Heppenheimer Mansion at the southwest corner of Montgomery Street and Jersey Avenue
Photo: P. Shalhoub, 2001
General William C. Heppenheimer,
President, Jersey City Chamber of Commerce in the Chamber of Commerce magazine, April 1930 .
Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library
The imposing corner building at Montgomery Street and Jersey Avenue, opposite Van Vorst Park, is the former Heppenheimer Mansion. It was designed for John Ward, circa 1884, by the New York architect Frederick Clarke Withers (1828-1901). With his partner Calvert Vaux, Withers is noted for the landmark Jefferson Market Courthouse and Jail in Greenwich Village, now the Jefferson Market Library. Withers also designed the Weehawken Water Tower (1883), commissioned by the Hackensack Water Company, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Flemish Renaissance-style Heppenheimer Mansion is a three-story red stone building with a raised foundation and attic. Prominent chimneys and stepped gables define the roofline of the building. Palladian windows on the second and third levels are outlined by balconies and surrounded by decorative ironwork. The copper dormer windows face Jersey Avenue.
In 1892-93, "General" William Christian Heppenheimer, a prominent figure in banking, business, and government in New Jersey and New York, purchased the building. His title of general came from his service in the old Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard and then in the New Jersey National Guard as Inspector General and as Aide-de-camp of the Governor of New Jersey. He rose to the rank of Brigadier General when he retired in 1895.
Born on March 27, 1860, in New York City, Heppenheimer was the son of German immigrants who moved to Jersey City when he was four years. He graduated from Weinham in Germany, studied law at Columbia and Harvard universities, and was admitted to the bar in New York in 1881 and New Jersey in 1883. Active in local and state politics, Heppenheimer aligned himself with the Democratic party and supported Jersey City "bosses" Bob Davis and Frank Hague. He was elected to the New Jersey Assembly, representing the Fourth District in 1887 and 1889, and became speaker of the New Jersey Assembly in 1890. In the 1890s. Heppenheimer served consecutively as New Jersey Comptroller of the Treasury, President of the Board of Finance of Jersey City, and City Treasurer. In 1928 Governor A. Harry Moore appointed him as a member of the Port of New York Authority, later the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, on which he served until 1933.
Besides politics, Heppenheimer entered banking and finance, where he established his legacy. In 1895, he organized and became the president of the People's Safe Deposit & Trust Company of Jersey City. He founded the Trust Company of New Jersey in 1899 and the Bergen & Lafayette Trust Company in 1903. Heppenheimer merged the aforementioned banks with the Carteret Trust Company into the Trust Company of New Jersey in 1913. He became a director of the Colonial Insurance Company, Phoenix Horse Shoe Company, Empire Trust Company of New York, Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, Sweet's Steel Company, and Duryea Manufacturing Company.
Additionally, Heppenheimer was a president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Jersey City Chamber of Commerce board. He was a member of the High Point Park Commission and the New Jersey Beverage Commission.
Heppenheimer enjoyed playing host at his Jersey City mansion. He entertained individuals from various fields, like financiers and politicians, presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, and athletes. An avid sports fan, Heppenheimer invited the fighter Jack Dempsey to stay at his home as he prepared for his famous 1921 bout with Georges Carpentier. The event's site at Boyle's Thirty Acres was within walking distance from Heppenheimer's home.
Heppenheimer was a friend and advisor to both Governor Moore and Mayor Hague. Hague called him "the greatest supporter Jersey City has ever had" (Hudson Dispatch, March 28, 1930). When Heppenheimer died on September 16, 1933, Hague is quoted as saying, "His loss is not only a personal one, but is one of great sorrow to Jersey City. He was one of the outstanding citizens of our city and state" (New York Times 20 September 1933). His funeral was held at Saint Aedan's Roman Catholic Church at Bergen Avenue and Mercer Street. He is buried at Holy Name Cemetery. Port Authority workers at the Holland Tunnel held a minute of silence in his honor.
Wisch Associates restored the Heppenheimer Mansion in 1987. Today it is a ten-unit condominium complex.
"5,000 at Funeral of Heppenheimer." New York Times. 20 September 1933.
"General William Christian Heppenheimer," ts. Joan D. Lovero Collection, Jersey City Free Public Library.
"W.C. Heppenheimer, Banker, Dead at 73." New York Times 17 September 1933.
