Mountain Pavilion

The Mountain Pavilion was an inn located in Weehawken, New Jersey during the 19th century.[2]

Mountain Pavilion
1853 sketch of the pavilion property looking southeast to Weehawken Cove
LocationHackensack Plank Road
Weehawken Heights, New Jersey
Coordinates40°45′58″N 74°01′28″W
Elevation250 feet (76 m)[1]


Location

The Mountain Pavilion was situated atop The Palisades along Hackensack Road, offering panoramic views the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, and Manhattan Island. Fitz-Greene Halleck received inspiration for his poem Fanny, satirizing New York society.[1][2] The location is in the vicinity of Shippen Street in the neighbourhood now known as Weehawken Heights. The hostelry was opened in the mid-1830s[3] when the region was still part of Bergen Township. At the time, Weehawken was home to numerous estates, many of which began as summer retreats for prominent businessmen, among them that of James Gore King and John Stevens. These early families and their homes are recalled in many odonyms seen in the street names in the area, such as Hauxhurst, Clifton, Duer, Brown, Gregory, Ridgely and Bonn.[4] The Pavilion was accessible from ferry to Hoboken and a two-mile carriage trip up the cliffs.[1]

Description
An 1841 map showing the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, Mountain Pavilion, Highwood Estate, and Castle Point

There are numerous historical references to the area and the allure garnered, e.g. "....Mountain Pavilion, as it was called, at the top of the Hackensack Road, aka Hackensack Plank Road where Daniel Webster sometimes boarded in the summer-time, “to live in heaven,” as he used to declare. That was quite a fashionable hostelry in its day, and greatly frequented by the wealthy residents of New York, who came there to enjoy the air and the view" .[5][6] The establishment was kept by Colonel Jessup,[1] who according to The Knickerbocker despite being declared incurable by doctors recovered from his lung illness.[7]

References
  1. "Summer Excursions" (PDF). The Tribune. 19 July 1842. p. 1. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
  2. Mills, Weymer Jay (1902). Historic houses of New Jersey. J.B. Lippincott Company. pp. 336.
  3. "The Weehawken Mountain Pavillion [sic] ..." The Corsair. March 16, 1839. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  4. Kirk, Edward J. (1932), Weehawken History
  5. "Excerpt - Great Houses of New Jersey - 1902". Weehawken Time Machine.
  6. "View of New York from over Weehawken, circa 1853". Old New York, by Henry Collins Brown, pub. 1922. Weehawken Time Machine.
  7. "Editor's Table". XXVIII. The Knickerbocker. 1846. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
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