This week, I’ll be writing about a story that offers a little more humor than the topics I typically cover: husbands disappearing only to reappear 20 years later in Geneva, a house burning down, many men with Alexander in their name, and the legacy of the President. This is the complicated story of Alexander (Martha Bayard Stevens) and Hoxie House.
As is often mentioned in this column, Stevens was founded through an act of incorporation on February 15, 1870, through money and land set aside by Castle Point by the patriarch of the Stevens family, Edwin A. Stevens. The main executor of Edwin A. Stevens’ will was his wife, Martha Bayard Stevens. She lived in the famed Castle Stevens, even following her husband’s death in 1868. Another executor of Edwin A. Stevens’ will was Martha’s brother, Samuel Bayard Dod, who was also pivotal in the creation and early years of the school — so much so that Dod was instated as the first President of the Trustees from the school’s opening until he died in 1907. As President of the Trustees, Dod needed to be on campus, so his sister Martha helped direct the construction of a house for him. The house quickly changed hands though, as Martha gave it to her daughter, Caroline Bayard Stevens Wittpenn as a wedding gift to her husband, Archbishop Alexander, after whom the house was named.
While all seemed well in the ornate Alexander House, things changed swiftly as Archbishop Alexander disappeared and was assumed dead. Caroline lived in the house named after her assumed dead husband until it caught fire in 1909. Although she was not in the house at the time and most of the contents had been sent to storage, the house was beyond repair and needed to be rebuilt. The new house, finished in 1910, was the pinnacle of design at the time, featuring a widow’s walk with views of Manhattan, an ornate baked-brick facade, and many spacious rooms filled with lavish furniture.
Settled into her new house, Caroline was due to marry again, this time to the former mayor of Jersey City, H. Otto Wittpenn, after whom the Wittpenn Walk is named. However, once the wedding was announced in the papers, Archbishop Alexander, who had been assumed dead for 20 years, published a personal ad in the New York Times, exclaiming he was not dead, but traveling Europe, “even now appearing at Geneva, [his] current place of residence.” Nevertheless, Caroline married Wittpenn and remained so until Wittpenn’s death in 1931.
With their marriage, the Wittpenns moved to Jersey City, leaving Alexander House vacant. It was at this time that President Alexander Crombie Humphreys (not to be confused with the many other Alexanders in this story) took office after the death of Stevens’ first president, Dr. Henry Morton. Humphreys and his wife, Eva, moved into Alexander House in 1916. Humphreys only lived in Alexander House for just over a decade before moving into Hoxie House. Since then, Alexander House has been everything from faculty housing to the Student Center.
Hoxie House was named after William Hoxie, a Stevens graduate from 1889. Hoxie passed away in 1925, leaving $50,000 for the university in his will. The cornerstone of Hoxie House was planted by Mrs. Hoxie, and the commemoration even received recognition from President Hoover. Hoxie House stands on the foundations of Richard Stevens’ mansion, built in 1895. The manor was sold to the government in 1917 for use in World War I and remained so until 1927 when it was sold to the university. Hoxie House was built on Richard Stevens’ mansion’s foundations and includes a dining room, living room, library, and kitchen, as well as a terrace with breathtaking views of the Hudson River and Manhattan. The house remains the president’s residence to this day, currently by President Farvardin.
So, after many different Alexanders, an assumed dead husband abroad in Switzerland, a house on fire, much has happened to Alexander and Hoxie House. With the renaming of Alexander House to Martha Bayard Stevens House, the university continues to develop forward, while remembering the history of these two historic and beautiful homes.
