Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech TherapyJobs in
Palisades Park, New Jersey

The Palisades Interstate Park . . .
was created in 1900, in response to concern over the quarrying of the Palisades. Before the creation of the park, all of the Palisades had been in private hands, the lower portion, along the river, consisting mostly of fishing villages, the cliff top mostly either wood lots or the site of large summer estates.
Allison Park is named for William O. Allison (1849-1924), who at one time had an estate at this location. Allison had been born in the "Undercliff" Settlements, the son of fishermen and quarry workers. As a child he was made a ward of the Dana family, who owned a large estate on top of the cliffs. He succeeded in business and became one of the largest landowners along the Palisades, and was the principal owner of the Palisades Mountain House, also at this site, when it burned down in 1884 (see "Fire on the Mountain").
He built his estate literally atop the ruins of the Mountain House and, ironically, it burned down as well, in 1903. He became the first mayor of Englewood Cliffs, and sold some riverfront property to the Carpenter Brothers for their quarry operation. This may have led, in part, to his becoming in his later years a staunch defender of the Palisades as a natural preserve, and his will left many acres of his holdings—including those at this site—in the public trust as parkland.
He also set out to chronicle the life of the "Undercliff" settlements, and his notes remain an invaluable research tool today. Listed on the National and State Historic Registries as the “Blackledge-Kearney House”—but known more familiarly as the “Kearney House” or “Cornwallis Headquarters”—this humble structure is the oldest building in the New Jersey Section of the Palisades Interstate Park.
The southern half of the house, made of native stone and timbers, dates to before 1802. The northern, wood-frame section was added in the 1840s, the large porch in the early 1900s. Through its long life, the house has served, as a Hudson River homestead, a riverfront tavern, was a park police station, a caretaker’s residence, and finally a museum. Today, it helps bring to life two centuries in the story of the Hudson River and those who have depended upon it for their lives and livelihoods.
On the night of November 19 – 20, 1776, a British force led by Lt. General Charles, Lord Cornwallis, crossed the Hudson to New Jersey for a surprise attack on the Continental Army at Fort Lee. Three- to five-thousand men landed in flatboats on the western bank of the Hudson and ascended the Palisades on one or more of the primitive roads to the summit.
For many years, it was believed that the General used this house as his “headquarters” during this operation. More recent research, however, suggests that his forces in fact landed about 1.5 miles south of here, at what was then known as the “New Dock” (later Huyler’s Landing)—casting serious doubt on the “headquarters” designation.
Whether fact or, more likely, folklore, the belief that this house had served as Cornwallis’s headquarters was responsible for the house’s preservation in the late 1920s, when, rather than being razed, it was instead raised—to the curious height of what was claimed to be the nation’s only historic shrine dedicated to an enemy general…

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