Word is out that David Burke, Chef and operator at the Red Horse Steakhouse at the Bernards Inn, will be transitioning “The Station” to one of his new restaurant ventures down the street at the historic Clarmont Hotel building. Rumor has it that the change is happening in real time, and the new name will be the “Station Tavern,” which will officially relaunch on Monday, April 13, 2026.
The rumors are TRUE!
Across from the Bernardsville train station stands a building that has never stopped moving. Not physically, but in purpose. The story of the Claremont Hotel is not just about a building. It is about how people moved through Bernardsville and how that movement shaped everything around it. Before the railroad, this region belonged to the stagecoach.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, taverns like Vealtown and Widow White’s in nearby Basking Ridge served as essential stops along rough roads. These were places of rest, politics, and survival, directly tied to the pace of horse-and-carriage travel. Movement was slow, local, and deeply social. Then everything changed.
In 1871, the railroad arrived in Bernardsville, and with it came speed, access, and a new kind of visitor. The town was no longer just a stop along the road. It became a destination. Within a few years, around 1878, the Claremont Hotel rose directly across from the Station. It was built for the locomotive era. This was not a tavern for passing wagons. It was a hotel designed for people stepping off trains. Traveling salespeople, workers, and visitors filled its rooms. From its porches, guests watched carriages line up to carry wealthy passengers up to the estates of the Somerset Hills, part of what became known as the Mountain Colony.
Before the Claremont Hotel
As we started our research, people asked whether the site had always been a hotel, since the founding date was cited as 1878, seven years after railroad service from Hoboken to Bernardsville Depot and Station. At the time, being the end of what was then called “The West Line”, it’s amazing that it took so long to build a hotel. Map records show that before the Claremont Hotel, the property and structure belonged to Thomas Bird, who most likely had a house on the site in 1873.
So, what is a clarmont? “Claremont,” from the French clair (clear, bright) and mont (hill or mountain), describes an elevated place with open views and prominence. In Bernardsville, the name connects three landmarks: the Claremont Hotel at the railroad station (early 1870s), Claremont Road, which rises from Mine Brook Road past the Post property, and George B. Post’s hilltop Claremont estate, built in 1903–1904.
In New York City, the home, built in 1785 by Michael Hogan, a former British naval midshipman, was named Claremont after a royal residence in Surrey, England. After passing through several owners, it became a popular roadside inn by 1860. The City acquired the property in 1873 for Riverside Park. It continued operating it as the Claremont Inn, which attracted prominent visitors, including President William McKinley, Admiral George Dewey, and leading families such as the Morgans and Vanderbilts. By the early 1900s, it had become a well-known public restaurant, hosting figures like Cole Porter and George M. Cohan. The Claremont Inn was destroyed by fire in 1950, and a playground was built on the site soon after.
The name “Claremont” may have originated as a refined European-style name meaning “clear hill.” Still, in New York, it likely carried personal meaning as well, possibly reflecting ties to County Clare, Ireland. By the time it reached Bernardsville, it had become a name associated with status, scenery, and elite estates. George B. Post likely named his Bernardsville estate “Claremont” to echo this well-known Hudson River estate, borrowing a name that already conveyed elevated scenery, refinement, and elite status.
Around 1871, George Post and his family came to Bernardsville at the suggestion of his cousin Edgar W. Voris, a local doctor who owned a farm on Mendham Road and believed the country air would improve the health of Post’s wife, Alice Matilda Stone. The family initially stayed at Oliver’s boarding house on Mendham Road, on the site that later became the Somerset Inn.
The Bird Family and a Bernardsville Hotel
Ed Spinning, Bernardsville Historian, back on July 4, 1963, wrote in the Bernardsville News: “During the mid-eighteen nineties, Bob VanDorn secured the Thomas Bird property on the corner of Main Street and Claremont Road and remodeled it into the Claremont Hotel. He was followed by Henry E. Walters, who called it the West Bernards Hotel, and, in turn, by John Hoffman, who was the last to operate it as a hotel. It was also known as the Claremont Cafe operated by J. Kalt, 1905.”
Bville News July 4,1963, by Ed Spinning
So some say 1878 was when the Hotel was there; others say the mid-1880s. We’ll continue to dig, but we do know that between these 7 years, a hotel did make it onto the property as the Claremont Hotel, then the West Bernards Hotel, and then back to being the Claremont Hotel sometime around 1902. Which does bear the question, “What came first, the hotel or Hotelstate?
The Claremont Hotel
The Claremont lived at the center of motion. Inside, it was practical and busy. A 20-room hotel with a bar and dining space on the first floor, it served a different clientele than the grand Somerset Inn (1888) or the Bernards Inn (1907) that would follow. It was accessible, active, and tied to the rhythm of arrival and departure. It was also a place where the community gathered. In October 1897, a group of 30 men met at the Claremont to form what became the Bernardsville Bucket Brigade, the foundation of the town’s fire company. Even in its earliest days, the building was more than a Hotel. It was a meeting place.
Below is a copy of a 1901 Sanborn fire map of Bernardsville. The hotel was called the West Bernards Hotel. One thing to remember is that this hotel was the first and closest to the Bernardsville Train Station. The Bernards Inn didn’t open until 1907, and the Somerset Inn on the mountain opened circa 1887–1888, about twenty years before the Bernards Inn. The only other alternative for train passengers would have been the Old Stone Hotel up on Mill Street, which served the stagecoach back to the late 1700s and had been a tavern as far back as the 1760s. But that was a tavern and not a hotel.
But the pace of life was changing again. The rise of the automobile began to weaken the need for small railroad hotels. People no longer depended on fixed stops. They could move freely, bypassing places like the Claremont altogether. The shift was subtle at first, then sudden.
Claremont Hotel & Prohibition: Medication and “Pure Whiskey”
By the mid-1910s, under the operation of John W. Hoffman, the Claremont Hotel was still firmly rooted in its role as a working tavern hotel at the center of Bernardsville’s daily life. Hoffman’s Claremont was not a grand resort, but a practical, active place where travelers, salespeople, and locals gathered. Advertisements from 1916 promoted rye and Applejack, reinforcing its identity as both a lodging and a social hub. Yet his tenure also marked the beginning of the end of that era. In 1917, Hoffman auctioned off the hotel’s contents, signaling that the traditional railroad-era hotel model was fading. By the time of his 1930 will, he was no longer tied to an operating hotel, but remembered as one of the last figures connected to the Claremont’s original purpose.
In 1917, Hoffman auctioned off the hotel. It was a quiet but decisive moment. The building still stood, but its role in the locomotive era was coming to an end.
1920s – Alfred Sutton Takes Hotel in New Direction – The Claremont Apartments
By the early 1920s, the Claremont Hotel had reached a crossroads. Born out of the railroad boom after 1871, it had spent decades serving traveling salespeople and local patrons, even advertising whiskey as late as 1916. But the world that sustained it was fading. The age of the small town hotel was ending. This was the automobile era. The building no longer depended on people arriving by train. It became part of everyday life, a place to work, to live, and to build a future in a town that was no longer just passing through. And that decision is why it survived.
In 1922, Alfred D. Sutton stepped in and changed everything. A local plumber and businessman, Sutton did not just purchase the Claremont; he redefined it. By 1923, he had moved both his family and his business into the building at Mine Brook and Claremont roads and had begun a full transformation. The hotel was stripped of its original purpose. In its place came storefronts, workspaces, and apartments above.
A turning point in the life of the Claremont Hotel, it marked its shift from a struggling commercial hotel to a more modern, income-producing residential and mixed-use property under new owner Alfred D. Sutton. After months of renovation, Sutton reworked the building to house 6 families, installing updated plumbing, heating, and individual living conveniences, signaling a shift from transient lodging to long-term residency.
At the same time, the property was being repositioned as a small business hub, with office space, planned storefronts, and even a plumbing shop tied to Sutton’s own business. The story makes clear that what had been a financial loss was being transformed into a desirable, practical “family hotel,” reflecting the broader evolution of Bernardsville from a railroad-driven hotel town to a more stable, community-centered downtown.
Sutton himself embodied that shift. A Bernardsville resident since his 1901 marriage, he built his trade locally before expanding into the Claremont property. Over time, he became deeply embedded in the town, serving in the fire company, banking institutions, civic groups, and fraternal organizations. He held the building through decades of change, eventually selling his business in 1947. But the transformation he set in motion never reversed. The Claremont did not return to being a hotel. It survived because Sutton made it something else.
With that move, the Claremont Hotel was finished. What Sutton created was far more sustainable. Instead of relying on passing travelers, the building became part of everyday Bernardsville life, a place where people worked, lived, and gathered. It shifted from transient lodging to a permanent community anchor.
1954 – The Town House Tavern & Grill Era (1954-1976)
Through the mid-20th century, the building remained a commercial anchor. Shops came and went. The structure adapted quietly, holding its place in a changing downtown. Then, in 1954, something familiar returned. When Robert Vallacchi purchased the property and opened the Town House Tavern & Grill, the building once again became a place to gather. A bar and dining room brought people back together inside its walls, echoing its earlier days but now rooted in a local community rather than a transient one.
Starting in 1954, enticing advertising followed…..Here’s delicious news right off the grill . . . TOWN HOUSE GRILL, Mine Brook Road (opp R. R. station), Bernardsville, has hosts of tempting specialties to delight the palate. From piping hot shrimp or chicken in the basket, to spicy spaghetti and meatballs . . . TOWN HOUSE GRILL is open 7 days a week from lunch until midnight.
Steak yourself to a treat … at
TOWN HOUSE GRILL, Mine Brook Road, opp. Railroad Station, where they serve a 75¢ steak sandwich special that’s a real treat!
TOWN HOUSE GRILL serves tempting snacks, meals, and delicious steaks every day from noon until midnight with new specials every day.
The entire bar was remodeled in 1968 with antique birch paneling,d a large central, rectangular bar, and a separate room for dining tables. Through the years, it became popular with its softball players and other residents.
Vallacchi sold the building in 1972 to Bernardsville developer Frank Petrozzo, who retained the Townhouse name. Four years later,r in 1976, Robert Stevenson of Martinsville bought the bar from Petrozzo and renamed it The Station.
The Station Era (1976 – 2026)
By 1976, it had taken on a new name, The Station. The name looked backward, but the life inside was firmly present. It was a place of burgers, fries, and crowded tables—a place where people came after games, where graduates returned, where the town met itself again. Upstairs, the apartments remained unchanged since Sutton’s time.
The design leaned into the past, evoking a 1920s train-station lounge and reconnecting the building to its origins in the locomotive era. But this was not a return. It was an evolution. Even then, one thing remained constant. The apartments above. More than 80 years after Sutton’s decision, the building was still mixed-use.
In 1984, The Station rebranded again as a casual bar and restaurant and quickly became a local gathering place. By 1987, Kevin Heinold and Neil Rollefsen were operating the Station Pub as hands-on owners, also working as cooks in the small kitchen. The name reflects the train station across the street. Pierre Rochat owned the building itself.
1987 Flashbacks (Review) Bville News
The Stationburger was another complete meal, consisting of a huge, nicely done hamburger with melted cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and dressing on a very fresh bun, for $3.95. We also ordered a turkey club sandwich ($4.25), which was also a hefty size, with lots of tender, moist turkey and a big wedge of dill pickle. Also on the specials list that day were a roast beef club sandwich for $4.25, a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich for $3, a chef salad for $4.25, and a Sloppy Joe for $4.25. The menu features other sandwiches but no desserts, which helped the waistlines expand from the gigantic sandwiches and fries, then recover.
Supporting the local community was always a big deal for the Town House and, later, the Station, including sports sponsorships. Here’s 1987 Kevin Heinold of The Station Softball Men’s Team, who were champions that year.
The building had adapted once more. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, under ownership tied to the Hanson family, the property entered another transition. The groundwork was being laid for a more intentional reinvention. That came in 2006, when Hampshire Real Estate reshaped the space into a modern dining destination.
2014 Memories at “The Station.”
Somewhere in the early 2000s, the Station changed from a shot-and-beer Station to a more upscale, family-type restaurant. While many felt the original Stationburger had changed, they tried to keep the burger while expanding the offerings as a staple of the Station menu.
In 2016, fire threatened to end the story. The three-alarm fire broke out in the restaurant shortly before 3 AM. Friday, January 7, 2016. According to the account, there were no injuries, but about 20 residents were left homeless. The upper floors were damaged, and for a moment, it seemed like this might be the final chapter. But the Claremont did what it had always done. It adapted. Repairs were made. The restaurant reopened. The building continued forward.
Now & The Next Chapter
In the late 20th and early 21st century, as the building lived its life as The Station, its identity was shaped not just by ownership, but by the people who ran it day to day. At the center of that experience were longtime general manager Geraldine Infantolino and Angelo, who became the familiar faces of the restaurant for an entire generation of Bernardsville residents.
They were not just running a restaurant. They were carrying forward a tradition that stretched back more than a century. On any given day, hundreds of customers passed through the doors, but what brought people back was not just the food or the setting. It was the feeling, the recognition, the sense that this was their place.
Under their leadership, The Station became more than a restaurant. It was a daily gathering place, creating the kind of personal connections that had defined the building since its earliest days. And when their time came to an end, it was not simply a change in management. For many in town, it felt like the end of an era.
Today, the old Claremont Hotel stands on the cusp of yet another transformation, this time alongside restaurant operator David Burke, a Jerseyian who currently operates the Red Horse Steakhouse at the Bernards Inn up the street. With a relaunch scheduled for Monday, April 13, 2026, the tavern will have a tavern flair, modest pricing, and a cozy, friendly atmosphere with a new, warmer, more evocative look and a seasonal new menu that will be smaller and easier to navigate, some items culled from The Stations’ menu. But, that’s the future, and not in the Mr. Local History wheelhouse… look to social media for updates.
So all in all, as both the West Line Railroad and Mine Brook Road have served to transport the stagecoach, the locomotive, and the automobile, we have returned to the simplest form of movement, walking. The Claremont is no longer a stop for travelers passing through. It is a place people walk to. A destination within the town itself. A place rooted not in movement across distance, but in connection within community. And that may be its most remarkable transformation of all. Because through every era, one thing has remained true. The Claremont was never just a building. It was a response to how people moved and came together upon arrival.
Bernardsville’s Museum in the Streets Honors the Old Claremont Hotel
Bernardsville, New Jersey
The Museum in the Streets®
Van Doren’s Claremont Hotel was constructed in 1878 directly across from the railroad station to accommodate the increase in visitors arriving by train. Built primarily as a commercial hotel, the 1000 Colonial Revival structure was popular with traveling salespeople as an alternative to other nearby establishments. The Old Stone Hotel catered mostly to farmers, while the Claremont had, and still has, an extensive Somerset Inn, with its shipping social life, pool, and tennis, and upscale appearance.
The hotel also hosts community gatherings. In October 1897, a group of 30 men who were concerned about the town’s safety met here and formally established the Bernardsville Bucket Brigade, which later became the Bernardsville Fire Company.
Originally a 20-room hotel, the Claremont Hotel had a bar and office on the first floor. The dining rooms and guest rooms were on the second and third floors. Though the top floor was converted into apartments in 1927, it remained a commercial hotel until the 1930s, when a variety of shops and showrooms were installed on the ground floor. After several changes of ownership, the building was renamed The Station Inn in 1976. It still retains its historic charm and classical character, with a two-story porch featuring Ionic columns, a hipped roof, and dormer windows.
BONUS:
George Brown Post’s and Claremont Hotel Historic Timelines
In April 1871, George Browne Post made his first confirmed land purchase in Bernardsville, acquiring the 104-acre Eliza Ballentine farm and the 106-acre William Ballentine Jr. farm, which together became known as Claremont Farms.
History That Played A Part in the Claremont Era
Our Readers’ Top 10 MLH Posts this Week
Claremont Hotel & The Station Timeline
THE CLAREMONT HOTEL → THE STATION
A Building That Keeps Reinventing Itself
MLH started in 1850, when we acquired a large piece of property before there was a Claremont Road, owned by Thomas and Bird, and by another family member, Frank Bird. This is where our history begins.
1878 – mid 1880s
EARLY RAILROAD HOTEL
Established following the arrival of the West Line railroad in 1871, it served travelers and salespeople directly across from the train station and depot. Longtime historian Ed Spinning of Bernardsville located a stone bearing the 1878 marker, which is the only identifier we have for the time. The Bird property is also shown on a 1873 map of the location. Makes you think, was Claremont Road named after the hotel or Hotelstate? We believe it’s after the Claremont Hotel.
Proprietors: Thomas / Frank Bird
mid 1880s – circa 1901
CLAREMONT HOTEL
Robert “Bob” Van Dorn secures the Thomas Bird property and remodels it into a formal hotel, establishing the Claremont name. Although George Post would later build a Bernardsville estate also named Claremont, the hotel name had already been established decades earlier by Robert Van Dorn and was entirely unrelated to it.
Owner/Developer: Robert “Bob” Van Dorn
circa 1901 – circa 1905
WEST BERNARDS HOTEL
Operated under a new name, West Bernards Hotel, as it was still part of Bernards Township at the time. In June 1905, Walters reopened with many improvements.
Owner/Operator: Henry E. Walters
circa 1905 -1910
CLAREMONT HOTEL and CLAREMONT CAFE
The hotel is Hotelto Frank Kalt, who makes more improvements, and the WEST BERNARDS HOTEL reopens as the “CLAREMONT” on August 10, 1905.
Propriator: Frank J. Kalt
1910 – 1911
HOTEL CLAREMONT
The Hotel Claremont has been sold by Mrs. Emma E. Lyon, executrix of the estate of her son, William H. Lyon, deceased, to William C. Quick, of Whitehouse, a veteran hotel man. Mr. Quick, who was proprietor of the Union Hotel at Whitehouse Station for 5 years, and was also, at one time, owner of hotels at Ringoes, and at other places in Somerset and Hunterdon Counties. The price of the property was $55,000.
Propriator: William C. Quick
1911 – 1917
CLAREMONT HOTEL / HOTEL CLAREMONT
Under John W. Hoffman, the property operates as a working tavern hotel serving both travelers and locals. In 1911, Claremont Road got telephone lines. Sponsored the first “Claremonts” basketball team. John also introduced the first novelty popcorn-and-peanut roaster machine in 1917. The entire contents were auctioned in 1917.
Owner/Operator: John W. Hoffman
1917 – 1919
Claremont Hotel is leased to New Owners Vincent J. Sisser of Somerville, noted September 13, 1917.
Owner: Vincent J. Sisser.
1918 – The Claremont Hotel of Bernardsville is sold to Harry R. Coffin of Montclair, New Jersey. The hotel accommodated about 100 persons and was equipped with elaborate dining rooms, grill rooms, and a cafe.
1919 – William Sisser reported as the hotel owner.
1922 – 1947
CLAREMONT APARTMENTS
Alfred D. Sutton of Chestnut Avenue, Bernardsville, purchases the former Claremont Hotel and converts it into apartments and commercial space, renaming it “Claremont Apartments.”
Owner: Alfred D. Sutton
1947 – 1954
CLAREMONT BUILDING / CLAREMONT APARTMENTS
Arthur H. Walter and Milton J. DeVore of Plainfield take over the plumbing business operating at the property following Sutton’s retirement.
Business Operators: Arthur H. Walter and Milton J. DeVore
1954 – 1972
TOWN HOUSE TAVERN
Bar and dining return under new ownership with apartments above.
Owner/Operator: Robert “Wee Wee” Vallacchi
circa 1972 – circa 1976
TOWN HOUSE TAVERN
Short ownership period, continuing tavern operations.
Owners/Operators: Frank L. and Gertrude S. Petrozzo Jr.
1976 – 1984
THE STATION INN
Robert (Ben) & Nancy Stevenson of Martinsville purchased the property from 546 Realty Company on February 11, 1976, for $149,000. Sold on December 31, 1984, for $550,000 to Grady Berwald Realty, Co.
Owners / Operators: Ben & Nancy Stevenson
1984 – 1987
THE STATION / STATION PUB
The name changed a bit for a local bar and restaurant. We don’t think Kevin Heinold and Neil Rollefsen owned the building, but they certainly ran the Station, since Neil is credited with creating the legendary Station Burger.
Owner: under Grady Berwald Realty & Pierre Rochat
Operators: Pierre Rochat / Kevin Heinold and Neil Rollefsen
1988 – 2000
THE STATION BAR AND GRILL
A new name that continued operating as a well-known local gathering place following a corporate transfer. The Station Burger remained as the go-to burger joint and the same big ole’ bar.
Ownership: Forty Five Mine Brook Road, Inc., and Pierre Rochat
Operator: Kevin Heinold and Neil Rollefsen
2000 – 2025
THE STATION PUB AND GRUB
Repositioned with a railroad-themed identity and continued mixed use. In 2006, updated with a new interior and a refreshed exterior and reopened as the Station Pub and Grub. In 2013, a redesign and relaunch featured a new wall of windows that opened onto the view of the Bernardsville train station. Earth-toned textures of tweed walls, rich coiffured ceilings with dark wood beams, and roomy booths. In 2016, a three-alarm fire damaged the upper floors. The building survives and is restored by Hampshire Properties.
Owner: Hampshire Real Estate (Station 2000, LLC)
Operator: General Manager, Geraldine Infantolino
2026 – PRESENT
DAVID BURKE’S STATION TAVERN
A new chapter returns the property to a tavern identity more than a century after its original era.
Owner: Hampshire Real Estate (Station 2000, LLC)
Operator: David Burke