Port Jervis

By Matthew M. Osterberg

A picturesque city, Port Jervis nestles in the Shawangunk Mountains at the confluence of the Delaware and Neversink Rivers, where three valleys and three states meet. This southeastern corner of New York State, adjacent to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, evolved over the decades into a prosperous tri-state urban center. A tiny village in 1840, Port Jervis had developed into a city by the early 1900s. Port Jervis traces the community's evolution through its succession of eras-horse and wagon, dirt road, trolley car, paved street, small city. The city was named for John B. Jervis, whose engineering skills led to the construction of the Delaware and Hudson Canal in 1828, and whose foresight led to the expansion of the Erie Railroad in 1847. The canal and the railroad introduced opportunities for communications and commerce, attracting entrepreneurs such as Samuel Fowler, who published a newspaper that still exists today and created the Front Street business district. In Orange Square Park, renowned American author Stephen Crane interviewed Civil War veterans and wrote the masterpiece The Red Badge of Courage. For a century and a half, the true heroes, the industrious residents, founded six fire departments and built architecturally significant churches and schools, including the Deerpark Dutch Reformed Church in 1869 and the Church Street School in 1899.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439628140

Matthew M. Osterberg

Historian Matthew M. Osterberg, author of Arcadia's Matamoras to Shohola and Port Jervis, has used historical photographs from the Minisink Valley Historical Society and private collectors to compile this history of a commercial endeavor that helped transform a nation.

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INTRODUCTION

When one speaks of Port Jervis, it is usually described as Orange County’s smallest city, with a population of almost 10,000, retaining its quiet, unassuming charm and ways. However, Port Jervis today is only a ghost of the bustling city it was c. 1880–1925. During that time, the then village blossomed as a canal, railroad, and industrial center, so much so that it became a city in 1907. The town considered itself modern and took great pride in its affairs. It vied with Newburgh and Middletown, Orange County’s other two cities, to be the leading urban area.

If there is one theme that runs through our city’s history, it is that of transportation. Port Jervis has served as a crossroads in the region’s transportation network. From earliest times, when the river was used to raft logs or when the Old Mine Road, America’s first 100-mile road, was used by early European settlers, Port Jervis has been a transportation nexus. With the opening of the Delaware and Hudson Canal in the late 1820s, the village, named in honor of canal engineer John B. Jervis in 1826, began its meteoric rise as an economic center. The canal company laid out the original plan for the city, which was center was near present-day Canal and East Main Streets and the site of the canal’s basins. As a result, the city developed as a major stop on the Delaware and Hudson Canal.

The canal was constructed to ship anthracite coal from the Moosic Mountains in the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania to the metropolitan New York City area and New England. After a run of 70 successful years, it fell victim to the railroad. But during the first half of the company’s history, it dominated the region and its economy. Many of the village’s most important businessmen got their start working on the canal, supplying the canal company with items or shipping local products.

The canal’s impact on the local economy was eclipsed with the arrival of the first Erie train in December 1847. Much of our city’s history has been defined by the Erie Railroad. The trains of the Erie stopped in Port Jervis, and it served as a division center between Jersey City, New Jersey, and Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. In 1922, 20 passenger trains passed through the city each day and six trains reached New York City before 10:30 a.m.

A brochure describes it as the place where through trains changed their engines because of its role as a mainline engine terminal, car shops, icing facilities, coach yard, fueling facilities, classification yard and a large freight yard.

By a 1922 estimate, at least 2,500 employees of the railroad lived in the Port Jervis area and worked in the shops. This was at a time when the decline in railroading was already becoming apparent to leaders in the community. Port Jervis was also a hotbed of union activity, as it was the meeting place of the Delaware and New York divisions. The unions started here were among the earliest formed across the entire system. It was said the payroll was over $125,000 per month in the first years of the 20th century.

The result of this excellent position in the transportation network has been economic growth that began in the 1850s and continued until the Depression. The city, at one time, was an industrial center with a variety of retail stores, glass houses, stove makers, five silk factories, some of which operated well into this century, five bottling works, six bakeries, two cigar factories, a silver plate factory, a saw factory, a tannery, a brewery, and glove, shirt, clothing, and shoe factories. Another benefit of being a transportation nexus is the interesting kinds of people who either lived here or used various transportation to get here. Stephen Crane and Zane Grey both come to mind, and any number of well-known architects came here to design buildings.

Port Jervis is a different city from what it was 100 years ago. Often people say they would like to have lived in another time because things were better. And, indeed, in many ways things were better in the bustling era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, we are blessed in these times, although in many different ways. Each generation has its own challenges. This book focuses on a 90-year period in Port Jervis’s history that lasted from c. 1880 until 1970. Many of the photographs in this book are from times that seem simpler and slower-paced.

The essence of history is remembering, and this delightful book is a perfect example of that old saying. There are almost 200 photographs included from public and private collections, many never before published. These pictures are of our families, our grandparents, their-grandparents, and their children. Many are prized possessions and are often all that remain. They bring back memories when we look at them.