I first learned of the unfortunate homophonic relationship between the town of Matawan, New Jersey and the village of Matteawan, New York when I was a child. In what became a perennial family story, my mother told me how she and my grandmother were members of a TV show audience in the 1950s. (The name of the show escapes me, but I always imagined it to be something like Queen for a Day.) On air, the host asked my mother where she was from. She responded proudly: “Matawan.”
Without missing a beat, the quick-witted host responded: “Oh, did they let you out for the day?”
This got a big laugh from the crowd, because everyone knew that Matteawan, New York was the home of an infamous state hospital for the criminally insane. Quickly, my mother and grandmother realized they were being cast as mental patients with day passes.
“No,” my mother countered, meekly. “We’re from Matawan, New Jersey.”
When I was growing up, the sometimes-amusing confusion between the towns would resurface from time to time. It mostly disappeared after the hospital closed in the mid-1960s.
Ragtime Memories
A recent re-watching of the movie Ragtime reminded me of Matawan’s curious connections to one of the biggest scandals of the early 1900s. The movie, based on E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel, combines history with fiction to depict some of the more colorful characters and events of that time. One of the main subplots involves the famous architect, Stanford White, the chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit, and an unbalanced millionaire playboy, Harry K. Thaw.
This huge scandal, also recounted in the 2018 book The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, is documented in many articles and web pages. Below is a brief summary — it omits many lurid details that you’ll probably want to read about later.
Evelyn Nesbit was an exceptionally beautiful and photogenic artists’ model, and later a chorus girl and actress. She became famous and her image was ubiquitous; she was perhaps America’s first pin-up girl. In 1901, when she was around 16, she met the successful and flamboyant architect Standford White,
Stanford White
who was about 47 years old. White was famous as an acclaimed designer of many of New York’s Gilded Age buildings and was known as a womanizer who played in high social circles. In reality, he was a remorseless sexual predator. During a visit to White’s apartment, after being plied with alcohol (and perhaps drugs), Evelyn awoke in his bed to discover that she had been “ruined.” After this, she continued a relationship with White for about six months.
Harry Thaw
In 1905, Evelyn married Harry K. Thaw, the millionaire son of a Pittsburgh railroad magnate. Thaw suffered from various forms of derangement himself and was also an abusive character. He knew about White and Evelyn and developed a paranoid obsession with White. He blamed White for many of his own personal problems. Eventually, Thaw’s agitation became so extreme that he shot and killed White during a public performance of the musical revue Mam’zelle Champagne on the rooftop theatre of Madison Square Garden. After killing White, Thaw stood over the body, waving his pistol, and exclaimed: “I did it because he ruined my wife! He had it coming to him! He took advantage of the girl and then abandoned her!”
Thaw’s murder trial came to be known as the “Trial of the Century.” It was a messy and corrupt affair, and he was actually tried twice; after his second trial he was acquitted of murder and sentenced to serve a life sentence in the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He escaped once, was returned, and eventually freed in 1915 after a jury found him to be no longer insane. However, based on accounts of his later behavior, it’s unlikely that this was true.
Stanford White’s Lost Contribution to Matawan
Matawan history buffs are aware that the first Presbyterian Church in Matawan, situated at the current location of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery at Main Street and Route 516, was burned by the Tories in 1777. A second church was built on the same location around 1798 but was not widely used until 1820. In 1841, a third church was built on Main Street, at the location of what is currently the parking lot of the Bedle Funeral Home.
In 1892, it was decided to add a distinctive bell tower to the church. The architect chosen for the steeple design was none other than Stanford White. White had designed other churches in New Jersey, including the Elberon Memorial Church in 1886.
Church (with Stanford White’s Steeple)
The Steeple, the morning after the fire
Tragically, the church was burned in a fire on Christmas night in 1955. The fire was set by a Matawan man, Russell H. Apgar.
Apgar signs confession
Apgar claimed that he set the fire so the church could collect insurance money to bolster its building fund. He was sentenced to serve in the “Vroom Building for the Criminally Insane” at the Trenton State Hospital. Had he lived in New York, Apgar might have been sent to the hospital at Matteawan.
In the late 1950s, a fourth church was rebuilt at its current location on Route 34 and Franklin Street. White’s contribution to Matawan’s architecture was soon forgotten.
Harry Thaw Comes to Matawan
Because of its location and access to lines of transportation, Matawan has always been a crossroads of historical characters — from all walks of life.
Following his release from Matteawan in 1915, Thaw paid a short and unintended visit to Matawan. This is described in an article in The Matawan Journal of Thursday, July 22, 1915.
Harry Thaw in Matawan
Harry Thaw, who has been in the custody of New York State for the last nine years for the murder of Stanford White, was released last week on $35,000 bail. He started out on a journey to Atlantic City and on his way there stopped in Matawan for an hour or so to avoid a heavy shower. He put up at the Aberdeen Inn and while there played the piano and a game of billiards. The name of the town was pointed out to him on the station across the way and Thaw remarked, “What do you think of that? Can’t I ever get away from it? After the shower the party again set out and continued their trip without further stops.
The article doesn’t really tell us if Thaw was amused or disturbed by finding himself in town. Was he really worried that he couldn’t ever get away from Matteawan/Matawan? He was a madman, after all, and may have experienced a wave of paranoia on finding himself trapped here, kind of like a character in a Twilight Zone episode.
However, it’s more likely that Thaw was just amused at being in a place with the same-sounding name that he just left. After being in a hospital for the criminally insane, he must have been happy to distract himself with beer and billiards at the Aberdeen Inn, Matawan’s popular hotel and watering hole.
In the end, Thaw was just another transient character, passing through town. He left Matawan, but was headed for trouble elsewhere.
The Aberdeen Inn, located near the Matawan train station. Thaw stopped here en route to Atlantic City.
The Bar at the Aberdeen Inn
(Barry C. Orr, January 2025)
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