From the Archives: Fort Lee’s Main Street: 1776 Meets 2013

This past Saturday, November 23rd, 2013, the Borough of Fort Lee, New Jersey and the Palisade Interstate Park celebrated the anniversary of General Washington’s Retreat from Fort Lee, or as we call it “Washington’s Retreat to Victory”, with our annual Retreat Reenactment along the old Retreat Route on Main Street.  In the summer of 1776 through November 20th of that same year, General George Washington ordered the creation of Fort Lee, first called Fort Constitution.  His encampment for his 3,000 troops was in the old English Neighborhood, the oldest neighborhood in our borough.  This section of town is roughly south of Main Street, east of Palisade Avenue and runs to lower Main Street towards the base of the Palisades.  In those days the current day Monument Park was a pond, Parker’s Pond to be exact.  This pond was filled in for the creation of Monument Park in 1908.  Around this pond at the site of the present day Fort Lee Museum and the many high rises to the east was constructed huts for Washington’s troops to live in, cooking facilities and all the things required for the living quarters of 3,000 troops.  Each day these troops would march down Old Palisade Road to the bluffs of the Palisades, the site of the present day Fort Lee Historic Park.  The troops, along with those of Washington’s Army across the Hudson River at Fort Washington, would attempt to disrupt British shipping on the river below and prevent the British from controlling the Hudson.

Among Washington’s troops was the adjutant and war correspondent Thomas Paine.  At this site Paine, along with Washington, observed the fall of Fort Washington and the capture of thousands of Washington’s troops.  This is the site where Thomas Paine began to write The American Crisis.  Here in Fort Lee was were the times that tried men’s souls was born.  We have secured our funding for a statue to Thomas Paine to be placed in Fort Lee’s Monument Park in the coming years; all we need is for our sculptor to complete the work.

On November 20th, 1776, word came to Washington that the British had crossed the Hudson and scaled the Palisades and were marching to capture Fort Lee and Washington’s Army.  Had the British been successful in capturing Washington’s troops the game would be pretty much up and the American Revolution ended.  Washington led his troops to evacuate Fort Lee and they travelled west on old Fort Lee Road, present day Main Street.  This street where you drive your cars, you stop to get stamps in the Post Office, you enjoy restaurants and patronize merchants, where St. Rocco and his feast is featured every August, this very street is one of the most important Main Streets in America as it provided Washington and his troops escape to fight another day and allowed the American Revolution to continue until Washington and his troops were victorious and Independence was secured.

Our reenactment, led by the Brigade of the American Revolution, travelled that same street 237 years later.  View the photos I have posted with this article.  They include Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and Council members unveiling our four new permanent Retreat Route markers.  These are the first permanent Retreat Route markers placed on Main Street.  Mayor Sokolich raised $10,000 to have these signs created and we thank him as well as the sign donors who include Mayor Sokolich, Councilman Pohan, The Modern / Fort Lee Redevelopment Associates, and the Cafasso family. The  four markers are located at Main Street near Bigler Street, Main Street at the Schlosser and Lemoine Avenue triangle, Main Street in front of Borough Hall and Main Street opposite Jones Road in West Fort Lee.

Thanks to these permanent Retreat Route markers in the shadows of the new development of 21st century Main Street we are connected to our nation’s birth and those cold, windswept November days when the fate of a nation rode on one street, our Main Street,  and the leadership of one man, General George Washington.