Newkirk House 2 Summit Avenue Journal Square

The Newkirk House, also known as the Summit House, located at 510 Summit Avenue is the oldest surviving structure in Jersey City, New Jersey. The two-story

Dutch Colonial Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house. Modern versions built in the early 20th century are more accurately referred to as "Dutch Colonial Re ...

building, composed of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

, brick, and

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

dates to 1690. Originally one story, the outer walls are two feet of stone fitted in lime and mortar. Beams of timber in the basement are six-by-twelve inches and those on the second floor are four-by-six inches spaced four-feet apart. Eight-inch wood pegs, rather than nails, were employed during the time of construction.

Old Bergen

The part of New Netherland that would become

Hudson County Hudson County is the most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in ...

was first settled in the 1630s as Pavonia. In 1660,

Director-General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

Petrus Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant (; in Dutch also ''Pieter'' and ''Petrus'' Stuyvesant, ; 1610 – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Net ...

granted a charter for development of a fortified village at what is now

Bergen Square Bergen Square, at the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Academy Street in Jersey City, is in the southwestern part of the much larger Journal Square district. A commercial residential area, it contains an eclectic array of architectural styl ...

. Upon the British takeover of

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva P ...

it became Bergen Township, while the population remained rooted in native tradition and became known as the Bergen Dutch.

Bergen, New Netherland Bergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties. Though it only officially existed as an ...

became Bergen County, which in 1840 was divided, with its southern part becoming Hudson and long referred to as Old Bergen. The building is one of many in

Northern New Jersey North Jersey comprises the northern portions of the U.S. state of New Jersey between the upper Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. The designation of northern New Jersey with a distinct toponym is a colloquial one rather than an administrati ...

built by these early colonial settlers and their descendants. Mattheus Cornelissen Newkirk and his brother Gerrit Newkirk arrived in New Amsterdam aboard ''De Moesman'' in 1659. Their surname, van Niewkercke, translates as ''"from new church"'' near their birthplace. Mattheus C. moved to Bergen in 1665. His family acquired lots in and near the village and built another homestead nearby. During the American Revolution Bergen was nominally under the control of the British, although the Americans frequently made forays in the area for

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

and

foraging Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavi ...

. The Newkirk House was located near Five Corners, and important crossroads where Summit Avenue ran north into the Bergen Woods. After the Battle of Paulus Hook, the Americans originally planned to retreat via ferry over the

Hackensack River The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The drainage basin, watershed of the ri ...

, but were forced to return to wait at Sip and Summit Avenues. The house was later identified on British military maps drawn in 1781 for General Henry Clinton.

Journal Square

The homestead remained in the Newkirk family until 1899, after which it was used by the Queen's Daughters Day Nursery Association and then by a succession of retail businesses. With the opening of the

Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit system in the northeastern New Jersey cities of Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, as well as Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is operated as a wholly owned sub ...

Summit Avenue station in 1912, the area around Bergen Square was redeveloped, and many of the homesteads were razed to make way for new buildings. Among them are the headquarters of the newspaper

Jersey Journal ''The Jersey Journal'' is a daily newspaper, published from Monday through Saturday, covering news and events throughout Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Journal'' is a sister paper to ''The Star-Ledger'' of Newark, ''The Times'' of Trenton a ...

, after which

Journal Square Journal Square is a business district, residential area, and transportation hub in Jersey City, New Jersey, which takes its name from the newspaper ''Jersey Journal'' whose headquarters were located there from 1911 to 2013. The "square" itself is ...

is named, and the

Labor Bank Building 26 Journal Square is a high-rise in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It was originally known as the Labor Bank Building. It was completed in 1928 and has 15 floors. As of 2009, it was the 23rd tallest building in the city. ...

, considered the city's first skyscraper. Another family property, the Newkirk Homestead was demolished, though a street still bears the name of the early settlers. The '' Sip Manor'', built in 1666 and the oldest private home in New Jersey, was moved to Westfield. In 1928, Summit Avenue was re-routed, affecting the property line of the tract; the front of the Newkirk House was altered and new windows were placed along its side.

Restaurant and neighborhood redevelopment plans

Newkirk House 3 Summit Avenue Journal Square

In 1979, Newkirk House was listed on the

New Jersey Register of Historic Places The New Jersey Register of Historic Places is the official list of historic resources of local, state, and national interest in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The program is administered by the New Jersey's state historic preservation office with ...

(ID#1519). and became a restaurant known as the ''Summit House''. During renovations it was determined that it had originally been a one-story structure. It later became ''Sanai's'', owned by native son, NBA star, and political activist

Terry Dehere Lennox Dominique "Terry" Dehere (born September 12, 1971) is an American former basketball player who played six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and was an All-American college player at Seton Hall University. Following his p ...

. The building is situated between the

Journal Square Transportation Center The Journal Square Transportation Center is a multi-modal transportation hub located on Magnolia Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard at Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. Owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and ...

and neighborhood known as The Hilltop. In 2012, the city adopted a

variance In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expectation of the squared deviation of a random variable from its population mean or sample mean. Variance is a measure of dispersion, meaning it is a measure of how far a set of numbe ...

for a development proposal to build a 42-story residential tower and adjacent garage on its south and east sides.

References

External links

Flickr imageBergen Square: A Walking TourDestination Jersey City
{{Coord, 40.7312, -74.0603, type:landmark_region:US-NJ, display=title Houses in Hudson County, New Jersey History of Jersey City, New Jersey Buildings and structures in Jersey City, New Jersey Houses completed in 1690 Stone houses in New Jersey 1690 establishments in New Jersey

Old Bergen

Journal Square

Restaurant and neighborhood redevelopment plans

See also

References

External links