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

1. The WESTMINSTER (private), 149 Kearny Ave., is the heart of Perth Amboy's history. But the rambling mass of weather-worn brick standing at the summit of Kearny Ave. hill contains little more than the foundation and the shell of the first two floors of the house, built on this site between 1768 and 1770 at the order of the Proprietors of East New Jersey. The original house was rented from the Proprietors in 1774 by William Franklin, last Royal Governor. Benjamin Franklin visited his son here before the outbreak of the Revolution but left when it was apparent that William would not change his allegiance. At midnight of June 17, 1776, Capt. Nathaniel Heard of Woodbridge and his Continental troops broke into the house and arrested Franklin. Mrs. Franklin remained for a p time, but shortly afterwards the Colonials established Revolutionary headquarters here.

   On July 2, 1776, Washington, anticipating that the British would attempt to sail up the Raritan and so drive a wedge between the American armies in New York and Philadelphia, installed General Mercer here to lead Perth Amboy troops in a counteroffensive. Mercer withdrew from Perth Amboy in December and joined Washington in the retreat from New York. Immediately after the American retreat, General Howe occupied, Perth Amboy and used the Governor's House as headquarters. After the Revolution the house was neglected; it was sold and resoldand survived two fires. It was rebuilt as Brighton House in 1815. Matthias Bruen, at one time America's richest man, later acquired the hotel and renamed it Bruen House.

   Bruen's son, who inherited the property, conveyed it to "The Presbyterian Board of Relief for Disabled Ministers and the Widows and Orphans of Deceased Ministers." This group called the place The Westminster. It was abandoned by them in 1903 and reverted to the Bruen heirs who then sold it to real estate developers. The grounds were divided into building lots, and The Westminster, after another series of sales, finally became a rooming house.

2. PARKER CASTLE (private), Water St. one block N. of Smith St., is the oldest house in Perth Amboy. It was the home of many generations of the Parker family, prominent in local and State affairs. The rear portion was erected in 1723, and the front in 1789. At one time the site of the tall, gaunt old house of time-darkened clapboards was the most desirable in town. Standing at the crest of the rise that overlooks Raritan Bay, a three-story clapboarded section towers above the two-story brick section built on a lower level. In the midst of rusting debris and piles of gravel and sand the house is in imminent danger of being engulfed by factories inching their way along the water front.

3. KEARNY HOUSE (private), Hayes Park, SE. end Catalpa Ave., was built in 1780 by the Kearnys, who were one of Perth Amboy's leading families. The two-story frame building, painted a dark yellow and scarcely showing its age, was moved to the park from High Street when demolition was threatened. Repairs were begun in June 1938 to convert it into a museum.

   Michael Kearny married Elizabeth Lawrence, Revolutionary poet and editor. This lady became known to the literary world of the day as "Madame Scribblerus," a pseudonym by no means a poor characterization of her verse. Of her half-brother, Capt. James Lawrence of "Don't give up the ship!" fame, Madame Scribblerus wrote:

   My brave, brave Jim's a sailor Jack
   Upon the treacherous sea --
   A sailor who loves poetry
   All taught to him by me.

   
   
4. CITY HALL, City Hall Square, a white brick building with green trim, is on the site of the Old Jail and Courthouse, ordered built in 1713. The courthouse, also rebuilt in 1767, served as a school, meeting place of the Colonial Assembly, and pulpit from which George Whitefield, the Billy Sunday of his day, preached some of his fire and brimstone sermons. The present mansard-roofed structure, erected in 1870, was built around part of the old courthouse.

   In the square park in front of City Hall is a STATUE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, done in terra cotta by Nils Nillson Ailing, a local sculptor. The statue was commissioned and presented to the city by Scandinavian residents in 1896. In recent years this little park has been used for a picturesque demonstration of the progress of Americanization in the polyglot city. Local societies of expatriates of various European nations have taken to planting commemorative trees on the rim of the circle of the Washington Statue as a token of devotion to their new country.

5. SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE (open Wed., adm. $1.50), City Hall Square, is a tiny, boxlike brick building of a dirty buff color, built just after the Civil War. Here are held the semiannual meetings of the General Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey, an amazing relic of the Colonial land-grant system. Whenever new land appears in New Jersey, the Proprietors of either the Eastern Division or the Western Division (see BURLINGTON) lay claim to it; and a quitclaim from the Proprietors is necessary for possession. For example, alluvial deposits from :he Shrewsbury River created an island some years ago, which was duly sold. The corporation has valuable stock holdings. Any descendant of the, original Proprietors who holds at least a 96th part of a share is entitled to vote.

6. ST. PETER'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Rector and Gordon Sts., is the home of the oldest Episcopal Parish in New Jersey. In 1698 the Bishop of London, on the petition of several proprietors, appointed the Reverend Edward Perthuck to the parish. Services were held in one of the houses fitted out as a church. When the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was organized in 1701, it sent to the Province the Reverend George Keith, who included Perth Amboy among his stops. A church was chartered in 1718 and completed in 1722. From its tower Perth Amboy patriots kept watch on the activities of Tory neighbors across the Kill. The present brick building of Gothic style was erected 1853 on the foundations of the earlier church. Within are the original pews, and a paten and chalice presented to the church in 1728. The adjoining CEMETERY contains the graves of Perth Amboy's earliest settlers. John Watson, the first portrait painter in America, and William Dunlap, the earliest American-born playwright to use native material, are buried here.

7. FIREMEN'S MONUMENT, Alpine Cemetery, 703 Amboy Ave., commemorates the death of nine firemen who were killed when their engine crashed into a locomotive June 15, 1921. The statue is of a walrusmoustached fireman in full regalia, holding the nozzle of a hose.

8. OUTERBRIDGE CROSSING (toll: car and passengers 50¢), approach E. end Grove St., is a cantilever span across Arthur Kill to Tottenville, Staten Island. The bridge was named for Eugenius H. Outerbridge, former chairman of the Port of New York Authority, which built it in 1928. From plaza to plaza the length is 10,200 feet, with truss spans of 2,100 feet and a clearance of 135 feet. A consistent money loser, the bridge has never enjoyed the traffic that was expected from the $10,000, 000 investment.

9. ATLANTIC TERRA COTTA PLANT (open for group tours upon written application), 59 Buckingham Ave., the first ceramic factory established in Perth Amboy, started operations in 1846 as A. Hall and Sons, manufacturers of porcelain household wares. It now specializes in terra cotta work from local clay. Products of its kilns were the pediment of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the roof of the new Supreme Court Building in Washington. The plant also supplied special variegated brick and gold tile with black glaze trim for the new Dutch Colonial Perth Amboy Post Office.

10. RARITAN COPPER WORKS of the International Smelting and Refining Co., a subsidiary of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. (open for student group tours upon written application), S. end Elm St., is the foremost refining plant for copper, silver, and gold imported at Perth Amboy. Foreign nations send more than $1,000,000 a month in gold and silver into New Jersey through the port of Perth Amboy; a similar amount enters Perth Amboy via the port of New York, and an even greater quantity comes by rail from American mines. Much of this is refined here. All commercial forms of refined copper, such as wire bars and ingots, are produced here, in addition to by-products of refined. silver and gold, platinum, palladium, selenium, tellurium, copper sulphate, and nickel sulphate. The plant is one of the largest in the world using the electrolytic process of refining.

11. OLD STONE HOUSE, Convery Pl. N. of Smith St., a one-and-onephalf-story frame building with a new concrete front, was part of Eagleswood Military Academy and later served as a studio for George Inness, who lived in Perth Amboy for about three years -- 1865 to 1868. Everything but the foundations, walls and gambrel roof has been completely changed since Inness worked here. The building is now a roadhouse.

General Motors Assembly Plant, 13 m. (see Tour 1); Freneau Farm, 14.9 m. (see Tour 18); Marlpit Hall (museum), 17.9 m. (see Tour 22); Monmouth Battlefield, 28.4 m. (see Side Tour 18A).

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