When you think of iconic people with connections to New Jersey, who comes to mind? Bruce Springsteen, perhaps? Legendary baseball player Larry Doby? A growing amount of research has, as of late, revealed some details about the life of another notable Garden State resident: Joseph Bonaparte, onetime King of Spain and Naples. And yes, he’s related to another famous Bonaparte you might have heard of — namely, Joseph was the older brother of Napoleon.
Joseph Bonaparte once lived in a mansion in Bordentown, a town located 28 miles from Philadelphia. An article by Daniel E. Slotnik in The New York Times explores the history of how he came to be living there — and why there’s been a renewed interest in Bonaparte’s former home as of late.
In 1816, Bonaparte built the estate, known as Point Breeze. It sounds not unlike what you’d expect from a former monarch concerned about his continued safety. “He constructed atop a promontory that allowed him to see any hostile forces and perforated the grounds with tunnels that allowed quick escape, if necessary, to a boat on Crosswicks Creek, and from there to the Delaware River,” writes Slotnik.
As a report in The Philadelphia Inquirer notes, much of the estate as it existed in Bonaparte’s day is now gone, with only a gardener’s house remaining. The estate is now in public hands; the Times reports that its 60 acres will eventually be a park, with the aforementioned gardener’s house transformed into a museum focusing on the estate’s history. Not too many former kings ended up settling down in New Jersey, after all.
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