The Kearney House
Information on this page current as of June 30, 2009At the Alpine Picnic Area
Open May–October on weekend & holiday afternoons from 12–5 pm, and for special events.
Listed on the National and New Jersey State Historic Registers as the “Blackledge–Kearney House”—but more familiarly known as the “Kearney House” or, formerly, as the “Cornwallis Headquarters”—this house is the oldest building in the New Jersey Section of the Palisades Interstate Park. The house has been a Hudson River homestead, a riverfront tavern, a park police station, and a “historic shrine.” Today it helps bring to life over two centuries of the story of the Hudson River and the women and men who depended upon it for their lives and livelihoods.
Above: The Kearney House, looking pretty during “Punch & Pie at Mrs. Kearney’s Tavern,” a re-creation of a nineteenth-century Hudson River tavern. (Click here to see more “tavern” pictures.) Below: During “River Day” in June 2009, as a flotilla of historic vessels sailed up the river to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage in 1609 (the 46-star flag is from 1909—and was flown in New York City during that year’s “Hudson–Fulton” event; see “’o9”).
Above: Click on the play arrow w to view a 45-second video, “Stoking the Kearney House Hearth.” (“Madison’s Whim” courtesy of Hesperus. Video: R.J. Bogumil.)
…scroll down to see more Kearney House videos…
The southern part of the house is the original structure, probably built after 1761. In that year, the colonists of the farming settlement called Closter, on the other side of the Palisades, built a road (the “Closter Dock Road”) through a mountain pass to the Hudson River. This road provided access to the river—and to New York City’s markets to sell their farm goods.
The house may have been first built as a dock master’s house, so that the busy Closter Landing could be supervised at harvest time.
In 1817, James and Rachel Kearney moved into this house. They had three children from Rachel’s first marriage (her first husband had died two years earlier), and they would have five more of their own before James died in 1831. Rachel also adopted a daughter—for a total of at least nine children she brought up in this house. Widowed a second time, and with young children in her care, Rachel began to keep a tavern at her house.
The northern addition was probably built in the 1830s or 40s to make room for the tavern.
Besides offering food and spirits, taverns played an important role in nineteenth-century life. Mrs. Kearney’s would have served as a meeting place for the captains and crews of the sailing vessels that arrived and departed daily from Closter Landing, as well as for the local workforce of quarrymen, dock workers, and tradesmen. Gossip, strongly argued political opinions, the latest joke—all would have been shared within these walls.
The upstairs door in the new addition may have been for lodgers at the tavern, giving them their own entrance to a room separate from the family’s space.
The Palisades Interstate Park acquired the house in 1907, and in 1909 enlarged the porch to serve as a grandstand for a dedication ceremony for the new Park.
Through the 1920s, the Park used the house as a police station.
See also:
“On His Lordship’s Mysterious Ascent”
“Some Paint, Some Mortar, a Couple of Mops and a Bucket of Water”
“Making a (Historic) House into a Home”
Our video, A New Deal for the Palisades, featuring rare footage of the Palisades from the 1930s and 40s, is now also available on DVD—click here for details.
Some of our favorite articles from Cliff Notes, the bimonthly visitor’s letter edited by the staff of the Kearney House since 1998, are available here.
...click here to find out about our popular lecture programs...
Kearney House
Office at Park Headquarters, second floor
Tel: 201 768-1360 ext. 108
Eric Nelsen
Director / Historical Interpreter
Email address: enelsen*Lindsey Foschini
Historical InterpreterVeronica Sison
Historical InterpreterJennette Zitelli
Historical Interpreter*Staff email addresses (when available) = first initial + last name (no spaces, no periods) “at” njpalisades.org.
Kearney House Videos
by R. J. Bogumil
Click on the play arrow w to view the 5-minute video, “A Traditional Kearney House Thanksgiving with Thaddeus MacGregor.”
Click on the play arrow
w to view
the
5-˝-minute video, “Kearney House Recreation.”