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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
BORDENTOWN (65 alt., 4,400 pop.), a wind-swept village on a bluff rising sharply from the Delaware River, has a nineteenth century air, and a curious mingling of European and early American architecture. The tone of the village, set a century ago by exiled Bonapartist royalty, lingers in the town's half-secluded atmosphere.
The main community occupies its Revolutionary site and in some respects the appearance has changed but little. Houses are built flush with the red brick sidewalks, and often with no space between them. Where a narrow passage does permit a view of the rear, gardens of boxwood and evergreens are glimpsed. Many of the homes are of Colonial design, wooden or brick, with shuttered windows; others show Continental influence in their stucco exteriors and wrought-iron railings and trim. The colors of the town are pastel, as though faded by sun and wind; grays, yellows, creams, and browns predominate.
Conflicting with Bordentown's mellow charm is its small business center of conventional, suburban-type stores, in the very heart of which is a building with a perfect example of a Colonial doorway and delicately lined fanlight.
Along the bluff overlooking Delaware River the old houses are surrounded by gardens and fine trees: evergreens, sycamores, maples, willows and elms. The gardens, all extending to the edge of the bluff, have tiny summerhouses where the grandees of former days watched their own vessels and goods passing in the river and canal. Some of these houses on the bluff resemble the "pepper boxes" of the New England coast -- two-storied square dwellings with flat roofs topped by a small watchtower. On a few of the most imposing, small signs read, "Apartments to let."
The tracks of a Pennsylvania Railroad branch lie in a deep and narrow cut through the center of the town; another track hugs the base of the bluff.
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