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Port Au Peck. Near Long Branch Monmouth Co. New Jersey.
Boston: William W. Conover, [ca. 1890]. Lithograph, 22” x 27.75.” CONDITION: Good, reinforced on verso with Japanese tissue, some staining along the right margin and to lesser extent along a fold on right side, a few small holes and separations along old folds, now repaired, mild cockling, a few small creases, minor losses at corners. A rare bird’s-eye view promoting Port-au-Peck, New Jersey, a 400-acre plot of farmland on the verge of being developed into a seaside resort community, featuring a real estate plan and vignettes of notable area buildings. Port-au-Peck, located on a small peninsula in the borough of Oceanport, Monmouth County, is shown here from a vantage point in the south, looking north toward Shrewsbury Bay (here called “Pleasure Bay”). The projected development is divided into forty-five subdivisions with a total of 403 lots and a street grid overlay. The few existing homes and buildings in the area are rendered pictorially, as are several sailboats and steamboats plying the surrounding waters. The city of Long Branch appears in the foreground and Rumson on the horizon, both linked by bridge to Port-au-Peck. Woodlands surrounds the area, and a “steamboat line to New York,” running four times a day, extends toward the northeast. A complete network of named streets appears in the plan, although the present-day layout differs significantly. This view is not drawn to scale. In the lower margin, the area is described as being home to the “Finest Villa Sites on the Coast; High Land, Pure Air and Beautiful Views,” including three miles of waterfront and seventy foot-wide streets, with lot sizes measuring “100 x 200 [feet] and upwards.” The community was located only half a mile each from Branchport Station and North Long Branch Station, and a “three minute walk to Horse Cars.” Interested parties are advised to contact “W. W. Conover” of Red Bank. The left portion of the view is devoted to eight vignettes depicting notable commercial and residential buildings in the area, including “Wardell’s Portaupeck Hotel,” “Wm. A. Seaman Yacht and Launch Works” and “Residence of J. T. Smith.” The inclusion is characteristic of bird’s-eye views and wall maps of the nineteenth century, and the owners of such buildings often paid to have them pictured. Port-au-Peck developed into a popular summer community in the 1890s before transitioning into a year-round residential suburb during the twentieth century. William W. Conover (1824–1896) was a real estate developer who was for a time the largest landowner in Monmouth County, and one of its wealthiest residents. He began the development of Port-au-Peck on the site of the former Newbold Farm in the last years of his life. Born on a potato farm near Lincroft, N.J., Conover began his business career in livestock. An abolitionist and Civil War veteran, he was commonly known as “Black Bill,” partially to distinguish him from others of the same name. Among Conover’s major real estate achievements was developing Rumson into a wealthy enclave. In keeping with his business interests, Conover was an advocate for public works, helping to finance the sewer system at Long Branch and promoting trolleys. Conover’s contemporaries described him as a blunt man of strong opinions, but honest and occasionally good-natured. One humorous anecdote in a local paper backs this characterization, describing his search in vain to discover his own middle name: “His grandfather [also William W. Conover] always refused to tell anybody what his middle name was… Mr. Conover says he don’t think the middle initial stands for Washington, because George Washington never told a lie.” Conover’s funeral was so well-attended it may have been the largest ever in Red Bank at the time. The National View Company (fl. ca. 1890) was a Boston-based publisher of city views with offices located at 36 Columbus Avenue. Little else is known about the firm. OCLC records a single holding, at the Library of Congress. The seaside suburb of Port-au-Peck on the eve of development, the final major project of a Monmouth County mogul. REFERENCES: “Sketch of William Conover,” The Matawan Journal (New Jersey), December 26, 1896, p. 1; “Three Aged Citizens Dead : Wm. W. Conover, Richard Applegate and Wm. H. Sickles,” Red Bank Register (Red Bank, New Jersey), December 23, 1896, p. 5; “Personal,” The Daily Register (Red Bank, New Jersey), July 8, 1896, p. 5.
Item #10129
Price: $1,650.00
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