FLEMINGTON has been the county seat of Hunterdon County since 1780. With the county court house there, it has been home to some fascinating characters like Samuel G. Opdycke and Nathaniel Saxton, and other attorneys like Samuel Southard. The town has a rich history which I hope to mine.
My last article was the first of the series I hope to write about Flemington’s 19th century buildings with arches on their rooflines. That last article featured the Clock Tower building at the corner of Main Street and Bloomfield Avenue, built in 1874 by George A. Rea. Now let’s stroll south along Main Street to visit the next building in this series.
My previous article served as an introduction to the subject of the interesting buildings on Flemington’s Main Street that all feature an arch in the middle of their front roofline. Now let’s focus on each of them individually, starting with:
A Distinctive Feature of Downtown Flemington
While studying some properties on Main Street Flemington, it dawned on me that many of them have an arch in the middle of their front rooflines. This seemed like such a distinctive feature in town that it merited a closer look.
This article is my somewhat-delayed return to the subject of the grand old building on Flemington’s Main Street built by John C. Hopewell for Flemington’s first bank, the Hunterdon County National Bank. (See Flemington’s First Bank.)
My last article described the political turmoil in Hunterdon County in the 1850s. There was another kind of turmoil going on at the same time, an economic one. For Hunterdon that meant a local bank was needed.
My previous article discussed the evolution of political parties in the early 1850s, both nationally and in Hunterdon County. The Democratic party was still going strong, while the Whig party was fading away and two new parties had come on the scene: the Republican party and the American party, better known as the Know Nothings.
I am going to step away briefly from the life of John C. Hopewell to shed some light on a political movement that Hopewell and many other Flemington notables got caught up in.
Downtown Flemington, part two
From about 1855 until his death in 1888, a one-time hatter’s apprentice brought the village of Flemington into the modern era by providing an improved public water system, street lighting with gas instead of candles, a functioning fire company, improved streets and sidewalks, and more.
One never knows when an article by Egbert T. Bush might come in handy. In this case, it turns out to be very handy for the research I am doing on Flemington in the 19th century.