Eckman - NC CHAP

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River Side of the Strand Between
Delaware and Harmony Streets
Original Plots B-1 and B-2
now the Jefferson Apartments and Land Adjoining
alon~ Delaware Street
The first owner of the bank lot directly bordering the north
side of Delaware Street between the Strand and the river had a
breadth of 54 feet on the Strand. In later deeds it was narrower
by 10 feet, probably because Delaware Street was widened. It was
a separate property from the lot adjoining it on the north until
1775 when the original corner plot, B-1 and the original plot B-2,
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adjoining it on the north side, became one property in the pos-
session of John Van Gezell.
Who the early Dutch owners were, of the property across the
Strand facing the original 54 foot corner lot, cannot be certainly
determined from available sources, Martin Gerritsen, in New
Castle from the early Dutch period, seems to have owned the
greater part of it when the English came in 1664, and probably
earlier. James Crawford acquired a narrow strip next Oelaware
fZtreet in 1667, Gerritsen cultivated a farm on the Christina
(where he was drowned while out in a canoe, October 1679). The
500-aqre farm was owned in equal shares by Gerritsen, John Askue,
and Migfiael Brown. Askew owned the house and lot next door to
Gerriteen on the west side of the Strand and it is likely that
the river shore In front of their adjoining Strand properties made
a convenient landing site for the loading and unloading of produce
and supplies from and for their farms. Askew had other farms close
to Iew Castle.

In 1688 a Robert Evans (probably of ~hiladelphia) acquired
all of Crawfard's and S-erritsen's property on the west side of
the Strand and presumably the use of the waterfront opposite. The
next transfer of this property, to James Xiller in 1703, coming
after Penn's grant of the water lots to the owners on the Strtind,
involved a legal grant to the lot opposite. The bank lot, 54 feet
wide by 600 deep was resurveyed for Lfiller by George Deakyne in
1708. From that time this corner bank lot wss owned by the sev-
eral successive owners of the corner property across the street
until John VanGezell Sr. by his w i l l of 1787 left - "all those
two messuages on the s.e. side of Front Street n to George Read
Sr., his executor, for the payment of all debts against him.
These two properties were the corner bank lot and the 62-1/2 foot
lot adjoining to the north.
The owners of #4 the Strand and the water lot opposite, be-
tween James Miller and JohnVanGezell, were W i l l i a m Houston and his
brother Anthony Houston, Jonathan Houston, sonof Anthony, who sold
to Sol. John French in 1726; David French and his heirs from 1729
to 1762 when it was sold to Governor James Hamilton of Philadelphia
to complete a purchase begun by his father Andrew Hamilton. Gov-
ernor Hamilton sold to George Read Sr. in 1774, and Read sold to
John VanGezell in 1775.
John VanGezell at the time of this purchase lived at #6 the
Strand in the house he had built to replace or incorporate a smaller

house that was on the plot in 1723 when he bought the 62-1/2 foot
lot, #6 and #8, from the heirs of Dr. Samuel Monkton of ?hiladel-
phis for 75 pounds. This included the 62-1/2 foot bank or water
lot opposite. VanGezell left #6 and #4 as house and gardsn to
his daughter G'ertrude. The double bank lot opposite, which was
left to George Read Sr. to pay VanGezellls debts, has remained
one property since that time.
Before John VanGezell bought B-2, the north part of the river-
side property from the heirs of Dr. Samuel Monkton in 1723, it be-
longed so far as can be determined, in use at least, to Martin
Gerritsen and John Askue, and then to Hendrick Jansen who bought
C them from the Strand site opgosite in 1675. Jansen's heirs sold
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in 1708 to Thomas Tresse Sr., of Philadelphia, and the heirs of
Tresse to Dr. Monkton. Jansen's heirs, Tresse and Dr. Monkton
all had legal title to the bank lot.
Jansen was probably a farmer like Gerritsen and Askew;
Tresse was an ironmonger; the Philadelphia physician may have
bought for investment because of the wharf rights, or as moat
early physicians had to have other means of support besides their
profession, to make a livlihood, he may have had a business for
which the house on the Strand and the wharf in front were assets,
John VanGezell was a sadler and shopkeeper. Indentures indicate
that he improved the bank lot property. He mortgaged it to
Richard Grafton in 1729, but cleared the mortgage within two yeare,

e
In 1737 VanGezell had the bank lot resurveyed. The return
of this survey describes the property as beginning on the Strand
6" from the wall of nis mother's house (#9) leaving 6" for eves-
drop, and extending southwest along the Strand 62-1/2 feet. This
plot was divided into a 2 foot strip next his mother's house, 30
feet which he had previously sold to Anthony Dowdall, 30-1/2 feet
on the south which he kept. Dowdall's part of the lot was sold
by the sheriff in 1753 to Yiilliam dtwood of Philadelphia, mer-
chant, who died in 1750 leaving the property to his cousin At-
wood Shute. After several transfers among members of the Shute
family, John VanGezell bought it back in 1760 for 12 pounds, with
all buildings, wharfs, landings and improvements.
How long the two bank lots left by John VanGezell in 1787
remained in the hands of his executor, George Read Sr., has not
been discovered in this search. The property was in the hands of
Riddle and Bird, merchants, in the early 1800's. On the site of
this double bank lot on the Strand side was a dwelling and store;
behind this building toward the river were a warehouse, stables
and a wharf. The firm of Riddle and Bird sold supplies to the
navy, and when this business was interupted, they failed in 1810.
John Bird died soon afterward of a heart attack, leaving his wife
Elizabeth VanLeuvenigh, daughter of Zachariah, and seven children.
One of them, Robert Montgomery Bird, became a distinguished play-
rright of hia day.

After the death of Bird, James Riddle carried on a merchan-
dising business alone. The great fire of 1824 started in the
stable at ths back of the property. A contemporary newspaper
account of its origin was that a steam packet ship at the wharf,
belching sparks from its stack w'nen firing up, caused the fire.
James Riddle rebuilt after the fire, the large dwelling and store
afterward used as an inn.
James Riddle died in 1833*, leaving two sons, John and
Gunning Bedford Riddle, who sold the property for $4,510, des-
cribed as "105' on Front Street, 600' deep with a new three-story
brick dwelling house and store thereon erected." The purchaser
was Elihu Jefferson who lived in the house and continued the
store, as a merchant, until his death. As the property of his
widow, it was sold by the sheriff in 1876 for $6,750 to William
Herbert. W i l l i a m Lauebson and his wife Hannah, and then the
Equitable Trust Company held mortgages or had interest in the
property during Herbert's ownership. In 1892, the Equitable
Trust Company and Nilliam Herbert sold to Charles Hoffman for
$11,500.
Charles Hoffman renovated and improved the dwelling, store,
and stablea and opened a hotel which he called the Jefferson House.
* Andrew C. Gray settled the James Riddle estate.

The large letters of this nme painted across the Delaware Street
front of the building could be read from ships coming up the river,
and some letters of the name are still to be read from the street.
Hoffman and his wife Lisette sold to John Feln in 1911 and the
house was continued as a hotel until Prohibition.
Later owners were David and Adolph aangle, 1921-25, who sold
it to the New Castle-Pennsville Ferry Company - vrhich became the
Delaware-New Jersey Ferry Company.
The date of James Riddle's coming to New Castle - or the
time of his birth - if he was a native, have not been found in
this search. He was a soldier in the Revolution in the same
company with John Stockton, John VanLeuvenigh, George Read,
Benjamin VanGezell, Stephen McWilliams Thomas and Richard Janvier,
Thomas Tatlow, and other well-known New Castle men. He had a
store in New Castle in 1786, and advertised for sale in the Dela-
ware Gazette, April 12, of that year, a pamphlet on the financial
conditions of the period.
George Read Riddle, U. S. representative, and U. S. senator
from Delaware, was the grandson of James Riddle, born in New
Caetle in 1817.