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I found this place a while back and had a different hide in mind...but that never came to fruition. So finally with the encouragement of a buddy placed one here finally. Sad to see when I cam back here local muggles destroyed part of the structure, such animals it is a sin. The view though...if you go at the right time, can be beautiful!
This area was Fish House cove and you will pass the Vennell House on the way to the parking area, it is the white structure with the Americana shutters. The background photo on the cache page was from when it was still in operation.
Fish House History
by Paul W. Schopp
When the first settlers sailed up the Delaware River, they found a large island situated midstream with a long sweeping cove behind it. The island was Pettys Island, located between today’s Philadelphia and Camden. The cove behind it was originally called Steele’s Bay, named for William Steele, a merchant of Cork, Ireland and a proprietor of a large tract of land fronting the Delaware at the cove. By 1800, Steele’s Bay was renamed Stone’s Cove for John Stone, owner of a farm near this body of water.
In the 1780s, Parr Willard inherited a large parcel of land along the cove. By 1792, he had sold a four-acre lot to Thomas Hood, Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Hood proceeded to erect a frame dwelling at the foot of Cove Road. Very plain in exterior adornment, the four-bay house featured a center door and two shed-roof dormers. Erected sometime between 1792 and 1795, the building was certainly standing in 1799 when Thomas Bowne, a Philadelphia ship joiner, acquired it. Bowne sold the property in 1813 to the Tammany Pea Shore Fishing Company, a social club composed of artisan-class Philadelphians, which erected their clubhouse and kitchen building on the river bank in front of the Hood House. Over time, Stone’s Cove became known as Fish House Cove, in honor of the Tammany fish house. During 1835, the Tammany Pea Shore Company sold the former Hood House to Robert Hoare, one of its members. In 1867, Hoare’s widow sold the house and its 2.39 acres to Emily G. Vennell, wife of Isaac K. Vennell. Initially, the Vennells operated a general store in a portion of the house. However, in response to growing use of the Fish House for recreational activities, Isaac opened his Fish House Hotel sometime between 1888 and 1891. Other bars also served the thirsts of summer revelers, including the Tippin family’s Schiller Heights Hotel, located across today’s Tippin Pond, and the Hastings-Sutton Hotel, situated behind the Vennell house. Residents of the Kensington and Fishtown sections of Philadelphia frequently visited the cove and Pea Shore for swimming, sailing and fishing activities. Pea Shore was a favorite place of visitation for Walt Whitman, the good gray poet.
By 1886, quite a little settlement had developed at Fish House. The Pennsylvania Railroad provided both a small passenger and freight station for the convenience of residents and visitors alike. It was during this year that the U.S. Government established the Fish House Post Office. Initially located in the diminutive railroad station, Annie Vennell served as the postmistress.
Isaac Vennell died in 1895 and was buried at the nearby Bethel Cemetery. The Pennsylvania Railroad was busy erecting a bridge across the Delaware River just up the road in Delair to provide better access to the agricultural center of South Jersey. With the bridge came additional tracks and the railroad determined it would need the land upon which the Vennell Tavern sat. So, in 1896, Isaac’s heirs discontinued the tavern and sold the house and lot to the railroad. But the railroad agreed to relocate the house farther up Cove Road and the former tavern remains in this new location today.
As the twentieth century dawned, recreational activities at Fish House were waning. The beach was still used for bathing and cove for boating, but its extensive use by Philadelphians was slowly dying out. The Tammany Pea Shore Fishing Company more or less disbanded and the clubhouse was taken over by a group of Alsatian immigrants. In 1915, the Pennsylvania Railroad closed its Fish House station, forcing the Post Office to relocate to the lean-to shed behind the westernmost house of the seven-unit row across Cove Road from the Vennell Tavern. In 1924, the postal facility closed for good.
In 1930, the last brickyard in the Fish House area, the Hatch family’s Fairview Brick Company, closed. Within a year, the Army Corps of Engineers filled the northern end of the cove with dredge spoils generated by the Delaware River channel maintenance.The Tammany Pea Shore Fishing Company’s buildings were finally demolished in 1939.
Today, the little settlement of Fish House is almost just a memory. The only reminder of its past glories is the former Vennell Tavern (Hood House), since the seven-unit row of homes were demolished in 2001. The tavern house will be preserved and restored to commemorate the past that Fish House and Pea Shore represent. In 1988, Pennsauken Township rehabilitated the former sand and gravel pit located behind the tavern house into a scenic and natural area called Tippin’s Pond. A parking lot now occupies the former Vennell Tavern and the Hastings-Sutton Hotel. Cove Road no longer ends on the beach, but continues out onto the dredge spoils to a bulk oil terminal. No remnants can be found of the Tammany Pea Shore Fishing Company’s buildings except a seawall and visiting bathers would be hard-pressed to find the gentle sloping gravel beach for their recreational activities.
FISH HOUSE TODAY: A HAVEN
by Kevin W. Frost
In the mid 1980s, Pennsauken Township purchased and transformed Tippin’s Pond and the Fish House Cove into a wildlife sanctuary and park. This was a prophetic move. Over a decade later, Fish House Cove was designated a Natural Heritage Priority Site. Natural Heritage Priority Sites indicate areas that contain some of the best and most viable occurrences of endangered and threatened species and natural communities. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Office of Natural Lands Management, which identifies these critically important natural areas in the interest of conserving New Jersey’s biological diversity, selects these priority sites.
Fish House Cove is one of the largest and most diverse freshwater tidal marshes remaining in New Jersey. A total of 261 different species of birds have been identified at the cove including several endangered species. In addition to birds, numerous animals including Red Fox and White Tail Deer inhabit the cove and the surrounding uplands. The Cove is the home of the last stand of wild rice in Camden County as well as rare forms of River Bulrush and Arrowhead. Tippin’s Pond features two docks and a marked trail that follows the shore of the pond, then winds through an upland forest dominated by mature oak trees. The pond supports a variety of fish including sunfish, bullhead catfish, bass and carp. The pond and trail are maintained by the township and the Pennsauken Public Schools, which use the pond for environmental education.
In a highly urbanized region, Fish House Cove and Tippin’s Pond stand as an oasis for plants, animals and people.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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