A few key views ...

June 7, 2010 -- Key landmarks in and around our City of Lambertville include several primary locales, all within walking distance and right in the center of town. (Click on any of the photos to expand them.)

Pictured below is the historic Lambertville House, at the corner of Bridge Street and North Union Street.

Initially built as a tavern called the Stage House, the original structure was commenced by Captain John Lambert around 1814 to coincide with the building of the original Delaware Bridge across the river. It also housed the City's first post office, which had been obtained through the influence of his uncle, then-U.S. Senator, John Lambert. Captain John became the first postmaster of "Lambert's Ville."

Coryell's Ferry was located at the foot of Ferry Street, one block below that newly created Bridge Street. Prior to the bridges being built, it was the means for crossing the river. The old Ferry House Tavern was located there, and the building now found on that site is currently the home of the Ota-Ya Japanese Restaurant.

Coryell's Ferry -- so named at one point on both sides of the river -- was a key commercial crossing point during the 18th and into the 19th century, where the river intersected the York Road between Philadelphia and New York . It was historically of immense significance because of the key role the crossing played during the Revolutionary War period.

During the harried retreat of the Continental Army across New Jersey in the fall of 1776, General Washington ordered several troops ahead to collect all the boats, including those used for commercial purposes on the river, and to secure them on the Pennsylvania side. The fleet of vessels used to ferry the 2,400 American troops and supplies across for the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, were hidden behind Malta Island that December, which was located just south of present day New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Commercial passage on the river ran through the long race running behind the wooded island, thereby avoiding the danger of running through the treacherous Well's Falls. The small section of the map shown, drawn just 9 years later in 1785 by Redding Howell,* depicts how Malta Island was at the time. The later construction of the Delaware Canal in Pennsylvania, industrialization along the waterfront south of New Hope, and the installation of the wing dam intersecting it, all contributed to substantially changing the configuration of Malta Island over the years. Today, only bare tailings of the island remain.

Coryell's was crossed by American revolutionary forces numerous times during that period, including in the summer of 1778 on their way to the Battle of Monmouth.

Just prior to marching out to Monmouth, General Washington stayed at the home of Richard Holcombe, just north of town along Route 29. It is currently a private residence. The Continental Army Washington led to Monmouth that summer camped in an orchard for those few days, right in the center of what is now Lambertville.

The roadway Washington led the troops out of town would have crossed what is now Rt. 165 and up Quarry Street, to the old Toll House, which is also currently a private residence. There they would have gone right, marching up and across the old Farmer's Highway, to where it would have intersected near the current Rt. 518, in the vicinity of Rock Road West and Hunter Road in West Amwell.

During the early industrialization of the 19th Century, and primarily as a means for moving coal, both a railroad (the Belvidere Delaware , part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system) and a feeder for the Delaware & Raritan Canal were built along the Delaware, both passing side by side through Lambertville, and both located just yards in from the banks of the Delaware. The D&R Canal itself was commissioned by the state legislature in early 1830, and the railroad a few years later in 1836. The railroad line did not open, however, until 1851.

One fascinating and novel engineering feature employed at the time featured an "aqueduct" bridge and canal spillway, which is located just south of the Lambertville Station, and over which both the railroad line ran and the canal flowed, both spanning Swan Creek, as it flowed through town down to the river. In the photo (which was taken from the river side if the aqueduct) water can be seen dropping from the overflow spillway on the edge of the canal feeder.

Eventually, the portion of the railroad line south of Milford, NJ became defunct, and in the late 1970s most of the tracks south of Lambertville were pulled up, and along with the D&R Canal feeder, created the basis for a scenic walkway and bike path that threads all the way to Trenton, 18 miles south of Lambertville, and north to Bulls Island.

The D&R Canal itself had finally closed to all commercial traffic back in 1933. The canal and the feeder, which are today overseen by the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission, serve today not only as a enormously popular parklands, but also as a water supply source for the City of Trenton and other communities. Above is just one of many beautiful views that can be seen on a leisurely walk along the canal feeder tow path, this scene right here in town, from York looking south toward Coryell Street.

Twenty-five years ago, the former railroad station building, located a block away from the Lambertville House, and likewise bordering on Bridge Street, was completely restored and significantly improved, opening as a restaurant and inn. The main building, the Lambertville Station, is pictured here. Their facilities have been enhanced over the ensuing years, including the building of an inn on the waterfront.
From the just a few steps out on walkway of the bridge to New Hope, one can look north along the shoreline and see Lewis Island, which historically was known as Holcombe Island, named after one of the prominent founding families of this river town. That island became the home of a bustling shad fishing enterprise, avidly pursued over the years by the Lewis clan, and one that is still celebrated today during Lambertville's annual spring Shad Festival. The island can also be accessed from a walk-over bridge you can see in the photo, by walking up Lambert Lane to the foot of Coryell Street.

Heading back east on Bridge Street just half a block away from the Lambertville House, and on the other side of St. John the Evangelist Parish, is the current home of the Lambertville Historical Society, The Marshall House. It is also directly across the street from the First Baptist Church of Lambertville.

Originally built in 1816, therein resided young James Wilson Marshall, who was later credited as the discoverer of gold in the American River at Sutter's Mill out in California in 1848, thereby prompting the famous gold rush. The house is on both the National and New Jersey Registers of Historic Places.

Around the corner on North Union, is the First Presbyterian Church. It has a graveyard on the side of the building bearing numerous historical figures, including, among others, several individuals from the founding Coryell, Holcombe and Lambert families. One of these individuals was George Coryell, a son of Cornelius Coryell, who was a young man of 16 or so at the time of the Christmas Crossing. According to one account,** he played an essential role in scouting and reconnoitering on horseback all along the New Jersey side of the river between Coryells and Trenton on a secret spy mission for George Washington, just before that 1776 Christmas crossing at McKonkey's. The story was that he reported back to the General on Christmas Day that there were no unusual guards or patrols along the route.


Following the Revolution, he moved to Alexandria, VA at the behest of George Washington himself, and he married into society. He was ultimately given the honor of being a pall bearer at George Washington's funeral. Years later in 1845, following his wife's death, George Coryell returned to this area, where he lived out his days. He died in 1850 and was buried in the Presbyterian Church lot, where a sign is posted commemorating his historic role as a spy for Washington.

Two short blocks north on Union Street, on the northeast corner of York Street, is Lambertville's City Hall, at 18 York Street. Originally built in 1871, the "Second Empire" style stone building was the A. H. Holcombe residence, home to descendants of one of Lambertville's original settlers, John Holcombe. The building has been the location of City Hall since 1950, and has recently had restoration and upgrading improvements paid for through a grant by the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust Fund.

Just a few doors down the street from City Hall, also on York Street, is the Massey Mansion, a striking Williamsburg colonial revival home with a carriage house, that was built a century ago (in 1909). It was a twenty fifth anniversary gift by prominent businessman (coal supplier) George W. Massey for his wife, Hannah. Today, the mansion is a bed-and-breakfast, one of several in town, and in our area.

Finally, even an abbreviated compilation of downtown Lambertville scenes as this is would not be complete without at least one view along George Street, this one looking back down toward the center of town from the York Street area, next to the memorial park.


* The Reading Howell map of the Delaware River from Trenton north, was drawn under a contract between Mr. Howell and both states -- New Jersey and Pennsylvania -- and was undertaken for the purpose of determining the "boundary" with respect to the ownership of the islands in the river. The original map from which the section was photographed, is in the New Jersey State Archives. I found reference to the map via Mr. Edward Cohen, author of, Lambertville's Legacy: The Coryells, Ashbel Welsh and Fred Lewis (1999), at 17-18.

** New Doane Book: Bucks County's Bandittories of the Revolution, Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, PA (1952) at 44-45. See Lambertville's Legacy, ibid at 41-42.