Trenton 10 Most Endangered – An Update

For Preservation Month in 2003, the Preservation Committee of the Trenton Historical Society released its Ten Most Endangered Building list. Two years later, it’s Preservation Month again and it’s appropriate to look at where we are now. The good news is that no buildings on the list have been lost and a couple have hopeful developments.  However, none of the buildings on the list are sufficiently rehabilitated to come off the list and many continue to deteriorate. Here is the list again with a status update.

1. Broad Street Bank Building                     

The Broad Street Bank Building is the only example of an early 20th-century skyscraper in Trenton. It was built in three phases: an eight-story structure in the style of Louis Sullivan built in 1900, followed in 1913 by a 12-story addition, and by another 8-story addition in 1923. The additions use architectural details from the original structure so the entire building appears as one cohesive design.  The building includes a number of city milestones. Besides being the first skyscraper in Trenton, it had the first steel superstructure (built of I beams invented in Trenton), the first elevator, and the first revolving doors. It stands today as an important reminder of Trenton’s prosperity in the first half of the 20th century.

Current status: The bank building was recently sold to private developers who want to put retail and office on the lower levels and apartments above.  Scaffolding protecting pedestrians has been erected and clean up has begun in preparation of the building’s rehabilitation.

2. Horsman Doll Factory                              

The Horsman Doll factory complex was the main manufacturing location of the very popular Horsman family of dolls. Built in the early 1930s, it was once considered the largest doll factory in the United States. The one-block square complex, which at its peak had more than 800 employees, consists of two connected, three-story, brick mill buildings, plus several one-story brick additions. Because this site is the dominant feature in an otherwise residential neighborhood, it provides an important reminder of a time when workers still walked to work from homes clustered around places of employment.  Doll manufacturing at the site ceased in the 1960s, though sections of the complex housed various enterprises for some time thereafter. The complex has been completely vacant for approximately 10 years, leaving a substantial vacuum in the neighborhood.  But these handsome buildings are structurally sound and offer enormous market-rate redevelopment potential. Unlike many other cities, preservation minded builders in Trenton have not put loft-style condominiums and apartments in former factories. Since there are at least a dozen other buildings in the Trenton vicinity with similar prospects, the Horsman Doll Factory could exemplify for the entire region the way new housing can be provided in sensitively converted industrial buildings.

Current status: The building is still vacant and quickly losing its windows to neglect and vandalism.   Although there are no current plans to demolish the building, there are no development plans.

3. Mercer County Courthouse                     

Soon after the formation of Mercer County in 1838, steps were taken for the erection of a courthouse. Built at the corner of Broad and Market Streets, the original Greek Revival structure served the public until 1903. Trenton and Mercer County had grown enormously since its founding, and the current grand, classical Beaux Arts structure was built to accommodate this growth. This impressive sandstone building, with its pediments, columns and arches, occupies an important downtown gateway. Not only a Trenton Landmark, the Court House is perhaps one of the best known buildings in Mercer County. Still in daily use, the building is in dire need of restoration. Talk of renovation coupled with whispers of demolition have won this building a high ranking on the Top 10 Endangered List.

Current status: No work is currently planned.  The County Executive has stated that the courthouse functions will move to a new building.

4. Trenton Psychiatric Hospital

The New Jersey State Hospital Historic District occupies much of the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital’s approximately 100acre campus in Trenton and Ewing Township. The hospital was founded in 1848 at the urging of Dorthea Dix and was first know as the New Jersey Lunatic Asylum. It was the first institution established in New Jersey for the mentally ill. The hospital today includes an extensive campus with large, primarily stone buildings constructed from the mid-19th throughout the 20th centuries amid beautifully landscaped grounds. Noted Philadelphia architect John Notman and nationally significant landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing were responsible for the property’s original plan. The historic district buildings include the main hospital, a cafeteria, a laundry, a firehouse, a shop, a laboratory, a powerhouse, the gatehouse and several residences for the Superintendent, the Commissioner, 12 doctors and a nurse’s dormitory. The New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office has determined that the site is eligible for inclusion on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The primary threat to the complex is demolition, although neglect is also taking its toll on the district.

Current status: The hospital complex is still an unacknowledged and underused resource of incredible value, between the open space and historic buildings, this property is a valuable asset.  A new threat lies in the possibility of some of the buildings and open space being sold by the State for possible redevelopment. 

5. Trenton Saving Fund Society                   

The Trenton Saving Fund Society was incorporated in 1844 and began business on July 20, 1847, in an office in the original Trenton City Hall. After moving several times, the managers decided to build a new banking house at the current location on East State Street, which was completed in April 1901. The white granite, steel structure building, designed by New York architects Moweray and Affinger in the Beaux Arts style, is one of Trenton’s most beautiful buildings. An equally distinguished classical vocabulary was used on the building’s interior, intended to give all who did business there a sense of pride and security. The central banking room’s stained glass ceiling was covered over with acoustic tiles as part of an ill-advised modernization.  Now vacant for several years, the building is beginning to show signs of deterioration, neglect and vandalism.

Current status: The building is still vacant and continues to rapidly deteriorate from neglect.

6. The Delaware Inn/Champale Office        

Building During the late 1700s and early 1800s, it was common for timber to be moved by raft down the Delaware River from upstate New York to Philadelphia.  Timbers were laid side by side and lashed together, then dismantled and sold at their destination. The sight of these rafts at Trenton was common; in the spring of 1828, as many as a thousand rafts containing some 50 million board feet of lumber passed by on the river. The raftmen invariably made an over-night stop in Lamberton (now part of Trenton’s South Ward), where several inns were established to accommodate this traffic. Of these, the Red Tavern, later know as the Delaware Inn, was among the most popular. With deforestation and the increased popularity of railroad transportation, the river was used less for transporting logs and the inns suffered. In 1891, the Trenton Brewing Company, owned by the Kuser family, was built on the adjacent property and the Delaware Inn was taken over for the brewery offices.  During World War II, Champale was manufactured at the plant and the site prospered until December 31, 1986, when it closed.  The brewery was demolished in 1998 but the Delaware Inn was spared. Vacant and neglected, this riverfront structure is an ideal candidate for re-use.

Current status: A housing development near the building is proposed and some plans have been discussed for the building but nothing solid has materialized.  For instance, the Trenton Port Museum is interested in using the site.

7. D&R Canal Houses                                              

Houses The Delaware and Raritan Canal opened for business on June 25, 1834. Trenton, at 56 feet above sea level, was the summit with seven locks lifting boats between Bordentown and Trenton and seven more locks lowering them from Trenton to New Brunswick. Trenton was the hub of a transportation network that connected the city to major markets in Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, and to raw materials (primarily coal) from Pennsylvania.  At the blast of a coal boat or the whistle of a yacht, bridge tenders swung Trenton’s bridges aside to make way for canal traffic. Each lock tender and bridge tender was provided with a home as a condition of his employment. In December 1932, the canal closed to commercial traffic. The D&R Canal, along with the houses, was entered on the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1973 and the following year Gov. Brendan Byrne signed a bill creating the D&R Canal State Park. The three canal houses in Trenton have had tenants over the years, but both the Calhoun Street and Hanover Street houses are now vacant and in disrepair.

Current status:  No change.

 

8.  Ferdinand Roebling Mansion                             
John A. Roebling, German immigrant, inventor of wire-rope cable and designer of theBrooklyn Bridge, left a legacy of creative thinking to the three sons—Washington, Charles and Ferdinand—who would carry on the family business.  The Roebling brothers built several grand homes along West State Street from the late 19th to the early 20th century, but 222 West State Street is the only Roebling mansion still standing. It was the home of Ferdinand W. Roebling, Sr., secretary-treasurer of John A Roebling & Sons Company.  Both his son, Ferdinand W. Roebling, Jr. (the driving force behind the fundraising effort to build Trinity Cathedral) and grandsons lived in the house over time. Later, it was used for legal offices.  The building is listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places and has weathered several bouts of controversy since 1990, when a local developer wanted to demolish it for a new office building, and later when the city planned demolition. Saved by the efforts of local preservationists and the City of Trenton, there is talk of restoring and expanding this important site, but currently it stands vacant and neglected.                             
Current status:   The NJ State League of Municipalities is purchasing the property from the City of Trenton.  Construction Documents for the renovation and expansion of the structure are complete and currently out to bid. 

 

9. Golden Swan/Caola Building                    

For almost two centuries, the building at the southwest corner of Front and Warren Streets stood as an important commercial establishment. When built, it was one of the largest structures in town. It has been the home to the Golden Swan Tavern, the Sign of the Swan, the Swan Inn and Mechanics Hall. In addition to taverns, the building at one time housed The Daily True American. Later uses included an upholstery business, a furniture store, a tinsmith shop, and from 1921 until the 1990s the Caola locksmith business. Akeystone of the Warren Street Historic District, the building is currently an eyesore. Recent development possibilities raised hope for the restoration of the building but the future of the site is uncertain.

Current status:  The building has been purchased by a developer and is marked for rehabilitation.  Recently, a rear wing portion was removed as the structure was failing.

10. General Philemon Dickenson house - General Philemon Dickinson House / The Hermitage This stone house was originally built and occupied by the Rutherford family. It was purchased in 1776, shortly before the Battle of Trenton, by General Philemon Dickinson, commander in-chief of the New Jersey Militia during the Revolutionary War. The house was occupied for many years by the Dickinson family, which entertained many famous people within its walls including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Witherspoon, Generals Greene and Knox and Joseph Bonaparte. The exterior of the house was considerably remodeled in the mid-19th century and its interior was altered for use as an apartment house in 1905. Listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places, this important piece of Trenton’s history is a prime candidate for rehabilitation.

Current status:   This building was recently purchased by a new owner, but currently sits vacant and deteriorating.