High Point State Park Ties to Bernardsville, New Jersey’s Kusar and Dryden Families
One of New Jersey’s most iconic state parks is High Point State Park in Sussex, New Jersey, which boasts the state’s highest elevation and a monument dedicated to veterans in one of the most beautiful locations in the State. As the Mr. Local History Project researched four iconic fall foliage destinations, the history of High Point State Park highlighted the two Bernardsville, New Jersey, families that made the park possible. Enjoy as we introduce you to the Kusars and the Drydens.
Say Hi to Anthony Kusar
Anthony Rudolph Kuser (May 12, 1862 – February 8, 1929) was a businessman and philanthropist who, along with his wife, Susie, donated the land that comprises New Jersey’s highest point and had a monument built there to honor America’s veterans.
Anthony Rudolph Kuser was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1862. He was one of five sons (one of which was his fraternal twin) and one daughter born to Rudolph Kuser, a German-Swiss mechanical engineer who emigrated from Zurich to the United States in 1837Anthony organized the Trenton Hygeia Ice Company, the Trenton Brewery Company, and was instrumental in consolidating all the gas and electric companies of Trenton. Along with his twin brother, John L. Kuser, he was the leading spirit in the purchase of the Trenton Street Railway Company. Other endeavors included starting the Walter Automobile Company and financial interests in 20th Century Fox.
In 1910, John Dryden purchased the High Point Inn from the estate of Charles St. John and subsequently remodeled it into his personal residence, although he rarely used it. Susie’s father had purchased the bulk of the property, and it had been his lifelong dream that the land be protected as a nature reserve, as he was a renowned naturalist and loved birds. After John’s death, it was Susie Kusar who donated the tract to New Jersey in 1923 in memory of her father John, and was signed by “Susie Dryden Kuser and husband (Anthony).” The deed also contained a significant restriction requiring that the Commissioners of High Point Park “provide that there shall be no shooting or trapping of birds” on the property, a provision reflecting the Kuser and Dryden families’ passion for the protection of bird life.
Five years later, in 1927, Anthony, who had long intended to erect some sort of observation deck at the summit of High Point, sent a letter to Governor A. Harry Moore offering to pay for the construction of a tall monument to honor New Jersey’s veterans. With the generous offer accepted, a 221-foot-tall structure, somewhat modeled after the Bunker Hill monument in Massachusetts, was designed for Kuser by the architectural firm of Wyeth & King, the same firm that had designed alterations to his Palm Beach home years before. The Hoffman Construction Company of Bernardsville built the light-toned, quartzite-faced tower.
Anthony & Susie Kusar
On December 1, 1896, Anthony R. Kusar married Susie Fairfield Dryden (1862–1932), daughter of Senator and Prudential Insurance founder John Fairfield Dryden. The couple’s wedding, held at Third Presbyterian Church in Newark, was a large and significant social event, with 1,500 invitations issued. Anthony’s best man was Walter Scott Lenox, a close friend from Trenton who had started what became the world-famous china manufacturer, Lenox.
In 1916, the Kusers bought a 250-acre estate in Bernardsville, New Jersey, called Blythewood from Henry Rudolph Kunhardt (1860–1923) that was designed by Henry Rutgers Marshall. After they purchased the home, they had it renovated by Hoppin & Koen and renamed Faircourt.
Road and Post Lane. Later called Langstone, it was demolished around 1949. Source: Bernardsville Public Library
Faircourt was the second of Anthony and Susie Kuser’s houses in Bernardsville to bear that name. And, while today’s Faircourt served as the family’s principal residence, it was only one of their many estates, including Los Incas in Palm Beach, Florida; Tall Pines in Aiken, South Carolina; and a mansion on their 10,600-acre estate at High Point, near Sussex, New Jersey.
On February 8, 1929, Kuser died at his estate, Los Incas, a 12-bedroom six-acre oceanfront estate in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Source: Bernardsville Library
Susie Fairfield Dryden Kusar
Susie Fairfield Dryden was the daughter of Cynthia Jennings Fairchild and John Fairfield Dryden. Susie Fairfield Dryden had her childhood home in Bernardsville before moving into her own Bernardsville estate after marrying Anthony and becoming a Kusar. Known as the Stronghold Estate, Susie’s father, John Fairfield Dryden, purchased the home originally built in 1886 for New York banker James Colman Drayton. It wasn’t a castle until 1899, when Prudential Insurance founder John Fairfield Dryden purchased the home. Though it’s been over 117 years (which includes a stint as a private girls’ school from 1940-1995).
The estate was also owned by the famed designer and mogul Marc Ecko, who purchased the property in 2004 and further restored the interior, upgrading it with 21st-century technology, along with glimpses of Ecko’s signature boldly modern style. Dryden’s original Stronghold was designed by the prominent architect George B. Post and was put on the market in 2016, selling for approximately $15 million.
Bernardsville, New Jersey, has a Dryden Road honoring John Fairfield Dryden and his “Stronghold” estate area on one of the highest points on the Bernardsville mountain.
Historic Estates on the Bernardsville Mountain
The Bernardsville Mountain remains as a destination of the metro area’s rich and famous. Estates still dot the region today.
A Second Faircourt
In 1916, the Kusars purchased what was then known as Blythewood from their Bernardsville neighbors, the Kunhardts. Anthony and Susie Dryden Kuser bought the estate and proceeded to enlarge and alter the house. The relatively simple Blythewood was transformed into an ornate home, and the Kusers renamed it Faircourt as well. In 1919, Brooke Russell marries the wealthy John Dryden Kuser. Although they live in luxury, the marriage is miserable. Brooke would later reveal her husband had beaten her numerous times.
Download a copy of “Historic Faircourt” from the Bernardsville Public Library researched by local historian W. Barry Thomson.
More New Jersey Local History
High Point State Park was recently selected as one of the top four historic fall foliage destinations in New Jersey. Check out the story link below.
Brook Astor Marries John Dryden Kusar – See Story Below
Susan Secondo
My daughter’s great great grandparents were Susie and Anthony Kuser – her great grandmother was Brooke Astor.
Historic Faircourt Mansion Asks $12 Million In Bernardsville, New Jersey –
What’s old is new again at Faircourt, a Tuscan-inspired villa built for a wealthy industrialist in the late 1800s in the borough of Bernardsville, New Jersey.
Set on about 13 acres, the mansion in the Somerset Hills was reconfigured in 1916 to include such details as ornate woodwork, gilded ceilings and marble floors. The years-long renovation is the result of the labors of New York-based architect Annabelle Selldorf and interior designer Matthew Frederick. Period details in the entrance hall, living room, dining room and library have been refurbished including decorative plasterwork, oak paneling, Spanish tile and elaborate ceilings.
A tennis court, heated saltwater pool, three-hole putting green, lawn, gardens and an orchard with 72 peach, pear, apple and cherry trees complete the treed grounds.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-global-properties/2022/11/04/historic-faircourt-mansion-asks-12-million-in-bernardsville-new-jersey/?sh=1af3a1fd6a25
On an infamous November night in 1921, a burglar broke into Faircourt, the luxurious Tuscan-style villa owned by multimillionaire Colonel Anthony R. Kuser in New Jersey’s hunt country, and chloroformed the entire household. Among the robber’s victims was the homeowner’s teenage daughter-in-law, the future philanthropist Brooke Astor, who was relieved of $13,000 worth of jewelry, including the sapphire engagement ring on her finger. The thief, called a “clever Raffles” by The New York Times, was never caught, but the Kusers may have taken some comfort in the paper’s description of the estate as “one of the show places of New Jersey.”