Temple B'nai Israel
Our building
1696 Samuel Jennings was deeded the ground by King George. Jennings was a Quaker preacher, born in England; he died in Burlington in 1708. He was the first deputy-governor of West Jersey, in which office he served until 1683, when he was chosen governor by the provincial assembly. Byllynge denied the right of the assembly to elect a governor, and removed Jennings from office. At a later date he took up his residence in Philadelphia, where, in 1690-'3, he was justice of the quorum and judge of the county court. After a time in London he returned to this country and served in the provincial assembly and the council of West Jersey, under Lord Cornbury. He was chosen speaker of the assembly, and in this role fearlessly opposed the arbitrary rule of Cornbury. He wrote the address to the crown which led to the governor's removal. He did more than any of his contemporaries to organize the civil government of West Jersey.
1729 The ground was next occupied by the print shop of Isaac Collins, a close friend of Benjamin Franklin, born in Delaware in 1746. He had moved to Burlington in 1770, and was appointed Royal Printer. Historians are uncertain whether this was the same print shop where currency was printed in 1728 by Benjamin Franklin. Collins was a Quaker, but in 1777, he began publishing The New Jersey Gazette, a newspaper which supported the revolutionary movement, and was expelled from the Friends Meeting for warlike behavior.
1765 Abraham Stockton purchased the parcel. A nobleman, he was appointed by Governor Bloomfield to solve some territorial problems with the Brotherton Indians.
1800 Lydia Richie purchased the property. She demolished all edifices on it and erected the present building.
1806 Garrett Walls resided in the house. Garret Dorset Wall was born in 1783, in Middletown, New Jersey. In 1822, he was elected to the New Jersey Assembly. In 1829, he was elected Governor of New Jersey, but declined the position, stating that he was too busy with personal pursuits and did not wish to become further entangled in the State's politics. Later in the year, President Jackson appointed him U.S. District Attorney for the state. As District Attorney, Wall played a key role in breaking up a system of land piracy. In 1834, Wall was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he represented New Jersey for six years. His final position as a public servant was that of a state court judge, from 1848 until his death in 1850.
1850 The building now belonged to Wall's son, Colonel James Walter Wall, who followed in his father's political footsteps. His daughter Matilda married Peter Dumont Vroom, governor of New Jersey between 1829 and 1836.
1856 Andrew McNeal resided in the building. He was a prosperous businessman, who purchased land on the Delaware River and built a large pipe shop and foundry in 1866. That would be the beginning of the Burlington Plant, one of the major steps in the industrialization of the area. This facility became a part of U.S. Pipe in 1899.
1870s The house was bought by the Thomansons, in-laws of the McNeal family, who owned the U.S. Pipe Foundry.
1890 The Countess Bernstroff, daughter of Andrew McNeal, bought the building.
1894 Bernstroff married James Birch, the carriage mogul and arts patron. James H. Birch had established a carriage repair shop in Burlington in 1862, which would become a factory to mass-produce carriages. A patron of the arts, he opened a 1200-seat opera house on High Street. Birch's techniques for the mass production of carriage bodies attracted the attention of Henry Ford, who asked Birch to manufacture bodies for his new automobiles. Although his son urged him to accept Ford's offer, Birch declined, believing that the automobile would never replace horse-drawn carriages. The factory went out of business in 1918, and the Birch Opera House closed in 1927. Birch's third son, Thomas, served as U.S. Minister to Portugal from 1913 to 1922.
1916 Temple B’nai Israel purchased the building from McNeal’s family.
1955 TBI remodeled the building interior
Temple B'nai Israel
212 High Street
Burlington, NJ 08016
(609) 386-0406