From the Archives: Welcome to Coytesville, N.J. Home of The Barrymores - New Fort Lee Museum Exhibit Opens

The Fort Lee Historical Society recently swapped out exhibits at the Fort Lee Museum (1588 Palisade Avenue).  The current exhibit up through June 29th centers on the northern section of Fort Lee – Coytesville.   The exhibit features all things Coytesville from rare artifacts and archival photos from our museum collection and also on loan by those with roots in Coytesville such as  Shawn Kelly whose family dates back to the 19th century in  what was then the village of Coytesville.  The Fort Lee Museum hours are weekends noon to 4 PM, Wednesday evenings 7 PM to 9 PM and for groups by appointment during the week.  For further info you can visit www.thefortleehistoricalsociety,org or call the museum at (201) 592-3580.

The Barrymore family is forever entwined in this Coytesville history.  Barrymore patriarch and the leading stage actor of his day Maurice Barrymore called Coytesville home from the 1890’s until his death in 1905.  Maurice lived in a large Victorian house on the corner of Hammett and Myrtle Avenues.  Here on the front lawn was Barrymore’s pumper used to put out fires as Maurice was a proud member of what today is  Fort Lee Fire Company #2.  Back in the day Maurice and his actor friends would enjoy afternoons on his porch and occasionally when smoke arose from a distance they would spring into action and haul the pumper up and down the narrow streets of Coytesville.  One historic day Barrymore and company knocked down old man Coyte’s chimney during a fire.  Well I should say upon Barrymore’s arrival old man Coyte shouted at these theatrical firemen that he had put the chimney fire out with salt.  Maurice let out a shout to the effect “My good man you cannot put out a fire with salt, boys let her rip!!!” and upon his command a plume of water rose with great force out of the pumper nailing old man Coyte’s chimney and knocking it  down to the ground into rubble.  Well, old man Coyte cursed actors in general and Maurice Barrymore in particular.  But Maurice was made of tougher stuff and upon the conclusion of this incident he felt the fire company lacked respect because they didn’t have a firehouse or proper uniforms.  Maurice soon planned to direct a benefit stage play at Buckheister’s Hotel on Main Street and Central Road in 1900.  At the time his then 18-year-old son John Barrymore was living with him for a year, recently dropped off on his Coytesville doorstop by Maurice’s daughter Ethel Barrymore.  You see Maurice’s wife  Georgiana Drew Barrymore died at a young age and his youngest child, John, was primarily raised by his grandmother in Long Island.  The most time young John ever spent with his father would be the year he lived with him in Coytesville.  And what a year!  John wanted to be an artist and informed his dad of such upon his arrival.  Maurice swiftly informed the youngest Barrymore that the family trade was acting and he would take it up with a stage debut in Fort Lee as a member of the cast of A Man of the World to be staged at Buckheister’s Hotel.  Well the result was one of the greatest actors of all time, John Barrymore, did indeed make his stage debut here in Fort Lee and the monies raised at that benefit performance built the Fire Company #2  fire house on Washington Avenue and bought uniforms for the volunteer fire fighters, uniforms quite theatrical in design and one of which is on display at the Fort Lee Museum.  Fire Company #2 used that very firehouse up until the late 1950’s when the present day firehouse was built and opened on Lemoine Avenue north of Washington Avenue.  The original firehouse building survives and we hope to work with the owners to have a historical plaque placed on the building exterior.

The Barrymores were but one of many colorful families who lived in Coytesville aka “The Frozen North” of Fort Lee.  When Fort Lee was incorporated as a borough in March of 1904 Coytesville became a part of the new borough yet retained its unique rural style right through the mid 20th century with vestiges of it still visible in 21st century Fort Lee.

The Rutter family was a very business minded clan who were involved in the business of beverages and the bottling of those beverages.  Rumor has it during prohibition those beverages included something a wee bit stronger than soda.  Gus Becker, the bartender and eventual owner of Rambo’s Saloon on First Street started out at that saloon in the 1910’s during the heyday of Fort Lee’s time as the birthplace of the American film industry.  As kids in 1960’s and 1970s Coytesville my friends and I would often venture into Gus’s saloon and grab some RC Colas out of the freezer and sit atop the bar stools as Gus would tell us first hand about such families he knew including the Barrymores and the actors and directors of the early American cinema days.

Coytesville also had a very bohemian feel and look to it in the late 19th and early 20th  century when artists and writers created something  of a cultural colony.  George Overbury “Pop” Hart basically worked as an artist painting scenery at the movies studios of Fort Lee and when that work wasn’t readily available he painted the people of Coytesville on canvas  and his payment for that work often was food.  Norman Rockwell the most American of artists of the 20th century is said to have rented a summer cottage in Coytesville to work.  And the New Yorker cartoonist George Price was born and raised in Coytesville and his offbeat artistic humor grew out of the people and places of his native village.  And one of the founders of The Royal Teens Rock & Roll group, Tommy Austin, was born and raised in Coytesville.  Tommy co-wrote the famous song  Short Shorts.

I encourage you to visit this exhibit to better understand a certain section of our borough that is a part of Fort Lee yet a distinct place unto itself…truly Coytesville is a state of mind.