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The
Town of Morristown, New Jersey
In the Highlands of Morris County !
HISTORY
Visual
Tour By Dates <
== click ==> or
Visual
tour around the
GREEN
of OLD
Summary
of MORRISTOWN HISTORY <==
Click
NJ
HISTORICAL RESOURCES
These are the times that try men's souls . . .
GW and Martha were here in
1777
Communion
at the
Manse
HQ 
1777
MHS kids painted this 3 story
The Encampment
The 1st - First Baptist Church was opened as
Jacob
Arnold's Tavern
Arms Storage
a hospital for cases of Small Pox inoculations.
The Presbyterian Church on the Green was used The
Court House & Jail on the Green
Drilling on the Green
as a hospital for cases of Small Pox inoculations.
The Presbyterian Church - 2nd building
From December 1, 1779 through the Winter and
Spring of 1780
GW led the army through the toughest winter at Morristown,
NJ
JOCKEY HOLLOW 1780 - THE WORST WINTER OF THE WAR !
TEMPE WICK HOUSE - General St. Clair
LIDDELL'S MILL AND MILL DAM
headquartered here.
There were tales of a horse!
AT JOCKEY
HOLLOW
JOCKEY
HOLLOW
HQ
Washington
Spring Street - Dickerson's tavern - Benedict Arnold's first trial. reprimanded Arnold but
but promised future promotion.
THE BACK DOOR : WASHINGTON'S OFFICE WINDOW ON RIGHT OF DOOR
Young MAJOR GENERAL LaFAYETTE delivered good news of French help -
to this office in 1780.
Mary Phillipse was eyed by George Washington before he met Martha; or was the interest in her 51,000 acres in NY State? She and her sister were both judged "traitors to our freedom cause," and their property was seized.
LaFayette was welcomed here in 1825 - Sansay
House The "new" county courthouse was built in 1927
MACCULLOCH
HALL
"THE KEDGE"
The Vail family were pioneers during the Industrial Revolution. They brought a steam driven ship to Russia. They worked with Morse to perfect the Telegraph and invented the Morse-Vail Code. They were also involved in the development of steam engines for railroading. With the railroads and telegraph, the nation was consolidated and the wild West was won! Was this one of the "roots" of the internet?
The Morristown Railroad Station with tracks at street level !
A CABOOSE of the Morris & Erie Railroad
OLYPHANT / JARDINE HILLTOP StevenVail Family Pioneered in Railroading !WASHINGTON'S 1779-80 HEADQUARTERS AT FORD MANSION ON A HILLSIDE
The dormer windows were added and later removed.
Thomas Nast, artist, drew Uncle Sam, Santa Claus, the Elephant and Donkey party symbols and Tammany Tigers. He was a writer-artist and reformist against perceived injustices. He once accused Victoria Woodhull of being for "free love"! She was the first woman to run for President, in 1772 against General Grant and Horace Greeley. She was in jail on election night for having published a true story about Reverend Beecher and his hypocrisy about "an affair" with a married woman in his church in Brooklyn Heights..
The UNITED STATES HOTEL Morristown, NJ
On The Green - Proprietor A. E. VORHEES - Hitch up the horse and let's go to town !CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES
OF SPEEDWELL NEAR THE GREEN
South Street as seen from near Dehart Street.
The First Presbyterian Church's third building - on the Green -1890's
The trolley arrived in town in 1909 !
THE LYCEUM burned-down: It was A "Library & armory" on South Street, across from the "2nd Presbyterian." The furnace was the same one involved in the fire that destroyed that "2nd Presbyterian Church" on South Street.
Women's Community Club on South Street at Community Place The Morristown (Morris-township) Free Public Library
The old YMCA, now a modernized office building,
was across Western Avenue from the County Court House.
The Turnpike Inn. This is the site of the
"murder by LeBlank" in colonial days.
It was built in 1749 with fireplaces having
hand carved mantels.
217 South Street became Winchester's Turnpike Inn.
It also was: The Wedgewood, Society Hill, Phoebe's, and Jimmy's Haunt!
Seating capacity was 250. (There were 13 stars beneath the eaves to represent the 13 colonies).
The Wedgwood Inn was a cafeteria treat!
The Field and Tennis Club was located on South Street in Morristown - near James Street.
A TALE OF TWO BUILDINGS
Morristown's Jacob Arnold's Tavern and "All Souls Hospital."
or
"What ever became of George Washington's
1777 HEADQUARTERS"?
By Tom J. Collins
JACOB ARNOLD'S TAVERN, WASHINGTON'S 1777 HEADQUARTERS was to be demolished and replaced by a brick structure. With inspiration from Julia Keese Colles, Mr. Colles purchased the old headquarters in 1886 and arranged for it to be moved 1/2 mile to the south. The chimneys were taken down and replacement bricks were ordered from Britain. The move began on April 6, 1886. The building got stuck on Bank Street for several weeks. This all was in the horse-drawn days before the availability of the automobile and trucks. Here is a quote from The Jerseyman of May 21, 1886 :
"Two indictments were found by the grand jury against A. J. Hughes of Jersey City, the contractor who is supposed to be making a feeble effort to move the old buildings from the lot next to the Post Office through our streets. It was full time something was done in the matter. Here we have had three big buildings on the road all at once, whereby travel is made dangerous, and one street in town has been impassable for several weeks: instead, on Bank street (, sic) work on the building (was sic) has even been abandoned for days together, with no attempt to get it out of the way."
But the building (s) eventually arrived at the town's south border, on Mt. Kemble Avenue, to become a boarding house to be operated by a Miss Weeks, formerly of the Avenue House. Ah to have photographs of these large buildings in transit by horses power!
In June 1886, a Spanish Franc (dated 1780) was found in the old tavern. This transported building was re-sited on a new foundation on the east side of Mount Kemble Avenue, across the road from the Mount Saint Michael's Sanatorium (which was soon to be renamed "All Souls.")
In 1891, Monsignor Joseph M. Flynn proposed an actual "All Souls Hospital" using the Jacob Arnold Tavern building. The property on Mount Kemble Avenue including the old Jacob Arnold's Tavern, was acquired. Work began on the old Washington's Headquarters on February 26, 1892. The Monsignor and another priest went to Montreal to speak with the Grey Nuns. Two of the Nuns visited Morristown and said that a conversion to a hospital was feasible. More of the nuns arrived in late August 1892; the hospital began operations on Labor Day 1892. The old Jacob Arnold ball room on the second floor became a chapel. The bar-room/dining room on the first floor became a ward for patients.
The building was expanded in height and extended with piazza-porches/fire escapes (some of the expansion occurred later, in October 1899). In October 1893. a laundry building was constructed, as well as barns to shelter the horses, which would pull the ambulances. Cows and a boiler for the laundry were purchased in October of 1893 and telephones were installed. Sunday sermons were given over the telephones, too. That was the 1893 version of the internet! A horse drawn ambulance was purchased by R. D. Foote in January of 1894. A wagon was also acquired to allow transportation for the nuns to facilitate shopping for produce. Also, in January 1894, a small temporary building for small pox cases, was destroyed (fire).
The faithful servant, Sister Shaughnessey, died in June of 1899.In 1904, there was a small fire in the "dead room" of the hospital at about 3:30 AM. Some miners from Wharton mines had not survived their injuries. The bodies were placed in a "dead room" until they could be removed later in the morning. A worker had left a lit cigar near one of the cots. Fire engines came from surrounding towns. The burning cots were cast into the yard as most of the hospital's patients slept through the turmoil. The building was saved!
That early building served many charitable cases through the years. A variety of fund raising events were given in the nearby towns to support the hospital, which took in a great many charity cases.
But in 1918, a grease fire in the basement-kitchen went up the "dumb waiter shafts" and destroyed most of what had once been Jacob Arnold's Tavern, or GEORGE WASHINGTON'S 1777 HEADQUARTERS. All but the first floor was destroyed by the fire, even though fire equipment was rushed to the hospital. Patients were taken to nearby houses and to the Morristown Memorial Hospital.
Due to the need to care for the "1918 flu" and war related injuries, an expansion had been underway of the buildings across the highway, especially for a nursing school. These buildings, west of the highway 202, would now become the new "All Souls Hospital."
That new set of buildings would eventually have a maternity building, a "foundling ward" and a daycare center. It housed patients, nursing students and the nuns. The Grey Nuns would eventually transfer their project to the Sisters of Charity at Convent Station, NJ.
The hospital fell upon hard times in the second half of the 20th century. Dr. George Lassiter was appointed to organize a conversion to a "community hospital." Eventually, a takeover by Morristown Memorial Hospital was effected. We now know it as the Rehabilitation Institute, or "REHAB"!
This "tale of two buildings" is complete. Arnold's Tavern did great community service as "All Souls Hospital." The new building(s) west of Mount Kemble Avenue saved many lives, including that of my son! (TJC) When you visit the Bargain Box gift shop, think of the old neighboring house -now a parking lot - and think of George and Martha Washington and 1777.
The new top floor and added "piazza" wrap-around decks with steps for fire exits are shown here.
1907 All Souls Hospital Morristown, NJMt. St. Michael's Sanatorium preceded the creation of the large brick "new All Souls Hospital"
About 1917 Had this building been part of the Mt. St. Michaels Sanatorium before becoming All Souls ?
The New All Souls Hospital was constructed "just in time."
The old Arnold's Tavern- All Souls had burned in early 1918.
The construction across Mount Kemble Avenue had begun with the intention of building a nursing school.
Late 1920's, early 1930's.
What a beautiful place, front lawn and all. It was inspired by Mr. Foote's (now) Loyola mansion. .
And then they built upon the front lawn!
The nurses building (top c. left), a grotto and a rear-chapel are now gone.
Across the street is a parking lot - the site of Washington's 1777 HQ, Jacob Arnold Tavern,
which had become the original "All Soul's Hospital" after a move of the building from the Green.
Jacob Arnold's Tavern, which burned in 1918, has long been forgotten . . .
Soldiers returning from wars were served at the All Souls Hospital
Soldiers of the Spanish-American War (and WWI), are represented here. Some were served at
"All Souls Hospital," the old Washington's 1777 HQ/Jacob Arnold's Tavern.When the HQ JACOB ARNOLD TAVERN was moved in 1886, it got stuck on
BANK STREET !
1909 - the Green with horses and an electric trolley.
GW and Thomas Paine
FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM -WITH RESPONSIBILITY
Green & Co. Awnings at 19 Washington Street . . . THIS MUST BE IN ANOTHER TOWN !!!
It was incorrectly marked "Morristown, NJ." . . . BUT, I LOVE THE PHOTO !
(c) Copyrighted 1998-August, 2007 -etc., by Tom j. Collins, for this site and the elements. He does not endorse or control third party Web Site(s) contents. Images, other than by T. Collins, are the (c) of their representative owners. Permission from T. Collins is required via the site's guest book for links with this site or elements thereof, except access by popular and public Search Engines.
