele homestead, built
in 1837-8. In 1835 Mr. Tonnele bought the old Dr. Hornblower place,
on the west side of Summit avenue, a ten-acre plot, extending from a
little south of what is now Magnolia avenue to the center of what is
now Pavonia avenue, where it joined a Van Reypen farm. Dr. Hornblower
served in the Revolution, having joined the army from Belleville.
After the war he studied medicine, and came to this locality in 1789,
and began the practice of medicine--the first doctor known to have
practiced in Jersey City. He married, and built a house about the
center of the block between Pavonia and Magnolia avenues. The date of
building is not known, but probably it was about the beginning of the
century. The house had a wing on either side--one used as an office,
and the other as a kitchen. After Mr. Tonnele bought the property he
removed the main part of the house to its present location on the
southwest corner of Magnolia and Summit avenues, leaving the wings
for a lodge and gardener's cottage. Along Summit avenue he built a
high stone wall with iron gates, about where the old house had been.
Inside the wall was a hawthorn hedge and a row of mulberry trees.
A driveway, bordered with cherry trees, extended from the gate and
around a circular lawn in front of the house, which stood on the
west side of the grounds. It was built of trap rock, some forty feet
square, three stories and basement, with a wide veranda in front. A
wide central hall with large rooms on either side. The ceilings were
beautifully frescoed, the mantels were of Sienna marble, and the doors
of solid mahogany. It also was heated from a great stove in the hall
and grates in the rooms. It is said that John Kelly, the Tammany Sachem
of New York, put the grates in the house. The grounds were beautifully
laid out, and many of the fruit trees were imported from France. The
furniture for the house was made by a Frenchman in New York.
Mr. Tonnele was born in New York City; his mother a daughter of General
Waterbury, of Connecticut, and his father a Frenchman, who came to
this country about the time of the Revolution. He founded a chamois
glove factory in Water street. It is said that he never spoke a word
of English, nor did his wife ever speak a word of French. Mr. Tonnele,
of Jersey City, was the first Catholic member of the New Jersey
Legislature, and served in county offices. He laid the corner stone
of the Court House. The old stone house has passed through numerous
changes in its comparatively short life. From the hospitable home of
the Tonneles it became the first home of Christ Hospital, later a
tenement house. The grounds have been sold off in city lots, and the
old walls are a dilapidated ruin.
The question is often asked, what is there and what can there be in
Jersey City? It is a question that cannot be briefly answered; this
book only answers it in part. We have very much that should make us
proud of our city. Our location is superb, our historic legacies are
rich and enviable. But few American cities can boast of church and
school in uninterrupted continuance for two hundred and thirty-eight
years. There might be given a long list of names of citizens, honorable
and upright men, whose lives in many ways reflect glory upon their
city; business men, patriots, clergymen, lawyers and judges, who have
made Jersey law a synonym for justice and right; doctors whose lives
have been a constant blessing to the sick and suffering; men in all
walks of life, whose simple devotion to duty has made the world better.
Phillips Brooks said that "no man, woman or child could think a good
thought without the world being better for it."
Of course, there are shadows, but, if we choose, they can easily be
removed. Our streets are not as clean as we hope they soon will be,
but it is claimed by good authority that there is less crime here
than in any other city of its size in the world; and city streets are
more easily made clean than criminal characters reformed. Let our
citizens once realize that our city will become just what we choose to
make it, and its future is assured--a future of honor, of beauty, of
substantial, thorough excellence in all directions. The foundations are
already laid.
[Illustration: THE OLD STONE HOUSE.]