Port Jervis (Images of America)

Description

A picturesque city, Port Jervis nestles in the Shawangunk Mountains at the confluence of the Delaware and Neversink Rivers, where three valleys and three states meet. This southeastern corner of New York State, adjacent to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, evolved over the decades into a prosperous tri-state urban center. A tiny village in 1840, Port Jervis had developed into a city by the early 1900s. Port Jervis traces the community's evolution through its succession of eras-horse and wagon, dirt road, trolley car, paved street, small city. The city was named for John B. Jervis, whose engineering skills led to the construction of the Delaware and Hudson Canal in 1828, and whose foresight led to the expansion of the Erie Railroad in 1847. The canal and the railroad introduced opportunities for communications and commerce, attracting entrepreneurs such as Samuel Fowler, who published a newspaper that still exists today and created the Front Street business district. In Orange Square Park, renowned American author Stephen Crane interviewed Civil War veterans and wrote the masterpiece The Red Badge of Courage. For a century and a half, the true heroes, the industrious residents, founded six fire departments and built architecturally significant churches and schools, including the Deerpark Dutch Reformed Church in 1869 and the Church Street School in 1899.