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UL History & Location
Union Landing
In Pre-Revolutionary War days, this community was an outlying section of
Squan Village or Manasquan. It took the popular name of Union before
the Declaration of Independance - when there was a wide-spread debate on
uniting the Thirteen Colonies as an independent nation. Roads were
few, muddy, and almost impassable so most traffic into and out of Union
was by water. Access to this settlement was at Union Landing - right
where you are at the foot of Union Lane. Union Lane is the oldest
main throughfare still in use. In those days it connected with the
stage route (approximately today's Route 70) and also joined roads leading
to the county seat at Monmouth Court House, now Freehold.
Union Salt Works
You also are on the five-acre site of the large and
famous Union Salt Works. It was built with government funds - and an
exemption of workers from militia duty to be security guards - about
1777. Salt, imported for food and foood preservation, was scarce
with war restrictions on shipping. And there was no natural supply
in the State of New Jersey. Here a complex of buildings housed
equipment for treating 5,000 gallons of seawater. Salt water was
pumped from the rivers by windmills, partly evaporated for treating by
exposure to sun and wind and then boiled in huge copper and iron
pans. One of a number of similar plants on the New Jersey Shore, the
works were destroyed in a British raid on Easter Sunday, April 5,
1778. It was rebuilt by 1779 and probably operated into the early
1780's when major warfare had left New Jersey for the South and improved
salt was easier to obtain. No proven artifacts remain, but remnants
of foundations are believed to have been part of one building.
Union House
Main travel terminals usually had hostelries for food,
drink, and lodging - and maybe a post office, and later a telephone.
From small beginnings around 1850, there developed the popular Union
House, a resort on the riverfront across Union Lane from where you
are. Among its prominent guests and visitors were Robert Louis
Stevenson, author, who reportedly conceived "Treasure Island" here as a
fantasy on an uninhabited isle in the Manasquan River. Others were
Ulysses S. Grant, famous soldier and future President; Charles Scribner,
publisher, and Augustus St. Gaudens, sculptor. The structure was
destroyed by fire on February 15, 1914.
Brielle
A
year-round residental community, named for its sister town in the
Netherlands. Its 1.8 square miles contains about 4,500 residents in
1,800 homes, apartments and condominiums. It is known as the charter
fishing boat capital of New Jersey. When you visit the Union Landing
Restaurant you can moor your boat at our guest dock right in front of our
building. The Brielle Land Development Company, formed in 1881, sold
lots and developed this portion of the town. The name - suggested by
one of the company's organizers - marked the similarity of the Dutch
Town's long protected harbor and, more importantly, the windmills, of
which parts of one still remain.
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