Jersey City and Its Historic Sites

by Harriet Phillips Eaton

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.