New Jersey
#3 High Point State Park, elevation 1,803 ft.
Old money. Kept pheasants. War memorials.
In 1910, the American philanthropist Anthony R. Kuser (1862–1929), known as “Colonel,” bought the Inn at High Point, in northern New Jersey, from the estate of Charles St. John and remodeled it as a sprawling country mansion.
Kuser and his wife, Susie Fairfield Dryden—daughter of Senator John Fairfield Dryden, founder of Prudential Insurance—rarely stayed in the house, and in 1922 they donated it, along with 11,000 acres of land, to the State of New Jersey for use as a park. Kuser, an ardent progressive and early conservationist, helped found the New Jersey Audubon Society and for thirty years was an associate of the American Ornithological Union.
Colonel Kuser was fond of pheasants and kept an aviary at his Bernardsville residence.
Colonel Kuser later commissioned a memorial to be built on the summit at High Point, which was on the opposite side of Lake Marcia from the mansion, to honor “New Jersey’s Heroes by land, sea, and air in all wars.” Built as an obelisk with 291 interior steps, the monument opened officially on June 21, 1930, just months after Kuser’s death. In later years both mansion and monument suffered from neglect and chronic underfunding. Several attempts were made to save the mansion, but the decaying structure was eventually deemed beyond repair and was demolished in 1995 despite a public outcry. The obelisk was renovated in 2004, but ventilation and moisture issues remain. As of 2012, when I last visited, the original bronze doors had not been replaced, and a film of damp and mold spoiled the upper stories and obscured the view. Bugs prowled the walls of the inner tower. Despite the condition of the monument, the park itself is picturesque, especially in autumn, when the obelisk is reflected on the dead-calm surface of Lake Marcia amid the fall foliage.
The memorial would honor “New Jersey’s Heroes by land, sea, and air in all wars.”
I've perhaps done more research on this highpoint than on many others because the backstory is rich and the history also carries a personal connection. By most accounts, Colonel Kuser's son was a scoundrel, and he divorced his wife—known to posterity as the late Brooke Russell Astor— in 1930. Mrs. Astor, doyenne of New York society, was a major benefactor of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, at whose annual Christmas luncheon she once presided over with great pride and enthusiasm. I once shook her gloved hand.
