Blackwells Mills Canal House

Blackwells Mills Canal House

The Blackwells Mills Canal House is located at Blackwells Mills Road and Canal Road in Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, on the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Across the canal is Blackwells Mills, New Jersey.

History

The house was built around 1835, at the same time as the canal, to house the bridge tender. The bridge tender would turn the swing bridge when boats came through, then turn it back to allow road traffic to cross over the canal. In 1932, the canal closed and the swing bridges were dismantled. The house and the canal were transferred to the state of New Jersey. In 1971 the Blackwells Mills Canal House Association was formed, and they leased the house from the state and began to restore it as a community center, museum, and library. The adjacent Delaware and Raritan Canal was made a state and national historic site and later became a New Jersey State Park. The house is currently maintained by the Blackwells Mills Canal House Association since 1971.

Sandor Fekete

Sandor Fekete (1879-1970) was the last bridge tender. He was born in Hungary, emigrating via Antwerp, Belgium to New York City and joining the Hungarian community in Unknown, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. His son Sandor Fekete II (1906-1983) lived in Princeton and worked as a bridge tender also. Fekete's first job was laying brick and breaking up rocks along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Later he was promoted to a supervisor for work boats that made repairs along the canal. He was promoted to foreman of a twenty-eight-man work crew, living in an apartment on Condict Street in New Brunswick. In 1916 he was promoted to locktender in Unknown, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Somerset County, New Jersey

External links

• Blackwells Mills Canal House Association