Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis lived in the Somerset Hills in Bernardsville Peapack area.
A Small Part of Camelot in the Somerset Hills in Northern Somerset County, New Jersey, and why the Fall and Thanksgiving were When We Saw Her Most.
While the Somerset Hills is home to many power brokers and celebrities, no one captured the essence of the Somerset Hills quite like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. While her life was filled with unimaginable tragedy, we look at her life in Bernardsville and Peapack as she turned to family and her equestrian hobby as she resided in the Somerset Hills for over 30 years.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, nee Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1953–68), Jacqueline Kennedy, or simply Jackie, was born on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York. She was America’s first lady (1961–63) as the wife of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. Her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, was one of the wealthiest men in the world. Jackie died on May 19, 1994, in New York City.
In 1951, Jacqueline met John F. Kennedy, a popular Massachusetts Congressman. Two years later, after he became a U.S. Senator, he proposed marriage. On September 12, 1953, the couple wed in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island.
Ask just about anyone over 65, and they’ll know where they were on this terrible day. On November 22, 1963, the world was forever changed when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Riding beside him in an open limousine was his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, who became an enduring symbol of grace and grief in the face of unimaginable tragedy. As the motorcade moved through Dealey Plaza, shots rang out, fatally wounding the president. In an instant, the nation’s youthful optimism was shattered. Jackie, still in her blood-stained pink suit, stood by her husband at Parkland Hospital and later accompanied his flag-draped coffin back to Washington. Her composure and dignity during those dark days captivated the world, making her not only a grieving widow but also a symbol of national mourning and resilience at the end of an American era.
In the years after that dark November day, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis often sought solace far from Washington’s glare, retreating to the rolling hills and quiet horse country of Bernardsville and Peapack, New Jersey. The landscape’s timeless beauty, its stone walls, winding roads, and peaceful pastures offered her a measure of calm she could find nowhere else. Yet every November carried a shadow for her, a return of that deep sorrow that never fully faded. Surrounded by friends and the gentle rhythm of the stables, she found comfort in the familiar elegance of the countryside, a place that reminded her of life’s enduring grace even as it stirred the ache of memory.
In October 1965, rumors circulated in the Somerset Hills about Jackie’s sightings. The Secret Service was with her as she had lunch at the Far Hills Inn. Later that month, the secretary for Jacqueline B. Kennedy confirmed that the former first lady was “leasing a small farmhouse in the Bernardsville-Peapack area for the fall and winter months.” The rental was a 10‐room “badly made‐over barn” rented from Mr. & Mrs. Douglas Burden. The Bernardsville News reported it on the front page of its Thursday, Oct. 21, 1965, issue.
A week earlier, on October 15, 1965, The News reported that Mrs. Kennedy, joined by two Secret Service agents, had taken a limousine from her Fifth Avenue apartment in New York and visited the home of former Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon on Larger Cross Road in Bedminster.
Jackie loved the area. It was everything she wanted. It was secluded, with plenty of room for riding horses, and the nearby Essex Hunt Club in Peapack was a perfect gathering place for her interests. The area was noted as one of the largest equestrian communities in the country, a perfect place to bring her kids.
“I don’t share the same passion with horses that Jackie does.”
John F, Kennedy was allergic to horse hair.
It was quite the neighborhood as well. The Gambrills, Onassis’ neighbors, were on a hill at the end of a long private drive near Peapack. The house was surrounded by over 350 acres of land, including fenced pastures, a 16-stall stable complex, and formal gardens. The estate was built in the 1920s for Richard Van Nest Gambrill and his wife, Edith Blair, daughter of C. Ledyard Blair, who lived nearby at their Blairsden estate. They called it Vernon Manor, but she took the name when the widowed Blair left. It is called Four Seasons after four alcoves and four seasonal statues on the estate.
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Gambrill owned Vernon Manor. Richard was the director of the National Horse Association and the Secretary of the United Hunts Racing Association. He was also a master of the Essex Fox Hounds and had a pack of his beagles called the Vernon Somerset Beagles Pack, the forerunner to the Tewksbury Foot Bassets (different dogs). As you can see, this is why Jackie Kennedy Onassis loved renting a cottage in the area.
In October 1968, Jacqueline Kennedy wed the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, whom she had known for several years. According to reports, however, the marriage soon became troubled, and she continued to spend considerable time in New York and Peapack. Although most of his estate was left to his daughter after he died in 1975, Jacqueline inherited a sum estimated at between $20 million and $26 million.
The attractions for Mrs. Onassis included the natural beauty of the Somerset Hills, the horsey atmosphere (more than 15,000 acres for foxhunting with the Essex Fox Hounds and bridle paths for riding), her children’s friends, and a relatively casual way of life. For five years, Mrs. Onassis, Caroline, and John Kennedy came to “Woodwinds,” a house leased to Mrs. Onassis by Mrs. Richard Gambrill. It was a seven-room gray clapboard house up off Main Street, a very modest property in the Peapack Valley’s center.
Jackie would often spend the anniversary of her husband’s assassination in the Somerset Hills under Secret Service detail that, unfortunately, had to be used a few times with paparazzi and stalkers.
“There were often times when reporters would try to stalk, typically in November or when there was a Kennedy crisis, and there were a few arrests. But after a few years, things settled down and we would have dinner once in a while or I’d chat with Caroline and John while they were playing around the neighborhood. And yes it was true that Ari Onassis was pulled over by local police and questioned as a trespasser. But no he was not taken in and he was not arrested. But the police did question that he was who he said he was.”
Peter Villa – Neighbor. Peter was one of six children; Tonly, Nick, Blair, Ann, and was the great grandson of C. Ledyard Blair.
On October 30, 1969, the Bernardsville News reported, “Dressed in a brown hood, checked coat, and grey slacks, Mrs. Aristotle Onassis was scarcely noticed as she chatted with friends on the hillside at the Far Hills Race Meeting.”
1974 – Jackie Kennedy Onassis purchased the Burden Estate, once owned by Betsy Chance Burden, the sister-in-law of James Cox Brady (nicknamed “Diamond Jim Brady”), for $200,000. The 10-acre property off Stevens Lane was purchased from Mr. & Mrs. Grenville Emmett. The two-story yellow structure was situated on the border between Bernardsville and Peapack.
This is the same house that she had rented for years and used as a weekend home. Neighbors often saw her riding in riding pants or sweatsuits on horseback on her property.
The blue house off Stevens Lane marks the spot where the Kennedy home was located back in the 1960s.
From about 1964 until about 1969, Jackie Kennedy kept her horses at Fox Chase Stables on River Road in nearby Bedminster. She kept two horses, Winchester and Surdan. Riding Winchester, Caroline Kennedy won a few local awards at the Gill School Horse Show in nearby Peapack. They also had two ponies, Leprechaun and Macaroni. The King family cared for them.
Jackie’s history gets a little fuzzy after she moves to Peapack. She lived off Highland Avenue in the valley area just below the current Matheny Medical Center and boarded her horses nearby.
Many people are unaware that Bedminster is still one of the largest equine areas in the United States. The Somerset Bridle Path Association (SBPA) works tirelessly to help keep bridle paths open, as landowners prefer to keep their property private.
The rest of Jackie’s years in the Somerset Hills were relatively quiet. Aristotle Onassis died on March 15, 1975, at the age of 69. She turned 50 in 1979 and spent most of her time in the area enjoying her two passions: her children and her equestrian activities.
In 1975, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis auctioned off odds and ends from the house. The sale, which included a chair used by the late President Kennedy as a student at Choate, brought in a few thousand dollars.
One of Jackie’s favorite activities while in the area was the annual “blessing of the hounds”, an event held on a private property in the area where members of the Essex Hunt Club joined on Thanksgiving morning to sip a little champagne, see the preacher bless the hounds, and then go off on horseback for the traditional fox hunt with those blessed hounds.
Jacqueline Kennedy died on May 19, 1994, at 64. Even after her death, she remained one of the most popular and recognizable First Ladies. In 1999, she was listed as one of Gallup’s Most Admired Men and Women of the 20th Century.
In 1993, Jackie Kennedy transferred ownership of her Bernardsville house to Caroline and John for $100. Caroline Kennedy’s auction of family goods, including table linens and pillows from the country house, raised $5.5 million.
In 1997, three years after Jackie’s death, a neighbor who had tended to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ house bought the house and property from the Kennedys. Marjorie “Peggy” McDonnell Walsh purchased the home for $1.47 million on July 27, 1997. Not bad for an original $200,000 investment. Mayor Hugh Fenwick said Walsh was an old friend, which is why Onassis bought the house in the first place.
Marjorie McDonnell Walsh’s husband was Philip C. Walsh, who resided at 121 Stevens Lane, Bernardsville. He died peacefully at his Peapack, N.J., home on March 24, 2010. There were rumors that the home was taken down to prevent tourists and gawkers from invading the property. Still, the former first lady’s weekend retreat was demolished in 2000 to make way for Marjorie to build a bigger house on the property.
1996 (April 26) – The Jackie Onassis Sotheby’s Estate four-day auction fetched $442,500 for one of John Kennedy’s oval office rocking chairs. Onassis’ engagement ring fetched $2.6 million. Her 1992 BMW 4-door 325i sedan fetched $79,500. The auction raised over $34.5 million.
The Top Ten Auction Items:
The top sellers at the four-day Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis estate auction ending Friday (buyer listed where known):
The Mr. Local History project always wants to learn from members of our Somerset Hills communities. Please feel free to post a comment below. We will continue to build on the piece as we gather additional information about Jackie’s life in the Somerset Hills.
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We lived on Anne Casey and Diana Villa's estate/farm. They were the granddaughters of Richard and Edith Gambrill of Vernon Manor Farm. The house Jackie rented on Highland Ave. was a gray ranch house. My husband and oldest son were up there a few times to fix things, Jackie very pleasant. One day the "Greek Mafia" as we called her bodyguards, came to our house at the farm. I was a bit nervous but all they wanted was a key my husband had to Jackie's rental, she had misplaced hers.
My mother’s late hairdresser and friend, Angie Popa of Peapack, told me years ago she met Jackie Onassis while waiting in line for a sandwich at the Copper Kettle in Peapack on a Saturday. She talked with her for a while and said Onassis ordered tomato soup. Ah, the simple things in life!
Carol Sutton Willadsen Glad you replied! I too remember it being a ranch house and not at all imposing. A few years back I went to find the house, but the entrance had been changed and I for the life of me couldn't find it! Is Matheny Drive the present day road name? I recall I just walked into a gated road from the train station and up to Tony and Diana Villas house. The Kennedy home was on the right, The Villas house near the quarry to the left. As for Diana Villa. What a character! I worked for her as a mother's helper one summer for her 4 kids. The stories I could tell! They used to have a summer masquerade party and Malcolm Forbes would drive up on his motorcycle. I too have been to the Gambrill estate. I used to take the young granddaughter, Diana, age 6-7 to visit. Perhaps I even saw you or your husband? This would have been in 1971. The eldest son was at Harvard at the time.
My mom (Louise Scheuerman) saw her one time in Batti's in B-ville. She said she couldn't figure why these men looked at her very steadily when she went in. Then she said she figured it out when she saw Jackie shopping. She also spotted her in the parking lot after shopping at Acme. She told me she wore white jeans and a dark turtleneck. She said she hopped into an expensive little car.
Jeff Ralli
When my wife and I were first married we lived on Highland Avenue in Peapack. We ran into Jackie several times when we went into the small country store on Main Street. She would stop in there to buy coffee and cigarettes . Always a very composed lady.
When I was 12 or so my friend Chrissy and I rode our bikes from Basking Ridge where we lived to Jackie’s house. This would have been around 1980. Chrissy’s cousin was taking care of Jackie’s horses. Jackie obviously wasn’t home and someone, I think it was a woman, let Chrissy and I inside the home. I remember it had a cozy country feel. One room - like a mud room or closed in porch had about 10 pairs of riding boots. We even went into her bedroom and her closet! I remember looking at the family pictures on the wall.
Took care of her horses while working at Fox Chase Stables....Both my brother Bob and l spent 4 years with her....got to do many different jobs for her, including grooming at horse shows, taking her and her horses to hunt with the Essex Hunt...we also served at parties at Waterloo Village which was owned by the same man that owned Fox Chase Stables. She was always nice and fun to be around....her horses, Winchester and Surdan were nice horses... and of course the two ponies, Macaroni and Leprechaun were the best. Met A. Onassis a few times. Always a good tipper....It was a great time in my life...
My Godparents were the caretakers of the Peapack home, from the 70's to the 90's.
I enjoyed spending time there. It was a very understated home. Simple but elegant.
A few things that I remember about the estate. The art books and classical music records in the living room. The gas pump by the side of the garage. I read that it was installed by the Secret Service. The small swimming pool with chicken wire around it.
I also remember the horse barn down the road from the property. On the other side of the road after turning right out of the estate. My cousin had a horse there, if I remember correctly.
Carol are you related to the Sutton's that came to Peapack in the early to middle of the 1900s. They lived in Hunterdon County, and had a farm and horses.
I lived in peapack from 1970-1972.
I saw Jackie Onassis in her four wheel Jeep when she attended The catholic church.