Throwback Thursday: Bernardsville's Ties To High Point State Park

SOMERSET COUNTY, NJ — Mr. Local History is partnering with Patch to showcase, promote and preserve local history in the area.

As part of Throwback Thursday, Mr. Local History is sharing how a Bernardsville couple helped to contribute to one of the state's most iconic parks.

Mr. Local History writes:

One of New Jersey’s most iconic state parks is High Point State Park in Sussex, New Jersey which hosts the state's highest elevation and monument dedicated to veterans in one of the most beautiful locations in New Jersey. As the Mr. Local History Project was researching four iconic fall foliage destinations the history of High Point State Park showcased the two Bernardsville, New Jersey families that made the park possible. Enjoy as we introduce you to the Kusers and the Drydens.

Anthony Kuser

Anthony Rudolph Kuser (May 12, 1862 – February 8, 1929) was a businessman and philanthropist who along with his wife Susie who donated the land that makes up New Jersey’s highest point and had the monument there built to honor Americas veterans.

Anthony Rudolph Kuser was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1862. He was one of five sons (one of which was his fraternal twin) and one daughter born to Rudolph Kuser, a German-Swiss mechanical engineer who emigrated from Zurich to the United States in 1837Anthony organized the Trenton Hygeia Ice Company, the Trenton Brewery Company, and was instrumental in consolidating all the gas and electric companies of Trenton. Along with his twin brother, John L. Kuser, he was the leading spirit in the purchase of the Trenton Street Railway Company. Other endeavors included starting the Walter Automobile Company and financial interests in 20th Century Fox.

In 1910, John Dryden purchased the High Point Inn from the estate of Charles St. John and proceeded to remodel it into his personal home although he rarely used it. Susie’s father purchased the bulk of the property and it had been his dream that the land be protected as a nature reservation as he was a known naturalist and loved birds. After John’s death, it was Susie Kuser who donated the tract to New Jersey in 1923 in memory of her father John, and was signed by, “Susie Dryden Kuser and husband (Anthony).” The deed also contained a significant restriction requiring that the Commissioners of High Point Park “provide that there shall be no shooting or trapping of birds” on the property, a provision clearly reflecting the Kuser and Dryden families’ passion for the protection of bird life.

Five years later, in 1927, Anthony, who had long intended to erect some sort of observation deck at the summit of High Point, sent a letter to Governor A. Harry Moore offering to pay for the construction of a tall monument to honor New Jersey’s veterans. With the generous offer accepted, a 221-foot-tall structure, somewhat modeled after the Bunker Hill monument in Massachusetts, was designed for Kuser by the architectural firm of Wyeth & King, the same firm that had designed alterations to his Palm Beach home years before. The Hoffman Construction Company of Bernardsville built the light-toned, quartzite-faced tower.

The 221-foot-tall High Point monument that started construction in 1928 and was completed in the summer of 1930, donated by the Kusers to honor New Jersey’s war veterans. quartzite quarried within the park. The projected cost for the construction was $500,000. Unfortunately, Colonel Kuser passed away in February of 1929 at the age of 67, without seeing the Monument completed. On June 8, 1929 Governor Morgan F. Larson laid the cornerstone with a sliver trowel and a metal time capsule was sealed within the stone. obelisk, rose 220 feet above the highest point in New Jersey, measuring 34 feet square at its base and 20 feet square where the apex begins. Two bronze doors open into an octagonal chamber 21-feet high with a vaulted ceiling and flagstone floor.

Anthony & Susie Kuser

On December 1, 1896, Anthony R. Kuser married Susie Fairfield Dryden (1862–1932), daughter of Senator and Prudential Insurance founder John Fairfield Dryden. The couple’s wedding, at Third Presbyterian Church in Newark, was a large and important social event, with 1,500 invitations having been issued. Anthony’s best man was Walter Scott Lenox, a close friend from Trenton who had started what became the world-famous china manufacturer, Lenox,

In 1916, the Kusers bought a 250 acre estate in Bernardsville, New Jersey called Blythewood from Henry Rudolph Kunhardt (1860–1923) that was designed by Henry Rutgers Marshall. After they purchased the home, they had it renovated by Hoppin & Koen and renamed Faircourt.

Faircourt was the second of Anthony and Susie Kuser’s houses in Bernardsville to bear that name. And, while today’s Faircourt served as the family’s
principal residence, it was only one of their many estates including Los Incas in Palm Beach, Florida; Tall Pines in Aiken, South Carolina; and a mansion on their 10,600-acre estate at High Point, near Sussex, New Jersey.

On February 8, 1929, Kuser died at his estate, Los Incas, a 12-bedroom six-acre oceanfront estate in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Susie Fairfield Dryden Kuser

Susie Fairfield Dryden was the daughter of Cynthia Jennings Fairchild and John Fairfield Dryden. Susie Fairfield Dryden had her childhood home in Bernardsville before moving into her own Bernardsville estate after marrying Anthony and becoming a Kuser. Known as the Stronghold Estate, Susie’s father John Fairfield Dryden purchased the home originally built in 1886 for New York banker James Colman Drayton. It wasn’t a castle until 1899, when Prudential Insurance founder John Fairfield Dryden purchased the home. Though it’s been over 117 years (which includes a stint as a private girls’ school from 1940-1995).

The estate was also owned by the famed designer/mogul Marc Ecko, who bought the place in 2004 and further restored the interior and upgraded it with 21st-century tech along with glimpses of Ecko’s signature boldly modern style. Dryden’s original Stronghold was designed by the prominent architect George B. Post and was put on the market in 2016 and sold for approximately $15 million.

Bernardsville, New Jersey has a Dryden Road honoring John Fairfield Dryden and his “Stronghold” estate area on one of the highest points on the Bernardsville mountain.

For more information on Mr. Local History Project and its mission visit mrlocalhistory.org or on any of the main social media platforms.