Summit/Newkirk House
510 Summit House, northeast edge of old Bergen Village
State Register of Historic Places

Summit/Newkirk House

Summit/ Newkirk House
Photo: C. Karnoutsos, 2002

Perched at a high point with a view of the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers, the Summit House, previously owned by the Newkirk family, is considered Jersey City's oldest building. It dates back to the late 1600s in an area that was once populated by early Dutch settlers. The present two-story building, composed of sandstone, brick, and clapboard, is typical of seventeenth century Dutch Colonial architecture.

It was constructed on land granted by the English governor Philip Carteret to an Englishman, John Berry from Barbados, in 1669. That same year Berry sold the site to Samuel Edsall, a "beaver maker" from Bergen. Mattheus Newkirk from Holland bought the property some time afterwards. The date of purchase in not known but the date for construction of the building is about 1690. It was referred to as the Blue Point Tavern in the 1690s and was cited on a British army map drawn in 1781 for General Henry Clinton during the Revolutionary War.

The property of approximately two acres remained in the Newkirk family for about 200 years. Family members were active in local politics. John Newkirk and his son Jacob were both Hudson County freeholders; Jacob Newkirk also served as a Jersey City alderman in the mid-nineteenth century. The family sold the Dutch Colonial building in 1889.

Ten years later, the previously intact property began to experience changes. It was used as an orphanage by the Queen's Daughters of Jersey City and then by a succession of retail businesses. In 1928, the old Newkirk property line and building were changed when the present Summit Avenue was rerouted and the front of the building altered to accommodate the redesign of the street. Additional windows were placed on the side of the building.

In 1979 the building was purchased and readapted by Coneco, Inc. to become a restaurant. During the renovation, it was revealed that the original structure was only one story. The outer walls are of two feet of stone fitted in lime and mortar. Beams of timber in the basement are six-by-twelve inches and those on the second floor are four-by-six inches spaced four-feet apart. Eight-inch wood pegs, rather than nails, were employed during the time of construction.

Today, the building is the Blue Ribbon Restaurant.