HarborHistory

Jersey City’s Hook Part Two

By Richard B. Marrin

This is part two of a two-part series that began with our June issue

Fort Paulus Hook during the Revolution

Everyday pursuits are put aside in times of crisis. That was true of Paulus Hook during the Revolution. Strategically located, it became one of a string of forts guarding the Hudson River and the rebel-held New York City. The fort sat at the crossroads of Grand and Washington streets. The site is remembered today as a park.

In the summer of 1776, only months after the defiant Declaration of Independence had been read, a huge British fleet arrived in New York harbor to subdue the rebel movement. The Paulus Hook fort came under attack. The journal of the Rev. Benjamin Boardman, chaplain to the Continental troops stationed there, reported how three large ships sailed up the Hudson and “kept up an incessant fire upon us. Their shot, a large part of which was grape, raked the whole Hook, but providentially one horse was all we lost by it.” The Chaplain had mixed emotions. He obtained “a livelier idea of the horror of war” than he had ever known, but it also gave him “great pleasure to see the spirit of the troops, who were evidently animated by the whistling of the enemy’s shot, which often struck so near as to cover them with dust.”

The position had to be abandoned. The British captured New York City and, for the first time, occupied a piece of New Jersey. Three years later, however, it had all come full circle. By then, Britain had concentrated its forces in New York and Paulus Hook had become Britain’s last toehold in New Jersey. Several hundred patriot troops, under the command of Henry Lee, made a surprise raid on the fort there. The British had more than 50 killed and wounded and 158 captured. American losses were but two killed, three wounded.

Post War Boom/Bust/Boom

In 1804, the Van Vorst family sold the 117 acres of Paulus Hook to a group of leading citizens from New York and Newark. They had great plans for the spot — a city on the other side of the Hudson to rival New York. The rent was high and “perpetual” — 6,000 Spanish milled dollars a year, secured by an unredeemable mortgage. The Associates of the Jersey Company, as they came to be called, were represented by an eminent Wall Street attorney, Alexander Hamilton (his face is on the $10 bill in your pocket). Hamilton’s expertise and influence were needed. He drafted the legislation, for the Jersey Legislature to pass, that would give the Associates what amounted to municipal authority to lay out roads, build piers and enforce regulations by fines. He also had to secure a waiver from New York of its claim that it owned both shores of the river. New York obliged, selfishly mindful that ferry service out of the colony “would greatly tend to the convenience of the inhabitants of this city in case of the return of the [smallpox] epidemic.”

About 15 people lived on Paulus Hook before May 14, 1804, when 1344 lots in this new community were put up for sale. Van Vorst had put in a small, semi-circular park at the foot of today’s Grand and Hudson Streets, where the ferries came in. Next to it were a tavern, a ferry house, an oyster house, stables, and some storehouses. The Associates urged Robert Fulton to take a block of waterfront, roughly where Hudson street is now, for his steam vessels that were to revolutionize shipping. A hotel was planned (Hudson House), shade trees planted and space reserved for a school, churches, and a public market. A distillery was erected near the corner of Hudson and Essex, as were a steam saw and grist mill, a pottery works and a glass factory.

But the town did not develop as hoped. Three things discouraged investment there: the fear that New York would claim jurisdiction of the shore and wharves, the irredeemable mortgage given to the Van Vorsts which prevented full ownership of the property and the fact that the town was governed by the Associates, not its citizens. By 1834, there were only 1500 people and 170 houses on Paulus Hook. A 19th century historian noted: “Lawlessness reigned. Prize fighting, bull baiting and dog fighting were common amusements, with drunkenness and gambling”.

Things got better. New York dropped its claims; the Van Vorst mortgage was bought back and Paulus Hook became part of what would become Jersey City. By 1850, the population of Paulus Hook had grown to 7,000. The boom was due to another innovation in transportation, the train. In 1837, the New Jersey Railroad built its terminal on the Paulus Hook waterfront, later enlarged by the Pennsylvania Railroad. There, at Exchange Place, the disembarking train traveler could board a ferry to New York or find transportation to Newark and other points in New Jersey.