The Nathaniel Bonnell House

The Nathaniel Bonnell House. , The Bonnell House is the oldest house in Elizabeth, NJ and one of the oldest residences in the state. It was on this site in 1682 and was likely built years before then. The house represents the carpentry skills of Nathaniel Bonnell, a Huguenot originally from New Haven, CT. He came to Elizabeth about 1664 and was one of the original settlers and a member of the incorporating organization, the Elizabeth Associates. Between 1670 and 1685 Bonnell and his wife Elizabeth (nee Whitehead), raised seven children here. The family worked several farms in the environs, one of which in Connecticut Farms (now Union, NJ) was left to his son and namesake, Nathaniel., [Captions:] , Above: the 17th Century Bonnell House is on the National Registry of Historic Houses and has recently been restored by the Historical Society, Elizabeth, NJ Inc., which has its offices within., Above: Francis Barber, headmaster of Elizabethtown Academy, joined the New Jersey militia with his student, Alexander Hamilton, in 1775. He married the daughter of Aaron Ogden, owned Bonnell House, and died during the war in 1882., Right: Edward J. Grassman (1887-1973), an entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey of German immigrant parents. Grassman reinvested his profits from his ownership (1927) of American Industrial Clay Company into many charitable enterprises, including the preservation of the historical houses the Belcher-Ogden Mansion and the Bonnell House. The Historical Society of Elizabeth carries on his passion for tulips in its colonial garden at the Bonnell House.