The Hunt Room
You can get a peek today at one of Plainfield's luxurious estate homes -- which is also a unique part of Plainfield's Gilded-Age history.
John De Marco of Coldwell Banker Realtors® will host a public open house (1 to 4 PM) at 977 Belvidere Avenue, site of the exclusive, but now long-gone, Plainfield Hunt Club.
Nestled into a 2-acre triangular lot at the intersection of Belvidere, Woodland and Rahway Road, you can envision when the Plainfield Hunt Club anchored an extensive and undeveloped wooded area covering all of the Woodland, Prospect, and Rahway Road area in the late 19th century, before the area was residentially developed.
"Hunt Clubs", along with Country Clubs and Casinos, arose toward the close of the 19th century as places for the local well-to-do to socialize.
While I do not know whether much hunting was done at the Plainfield Hunt Club, I'll bet that a lot of whiskey and cigars were consumed in a gents-only atmosphere.
The Plainfield Country Club, further down Woodland Avenue, was founded in 1900 and the Plainfield Casino, which once stood at West 7th Street and Arlington Avenue flourished in the same period.
The Plainfield Casino once stood at 7th and Arlington.
- Garden State MLS: "977 Belvidere Avenue" -- Click on image to view a page of photos.
- Plainfield Public Library: The Blueprints collection has some plans for this address here and postcard views of the Plainfield Casino and the Plainfield Country Club can be found here.
- Google: A search (see here) turns up a 1912 mention of Hugh C. Pierce, president of the American Engine Company of Bound Brook as being a Republican and a member of the Harvard Club of New York and the Plainfield Hunt Club.
- The Plainfield Casino: You can view an 1895 New York Times society page story of events at the Plainfield Casino (see here).
-- Dan Damon
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