Port Jervis East End Tour Preview

1

Main Street Academy

This was the site of the Old Main Street School and the Main Street Academy. The older, Old Main Street School, stood in front of the Main Street Academy, closer to Main Street. Neither building remains today, but the fenced-off triangular area next to the church marks the spot where the buildings stood. Stephen Crane attended school at the Old Main Street School from September 1878 until January of 1880, when he began going to the Mountain House School, where his sister Agnes taught.

2

Site of Robert Lewis Lynching

This is the site of the lynching of Robert Lewis in 1892. Stephen Crane's The Monster is a novella based on the lynching. He based the fictional town of Whilomville, the setting of a number of short stories, on Port Jervis. There is a memorial for Robert Lewis at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

3

Marion Rohner House

This sign is in front of the home of the late Marion Rohner. Marion Rohner is in the Guiness Book of World Records for the longest serving den leader. This section of Kingston Avenue was named Marion Rohner Way in her honor as well for her continued commitment to the Scouts and to the community through her volunteer work.

4

Wickham Methodist Church

After the 1830's, freed slaves in Port Jervis began worshipping in the city. In 1850, John Wesley Greene, a reverend from Goshen organized a Methodist Church in Port Jervis. in 1898, with financial help from the Port Jervis doctor, David Decker Wickham, the Wickham African Union Methodist Protestant Church was built on Bruce Street.

5

Monticello and Port Jervis Railroad

The Monticello and Port Jervis Railroad was built in 1869 and 1870. The 22-mile long line opened on January 9, 1871. It followed the path of the Neversink River upstream to Roses Point, at which point it climbed the Catskills to Monticello. After a brakeman sued the railroad for injuries in 1886, the line was auctioned to George Lea. George Lea, a Frenchborn Englishman, was a successful Port Jervis businessman. In 1856, he had run the first full page ad in a newspaper to promote a show he was producing. Lea ran the opera house in Port Jervis and a drug store. In 1884, Lea had run a very successful $1 Port Jervis to New York City excursion on the railroad. Despite all his business successes, Lea sold the railroad just two days later to Henry R. Low who had plans to connect the New York Orange and Western with a Fallsburg-Monticello Line. Instead a much longer route was built from Huguenot along the valley to Summitville. In 1902 the railroad was renamed the Port Jervis, Monticello and Summitville and became part of the NYO & W the following year. A cutoff was built to shorten the line between Summitville and Monticello and the new junction was named Valley Junction. The line saw increased traffic during the summer months for New Yorkers travelling to the Catskills, but by 1930 passenger service was ended on the section between Port Jervis and Valley Junction and on the rest of the line by 1935, due to increased bus competition.

6

McCathey's Beach

McCathey's Beach, also called Neversink Beach and later Joyland Beach was at the end of Beach Road to your right. The Beach was named for Fannie Waymack McCathie and David Morrison McCathie. David was the manager of the Boston Dry Goods store and the proprietor of the Peerless Neckwear Factory, downtown. Fannie was the inventor of a Puritan Collar and a baby bib sold by Peerless. The popular beach would eventually include a dancing facility adn two hundred bath houses.

7

Site of the First Mill

Stephen Tietsoort built a grist mill at this site sometime before 1713. The creek that once ran through this land was once called Clove Brook (not to be confused with the nearby northflowing creek which empties into the Neversink River), but is now referred to as Brewer's Creek after Fred Redeker's brewery and Deer Park Brewery, which operated along the creek upstream.

8

Charles Brox House

This is the house of Charles Brox, the German-born glassmaker, for whom Elks-Brox Park is named. In 1866, Brox and William Pountney established a glass business nearby at Hamilton and Canal Streets. In 1871, he and Wade Buckley established the Orange County Flint Glass Works (now the site of Gillinder Glass) or Erie Street. Brox died at his home on Buckley Street in the West End in 1924 and is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery. After his death, in 1932, his sister-in-law, Sarah Belle Thorne made a generous donation in his honor, which resulted in Elks Park being conveyed to the city and renamed Elk-Brox Park.

9

D&H Canal Drainage Ditch

This drainage ditch was built between the canal and Gold Creek to divert water from the canal. It begins south of the canal across from Maiden Creek, but it takes a much more direct path to Gold Creek than Maiden Creek had.

10

Cahoonzie Street

It was commonly conveyed that Cahoonzie Street and the nearby village were named after a Lenape chief. Anthropologist Robert S. Gumer, however, suggests that Cahoonzie was a corruption of Kehoonge, which was likely a Lenape place name. Despite the Cahoonshee Indians and their 7-foot tall chief being a work of fiction, the name Cahoonzie likely has its origin in a Lenape place name.

11

John Glenn Park

This small neighborhood park connects Cahoonzie Street with Canal Street via a set of stairs at the north end of the park.

12

D&H Canal

Canal Street follows the old route of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which first operated in 1828. Although the canal has been completely drained in Port Jervis, you can still see the old bed along the D&H Canal & Gravity Railroad Trail north of West Main Street. Look for the red and white D&H canal markers to follow the old route of the canal through the city.

13

William Pountney's Glass Works

Site of Glass Works started by Charles Brox and William Pountney

14

Maiden Creek

This is the spot were Maiden Creek once ran southeast to Gold Creek. Maiden Creek, like the nearby Brewers Creek was a creek with headwaters nearby at the southern edge of the Catskills and which drained into Gold Creek. Over the years much of it course has been changed and been routed through manmade channels. The creek's most natural course is in the hollow between Brewer's and Schultz Hills.

15

Brewer's Creek

Brewer's Creek, originally called Clove Brook, has since been dammed upstream to create Brewers' Reservoir (or Reservoir #1). Fred Redeker operated a brewery along this stream in the 19th century and then Deer Park Brewery operated here from 1899-1922 and then after Prohbition until 1942. The creek remains above ground through the hollow between Point Peter and Brewer's Hill to this point on the north side of Canal Street.

16

Site of William Crane House

After William Crane's graduation from Albany Law School in 1880, he rented a room at 21 Brooklyn Street. An eight year old Stephen Crane and his mother moved in with his brother in the summer of 1880 and stayed with him until the summer of 1883, when the two moved to Asbury Park. At this time, Stephen Crane attended school at the Mountain House School in the nearby Mountainside neighborhood.

17

Site of the Brooklyn Bridge

A bridge was built on Orange Street across the Canal. It connected the Brooklyn neighborhood to the south and thus receive the nickname of the "Brooklyn Bridge". The picture here shows the bridge under construction.

18

Site of the Canal Basin

This site was the location of the boat basin for the canal in Port Jervis. Once the canal was abandoned, the basin became a popular spot for ice skating in the winter.