NOTE: As with all Mr. Local History retrospectives, we often update the post when we learn stories and are sent photos from our community. We will continue to grow this piece as information becomes available.
A Small Part of Camelot in the Somerset Hills in Northern Somerset County, New Jersey
While the Somerset Hills plays home to many a power broker and celebrities, there was no one who captured the time and essence of the Somerset Hills quite like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. While her life was filled with unimaginable tragedy, we look at her life in Bernardsville and Peapack as she turned to family and her equestrian hobby as she resided in the Somerset Hills for over 30 years.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, nee Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1953–68), Jacqueline Kennedy, or simply Jackie, was born on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York. She was America’s first lady (1961–63) as the wife of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. Her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, was one of the wealthiest men in the world. Jackie died on May 19, 1994, in New York City.
In 1951, Jacqueline met John F. Kennedy, a popular Congressman from Massachusetts. Two years later, after he became a U.S. Senator, he proposed marriage. On September 12, 1953, the couple wed in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island.
“I don’t share the same passion with horses that Jackie does.”
John F, Kennedy – He was allergic to horse hair.
November 22, 1963
The Day The World Changed Forever
Ask just about anyone over 65, and they’ll know where they were on this terrible day.
Confirmed – Jackies Home in Bernardsville
In October 1965, rumors existed around the Somerset Hills of Jackie’s sightings. The Secret Service was with her as she had lunch at the Far Hills Inn. Later that month, the secretary for Jacqueline B. Kennedy confirmed that the former first lady was “leasing a small farmhouse in the Bernardsville-Peapack area for the fall and winter months.” The rental was a 10‐room “badly made‐over barn” rented from Mr. & Mrs. Douglas Burden. The Bernardsville News reported it with a front-page story on Thursday, Oct. 21, 1965.
A week earlier, on October 15, 1965, The News reported that Mrs. Kennedy, joined by two Secret Service agents, had taken a limousine from her Fifth Avenue apartment in New York and visited the home of former Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon on Larger Cross Road in Bedminster.
Jackie loved the area. It was everything she wanted. It was secluded, there was plenty of room for riding horses, and the nearby Essex Hunt Club in Peapack was a perfect gathering place for her interests. The area was noted as one of the largest equestrian communities in the country, a perfect place to bring her kids.
Exclusive Neighborhood
It was quite the neighborhood as well. The Gambrills, Onassis’ neighbors, were on a hill at the end of a long private drive near Peapack. The house was surrounded by over 350 acres of land, including fenced pastures, a 16-stall stable complex, and formal gardens. The estate was built in the 1920s for Richard Van Nest Gambrill and his wife, Edith Blair, daughter of C. Ledyard Blair, who lived nearby at their Blairsden estate. They called it Vernon Manor, but she took the name when the widowed Blair left. It is called Four Seasons after four alcoves and four seasonal statues on the estate.
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Gambrill owned Vernon Manor. Richard was director of the National Horse Association and Secretary of the United Hunts Racing Association. He was also a master of the Essex Fox Hounds and had a pack of his beagles called the Vernon Somerset Beagles Pack, the forerunner to the Tewksbury Foot Bassets (different dogs). So you can see why Jackie Kennedy Onassis loved renting a cottage in the area.
1968 – Jackie Becomes an Onassis
In October 1968, Jacqueline Kennedy wed the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, whom she had known for several years. According to reports, however, the marriage soon became troubled, and she continued to spend considerable time in New York and Peapack. Although most of his estate went to his daughter after he died in 1975, Jacqueline inherited a sum variously estimated at $20 million to $26 million.
1969 – 1974 “Woodwinds”
The Peapack Rental
The attractions for Mrs. Onassis included the natural beauty of the Somerset Hills, the horsey atmosphere (more than 15,000 acres for foxhunting with the Essex Fox Hounds and bridle paths for riding), her children’s friends, and a fairly casual way of life. For five years, Mrs. Onassis and Caroline and John Kennedy came to “Woodwinds,” a house leased to Mrs. Onassis by Mrs. Richard Gambrill. It was a seven-room gray clapboard house up off Main Street, a very modest property in the Peapack Valley’s center.
Jackie would often spend the anniversary of her husband’s assassination in the Somerset Hills under Secret Service detail that unfortunately had to be used a few times with paparazzi and stalkers.
“There were often times when reporters would try to stalk, typically in November or when there was a Kennedy crisis, and there were a few arrests. But after a few years, things settled down and we would have dinner once in a while or I’d chat with Caroline and John while they were playing around the neighborhood. And yes it was true that Ari Onassis was pulled over by local police and questioned as a trespasser. But no he was not taken in and he was not arrested. But the police did question that he was who he said he was.”
Peter Villa – Neighbor. Peter was one of six children; Tonly, Nick, Blair, Ann, and was the great grandson of C. Ledyard Blair.
On October 30, 1969, the Bernardsville News reported, “Dressed in a brown hood, checked coat, and grey slacks, Mrs. Aristotle Onassis was scarcely noticed as she chatted with friends on the hillside at the Far Hills Race Meeting.”
1974 – Kennedy Takes the Plunge and Purchases in Bernardsville
1974 – Jackie Kennedy Onassis buys a home named the Burden Estate, once owned by Betsy Chance Burden, the sister-in-law to James Cox Brady (nicknamed Diamond Jim Brady), for $200,000. The 10-acre property off Stevens Lane was purchased from Mr. & Mrs. Grenville Emmett. The two-story yellow structure was located on the Bernardsville Peapack border.
This is the same house that she had rented with her for years and used it as a weekend home. Neighbors often saw her in riding pants or sweatsuits, horseback riding on her property.
The blue house off Stevens Lane marks the spot of the Kennedy home back in the 1960s.
The house overlooked the valley and was not served by a public road. Secret Service agents took duty in a small, private cottage on the 10‐acre estate as the children’s ponies grazed in the surrounding pastures.
The Equestrian Life and That BMW
From about 1964 until about 1969, Jackie Kennedy kept her horses at Fox Chase Stables on River Road in nearby Bedminster. She kept two horses, Winchester and Surdan. Riding Winchester, Caroline Kennedy won a few local awards at the Gill School Horse Show in nearby Peapack. They also had two ponies, Leprechaun and Macaroni. The King family cared for them.
Jackie’s history gets a little fuzzy after she moves to Peapack. She lived off Highland Avenue in the valley area just below the current Matheny Medical Center and boarded her horses nearby.
Many people don’t know that Bedminster is STILL one of the largest equine areas in the United States. The Somerset Bridle Path Association (SBPA) works tirelessly to help keep bridle paths open as landowners prefer to keep their property private.
The rest of Jackie’s years in the Somerset Hills were relatively quiet. Aristotle Onassis died on March 15, 1975, at the age of 69. She turned 50 in 1979 and spent most of her time in the area enjoying her two passions: her children and her equestrian activities.
In 1975, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis auctioned off odds and ends from the house. The sale, which included a chair used by the late President Kennedy as a student at Choate, brought in a few thousand dollars.
She Loved the ” Blessing of the Hounds”
One of Jackie’s favorite activities while in the area was the annual “blessing of the hounds”, an event held on a private property in the area where members of the Essex Hunt Club joined on Thanksgiving morning to sip a little champagne, see the preacher bless the hounds, and then go off on horseback for the traditional fox hunt with those blessed hounds.
Jacqueline Kennedy died on May 19, 1994, at the age of 64. Even after her death, she remained one of the most popular and recognizable First Ladies, and in 1999, she was listed as one of Gallup’s Most-Admired Men and Women of the 20th Century.
1997 – Family Sells house
In 1993, Jackie Kennedy transferred ownership of her Bernardsville house to Caroline and John for $100. Caroline Kennedy’s auction of family goods, including table linens and pillows from the country house, brought in $5.5 million at auction.
In 1997, three years after Jackie’s death, a neighbor who had tended to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ house bought the house and property from the Kennedys. Marjorie “Peggy” McDonnell Walsh purchased the home for $1.47 million on July 27, 1997. Not bad for an original $200,000 investment. Mayor Hugh Fenwick said Walsh was an old friend, which is why Onassis bought the house in the first place.
Marjorie McDonnell Walsh’s husband was Philip C. Walsh, who lived in front of the home at 121 Stevens Lane, Bernardsville. He died peacefully at his Peapack, N.J., home on March 24, 2010.
There were rumors that the home was taken down to prevent tourists and gawkers from invading the property. Still, the former first lady’s weekend retreat was demolished in 2000 to make way for Marjorie to build a bigger house on the property.
Jackie O. Auction
1996 (April 26) – The Jackie Onassis Sotheby’s Estate four-day auction fetched $442,500 for one of John Kennedy’s oval office rocking chairs. Onassis’ engagement ring fetched $2.6 million. Her 1992 BMW 4-door 325i sedan fetched $79,500. The auction raised over $34.5 million.
Additional Information
- Residences and vacation homes of Jackie Kennedy Onassis
- In 2019, Coldwell Banker Global Luxury® completed the $6 million sale of “Four Seasons (Vernon Manor),” one of Peapack-Gladstone’s grand turn-of-the-century estates that sits on 50 acres of rolling countryside, fenced pastures and unobstructed views at 27-29 Willow Ave, Peapack Gladstone Boro. This was the highest-priced home sale in Peapack-Gladstone for 2019, per the Garden State Multiple Listing Service (GSMLS). It had been listed for as high at $13.5m with Turpin Realtors in 2015.
Have a Story to Share?
The Mr. Local History project always wants to learn from members of our Somerset Hills communities. Please feel free to post a comment below. We will continue to build on the piece as we gather additional information about Jackie’s life in the Somerset Hills.
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Carol Sutton Willadsen
We lived on Anne Casey and Diana Villa’s estate/farm. They were the granddaughters of Richard and Edith Gambrill of Vernon Manor Farm. The house Jackie rented on Highland Ave. was a gray ranch house. My husband and oldest son were up there a few times to fix things, Jackie very pleasant. One day the “Greek Mafia” as we called her bodyguards, came to our house at the farm. I was a bit nervous but all they wanted was a key my husband had to Jackie’s rental, she had misplaced hers.
Scott Keeler
My mother’s late hairdresser and friend, Angie Popa of Peapack, told me years ago she met Jackie Onassis while waiting in line for a sandwich at the Copper Kettle in Peapack on a Saturday. She talked with her for a while and said Onassis ordered tomato soup. Ah, the simple things in life!
Jane Manilych
Carol Sutton Willadsen Glad you replied! I too remember it being a ranch house and not at all imposing. A few years back I went to find the house, but the entrance had been changed and I for the life of me couldn’t find it! Is Matheny Drive the present day road name? I recall I just walked into a gated road from the train station and up to Tony and Diana Villas house. The Kennedy home was on the right, The Villas house near the quarry to the left. As for Diana Villa. What a character! I worked for her as a mother’s helper one summer for her 4 kids. The stories I could tell! They used to have a summer masquerade party and Malcolm Forbes would drive up on his motorcycle. I too have been to the Gambrill estate. I used to take the young granddaughter, Diana, age 6-7 to visit. Perhaps I even saw you or your husband? This would have been in 1971. The eldest son was at Harvard at the time.
Karen Foyle
My mom (Louise Scheuerman) saw her one time in Batti’s in B-ville. She said she couldn’t figure why these men looked at her very steadily when she went in. Then she said she figured it out when she saw Jackie shopping. She also spotted her in the parking lot after shopping at Acme. She told me she wore white jeans and a dark turtleneck. She said she hopped into an expensive little car.
Jeff Ralli
When my wife and I were first married we lived on Highland Avenue in Peapack. We ran into Jackie several times when we went into the small country store on Main Street. She would stop in there to buy coffee and cigarettes . Always a very composed lady.
Maura Fairty Tierney
When I was 12 or so my friend Chrissy and I rode our bikes from Basking Ridge where we lived to Jackie’s house. This would have been around 1980. Chrissy’s cousin was taking care of Jackie’s horses. Jackie obviously wasn’t home and someone, I think it was a woman, let Chrissy and I inside the home. I remember it had a cozy country feel. One room – like a mud room or closed in porch had about 10 pairs of riding boots. We even went into her bedroom and her closet! I remember looking at the family pictures on the wall.
Thomas King
Took care of her horses while working at Fox Chase Stables….Both my brother Bob and l spent 4 years with her….got to do many different jobs for her, including grooming at horse shows, taking her and her horses to hunt with the Essex Hunt…we also served at parties at Waterloo Village which was owned by the same man that owned FCS. She was always nice and fun to be around….her horses, Winchester and Surdan were nice horses… and of course the two ponies, Macaroni and Leprechaun were the best. Met A. Onassis a few times. Always a good tipper….It was a great time in my life…
My Godparents were the caretakers of the Peapack home, from the 70’s to the 90’s.
I enjoyed spending time there. It was a very understated home. Simple but elegant.
A few things that I remember about the estate. The art books and classical music records in the living room. The gas pump by the side of the garage. I read that it was installed by the Secret Service. The small swimming pool with chicken wire around it.
I also remember the horse barn down the road from the property. On the other side of the road after turning right out of the estate. My cousin had a horse there, if I remember correctly.
Carol are you related to the Sutton’s that came to Peapack in the early to middle of the 1900s. They lived in Hunterdon County, and had a farm and horses.
I lived in peapack from 1970-1972.
I saw Jackie Onassis in her four wheel Jeep when she attended The catholic church.
Dona Sutton: Most likely some relation. My Sutton grandfather was originally from High Bridge.
I was looking up some thing about the Gambrils and came upon the site. I was involved in horses in the area and First saw Jackie at the Saint Bernards horse show, a tiny little show in Gladstone. Then in the late 70s, I was fox hunting with my thoroughbred I kept in Bedminster, and I saw her several times. Of course you pretend to not notice her and give her her privacy. She came to the barn where I had my horse once, Rylan Farms on Holland Road, and walked around with the owner because apparently she was considering moving her horses there. I was introduced to her, and she was extremely light spoken and sweet.
Does anyone recall Ruth Earle who had a large property on a hill near the Starr’s (Vanderbilt) on Rt 206 opposite the ski pull and what did she do there if anything? Henry Ruschmann came to my 10th Birthday (costume) party as a pirate, his mother having painted lipstick smears on his legs for injuries (as in pirating on the high seas). Mrs Ruschmann was a rather typical Gemütlichkeit blonde beauty whom I remember painting phosforescent glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling of the rather small and dark library at Meadowbrook Farm.
It seems both Mr and Mrs Ruschmann were creative types. Years later I happened in on her, as a widow, perfectly outfitted in a day dress and perfect coiffeur, having lunch alone in the dining room, as served by the maid. Joe Rossi told me that when Mr Ruschmann came to B’ville in 1936, Joe was a teen-ager and found work helping to break up the foundation of an existing barn where Mr Ruschmann planned to erect his building, having brought his whole “glitter” factory with him from Germany. Many stories and memories of Miss Gill’s, 1947-1960.
Did you also see our story about Mr. Ruschmann? https://www.mrlocalhistory.org/meadowbrook-glitter-bernardsville/
Jackie also rented a small ranch house in Peapack owned by Anne Casey in the 1970s. We lived on that farm estate when my husband worked there. One day, a big black car pulled into our driveway, and a large man came to the door. It seemed Jackie had misplaced her house key. My husband had to go up to the house and let them in. We joked later that the dark-suited guys looked like Greek Mafia.
Carol, that must have been around the same time that she moved her horses out of Fox Chase where I worked because I know when she lived in Peapack I don’t remember the name of the street but behind our house was the entrance to Matheny School
Yes, the drive to Matheny from Main St through the stone pillars and up the hill. The farm estate where we lived on the left side as you drive up. A local resident once came to our house and asked me which house Jackie rented. When I refused to tell him he threw a fit. A hot-tempered guy.