Boxwood Hall

Boxwood Hall
Location 1073 East Jersey Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA
Coordinates 40°39′49″N 74°12′37″W / 40.66361°N 74.21028°W / 40.66361; -74.21028Coordinates: 40°39′49″N 74°12′37″W / 40.66361°N 74.21028°W / 40.66361; -74.21028
Area 0.4 acres (0.16 ha)
Built 1750[1]
Architectural style Georgian
NRHP reference # 70000397[2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP December 18, 1970[2]
Designated NHL November 28, 1972[3]

Boxwood Hall State Historic Site, located at 1073 East Jersey street in Elizabeth, New Jersey, is a five bay middle-Georgian wooden structure with a tripartite Palladian window. In its original configuration ca. 1750 the house had two wings bringing the number of rooms to eighteen. The main block is a classic four over four center hall construction.

The property has had many owners and uses in its 250 plus years. Originally it was built by Samuel Woodruff, a merchant and onetime mayor of Elizabethtown. After Woodruff's death in 1768 it passed to his son, but was eventually sold at public auction to Elias Boudinot in 1772. Boudinot lived here with his wife Hannah Stockton Boudinot and their two daughters and also offered shelter to the teen aged Alexander Hamilton who was studying at the Elizabethtown Academy. The Boudinots remained in the house until the outbreak of the Revolution, when for safety reasons Hannah moved to a family property in Basking Ridge, NJ, and Elias assumed his duties as Commissary General for the Continental armies. It is currently not known how the house was used during the war. In 1783 the Boudinots returned to their mansion and remained there until they sold it in 1795 to Jonathan Dayton, then a Congressman.

Jonathan Dayton and his wife Susan, son Elias Jonathan and daughter Hannah moved into the house in 1795. Soon after Dayton redecorated the front two rooms on the main floor; installing an Adamesque mantelpiece in the East parlor and a Federal mantelpiece in the West parlor. The financial reversal that was caused by his association with Aaron Burr and by extension with the Burr Conspiracy, forced Dayton to sell the mansion to his son in law Dr Oliver Hetfield Spencer with life-rights for the remainder of his and Susan's lives.

Modern status

The museum is owned and operated by the State of New Jersey and overseen by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Parks and Forests.

Boxwood Hall was an important place of interest for the "Young Immigrant Hamilton Tour" led by the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, as part of the 2014 CelebrateHAMILTON events.[4] The tour took place again in July 2016.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ NPS Colonials and Patriots Archived 2007-10-17 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  3. ↑ "Boxwood Hall". National Historic Landmark Quicklinks. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  4. ↑ "Liberty Hall Museum to Welcome Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society for CelebrateHAMILTON 2014". www.kean.edu. Kean University News.
  5. ↑ "Walk in Hamilton's footsteps "Young Immigrant Hamilton Tour"". www.goelizabethnj.com. Elizabrth Destination Marketing Organization.
  • Boxwood Hall - Go Elizabeth
  • New Jersey Historic Sites
  • "Ellas Boudinot House - Boxwood Hall" (pdf). Photographs. National Park Service. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.