NJ, USA

Boxwood Hall (Boudinot Mansion)

Historic House

Boxwood Hall is a Georgian-style mansion on East Jersey Street in Elizabeth that served as the home of Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental Congress, and later of Jonathan Dayton, the youngest signer of the U.S. Constitution. The house is a State Historic Site administered by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry.

What Happened Here

Boxwood Hall was built around 1750 and purchased by Elias Boudinot in 1772. During the Revolution, it served as Boudinot's base of operations for his work as Commissary General of Prisoners and his intelligence-gathering activities. George Washington stopped at Boxwood Hall on April 23, 1789, on his way to his first inauguration in New York City, where he was greeted by Boudinot and other Elizabethtown dignitaries. The house later became the residence of Jonathan Dayton, who had signed the Constitution in 1787 as the youngest delegate at the Philadelphia Convention.

The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and is one of the few surviving eighteenth-century structures in Elizabeth. Its location on East Jersey Street places it on the historic main road of Elizabethtown, connecting the waterfront at Elizabethtown Point to the interior of the settlement.