Burdett's Landing
In the Revolutionary War it played a role in the movement of American supplies and soldiers, and in the 19th century it served as a landing for steamboats.
A 1900 history described it as lying at "the bottom of a clove [i.e., ravine] giving easy access to the top of the Palisades and at the outlet of a small watercourse known as Dead Brook.
[3] A plaque beside the Edgewater Colony's meeting hall, located about 100 feet (30 m) from the original site, commemorates Burdett's Landing.
The Lenni Lenape of the Algonquian nation were present in the vicinity prior to the founding of Burdett's Landing[4] and appear to have lived in the area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans.
[6] Stephen (né Étienne) Bourdette, a New York merchant of Huguenot heritage, purchased 400 acres (1.6 km2) in the Fort Lee/Edgewater vicinity from the freedman[6] in 1756.
[4] He built a gambrel-roofed stone house in a forest clearing at the bottom of the gorge,[2] and moved his father, also named Étienne Bourdette, into the residence.
[11] Initially Burdett's Landing was used by farmers sending their products across to the Bloomingdale section of Manhattan,[2] which at that time was the west side of New York between 23rd and 125th Streets.
[12] Stephen's brother, Peter, a farmer who had been living in Hackensack, came to Burdett's Landing with his wife in about 1760 to look after Étienne, Senior, in his old age.
[2][7] The Ferry was the site of a minor skirmish on October 27, 1776, between two British frigates on the North River and various Colonial units in the area.
During the week leading up to the evacuation of Fort Lee[7] he rowed back and forth across the river gathering information for General Washington on the anticipated movements of the British forces.
[17] General Washington ordered the retreat from Fort Lee on November 20, which left the Bourdettes in a dangerous situation with the approach of the enemy.
Also known as The People's Ferry Company, it owned at least five steamboats which made stops along the Hudson running south, then crossing to New York City.
Burdett's Landing acquired the nickname, "Old Stone Dock," from its service as a transfer location for cobblestones onto lighters bound for New York.
New Yorkers came to view the sleepy, pastoral little area as a recreational destination,[21] and in 1878 the large Fort Lee Hotel opened by the landing.
