This picture postcard shows Allen’s Hotel in Liberty Corner, NJ, which, based on the sign, was also known as the Liberty Corner Hotel. The card’s undivided back dates the photo to 1907 or before. The hotel occupied the corner where the Exxon station now stands and faced Valley Road.
According to the 1850 Somerset County map by Lloyd Van Derveer, James P. Goltra owned the building. On the census that year, Dennis Van Liew is listed as “landlord” of a hotel. Van Liew married Goltra’s daughter, Elizabeth, and in 1859 purchased the “tavern lot” from Goltra. The 1873 Beers Atlas of Somerset County shows the building as D. Van Liew’s Hotel.
Van Liew died in 1881 and in 1890, his heirs sold the hotel to William O. Allen, who also maintained a bar there. His occupation in 1910 was “saloon keeper.” When Allen died in 1913, his widow Harriet continued the business. On the 1915 state census she is shown as a hotel proprietor.
See_also: THSSH Online Collections.
