Barrow Mansion
Photo: A. Selvaggio, 2002
Barrow Mansion
Photo: P. Shalhoub, 2001
Detail of an Ionic Column on the front porch of the Barrow Mansion
Photo: A. Selvaggio, 2002
Detail from Hudson County Atlas 1873
showing the outline of the Van Vorst and Barrow Mansions on the south side of Wayne Street. According to the map, in 1873 the Barrow Mansion property was owned by Susan Paulmier.Van Vorst Park can be seen on the left.
Credits: New York Society of Model Engineer's Library, Ralph Sutton Collection and Historical Maps of New Jersey site of Rutgers University
Detail from the 1919 Plat Book of Jersey City showing the buildings then in existence on the south side of Wayne Street between Jersey Avenue and Barrow Street. The Barrow Mansion at No. 83 has been remodeled as the headquarters of the Young Men's Lutheran Association.The old Van Vorst Mansion at No. 89 was later replaced by the new Wayne Court Apartments before 1928.
Credits: New York Society of Model Engineer's Library, Rich Taylor Collection and Historical Maps of New Jersey site of Rutgers University
A stately wood Greek Revival-style building, Barrow Mansion, or Ionic House, is a reminder of mid-nineteenth-century classical architecture. Five Ionic columns grace a two-story portico. The columns divide the building into four equal bays with an offset center hall. The interior retains Victorian décor, a ballroom, carved Italian marble fireplaces, and twelve-foot ceilings.
Dr. William Barrow, a New York City physician, purchased one of two similar houses constructed by the second Cornelius Van Vorst on Wayne Street. Van Vorst was one of the founders of the Township of Van Vorst and the mayor of Jersey City (1860-to-1861). Dr. Barrow purchased the mansion at 83 Wayne Street after he married Van Vorst's sister Eliza. Van Vorst resided at 89 Wayne Street. A lawn near a Van Vorst farmhouse separated the twin mansions. In 1874, Van Vorst sold his home to Dr. Benjamin Edge, a descendant of an early Jersey City businessman, Isaac Edge. The Van Vorst mansion was razed in the 1920s and replaced by an apartment house.
After the death of Dr. Barrow and his wife, the YMCA purchased the mansion in 1890 and added a gymnasium and rifle range to the basement.
In 1897 St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church purchased the Barrow mansion as a parish house, and a two-lane bowling alley replaced the pistol range. In 1898, it built a church on the lawn between the Barrow and Van Vorst mansions, where it flourished until the 1920s. The NY Times announced the church's dedication on June 19, 1898, and noted the architecture: "The edifice is of granite and red brick, with brownstone trimmings, gothic style, and cost $65,000."
St. Matthew's parish house became the Barrow Mansion for use as a social center holding dances in the ballroom, card parties, and bazaars for the parishioners' leisure-time activities.
For years, the Barrow Mansion suffered from neglect. St. Matthew's congregation, hoping to save the building, applied for its placement on the state and national registers of historic places. This allowed the Barrow Mansion Development Corporation, founded in 1984, to receive grants from the New Jersey Historic Trust (for 1992 and 1995) and other grantors for building restoration.
In recent years, the mansion has been used as a community center, the resident theater for the Attic Ensemble, and Van Vorst Park Neighborhood Association meetings.
Lynwander, Linda. "Restoring a Mansion in Hopes of Higher Rents." New York Times 24 July 1994.
National Register of Historic Places Inventory. "Ionic House." 1977. Joan D. Lovero Collection, New Jersey Room, Jersey City Free Public Library.
Mansion Development Corporation. "Fact Sheet." April 1993. Joan D. Lovero Collection, New Jersey Room, Jersey City Free Public Library.
"New Church in Jersey City." New York Times 20 June 1898.
