Abbott - DeCou Mansion

Abbott - DeCou Mansion

58 Soloff Drive

        Once at the end of a  long lane leading from South Broad Street, the house in which Lacey and Sally Abbott settled was built in 1797.  Lacey was the grandson of Timothy Abbott, the son of John Abbott, who came to this country from England in the early 1700s, and settled on this land later known as Spring Lake Park.  Later John bought land a mile east of the Watson plantation.

                The home is referred to as the old DeCou mansion because Peter DeCou purchased it in 1892.  DeCou's wife, Martha, was known to many as "Aunt Martha," a generous and civic-minded person.  For example, when a school on South Broad Street was necessary, Aunt Martha donated a large plot of land for a playground.  The former DeCou School and the DeCou Hose Company are named in her honor.

                  Source: Old Nottingham, Historical Association of Hamilton Township

         The above image depicts what was originally the rear (north elevation) of the house with the rear (south elevation) toward the Delaware River being the main entrance.  The house is on the National and State Registers.  It is privately owned. 

Original Fairview Park Firehouse

RUSNAK COLLECTION

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP PUBLIC LIBRARY LOCAL HISTORY COLLECTION

     As previously mentioned, items from Fairview Park (DeCou Village) and Lalor Tract which border BSP and Deutzville will be presented.  The above photograph depicts the original firehouse constructed in 1914 of the Fairview Park Volunteer Fire Company organized in 1914.  The portion in the rear was constructed in 1928, the same year the company name was changed and incorporated as the DeCou Hose Company.  These buildings on Ruskin Avenue were razed in April 1950 to make way for a new one-story firehouse to house three fire apparatus.  

1903: Crosswicks Creek Flood

     From time to time historical information from areas outside of Broad Street Park such as DeCou Village (Fairview Park), Lalor Tract and Deutzeville will be presented.  This Fairview Park post provides two images from the late Michael Rusnak's collection of the October 1903 Crosswicks Creek flood.

     This image depicts a barge or chucker, as it was sometimes called, on the swollen Crosswicks Creek at the Lacey Farm.  Submerged are trolley tracks where the telegraph poles are surrounded by water.  At the head of the barge is Tom Lacey, next with an oar is Isador Lacey and with the other oar is George Lacey.

     This image depicts a house across the road from where the long gone White Horse Bowling Academy once existed and the Lacey Farm showing flood water up to the front step.