Historic Houses of New Jersey (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE VAN VORST MANSION JERSEY CITY WHOSE KITCHEN STEP WAS A CORNER-STONE OF LIBERTY" S Jersey City grew and spread its arms out into the salty meadows, a Dr. Barrow, of New York City, purchased a tract of land on its outskirts, where he erected two large Ionic houses, one for himself, and the other, so tradition says, for Cornelius Van Vorst, who became the owner soon after its completion. In style of architecture they were very imposing, and although their environment has greatly changed since their erection in the late thirties, one at least, the Van Vorst Mansion, which has been occupied for nearly half a century by the well-known Edge family, still retains an air of distinction. In the days of the " courtly Cornelius" this old mansion enjoyed great local fame for the generous hospitality which greeted those fortunate ones who crossed its portals. Its beautiful garden, now only a memory, was a source of pride to the Jerseyites of yesterday. There,shaded by dusky box and tall rose bushes, reposed the most interesting kitchen step in America, whose history we are coming to. The Van Vorst family took great pleasure in the renown of their garden. During the first summer of Queen Victoria's reign boxes of rare flowers and shrubs found their way from Wayne Street to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, as small tokens of admiration from an American gentleman to England's sovereign. Like attentions were bestowed upon other famous people, notably Martin Van Buren, who was then President. Cornelius Van Vorst was a descendant of the old Pa- troons. His father," Faddy" Van Vorst, was quite a noted figure in the society of colonial days, partly owing to his ownership of a private race-course at Harsimus, then the delight of the sporting gentlemen of old New York. It must ...