Red Bank As It Was and As It Is
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TER. ISKaliS-^^ AND HARVEST SALE NUMBER, f VOLUME XXXIV.- NO. 15. RED BANK, N. t, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1911. PAGES 1 TO 12. RED BANK AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. A BRIEF STORY OF THE TOWN FOR THE PAST CENTURY, SHOWING ITS EARLY HISTORY, ITS GROWTH AND ITS PRESENT CONDITION. Red Bank is not as old a town as a the change of name, so Red Bank is IB river. Wharf avenue in thoBe days tavern end of the business was con- ien sold them off piecemeal, most of known as Riccville. It got this name ' number of others in Monmouth county still the namcfc-of tlie. place and Hed nai very steep, but a rough sort of tinued for several years ufter the store ie lands going to small owners. from Mr. Hetzell. The Hctzell store but it Is one of the liveliest and brisk- Bonk it will prbbajjly always remain. lock had been built at the foot of the was closed. The Wainwrights kept was at the corner of Broad and Front est towns in the whole stntc. Red It's a plain, substantial, simple name, itreet. The original road to the river their store nearly ten years, and then mrly Btor»<. irtrcoto, whore the W. A. Freuuli liquur Bank VVIIB started us a vllliige ttbulit u und 11 Jllsl suits the pluce, which is intl thu only road to the river previous they sold it to Robert Hart. He ran When William Remsen bought the storu its nuw located. A aiiurL time be- hundred years ago, A hundred years plain', aubatantinl and uimple in its A running Wharf avenue to the river, it three years and then sold it to Mar- lock, store and tavern from Abram fore this store of Hetzell's was started looks like quite a while, but Red Bank wayB. It is. satisfactory to the people was from the foot of what is now tin Chandler. Chandler kept the store ipringstecn in 1845, he built a grist- Thomas C. White and Jacob Corlics isn't "In it" for age with Shrewsbury, and it just suits them too, It is a road street. The old road records at .ten years, or until 1830, when it was nill on the property, on what is nowhad moved an old storehouse from the" reehold show that the road came bought by Joseph Parker. Parker ran rom Shrewsbury, taking a alight turn the store several years, and he also it tho brook where St. James's church started a tuvern there in connection property is now located, then continu- with the store about 1830. About this ng to the top of the bank at the foot time business places began to be if what is now Broad street, and then started at the corner of Broad and urning toward the west and going Front streets, and the dock at the foot [own a gully to the river. This origi- of Washington street soon showed the lal road and the gully referred to in effects of the business change. The he road records formed what ia nowParker property declined in value as a he road leading to the lyceum dock. business locality and in 1837 Parker 'his road was re-surveyed in 1792 and sold the dock, store and tavern to Ab- the road report put on record. Oh old ram Springsteen. Springsteen ran maps this street running from Broad the business till 1845, when he sold it UNION BAIIJWAD STATION. Washington street, and this kept foot of Wharf avenue to the front of nisiness coming there a little longer the tavern on the present site of the han it otherwise would have done, Union ^lotel, and they kept a store 'or the next nearest gristmill was the there several years. >ne now owned by Samuel J. Bennett Steamboat Travel Begins, f Tinton Falls. The gristmill did not lold business long, and after a few After Hetzell started his store the •ears it was torn down. About 1850 business part of the town began to •usiness places on Washington street grow. Steamboats began running be- and at the dock at the foot of the tween New York and Red Bank about street had come to an end, and thethat time and this made travel a good lock was. abandoned. Some of the deal easier than it had been before,- filing of the old' dock still remain. when it would sometimes take a whole 'MINT J>ltA3ANT About 1830 the dock which after- week on a sailing vessel to go to New ward became the property of John York and back. KED BANK IS ON THE MAP. Broad Street Luna at $75 an Acre. BROAD STREET FltOM FRONT STREET. Abbott Worthley, at the foot of Freehold, Middletown, and a half name Red Bankers like and Red Bank Throckmorton's hill, was built. This Just after Rice Hetzell started his dozen other towns in Monmouth would lose a lot of its individuality if street to the river is styled "Com-to William Remsen. Remsen also property is now owned by Matthews store in 1829, Robert H. Woolley county, to sny nothing of such villages it changed its name. mercial street." bought a tract of land adjacent to the as Colt's Neck, Tinton Palls, and other A Tavern the Tint BartntBu place. 1 In the early days there were no dock. Spring street was afterward places, which were village? two hum 'About a hundred years ago a tavern 1 iridges across the Shrewsbury river cut through this property and some of TO::;: drjod years before Red Bank was any- was started at Red Bank for the bene- it Red Bank. When the road at the the lands remaiiraHn the Remsen es- thing: but farm land. fit of the rivermen who occasionally ;oot of Broad street struck the river,: tate until a very few years ago. The A Settlement 100 T»» Affo, . landed their boats at Red Bank. This the road ran westward along the river Remsens cut a street through to the It wns just about a hundred years was the first business of any kind side under the hill, until the point was river, from the end of Spring street; ago that Red Bank began to be started at Red Bank. This tavern was reached where the Southern railrpad but this street was nevter made into a thought.of as a settlement. The banks kept by Barnes Smock, and it was lo- bridge now stands. From this point public highway and it was afterward of the Shrewsbury river broke off cated on a lane running to the river horses and wagons forded the viver, closed. This street from Front street abruptly in Home places tilonpc tho this luno being now Wharf avenue striking the Middletown shore at the to the river is now part of the prop- south shore, leaving red simd and clay The tavern waB Bituated where the foot of Cooper's hill. From there tne erty owned by Judge Charles E. Hen- road went on to Middletown. This drickson. road wau ontablishcd by one of the ThtJPlrrtnook. # • ...--., -" ON THE ItED HANK SHOItbV English kings in the early part of the The crude wharf or dock which had Brothers and Daniel H. Cook. A little | bought two acres of land on the.oppo- settlement of this country, probably been built on the Shrewsbury river a' later the dock now known as the ly- jsite corner of Broad and Front streets, three hundred years ago. For twothe foot of Wharf avenue became th< ceum dock was built and sloops and; where tho Pattercon &iSpinning build- centuries and a half it was known by thief dock in the town after business schooners landed there. This prop-1 ing now stands. He paid $150 for the the general appellation of "The King's became established near'the corner of erty afterward came into the posses- two acres, and he thought he had paid Highway," and this name still sur- Broad and Front streets. For nearl; sion of Parker & Chadwirk, and for! n good deal tun much. He tried to vives. fifty years before Red Bank was any many years they conducted a lime kiln find someone who would take half of Sew Boad to tho Blvor. thing more than farm land a sort oi nt the foot of the hill. This lime kiln it off his hands, but everybody elso In 1809 a new roud to the rivev was dock had been built on the river shon was in charge of Ephraim Carlisle, also thought he had paid too much and made. This road is what is now on the site of the present steamboat who will be well remembered by many . he could not find a customer. He built known as Washington street. A dock dock. About 1815 this dock was re-middle-aged Red Bankers of the pros-! a store on the property and this store was built there and this road became built and in 1820 or 1825 it was again nt time. All these wharves were used ! was run for fourteen years, and until ON THE SHREWSBURY RIVER. the principal business street in the rebuilt and made the best dock on the by sloops anil schooners engaged in. 1813, by T. and J. W. Morford. Mr. exposed. This gave the locality the Union hotel now stands. Some peopl passenger traffic as well as in carry-; Woolley and Isaac Pcnnington White, name of "Red Bnnk," which name it sny that the Union hotel is built partly ing produce ami in those days all the father of the late Henry S.