OWNERSHIP OF FRENCHTOWN – In its early days the land that would eventually become Frenchtown was all one piece, and any non-owning inhabitants were squatters, tenants or employees.
But in 1766, the owners subdivided out one lot, and sold it to Thomas Riche, a Philadelphia merchant, “in return for his promise to build a store and dwelling house and keep the store stocked and in operation,” Ellen Fletcher wrote in the application to the National Register of Historic Places. The store was where the Gem Building is now. “Farm produce was traded there for imported goods, cloth, imperishable food stuffs and other trade goods brought from Philadelphia,” according to Fletcher.
For reasons unknown (to me) when Paul H.M. Prevost bought the big 968-acre tract in 1794 it was deeded to his wing man, Nicolas Louis Fontaine Defresnoye. Then followed land transactions involving a couple of Prevost's fellow refugees, ending in 1802 with Prevost's 22-year-old son Andrew owning 99 percent of everything.
So it was something rare on Dec. 19, 1827, when the Hunterdon Gazette published a Frenchtown real estate ad. Remember that one carved-out lot?
FOR SALE, A GOOD STAND For Public Business. The subscriber will offer for sale at Public Auction, at the House of Thomas Alexander, Innkeeper in the village of Frenchtown, if not previously sold at private sale, on Saturday the 5th day of January next, at 12 o'clock, noon, A LOT OF LAND, situate in said village, in the township of Alexandria, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 16 miles below Easton, and the same distance above New Hope, in a good neighborhood, and having many local advantages. The lot contains 6-10ths of an acre, lying immediately on the bank of the river Delaware, and fronting 273 ft. on the Main Street of said village. The improvements are, a good two story frame dwelling house, 26 by 18 feet, with a cellar under it, and a frame kitchen. A good and convenient frame storehouse, one & a half stories high, 66 by 18 feet, with a cellar under the whole; a large and commodious brick smoke house, and a frame stable. This stand has been occupied as a store many years, and considered one of the best in the neighborhood. The terms may be known by applying to the subscriber, living in Buckingham Township, near Wilkinson’s Tavern, Bucks County, Pa.; or Samuel Cooley, Esq. near the premises, who will show the same. Anthony Fratz
Alexander was proprietor of Prevost's Alexandria Hotel, and Cooley was proprietor of a store at what is now the western corner of Harrison and Bridge streets. The 1850 Census gives his age as 68 and his occupation as “scrivenor.” That's someone who'd hand-copy legal documents, which might account for the “Esq.” Fratz had bought the lot from Thomas C. Baily in 1819, who'd bought it from James Larason and Samuel Britton in 1818.
You'd think the ownerous Prevosts would swoop in and acquire the missing piece of their landscape, but you'd be wrong. John Williams of Tinicum Township, Pa., ferried over and got it for $1,052.80. (If you'd been thinking “ownerous” wasn't a word, you would have been correct -- until now.)
The buildings on that lot were razed and replaced by Oliver Worman in 1869 with the three-story brick store that is currently at 10 Bridge Street.
The day after the estimable Marfy Goodspeed shared that ad with me, I stepped off 273 feet from the river east along Bridge Street, and that distance took in the big brick building at 10 Bridge Street and ended at the west-side porch of 12 Bridge Street, happily supporting what the history books tell us. It's so nice when the pieces fit.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
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