Port Jervis, New York

Port Jervis
City
Motto: Gateway to the Upper Delaware River
Location in Orange County and the state of New York.
Port Jervis Location in Orange County and the state of New York.
Coordinates:
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Orange
Settled	1690
Village	1853
City	July 26, 1907
Government
• Type	Mayor-council
• Mayor	Kelly Decker (D)
Area
• Total	2.7 sq mi (7 km2)
• Land	2.5 sq mi (6.6 km2)
• Water	0.6 sq mi (0.5 km2)  6.64%
Elevation	400 ft (122 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	8,828
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Postal code	12771
Area code(s)	845 Exchanges: 672,856,858
FIPS code	36-59388
GNIS feature ID	0960971
Website	City of Port Jervis Website

Port Jervis is a city on the Delaware River in western Orange County, New York, with a population of 8,828 at the 2010 census. The communities of Deerpark, Huguenot, Sparrowbush, and Greenville are adjacent to Port Jervis, and the towns of Montague, New Jersey and Matamoras, Pennsylvania face the city across the respective state borders. From late spring to early fall many thousands of travelers and tourists pass through Port Jervis on their way to enjoying rafting, kayaking, canoeing and other activities in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River and the surrounding area.

Port Jervis is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

In August 2008, Port Jervis was named one of "Ten Coolest Small Towns" by Budget Travel magazine.

It is said that Point Peter/ Elks Brox Memorial Park was the inspiration for Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" (Local lore)

Geography and transportation

Port Jervis is located on the north bank of the Delaware River at the point where: 1) the Neversink River – the Delaware's largest tributary – empties into the larger river; and 2) the Delaware makes a right turn to run south-southwest along Kittatinny Ridge Kittatinny Mountains – until reaching the Delaware Water Gap. A left turn through the Delaware Water Gap takes the Delaware River to continue on to Trenton, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Delaware Bay. Port Jervis is connected by the Mid-Delaware Bridge across the Delaware to Matamoras, Pennsylvania.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.7 square miles (7.0 km²), of which, 2.5 square miles (6.5 km²) is land and 0.2 square miles (0.52 km²) (6.64%) is water.

US 6, US 209, NY 42, and NY 97 (the "Upper Delaware Scenic Byway") pass through Port Jervis. Interstate 84 passes to the south.

Port Jervis is the last stop on the 95-mile-long (153 km) Port Jervis Line, which is a commuter railroad service from Hoboken, New Jersey and New York City that is contracted to NJ Transit by the Metro-North Railroad of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The track itself continues on to Binghamton and Buffalo, but passenger service west of Port Jervis was discontinued in November 1966.

File:NY NJ PA Tripoint.JPG

Tri-State Rock or Monument overlooking the confluence of the Delaware and Neversink Rivers

State line monuments

Port Jervis lies near the points where the states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania come together. South of the Laurel Grove Cemetery, under the viaduct for Interstate 84, are two monuments marking the boundaries between the three states.

The larger monument is a granite pillar inscribed "Witness Monument" and dated 1882. It is not on any boundary itself, but instead is a witness for two boundary points. On the north side (New York), it references the corner boundary point between New York and Pennsylvania that is located in the center of the Delaware River 475 feet (145 m) due west of the Tri-State Rock. On the south side (New Jersey), it references the Tri-State Rock 27.5 feet (8.4 m) to the south.

The smaller monument, Tri-State Rock, marks both the northwest end of the New Jersey and New York boundary and the north end of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania boundary. It is a small granite block with inscribed lines marking the boundaries of the three states and a bronze National Geodetic Survey marker at the triple point, where you can stand in three states at once. It also marks the northernmost point of New Jersey. The current Tri-State Monument is a replacement for the original monument erected in 1774, which was important in resolving the New York - New Jersey Line War.

A view of Port Jervis showing the Mid-Delaware Bridge to Matamoras, Pennsylvania on the far right and New Jersey's High Point on the Kittatinny Ridge on the far left

The first fully developed European settlement in the area was established c.1690, and a land grant of 1,200 acres (490 ha) was formalized on October 14, 1697. The settlement was originally known as Mahackamack, which was its name when it was raided and burned in the American Revolutionary War by British forces under the command of Joseph Brant before the Battle of Minisink in 1779. Over the next two decades, the settlement was rebuilt and more roadways were developed to better connect Mahackamack with the eastern parts of Orange County.

After the Delaware and Hudson Canal was opened in 1828, providing transportation of coal from northeastern Pennsylvania to New York and New England via the Hudson River, trade brought money and further development to the area. A village was incorporated in 1853, and was renamed Port Jervis in the mid-19th century, after John Bloomfield Jervis, the D&H Canal's chief engineer. Port Jervis grew steadily into the 1900s, and on July 26, 1907, it became a city.

The Erie Depot, built in 1892, was the largest station on the Erie Railroad's Delaware Division. The Erie ceased long distance passenger service in 1970. The depot was recently restored.

Coming of the railroad

The first rail line to run through Port Jervis was the New York & Erie Railroad, which in 1832 was chartered to run from Piermont, New York, on the Hudson River in Rockland County, to Lake Erie. Ground was broken in 1835, but construction was delayed by a nationwide financial panic, and did not start again until 1838. The line was completed in 1851, and the first passenger train – with President Millard Fillmore and former United States Senator Daniel Webster on board – came through the city on May 14. The railroad went through a number of name changes, becoming the Erie Railroad in 1897.

A second railroad, the Port Jervis and Monticello Railroad, later leased to the New York, Ontario and Western Railway (O&W), opened in 1868, running north out of the city, and eventually connecting to Kingston, New York, Weehawken, New Jersey and western connections.

Like the D&H Canal, the railroads brought new prosperity to Port Jervis in the form of increased trade and investment in the community from the outside. However, the competition that the railroad brought also hastened the decline of the canal, which ceased operation in 1898, and the railroads were the basis of the city's economy for the coming decades. Port Jervis became Erie's division center between Jersey City, New Jersey and Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, and by 1922, twenty passenger trains went through the city every day, and over 2,500 Erie employees made their homes there.

The railroads themselves began to decline after the Great Depression, accelerating after World War II with the building of the Interstate Highway System and increased competition from trucking companies. One of the first Class I railroads to shut down was the O&W, in 1957, leaving Port Jervis totally reliant on the Erie. Only a few years later, in 1960, the Erie, also on a shaky financial footing, merged with Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad to become the Erie Lackawanna. In 1976, along with a number of other struggling railroads, such as the Penn Central, the Erie Lackawana became part of Conrail. Since the breakup of Conrail, the trackage around Port Jervis has been controlled by Norfolk Southern.

The decline of the railroads was an economic blow to Port Jervis, one it is still, as of 2011, recovering from.

Racial incidents

On June 2, 1892, Robert Lewis, an African American, was lynched on Main Street in Port Jervis after being accused of participation in an assault on a white woman. A grand jury indicted nine people in connection with the lynching. This event would serve as inspiration for one-time Port Jervis resident and author Stephen Crane's 1898 novella The Monster.

In the mid-1920s the Ku Klux Klan was active in the area, burning crosses on Point Peter, the mountain peak that overlooks the city.

The parade on July 14, 2007 celebrating the 100th year as a city

Recent history

Being situated at the confluence of the Delaware and Neversink Rivers has sometimes led to flooding problems. In one such instance associated with the 1955 Hurricane Diane, a flood-related rumor started a panic that was later studied in a 1958 report issued by the National Research Council called "The Effects of a Threatening Rumor on a Disaster-Stricken Community".

In addition to having flooded during periods of heavy rainfall, at times ice jams have effectively dammed the Delaware, and in 1875 floes destroyed the existing bridge to Matamoras. In 1981 a large ice floe resulted in the highest water crest measured to date at the National Weather Service's Matamoras river gage 26.6 feet (8.1 m).

View of Port Jervis from High Point, New Jersey

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1870	6,377		—
1880	8,678		36.1%
1890	9,327		7.5%
1900	9,385		0.6%
1910	9,564		1.9%
1920	10,171		6.3%
1930	10,243		0.7%
1940	9,749		−4.8%
1950	9,372		−3.9%
1960	9,268		−1.1%
1970	8,852		−4.5%
1980	8,699		−1.7%
1990	9,060		4.1%
2000	8,860		−2.2%
2010	8,828		−0.4%
Est. 2014	8,638		−2.2%
U.S. Decennial Census

As of the census of 2000, there were 8,860 people, 3,533 households, and 2,158 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,500/sq mi (1,300/km²). There were 3,851 housing units at an average density of 1,500/sq mi (590/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 82.4% White, 8.2% African American, 0.59% Native American, 0.64% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 2.19% from other races, and 2.26% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.5% of the population.

There were 3,533 households out of which 32.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.9% were married couples living together, 15.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.9% were non-families. 32.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.15.

The Deerpark Reformed Church on East Main Street was originally organized in 1737, making it the oldest congregation in the area. The current building dates from 1838.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.8% under the age of 18, 8.4% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 20.3% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,241, and the median income for a family was $35,481. Males had a median income of $31,851 versus $22,274 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,525. About 14.2% of families and 15.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.5% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over.

Media

On July 4, 1953 WDLC at 1490 on the AM dial signed-on. Co-owned WDLC-FM (96.7) began operation in 1970, changing call letters to WTSX in 1984.

Notable residents

Notable current and former residents of Port Jervis include:

• Ed and Lou Banach, 1984 Summer Olympics wrestling gold medalists lived in Port Jervis and graduated from Port Jervis Senior High School.
• Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage, lived in Port Jervis between the ages 6–11 and frequently visited and wrote there from 1890 to early 1897.
• William Howe Crane (1854-1926), older brother of Stephen Crane lived and practiced law in Port Jervis for many years.
• Stefanie Dolson, basketball player for Washington Mystics and formerly of the Connecticut Huskies Women's Basketball team, was born in Port Jervis. She was a McDonald's All-American in high school and won multiple National Championships with Connecticut.
• Samuel Fowler (1851–1919), represented New Jersey's 4th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1893-1895.
• E. Arthur Gray (1925–2006) was the longest serving Mayor of Port Jervis and was later a New York State Senator. The Port Jervis United States Post Office building is dedicated to his name.
• Benjamin Hafner (March 24, 1821 - Spring of 1899) known as "The Flying Dutchman" and "Uncle Ben," was an American locomotive engineer, who worked for the Erie Railway.
• The city is the birthplace of Baseball Hall of Famer Bucky Harris.
• The Kalin Twins, Hal (1934–2005) and Herbie (1934–2006), were one hit wonders whose record "When" made the top 5 in the U.S. and was number one for five weeks in the U.K. in 1958.
• Amar'e Stoudemire (1982 - ), professional basketball player for the NY Knicks. Lived in Port Jervis for a duration of grade school and middle school. While living in Port Jervis he played Pop Warner Football and excelled at the sport. It is said that this is where he played basketball at local parks and first fell in love with the sport of basketball. He later moved to the state of Florida to live with his grandmother. Stoudemire then played high school basketball for six different schools, before graduating from Cypress Creek High School, and declaring for the NBA draft as a prep-to-pro player. In high school, Stoudemire won several honors most notably being selected as Mr. Basketball for the state of Florida. He was selected in the first round with the ninth overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns and would spend eight seasons with them before signing with the New York Knicks.
• Frank Abbott, Mayor of Port Jervis from 1874 to 1876
• Owen Tate, acclaimed artist, known for music and photography. He created The Space in 2006, where artistic works, such as the photographic pieces, "The Abominable" / "The Snowman", "The Demon", and musical albums such as 06.06.06, The Money Shot Remixes for Punk Bunny, and Donna Destri's Fire have been produced.

Gallery

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  The E. Arthur Gray Post Office, on the NRHP

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  The Free Library, a Carnegie Library built in 1903

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  The largest working rail turntable in the U.S. is in Port Jervis

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  One of the many Victorian style houses in the city

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  Fort Decker (1793), the oldest building in the city

References

Notes

External links

• City of Port Jervis Website