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We plan on featuring a few notable local buildings each issue, including a map from Google in case you'd like to check out the site. If you have suggestions, and especially if you have a bit of the history of the building, we'd like to hear from you.
The Seigle-Apgar House on Route 627 in Pohatcong was recently featured in the 15th Annual Tour of historic buildings there. It's adjacent to the Seigle Log House, which is a must-see building. The Seigle-Apgar House actually consists of two separate buildings, later joined together. The older part was built about 1790. There are several other old structures on the property—a barn and cistern, as well as the Log House. And, for those who might need a bit of refreshment, the place is adjacent to the Alba Vineyards, which is housed in an 1830s barn.


Google map here

St Philip and St James Catholic Church is located on South Main at Stockton Street in Phillipsburg. The congregation was organized in 1838, and their first church was erected about 1860. It was very similar to the catholic churches in Bound Brook and Boonton, almost certainly built from the same plans. The present church was begun in 1873, but construction was suspended, probably due at least in part of the Financial Panic of 1873 (which continued for several years). Construction resumed in 1881, suspended again and restarted in 1886, and completed (except for the tower clock steeple and the facade) in 1889. The original architect was Patrick Keely, one of the leading church architects of the period—Keely was responsible for more than a three hundred Catholic churches on the east coast. The present brickcoating was done in 1972, when the clerestory was covered up; a year later the interior underwent a substantial remodeling.
     Anne Ford-Kline wrote an informative history of the church which was published by the Metuchen diocese in 1990.





The original bridge at Riegelsville was a wooden structure built in 1835. It was destroyed by a flood on October 10, 1903. The following year, the current bridge, a three-span suspension bridge with a steel deck was constructed in place of the destroyed bridge by John A. Roebling & Sons of New York. A plaque on top of either side of the bridge identifies S. A. Cooney as the engineer.

There is a structure resembling a toll house at the western (Pennsylvania) end of the bridge, by the anchorage for the south cable, but the bridge is free to cross. It is supported by toll money from other crossings of the Delaware River maintained by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. The suspension system consists of two cables, clamped one above the other on either side of the bridge. Cables pass over cast iron saddles at the top of each tower. Not including the steel deck, there are 166 tons of steel in the superstructure, except for the cables which total 12 tons.The existing bridge, constructed in 1904 by John A. Roebling's Sons Company of New York, is a three-span suspension structure with a total length of 577 feet. The open-grid steel deck provides a roadway width of 16 feet between steel rubrails. A timber-plank sidewalk is supported by a king post floor beam system, cantilevered on both ends of the bridge. The sidewalk railing is actually a double-warren truss, assisting in strengthening the bridge roadway. The substructure, masonry piers originally built in 1835, were raised and built up in 1904. The pier nearest the Pennsylvania approach was almost completely demolished in the flood of 1936 and was subsequently rebuilt using reinforced concrete.


Riegelsville was originally known as Hunt’s Ferry, and was the site of a gristmill built by the Hunts in the late 1700s. In 1823 it was purchased by Benjamin Riegel. His son, John L. Riegel, took over the mill and converted it to a sawmill, and then to a paper mill. In the late 1850s, the Belvidere-Delaware Railroad came through and shortly after that the general store, which is now being renovated, was erected. It housed the Musconetcong Post Office until the early 1970s.


The Lutheran church in Stewartsville was organized in 1851, probably by people who been members of the Straw church, the Presbyterian church in Greenwich and the Union church in Finesville. It was built in that year in the Greek Revival style, which was then very popular, and can be seen in a more authentic form across the street in the Presbyterian church, also built in 1851. This is a variant on the in antis plan (recessed entry with two columns, flanked by pilasters) that we first see in the state in Trenton—the fine First Presbyterian church—in 1836. Notice the shallow slope to the roof and the the broad cornice. The facade was considerably altered in the 20th century.
     There were at least 20 churches built in a virtually identical style in the state between 1836 and 1856, most of which still survive (many in Somerset county). The Reformed church was particularly attracted to this style, but Methodists, Baptists and African Methodist Episcopal congregations all adopted it, too. An architect was probably not involved in this church, but very likely a set of plans had been published which encouraged several builders/contractors to erect very similar churches in Newark, Colts Neck, Mt Holly, Chester, Harlingen, Griggstown and Cokesbury, to mention just a few.

The town gained its name from the Stewart family who settled here, and then grew with the construction of the Morris Canal, which passed through nearby, linking the Delaware and Hudson rivers, a distance of 102 miles. About this same time (18540s-1850s) the Central Railroad of New Jersey was completed and the combination of these two means of transportation speeded up the growth of this community.