Giberson's Tavern

3717 Brunswick Pike, probably late 1800s or early 1900s.

Historical Overview

Once standing at 3717 Brunswick Pike, at the northern corner of the intersection of Washington Road and Route 1, was an old farmhouse in the historic West Windsor community of Penns Neck. This, alongside the Red Lion Inn across the street, was one of two taverns to have set up shop at the crossroads.

Although the building's date of construction is unknown, it was probably erected in the early 1800s. In 1814, William and Mary Kovenhoven sold a tract containing a "messuage" (i.e., a dwelling-house) to David and Hannah Schenck.[1] In 1828, they sold the property to Gilbert Giberson,[2] who also reputedly operated the Red Lion Inn across the road.[3] However, just two years later, due to unpaid debts, the property at 3717 Brunswick Pike - by then definitely a tavern - was seized by Middlesex County via writ of "Fieri Facias" and sold to Wlliam Stockton.[4] Some time in the 1830s or 1840s, it was purchased by Richard and Susan Warren.[5] Stockton, Warren, and another man named Phineas Withington are said to have leased the property to various innkeepers - among them Asher Temple (also erstwhile owner of the Red Lion Inn), Gilbert Giberson again, and Garret Embly.[6] In 1841, the property passed to Samuel and Phebe Gulick,[7] then to Daniel W. Gulick the next year,[8] and finally David S. Voorhees in 1843.[9] David, a local blacksmith, is said to have converted the "Old Tavern Property" into a dwelling-house.[10] He was its longest-known owner, and it only passed out of his hands when he died in 1883.[11]

​Still, the tract remained in Voorhees hands until at least the 1890s, if not much later.[12] According to the 1939 publication Old Princeton's Neighbors, the house had by that point ben split in two and moved to Lower Harrison Street, where it became two separate residences.[13] The fate of the land at 3717 Brunswick Pike for the first half of the 1900s remains unclear, but in 1955, a Gulf automobile service station was opened there by Kenneth E. Logan.[14],[15] This establishment operated until the early 2010s but has since been abandoned.[16],[17]

Gulf station, 1962. From Howard E. Schrader.

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Bibliography

1. Kovenhoven, Mary, Kovenhoven, William, Schenck, David, Schenck, Hannah. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1814. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Middlesex County Deed Book 11 Page 10.
2. Edgar, Samuel, Stockton, William B. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1830. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Middlesex County Deed Book 22 Page 473.
3. Woodward, Evan Morrison, and John Frelinghuysen Hageman. History of Burlington and Mercer Counties with Biographical Sketches of Many of Their Pioneers and Prominent Men. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Everts & Peck, 1883.
4. Edgar, Samuel, Stockton, William B. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1830. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Middlesex County Deed Book 22 Page 473.
5. Gulick, Daniel W., Gulick, Phebe, Gulick, Samuel. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1842. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book F Page 3.
6. Woodward, Evan Morrison, and John Frelinghuysen Hageman. History of Burlington and Mercer Counties with Biographical Sketches of Many of Their Pioneers and Prominent Men. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Everts & Peck, 1883.
7. Gulick, Daniel W., Gulick, Phebe, Gulick, Samuel. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1842. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book F Page 3.
8. Ibid.
9. Gulick, Daniel W., Voorhees, David S. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1843. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book E Page 622.
10. Woodward, Evan Morrison, and John Frelinghuysen Hageman. History of Burlington and Mercer Counties with Biographical Sketches of Many of Their Pioneers and Prominent Men. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Everts & Peck, 1883.
11. Princeton Baptist Church. (n.d.). Princeton Baptist Church graveyard. West Windsor. Princeton Baptist Church graveyard gravestones, which often list birth dates, death dates, and ages of those buried there - including those of many of West Windsor's oldest families.
12. Hey, I. Voorhees, Voorhees, George W. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1896. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 209 Page 528.
13. ​"Penn's Neck.” Essay. In Old Princeton’s Neighbors. Princeton, NJ: Graphic Arts Press , 1939. Written by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Writers’ Project.
14. Ken's Gulf Station. “Welcome To Our Fine New Service Station.” Town Topics. Princeton, NJ, July 5, 1955.
15. Schrader, Howard E. US#1 &; Washington Road. Photograph. West Windsor, New Jersey, June 3, 1962. West Windsor History Museum. 
16. "West Windsor Aerial Photography Composite Map, 2011.” Map. Historical Society of West Windsor - Map Archives. West Windsor, NJ, 2011.
17. ​"West Windsor Aerial Photography Composite Map, 2015.” Map. Historical Society of West Windsor - Map Archives. West Windsor, NJ, 2015.
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