The Dr. William Barrow Mansion is located at 83 Wayne Street between Barrow Street and Jersey Avenue in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Jersey City Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

Hudson County Hudson County is a List of counties in New Jersey, county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, its smallest and most densely populated. Lying in the northeast of the state and on the west bank of the North River (Hudson River), Hudson River, the No ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, United States. The mansion was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on May 2, 1977, and is located within the Van Vorst Park Historic District, which itself was dedicated on March 5, 1980, and is roughly bounded by Railroad Avenue, and Henderson, Grand, Bright, and Monmouth Streets. The house was one of two similar homes constructed by Cornelius Van Vorst, a founder of the Township of Van Vorst and mayor of Jersey City from 1860 to 1862. The Van Vorsts were a prominent family who trace their North American roots to the third superintendent of the

patroonship In the United States, a patroon (; from Dutch '' patroon'' ) was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th-century Dutch colony of New Netherland on the east coast of North America. Through the Charter of Free ...

Pavonia, whose

bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighbourhood, neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row (Manhattan), Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th ...

was located at nearby

Harsimus Harsimus (also known as Harsimus Cove) is a neighborhood within Downtown Jersey City, Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The neighborhood stretches from the Harsimus Stem Embankment (the Sixth Street Embankment) on the north to Ch ...

. The family lends its name to the nearby

Van Vorst Park Van Vorst Park is a neighborhood in the Historic Downtown of Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, centered on a park sharing the same name. The neighborhood is located west of Paulus Hook and Marin Boulevard, north of Grand Street, east of ...

which was part of the township. Cornelius Van Vorst's sister Eliza was married to Dr. William Barrow. Built between 1835–1837 and also known as the Ionic House, the wooden

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

structure has five

Ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...

around a two-story

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

. The columns divide the building into four equal bays, effecting an offset center hall. As the columns are evenly spaced, the front door is not in the center, but set off to the right. The interior, of late Federal/early Greek Revival style with some Victorian décor, features a ballroom, carved Italian marble fireplaces and twelve-foot ceilings. The mansion stood alongside the Van Vorst Mansion, separated only by a lawn, and near the Van Vorst family farmhouse. In 1874 Van Vorst sold his home to Dr. Benjamin Edge and it was later demolished in the 1920s. The

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

bought the Barrow Mansion in the 1890s, adding a rifle range and gymnasium. St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church purchased the residence in 1897 and used it as a parish house. The pistol range was converted to a two-lane bowling alley in the basement. The following year, St. Matthew's Church was built on the lawn between the Barrow and Van Vorst mansions. The church flourished until the 1920s and the former mansion and parish house became a lively and popular social center. As the neighborhood changed in the post-war era, the mansion fell into disrepair. In 1984 the Barrow Mansion Development Corporation (BMDC) was founded to renovate the mansion and operate it as a center for community service. The BMDC's board is composed of members from St. Matthew's Lutheran Church and the wider community. The BMDC leases the mansion from church, and received grants in 1992 and 1995 from the

New Jersey Historic Trust The New Jersey Historic Trust was created by the State of New Jersey in 1967 to preserve New Jersey's historic resources. The Historic Trust's executive director is Dorothy P. Guzzo. Funding programs available through the New Jersey Historic Tru ...

and other grantors for building restoration. The mansion currently provides office space to small businesses and non-profits, is home to the Attic Ensemble theater company and Jersey City Children's Theater, and hosts Hudson County's largest number of twelve-step groups and other community meetings (over 1100 in 2010).

References

External links

Barrow Mansion websiteJersey City Landmarks website re: Barrow MansionCity of Jersey City website re: Van Vorst Mansion
{{NRHP in Hudson County, New Jersey Buildings and structures in Jersey City, New Jersey Greek Revival houses in New Jersey Houses in Hudson County, New Jersey Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey History of Jersey City, New Jersey Houses completed in 1837 Historic district contributing properties in New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Hudson County, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places

See also

References

External links