Credit: New York Public Libraryīonaparte built a spacious, magnificently decorated home on a promontory with panoramic views of Crosswicks Creek and the Delaware River.
The home was built for Louis Mailliard, Bonaparte’s trusted secretary. This building, known as the gate house or gardener’s cottage, is the sole remaining structure from the Bonaparte era at Point Breeze. Visitors were dazzled by the artfully placed statuary, gazebos, deer preserve, aviary, and large manmade lake with swans, landscaped islands, and fanciful boats. The estate also incorporated native forest into twelve miles of bridle trails and carriage drives. Some were imported from Europe, along with European birds and game animals. Bonaparte and his gardeners planted large numbers of trees and flowering plants. This picturesque style of landscape skillfully blended natural and manmade features to create pleasing vistas. Bonaparte had a keen interest in garden design and transformed his lands into one of America’s first “romantic” gardens in the French style. Over the next twenty years, the estate grew to encompass more than 1,800 acres, with a mile of frontage along Crosswicks Creek. The Bordentown location afforded easy river access to Philadelphia and proximity to major roads. Joseph Bonaparte’s land, located at the confluence of Crosswicks Creek and the Delaware River, had long been known as Point Breeze. Credit: New Jersey Historical Society, Gift of Mrs. The manor house occupied by Bonaparte can be seen in the upper right. View from Bordentown Hill on the Delaware (Point Breeze) by Charles B. During his years in America, Bonaparte used the title Count de Survilliers. Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844) was a trusted advisor to his brother, who made him King of Naples in 1806 and King of Spain in 1808. The next year Joseph Bonaparte purchased an estate at the edge of Bordentown village on the New York turnpike.
In 1815, after the final defeat of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, his elder brother Joseph left Europe to make a new home in America. Credit: François Gérard, Musée National du Château de Fontainbleauīordentown was once home to an exiled king who built one of the most famous gardens in pre-Civil War America along the banks of the Delaware River. Bede School, the Pittsburgh New Church School, the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the Shady Side Academy Junior School.Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain, c.1810. Several private schools are nearby including St. Point Breeze is also home to popular public schools including Linden International Magnet for K-5 and Allderdice High School, 9-12, which is in neighboring Squirrel Hill.
Point breeze professional#
The predominant feature, of course, is the mansion belonging to Henry Clay Frick, known as “Clayton,” a part of the 5.5-acre campus that includes the Frick Art & Historical Center and Frick Park.Ī quaint business district anchors the community, offering professional services and dry cleaning along with the beloved Point Brugge Café, known for its signature dish of steaming bowls of mussels doused in garlic and those fabulous fries aka pommes frites.Īlso worth a trip is the intimate Pino smack in the middle of the small but sweet business district offering Italian food and an inviting bar. Point Breeze is a compact package, with attractive houses that sit back off the quiet streets with mature trees, manicured lawns and beautiful gardens. North Point Breeze, just north of Penn Avenue and part of Point Breeze, is less upscale and generally considered a neighborhood unto its own. The attractive one square-mile community is surrounded by Frick Park as well as the neighborhoods of Regent Square, Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Homewood, and Wilkinsburg. Passing through this wooded enclave on the eastern side of Pittsburgh, with a mix of architectural styles including ranch, stone and mansions, you can easily imagine Annie Dillard flying down the sidewalk or “whipping a snowball at a car and having it hit straight on.”ĭillard’s hymn to her hometown and Point Breeze in “An American Childhood” captures this charming residential neighborhood in all its glory.
Cafe at the Frick, Point Breeze homes, Pino’s Contemporary Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar and The Point Restaurant (all photos by Peter Leeman) With its upscale houses, wide streets and border with Frick Park, you’d never know Point Breeze sits just minutes away from bustling city life in Pittsburgh’s East End.
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