Point Breeze

About this property

Point Breeze was an estate in Bordentown, New Jersey. It was the home of Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, from 1816 to 1839. At the time of the first mansion's construction in 1819, it was the largest residence in the United States. In 1816, after fleeing Europe following the defeat of his brother at Waterloo, Joseph Bonaparte bought the property and the land from American diplomat Stephen Sayre (1736–1818). The estate was located on a promontory which overlooked Crosswicks Creek and the Delaware River. He very quickly replaced the existing house with a new mansion and acquired more land, eventually owning more than 1,800 acres (730 ha). Bonaparte then set about making the estate the center of society on the East Coast; numerous members of high society, politicians, and overseas dignities visited what became known as Bonaparte's Park. Soon it became famous for its landscape, gardens, extensive art collection (with more than 150 paintings by Flemish and Italian masters), and 8,000 volume library, which was one of the largest libraries in the United States at the time. Bonaparte had the original painting of his brother Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David prominently displayed in the house. On January 4, 1820, Bonaparte's first mansion burned down. Many of the furnishings and books from the house were saved by neighbors and servants who ran into the building while it was ablaze; they were publicly thanked by Bonaparte. Following the fire, Bonaparte had a new mansion built. It was larger than the first, with the existing stables enlarged and moved further back from the promontory. Construction was supervised by French émigré Michel Bouvier. On completion, it was viewed - perhaps diplomatically - as the “second-finest house in America” (after the White House). In 1839 Joseph Bonaparte returned to Europe, never to come back to Point Breeze. When he died in Florence, Italy in 1844, Point Breeze was inherited by his grandson Joseph Lucien Bonaparte, who sold the estate and most of its contents at auction three years later. The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts later acquired a significant amount of furnishings and paintings from the house. By 1850, Point Breeze was owned by Hamilton Beckett, the son of Henry Beckett, the British consul in Philadelphia. After moving into the gatehouse, he had the main house torn down. A third mansion was built on the site which survived until 1983 when it was lost to a fire. In 1874, the Vincentian Fathers of Philadelphia purchased Point Breeze for use as a summer retreat. In 1911, they sold it to industrialist Harris Hammond. After the 1929 stock market crash, the house was repossessed by the bank and lay vacant for over ten years.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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