Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003

1. The STATE CAPITOL ANNEX (open 9-5 weekdays), W. State St. opposite Taylor's Place, is a four-story Indiana limestone building of neoclassic design, built in 1931. Designed by J. Osborne Hunt of Trenton and Col. Hugh A. Kelly of Jersey City, it is a well-planned H-shaped structure. Within the annex are a number of State departments and courts, plus the STATE LIBRARY of about 175,000 volumes, noted for its law, history and genealogy collections; and the STATE MUSEUM (open 9-5 weekdays; 2-5 Sun.), which contains exhibits of natural resources, archeology and fauna of New Jersey, as well as minerals, fossils and Indian relics. Schools throughout the State are provided with teaching aids from lending collections.

2. The STATEHOUSE (open 9-5 weekdays; all night Mon. during legislative sessions), 121 W. State St., is an unsatisfactory composite of additions and alterations, occupying a landscaped plot between State Street and Delaware River. What remains of the original structure, built c. 1792, is now a part of the present building, although exactly what part is uncertain. Subsequent growth has been without regard to any foresighted plan. After a fire in 1885, the present front portion and rotunda with gilded dome and lantern were erected in 1889 from the plans of L. H. Broome. The three-and-one-half-story facade is in the French Renaissance style, with a clumsy two-tier entrance porch supported on small scale polished granite columns. The ill-lighted main entrance corridor is hung with indistinguishable portraits of early Jersey statesmen and patriots; portraits of various Governors hang in the executive chambers. Against the walls of the cramped rotunda are musty cabinets of Civil War regimental flags. The second and third floors are labyrinths of gloomy corridors and passageways weaving in and out among erratically placed offices. In the basement, where a bar once provided convenient relief for hard-worked legislators, there is a lunchroom and lounge.

   The assembly chamber, designed by James Moylan and built in 1891, is finished on the interior with Trenton tile, yellow oak, Italian marble, and iron. Individual desks, each with a spittoon, are arranged in the plan of an amphitheater. To the right and left of the speaker's desk are small pens flatteringly called press boxes. Suspended above on the sides and rear is the spectators' gallery, wholly inadequate for the accommodation of visitors who usually can neither see nor hear the speakers on the floor. Similar to the assembly chamber but smaller is the marble senate chamber, planned by Arnold H. Moses and completed in 1904. At the rear of the capitol and between the two chambers is a massive, four-story stucco wing, built in 1907 from the drawings of George E. Poole, State architect.

3. The OLD BARRACKS (open 10-5 weekdays, May to Aug.; 10-4, Sept. to April; adm. 10¢), S. Willow St. opposite W. Front St., is the only remaining unit of the five barracks erected in 1758-59 by the Colonial Assembly to house Colonial troops, previously billeted in private homes, during the French and Indian War. It is a pleasing example of the adaptation of early Georgian Colonial style to a military building. Of U-shaped design, the courtyard walls carry a two-story roofed porch, supported on thin wood columns that give a southern air. The masonry is of random fieldstone with white wood trim. British troops, Hessian jaegers and American soldiers were quartered here during the Revolution; afterward the structure was used for private dwellings. In 1813, Front Street was cut through the building, but the entire structure was restored about a century later. The original three long rooms have been divided into many small ones, some furnished with Colonial pieces, others used for exhibitions. One of the finest collections of Continental currency in the country is here. Some rooms are headquarters for various Colonial and Revolutionary societies. On the lawn is an elm grown from the root of the Cambridge tree under which General Washington assumed charge of the Continental Army. The property, restored by the State, is managed by the Old Barracks Association.

4. The OLD MASONIC LODGE HOUSE (open 9-4 weekdays; 1-4 Sun. ). NE. corner S. Willow and Lafayette Sts., is one of the oldest Masonic houses still standing north of the Mason and Dixon Line. It was built in 1793 by the local lodge, organized in 1787. The two-story Georgian Colonial building is of fieldstone, ivy-covered, with white trim and slate roof. The graceful doorway, deep set and arched, is lighted by an old lantern.

   Much of American Masonic history appears to have had its beginnings in Trenton. In 1730 Masons in the Province of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania requested of the Grand Lodge of England a deputation for the first provincial grand master in America. The honor was conferred upon Col. Daniel Coxe, a Trenton citizen, who was the first grand master in the New World. Many relics of this early period are on exhibition downstairs in the Old Lodge House. Upstairs the meeting room is furnished as it was in Colonial days.

   Beside this old landmark is the new MASONIC TEMPLE, erected in 1928, a three-story limestone building, designed by architects Harry A. Hill and Ervin G. Gollner in a modified neoclassic style. The entrance is through three bronze doors in the base below the five-columned porch. Within, the wall and arches of the spacious foyer are of Italian travertine.

5. The SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' WAR MEMORIAL BUILDING (open 9-4 Mon.-Fri.), S. Willow St. betwen Lafayette St. and Memorial Dr., was erected in 1931-32 from a fund of $922,000, raised by popular subscription and by city and county appropriations. It is a memorial to residents of Mercer County who participated in the World War. The two-story structure, constructed of buff Indiana limestone, was designed by William A. Klemann and Louis S. Kaplan in a modified Renaissance style.

   Four flights of steps lead to a terrace with a balustrade around its edge. The entrance is through bronze doors in Florentine style; within is a Memorial Court, with floor and wall trim of imported Italian marble and ceiling of blue and gold polychrome terra cotta. There are two auditoriums, exhibit rooms, and offices for veterans' organizations and other civic groups. Important civic events, lectures, concerts, and the inauguration of the Governor take place here.

6. The DOUGLASS HOUSE (private), extreme easterly part of Mahlon Stacy Park, near Memorial Dr., was the meeting place of Washington and his officers on January 2, 1777, when they planned the retreat to Princeton after the Battle of the Assunpink. The little frame dwelling then stood at 193 S. Broad St. It was brought to this site in 1923, its green and white Georgian Colonial exterior restored and the interior fitted with modern conveniences. The greensward of Mahlon Stacy Park lies between the house and the river; a picket fence surrounds the building, and a row of quivering poplars stands beside it.

7. MAHLON STACY PARK, Memorial Dr. bordering the Delaware, has 19 acres of lawn, paths, shrubbery and trees, framing the State buildings grouped at its edge. Seen from the park, the Statehouse has a dignity lacking in any other view. Bridges block the view upstream and down; the river flows rapidly here, its shallow waters tumbling over a rock-strewn bed with several small islands. Until a few years ago Sanhican Creek, the former water power canal of the Delaware Falls Co., ran the length of the park. Flocks of ducks were attracted by its still waters and by the open-handed generosity of legislators pausing from labor in the Capitol. Today the section of the canal behind the Capitol has been filled in, but its northern portion provides an attractive series of spillways.

8. HOTEL STERLING, 18 W. State St., has a section that was known as the Government House when it served as the official mansion of Governors in the early 1800's. The State no longer maintains a house for the Governor. A four-story yellow stone structure trimmed with white, the hotel has been remodeled several times but retains some of its post-Colonial lines.

9. The FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1114 E. State St., has stood in dignified simplicity since 1841. Two township and two city churches, the first dating from 1712, preceded it. Two great fluted columns, surmounted by a pediment, frame the entrance doors, which are painted white and nail-studded in three oblong panels. A lofty, octagonal steeple crowns the stucco on brick building. Buried in the churchyard are many Revolutionists, among them Abraham Hunt, wealthy Trenton merchant. Hunt gave indirect assistance to Washington's victory at Trenton by pressing the Hessian commander to partake of the best in his cellar on the Christmas Night before the battle.

10. The OLD FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE, NW. corner E. Hanover and Montgomery Sts., is characterized by the customary modesty of a Quaker house of worship. Built in 1739, the simple gray stucco structure has a flat roof on one side and a peaked one on the other. The yard, like those of many other Quaker meeting houses, is shaded by a sycamore tree. George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Gov. Richard Howell, who helped to burn British tea at Greenwich in 1774, are buried here along with such other prominent citizens as Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, Col. Lambert Cadwalader, and Gen. Philemon Dickinson.

11. ST. MICHAELS P. E. CHURCH, 140 N. Warren St., was erected 1819 and has been enlarged from time to time. It is an unusual example of post-Colonial design. Covered with tan stucco, it has mahogany-trimmed windows and entrance, and a crenellated roof that shows a Norman influence. An earlier church was standing on this site in 1748. In the small graveyard, resting place for many distinguished citizens, is buried Pauline Joseph Ann Holton, child of Joseph Bonaparte and the beautiful Annette Savage.

12. ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL, 157 N. Warren St., was dedicated in 1871 and reflects the Victorian Gothic influence in line and detail. The cathedral stands on land where much of the fighting during the Battle of Trenton took place. A tablet on the adjoining OFFICE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP of the Trenton diocese recalls that the Hessian commander, Col. Rall, died at his headquarters in the house that formerly stood here.

13. The BATTLE MONUMENT (open 9-5 daily, adm. 10¢, children 50¢) intersection of N. Warren St., N. Broad St., Brunswick, Pennington, and Princeton Aves., is a 155-foot shaft surmounted by a heroic statue of Washington. Designed by John Duncan and dedicated in 1893, it marks the spot where Washington's artillery opened fire in the early morning of December 26, 1776. Three bas-reliefs in bronze on the base of the shaft illustrate The Crossing of the Delaware, The Opening o f the Fight, and The Surrender o f the Hessians. Two bronze figures stand at the entrance. An elevator runs to the top, from which there is an excellent view of the city.

14. BLOOMSBURY COURT or The WILLIAM TRENT HOUSE (temporarily closed), 539 S. Warren St., erected c. 1719 by William Trent, is the oldest house in the city. This fine example of early Georgian Colonial architecture was recently restored by emergency relief agencies. Of red brick with white trim, it is crowned by a hexagonal, copper-roofed cupola with a weather vane. The simplicity of straight lines with no ornamentation is accentuated by bare windows, the shutters being inside. The interior is little altered and retains the original stairway and floor boards. Nine fireplaces and a cellar kitchen fireplace, built by Colonel Trent, are still in good condition. Two upstairs rooms have the original plaster on the walls, and the hallways retain their first cornices. The main downstairs room has the original wall paneling. Well-shaped lawns, marked with boxwood, are enclosed by a brick and wrought-iron fence. There were lavish entertainments at Bloomsbury Court during the ownership of Lt. Col. John Cox, proprietor of the Batsto iron works that supplied the Continental Army. Cox had six daughters, all of whom made matches worthy of their not inconsequential personal charms. One admirer of the Cox girls was said to have been Count Jean de Fersen, who had come to America with Rochambeau because of gossip indicating that his attentions to Marie Antoinette were more than should be expected of a loyal subject of King Louis XVI.

15. The JOHN FITCH MEMORIAL, NE. corner John Fitch Way and Ferry St., is a boulder in honor of Fulton's forerunner in steam navigation. The site, as obscure as Fitch's name, overlooks the Delaware and an unkempt patch of grass and weeds adjoining the Pennsylvania R.R. embankment. Born in Connecticut, Fitch came to Trenton in 1769 as a gunmaker and metal worker. Here he learned the trade of a silversmith. He served as a lieutenant during the Revolution and later, fired by dreams of westward expansion of the new Nation, studied an idea for building a boat that could travel against the current of the great Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

    Fitch had heard of the stationary steam engine, although he had never seen one. He proceeded to build a boat propelled by a series of paddles on both sides that, in 1786, gave a successful demonstration before Benjamin Franklin and other noted men. Improvements made during the ensuing four years enabled Fitch's vessel to attain a speed of eight miles an hour against the Delaware current. Philadelphia newspapers in 1790, a full 17 years before Robert Fulton's Clermont was demonstrated on Hudson River, carried advertisements of Fitch's packet operating on a regular schedule between various points on the Delaware.

    Although Fitch was granted exclusive rights to construct and operate steamboats by New Jersey and four other States, he was unable to win support of financiers and Congress. Discouraged, he retired to the backwoods of Kentucky and there committed suicide in 1798. He was buried in a pauper's grave at Bardstown, Ky. Later a memorial was erected in front of the Bardstown courthouse.

16. FARMERS' MARKET (open 6 p.m.-11 p.m. weekdays during season), S. Warren St., S. of Ferry St., has two lanes of open sheds with the river and wharves for background. Every summer night except Sunday there is a line-up of trucks, pleasure cars and even wagons, all with displays of farm produce that attract a large number of buyers. The market has been operated by the city since 1918.

17. The NEW JERSEY STATE PRISON (open upon identification Tues., Thurs.), 3rd St. between Federal and Cass Sts., encloses an entire block with its great red stone walls, studded with guard towers. Part of the present structure was erected in 1836. Numerous additions have been made, but the institution is still seriously overcrowded. Congestion has been relieved in part by the transfer of prisoners to farms at Leesburg and Bordentown, and by the removal of women inmates to a farm at Clinton.

    Under the liberal management of the State department of institutions and agencies, a progressive program for handling prisoners has been developed in recent years. Striped suits were replaced with dark gray in 1917. Prior to that time, the State prison was known for a disciplinary system that was one of the most severe in the Nation. Operating today under a scientific classification plan and the honor system, the institution has more than one-fourth of its prisoners working on the farms as trusties. The escape record is one of the lowest in the country.

    Inmates are taught elementary subjects up to the eighth grade and may, if they wish, continue their studies through correspondence courses. Instruction in trades is given in wood, tin, concrete, printing, and machine shops. Large numbers of shoes are manufactured and repaired.

    A crowd of about one thousand persons gathered outside the prison walls on the night of April 3, 1936, to await word of the execution, after two reprieves, of Bruno Richard Hauptmann for the murder of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. More than l00 city police, 50 State troopers, and a fire company, with hose connected, were on guard. Within, the stolid carpenter walked silently to the chair and was given three shocks of electricity while two ministers read the Bible in German. The convicted man, who had stoutly maintained his innocence, was pronounced dead at 8:47 1/2 p.m. Two minutes later a guard walked to a window and nodded his head. A policeman outside said, "I guess that's all." The crowd dispersed quietly.

18. The JOHN A. ROEBLING SONS PLANT (open by permission), 640 S. Broad St., produces wire rope and wire cable which not only support some of the world's largest bridges but are also used to strengthen and operate many airplanes. A modern, four-story, red brick building trimmed with Indiana limestone houses the administrative offices and technical departments. At the side and rear are the mills, also of red brick.

19. The SWITLIK PARACHUTE AND EQUIPMENT PLANT (not open to public), 2nd floor of 649 S. Broad St., manufactures parachutes and other airplane equipment almost exclusively for the Federal Government. The company advertises the fastest-opening parachute in the world, and was the first to make the chair chute, a combination of chair and parachute.

20. BOW HILL (private), 0.25 m. S. of Lalor St. between Bunting and Reeger Aves., was known as "Beau Hill" to wits of a century ago; for here the former King of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte, housed his lovely Quaker mistress, Annette Savage. The old red brick mansion stands back from Lalor Street, lonely and neglected in the shadow of great trees, against a background of water towers and smokestacks of nearby factories.

    Bonaparte is said to have met Annette when she sold him suspenders across the counter of her mother's store in Philadelphia. To shield her from the cold disapproval which his interest evoked in Philadelphia society, the Count de Survilliers (as he then called himself) took Annette to what he hoped would be friendly security in rural Trenton. But the good women of Trenton were no more hospitable to the ex-King's friend. It was a lonely life for Annette, with Bonaparte living several miles away at Bordentown; and the death of their young daughter, Pauline Joseph Ann Holton, added grief to loneliness. In 1824 Bonaparte took his mistress to New York State, where he built a house and laid out the town of Diana. The romance ended when the Revolution of 1830 sent Bonaparte back to his former queen. Annette married a young Frenchman and eventually resumed storekeeping at Watertown, N. Y. Another daughter by Bonaparte, named Charlotte, grew to womanhood and so pleased Napoleon III that he legalized her parents' union and had Charlotte presented at court as his cousin.

    Bow Hill was built c. 1785 by Barnt De Klyn, a French Huguenot who made a fortune selling cloth to the Continental Army and bought thousands of acres along the Delaware in the belief that Trenton would become the national capital. Since the death of the last of De Klyn's descendants to live in the house, it has been in charge of a caretaker.

21. CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, Chambers St. between Hamilton and Greenwood Aves., is considered one of the best equipped secondary schools of the country, with an enrollment of about 3,750 students. Built in 1932, the design adheres closely to the Georgian Colonial style. The central unit is of three stories, surmounted by a clock tower that unifies the entire composition; on each side is a wing in the form of a hollow square connected by enclosed cloisters. The architect was Lawrence L. Licht.

22. The LENOX POTTERIES (open 9-5 weekdays), 50 Meade St., manufacture internationally known pottery in a modern plant built largely of glass. Displayed in a Tudor style showroom are some of the best pieces produced, including service plates priced at $6,000 a dozen. Workmen execute with enthralling precision the successive steps in making china: mixing, pebble grinding, screening, ageing, shaping, drying, firing, in-specting, glazing, decorating, color firing and gold firing.

    As a schoolboy in the late 1860's, Walter Lenox used to stand for hours before a little pottery that he passed daily, watching the transformation of dull clay into shapes of beauty. He learned the trade as an apprentice and resolved to set up his own pottery for making the finest china. But his backers were so skeptical that they stipulated that the building should be designed for use as a tenement in case the pottery faded. After many fruitless attempts, Lenox finally produced the creamy, richly glazed china for which his name is known.

    Stricken blind and paralyzed in 1895, when his dream was all but realized, Lenox then had to depend on his friend and company secretary, Harry A. Brown, to solve the industry's money problems. When Brown paid off the last debt, a miniature kiln was built in the office and the canceled notes burned in it. Lenox stood by, tears running from his sightless eyes. He died in 1920.

23. The MUNICIPAL BUILDING (open), 315 E. State St., is a three-story structure of neoclassic design erected in 1911 from the plans of Spencer Roberts. Twelve Doric columns above the broad steps form a colonnade along the second-story front. In the council chamber a fine mural by Everett Shinn depicts the pottery and iron industries of Trenton. Over the doorway is a painting of the original cruiser Trenton.

24. CADWALADER PARK, Parkside Ave., Stuyvesant Ave. and Cadwalader Dr., is the largest of the city's parks, with 208 acres. It is bordered in part by the Delaware and Raritan Canal feeder. Plays and concerts are given here in an outdoor theater. A small menagerie of wolves, monkeys, raccoons, rabbits, bears, and deer provides entertainment for Trenton youngsters.

Walker-Gordon Farm with Rotolactor, 11.4 m. (see Tour 1); Princeton University, 9.7 m. (see PRINCETON); John Bull Monument to pioneer locomotive, 6.6 m. (see Tour 6); Washington Crossing State Park, 8.3 m. (see Tour 11).  

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