A history of demolition at U.S. Pipe mansion site

The planned demolition of an 1890 mansion once owned by a founder of U.S. Pipe may pale in comparison to another razing that took place at the Burlington City site about 100 years ago, after the stately home had been converted to company offices.

The mansion, a three-story Colonial Revival-style building on the Delaware River, was occupied by Andrew McNeal and his family until 1899, when he sold his company to the U.S. Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry, according to an application the city submitted to have the building placed on the state and federal Registers of Historic Places.

After the sale, the mansion became the headquarters of the adjacent foundry and plants in seven other states, which by 1900 were producing 75 percent of the iron pipes produced in America, the Delaware River Greenway Partnership reported after researching the area's history. U.S. Pipe sold the four-acre mansion property to the city in 1975 and announced plans in 2007 to close the nearby sprawling manufacturing foundry, which currently is used for storage and is up for sale.

The city is now reviewing a developer's plans to knock down the crumbling, fire-damaged mansion and construct 152 condominiums, 98 townhouses, and a city park, at that location. "We hope to begin construction on the ground by the end of the year," said Lee Brahin, the managing member of McNeal Harbor Redevelopment Associates L.L.C. His company purchased the property from a bank in 2006; a prior developer had defaulted on its mortgage after buying it from the city.

"Our estimation is it would cost $9 million to restore the property - it's distressed, not structurally sound, and hasn't had a roof" since a 2001 fire, Brahin said.

City officials have said they are sad to see the building erased from the landscape but that it is beyond repair.

While researching the mansion's history in recent days, Jeff Macechak, education director with the nonprofit Burlington County Historical Society, said that he was surprised to learn that, based on historical accounts and an examination of old photographs, a more historically significant building that was attached to the mansion had been razed earlier.

"If people are concerned about the mansion being demolished, what happened around the 1930s was that an even more historic building was knocked down," he said. That building, Jegou's Tavern, was built in the 1660s, and was once visited by George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers.

Macechak showed The Inquirer a series of sepia-tinged photographs that were donated by the McNeal family's descendants. Several pictures show a clapboard structure that seems to be attached to the masonry McNeal mansion. After the company acquired the mansion, it added several wings for offices over the next three decades and this appeared to double the size of the building. Around the 1930s, the clapboard structure disappeared from the pictures.

William E. Schermerhorn, author of the History of Burlington, New Jersey, suggested in his 1927 book that Jegou's Tavern, also known as the "Point House," was built at that location, between the Delaware and the Assiscunk Creek and on the property of U.S. Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry. Peter Jegou built the tavern and it was "believed to be" the only one in that part of the country at that time, the historian wrote. It was "a well-known hostelry in its day," he said, noting that its exact location is "a matter of dispute among historians."

Schermerhorn said some historians believed the tavern was situated on the east bank of the creek, but he said that this was mostly marsh land and that the tavern likely was built on the west side of the creek and by the Delaware.

A 1797 map in the historical society's collection shows a structure on the west side that could have been the log tavern, Macechak said. No structures are visible in that map on the east side.

A notation on the back of the donated photographs identifies the attached clapboard building as Jegou's Tavern.

"It's not 100 percent proof, but it's a clue that this could have been the tavern," Macechak said. He said the clapboard could have been installed over the log tavern years later.

Documents kept by the historical society also note that the mansion was never placed on the federal registry of historic places. A notation says U.S. Pipe opposed the nomination, but no other details were available. The mansion was, however, placed on the state registry.

Burlington City Administrator David Ballard remembered when the mansion was in good condition. "It was a beautiful property and all the specimen trees that they brought in were in their glory and very colorful," he said, recalling how he strolled by it as a teenager in the '60s.

Ballard, a former high school teacher, said he never heard that the building attached to the mansion may have been Jegou's Tavern. But he said he was aware that a log cabin dating to the 1600s sat next to the mansion and that it was demolished by U.S. Pipe after McNeal died.

Based on history books he has read and discussions with local historians, Ballard said he had learned the log cabin was the home of Henry Jacobs, one of the first settlers in Burlington.

Jacobs had been an acquaintance of tavern owner Peter Jegou, another early settler.

"McNeal had preserved it," Ballard said of the mysterious log cabin. "But they [the company] knocked it down. . . . What a shame."

Macechak said there is one consolation to the news that the McNeal mansion may be razed next. The McNeal family's original home on High Street in downtown Burlington is still in existence and is in good condition, he said.

Built in 1801, that building was occupied by the McNeal family around 1870, before they moved to the mansion. The home on High Street was later converted to a synagogue, Temple B'nai Israel, and was restored, he said.