Kemble was an ardent loyalist and his son, Stephen, was a senior officer in the British Army. During the Continental Army's stay in Jockey Hollow in the winter of 1779-1780, Kemble's house (not confiscated probably because of Washington's prewar friendship with Kemble and because one of Kemble's sons, Richard, swore loyalty to the rebels) was occupied by General William Smallwood, a principal general in the American Army and later a Governor of Maryland. In the winter of 1780-1781, it was the quarters of General Anthony Wayne.
Glen Alpin Report: History
Peter Kemble, Mt. Kemble’s namesake, is the property's historical star. In 17511, Kemble, who lived in New Brunswick, New Jersey, purchased 1,250 acres that included Mt. Kemble and today's Glen Alpin property. Sometime in the 1750s, he built a manor house near where the current Glen Alpin house stands. Born in Turkey, Kemble was a wealthy merchant and a leading political figure in Colonial America. He served as president of the Royal Council of New Jersey under Royal Governor William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's only son. His New Brunswick house was a popular stopping point for notable travelers journeying between Philadelphia and New York, including George Washington and William Alexander (Lord Stirling). In 1758, Kemble's daughter, Margaret, married General Thomas Gage, Britain's first Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in America during the Revolution.
Peter Kemble, his wife, three of their children, and a cousin are buried on the property. Glen Alpin stayed in the Kemble family for two more generations until 1840, when 262 acres including the Kemble house were sold to Henry S. Hoyt, son of a prominent New York merchant and investor, Goold Hoyt.
Shortly after he bought the property, Hoyt had the Kemble house moved up the street2 and started to build another house. The new house – the original and main part of today's Glen Alpin house - was built in 1847 in the Gothic Revival architectural style. The Gothic Revival style came from England in the early part of the 1800's and was popularized here by America's most influential pre-Civil War architects including Richard Upjohn (architect of NYC's Gothic Revival style Trinity Church), A.J. Davis (architect of New York's Custom House) and A.J. Downing, the celebrated publisher of architectural design books, horticulturist, and landscape designer.
Initially, Gothic Revival buildings were made entirely of stone, but in the United States, architects and builders capitalized on the ready availability of timber and on the new steam-powered mill and scroll-saw cutting technologies. Gothic Revival architecture is considered one of the first styles of what was to become Victorian architecture. Some of Gothic Revival's characteristic features are its steeply pitched gable roofs, polygonal chimney pots, wall dormers, gingerbread trim and bargeboards. Many of these features are readily seen on the Glen Alpin house today. Another local example of Gothic Revival architecture is "The Willows," built by Joseph Revere (a grandson of Paul Revere) in the 1850s and located at Fosterfield’s Farm in Morristown.
Unfortunately, Glen Alpin's architect has not been identified, but there is a connection between the Hoyt family and A.J. Downing: In 1855, Henry Hoyt's brother, Lydig, hired Calvert Vaux to design a house in Staatsburg, New York3 . Vaux, one of America's celebrated architects and co-designer of New York's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, was one of Downing's partners until Downing's premature death in 1852.
Hoyt used Glen Alpin (which Hoyt called "Mt. Kemble") as a country estate until 1885, when he sold it to David H. McAlpin, a wealthy New York City tobacco merchant, who first named the property "Glen Alpin." Starting in 1886, McAlpin made significant changes to the exterior of Glen Alpin house, including the addition of two new porches, a tile roof, and the glass conservatory. McAlpin also made changes to the interior, adding several stain-glassed windows (imported from Germany) and modifying the room trim and fireplace surrounds in the Colonial Revival style4.
On David McAlpin"s death in 1901, his son, Charles, inherited Glen Alpin. Charles added a library and built the large and once beautiful formal gardens to the north of the house. In 1933, he donated 124 acres of the original Glen Alpin property (including the 1779-89 encampment site of the Connecticut Brigade) to the US government, helping to create Morristown National Park – our Nation"s first national historic park. In 1940, Charles McAlpin sold Glen Alpin to the Princess Farid-es-Sultaneh.
Many Harding residents also know Glen Alpin as the "Princess House," after Doris Mercer who owned Glen Alpin until her death in 1963. Mercer, the daughter of a Pittsburgh police captain, was a would-be opera star whose second marriage in 1924 was to Sebastian Kresge, founder of the present day Kmart Corporation. After four years, they divorced, and Mercer received a $3 million settlement. Mercer moved to Paris where she met Farid Khan Sadri-Qajar5, an Iranian (Persian) Prince. In 1933, she married the Prince in a Paris mosque and became Princess Farid-es-Sultaneh. Although they divorced within two years, Mercer retained her title against the Prince's wishes. After moving to Glen Alpin, Mercer faced several tax-related lawsuits and financial setbacks resulting in her auctioning off many of her valuables in 1949. In 1960, the Princess sold a portion of the Glen Alpin property across Tempe Wick Road to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which built a church there. Mercer regularly attended their services until her death in 1963 at the age of 74.
In 1965, Christopher DeCarlo acquired Glen Alpin. In 1970, DeCarlo further subdivided the property to the northwest and built a new house on the subdivision. Unfortunately, the subdivision also includes the formal gardens and part of the original driveway, neither of which are now part of Glen Alpin. Liang-Bin and Su-Hsiang Jean acquired the subdivision in 1999 and Glen Alpin in 2002. The Jeans retained the subdivision but subsequently sold Glen Alpin to Harding Township and the Harding Land Trust in 2004.
1. Europeans first settled in Morris County in the 1700s.
2. The Kemble house was moved to its present day location at 667 Mt. Kemble Avenue.
3. The Hoyt house still exists and is owned by NY State.
4. The Colonial Revival Style came out of the US Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and reflected American patriotism and a desire for simplicity.
5. The Qajar dynasty ruled Iran from 1794 until 1925 when the last Qajar Shah ruled as a constitutional monarch but then was deposed by the British in favor of Reza Shah Pahlavi, whose son, Mohammed Pahlavi, was the last Shah of Iran. At its end, the Qajar dynasty was known for its corruption, poor governorship (losing much of northern Iran to Russia), and proliferation of princes.
2. The Kemble house was moved to its present day location at 667 Mt. Kemble Avenue.
3. The Hoyt house still exists and is owned by NY State.
4. The Colonial Revival Style came out of the US Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and reflected American patriotism and a desire for simplicity.
5. The Qajar dynasty ruled Iran from 1794 until 1925 when the last Qajar Shah ruled as a constitutional monarch but then was deposed by the British in favor of Reza Shah Pahlavi, whose son, Mohammed Pahlavi, was the last Shah of Iran. At its end, the Qajar dynasty was known for its corruption, poor governorship (losing much of northern Iran to Russia), and proliferation of princes.
 | |
 top |
previous page |
 email page |
 print
|
| |
