Divine Word Missionaries

History & Tradition

Good story on the Bordentown SVD

Good story on the Bordentown SVD

Fr R. T. Lennon, SVD

ack in the late 1930s till 1941, the SVD in North America wanted to open a second House on the northeast coast of the USA. There was already the Mission House in Duxbury, MA called Miramar and they wanted one near to New York. Bishop Griffith of the Trenton Diocese warmly welcomed the SVD but had two conditions to which they had to agree if they opened a House in the Diocese. They were to open a parish for the Africa American Catholics of the Diocese and they were to be the Chaplains of the Bordentown cloistered Poor Clare Nuns. Fr. Provincial Hummel agreed to these conditions and the Diocese helped the SVD purchase a 254 acre property called "Point Breeze", located on a bluff bordering the Delaware River. The property had once been the home of Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who once was King of Naples and Spain. After Joseph was deposed as King of Spain in 1813, and after the downfall of his brother Napoleon in 1815, Joseph fled to the United States, settling first in Philadelphia and then in 1816, he purchased "Point Breeze". It was called "Point Breeze" as the property was situated high off the Delaware River where the winds blew strongly in the winter. Eventually he expanded his property to about 1800 acres. In 1817, Joseph built a palatial residence on the point of land looking down on the Delaware River, embellished it with priceless paintings and an excellent library, and made it one of the great social and cultural places of the new Country. This first mansion was destroyed by fire. Fortunately, all the priceless paintings, books, and much of the furniture were saved through the goodness of the Bordentown people who came to the rescue. ; Joseph then built a second mansion He entertained such noted guests as ex. Pres. John Quincy Adams, Senator Henry Clay, the French army officer Lafayette who helped the Americans during the Independence War from England..

The property was sold once Joseph returned to Europe in 1839. In the 1930s, the then owner went bankrupt and the estate belonged to the bank. The place was boarded up for years. In 1941, the SVD bought it and it took the community of 6 SVD some 6 years to get the place in shape and it opened up in 1947 as a school for belated vocations till the late 1950s when it became a Seminary prep high school.. Due to a fire in 1983 that destroyed the mansion, the school closed, was remolded, and is now the home of the SVD Community.

Monmouth University' archeological department for the past two years have been doing digs both on the Bonaparte Mansion and on the grounds where thousands of years, a local tribe of Indians settled to catch the fish that came up the Delaware River. They have found more than 15,000 artifacts from the former Bonaparte mansion and from the tools used by the indigenous people who thousands of years lived on these grounds. On Oct. 11th, 2008, the results of these archeological diggings were displayed in a wonderful symposium that attracted more than 300 people from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Vermont and as far away as California and France who heard about the symposium and wanted to be part of it. Even the French Ambassador from Washington, DC and two other French Consuls here in the USA graced the Symposium with their presence. They all came to see and be present on the land made famous by a Bonaparte and now known as the Residence for Divine Word Missionaries..

Today, the SVD Community is happy to be living on the land that once belonged to the man who was King and has allowed the Monmouth University archeologists to quietly do their work so as to better understand what Joseph had while he was here.