CHAPTER VI

Landmarks, Taverns, Markets and Fairs

BY WILLIAM J. BACKES

I. Landmarks

OF ALL of Trenton's landmarks, the Trent House is undoubtedly the oldest. It was built in 1719, the same year in which the name Trent-town was bestowed on the settlement, until then commonly referred to as “the Falls.”

THE TRENT HOUSE, OR BLOOMSBURY COURT

This mansion, known at different times as Kingsbury Hall, Bloomsbury Court, and Woodlawn, is a landmark of rich historical interest. It was built by William Trent, in whose honor the settlement was named, on the tract of eight hundred acres which he had acquired from Mahlon Stacy, Jr., by deed dated August 17, 1714. Trent himself did not make his permanent residence here until 1721, but had built the house while still living in Philadelphia, coming here to enjoy it in the summer seasons before making it his permanent abode.

As originally constructed the mansion was an oblong building erected of bricks brought over from Europe, and it exists today exactly as originally built except for a frame addition said to have been added about 1850 by James M. Redmond, the then owner.

Chief Justice Trent died there on Christmas Day 1724. James Trent, his eldest son and heir-at-law, conveyed the property to William Morris, a merchant of the Island of Barbadoes, in the West Indies, by deed dated March 28, 1729. The deed conveyed three hundred acres of land “together with the brick messuage or dwelling house, lately erected by the said William Trent, wherein the said James Trent now liveth.” Morris held title to the property, conveying it to Governor George Thomas of Pennsylvania, in October, 1733. It is not known whether Governor Thomas ever actually occupied the house, but he held title until 1753.

Lewis Morris, the first Colonial governor of New Jersey separate from New York, leased the property from Governor Thomas in 1742. On June 3, 1744, while Governor Morris was living at Kingsbury, he wrote his daughter in London, Mrs. Norris, that he was living in a place of Colonel Thomas's about a half mile from Trenton:

. . . for which I give £60  per annum, our house is good and not one chimney in it smoked, and we live much more private here than at Morrisania. Your mother amuses herself with a brood of turkeys, fowels and ducks which she has about her.

He again writes to her in January 1745 that having:

. . . to do with an ignorant, perverse and obstinate Assembly who notwithstanding their faire promises, came predetermined to do nothing, I was forced to dissolve them, and being obliged to go down stairs got a most violent cold and cough which held me long and reduced me to skin and bones, 1

1 Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, Vol. IV, pp. 189, 205.

Governor Thomas conveyed the property to Robert Lettis Hooper on January 31, 1753. The latter, a son of the chief justice of the same name, was a miller and owner of considerable property at Rocky Hill, and moved into the Trent House soon after his purchase. He acquired all of the Trents’ former holdings south of the Assunpink Creek, and caused to be laid out building lots of uniform size on both sides of the road leading from Trenton to Crosswicks (now South Broad Street) and on the north side of Ferry Street to the ferry. These lots he advertised as follows: 2

2 Pennsylvania Journal, August 31,1758.

Whereas the subscriber having put himself at considerable charge in clearing the ground and laying out in lots of 60 feet front and 181 and a half feet back, being one quarter of an acre, to the best advantage of the settler, a most convenient piece of ground for a town lying in the county of Burlington and township of Nottingham, in West New Jersey, .being on Delaware River, at the ferry commonly known by the name of Trenferry, thence running as the road runs to the Grist Mill opposite; thence down the stream of the said mill to the River Delaware; thence down the river to the ferry; being the head of the navigation from the Capes of Delaware.

He called this tract “my new Town of Kingsbury.”

On June 25, 1759, he advertises Kingsbury to let for a term of years and on March 12, 1767, advertises it for sale in the Pennsylvania Journal, stating that

. . . it is accommodated with a genteel brick dwelling house, 40 x 48 feet, two stories high, four rooms on a floor, with a large handsome stair case and entry, with a cellar under the whole building, and a court yard on each front of the house, one fronting down the River Delaware to the ferry, thro’' a large handsome avenue of English cherry trees, the other fronting up the river to Trenton, with a large brick kitchen 30 x 20 feet, two stories high, with a well in it, and four handsome apartments above for servants . . . .

The “brick kitchen” mentioned was built by Governor Thomas when Governor Morris became tenant, and has long since disappeared.

William Bryant bought the property from Hooper on October 28, 1769. He was a practising physician in Trenton during the Revolution, and the house was always referred to by the Hessians as “the Doctor's House.”

John Cox, who purchased it from Dr. Bryant on October 28, 1778,changed the name of the mansion to “Bloomsbury Court.” He was an iron manufacturer at Batsto (in Burlington County). Mrs. Cox and their six daughters were very prominent in the social life of Trenton during their occupancy of Bloomsbury Court. They participated in the reception given to Washington at the Triumphal Arch by the Ladies of Trenton, when he passed here on his way to New York in 1789 to be inaugurated the first President of the United States.

John Cox and Esther, his wife, by deed dated September 24, 1792, reciting that they then resided in Philadelphia but late of Bloomsbury, conveyed the property to Marin Bazile Gaston, L’official de Woofoin, gentleman, of Philadelphia. The latter on October 27, 1795, through his attorney in fact, James Philip Rossignol de Gandmont, conveyed the property to Esther Cox, executrix, and John Stevens and Mathias Barton, executors of the last will and testament of John Cox, deceased. In 1792 a goodly number of French Roman Catholic families found their way into Trenton as refugees from the barbarities of the revolution in Santo Domingo. Simeon Worlock, one of these, occupied the mansion but six weeks before he died. His body was buried in the Presbyterian churchyard on State Street. The grave was afterwards covered by the present church building; but in the vestibule is a slab marked “Simeon Worlock, July 1792, 39 yr.” 3

3 A letter relative to this marker, written by Mrs. Worlock to the Rev. Mr. Armstrong, the minister of the church in 1792, may be found in Dr. Hall's History of the Presbyterian Church (revised ed.), p. 211.

Between 1795 and 1838, when James Redmond acquired the property, the mansion passed into the handsof William Cox, Sr., Edward Burd and Edward Shippen Burd, Daniel William Cox and Philemon Dickerson. The latter was governor of New Jersey from 1836 to 1837 and, as he owned the Trent House from August 1835 to September 1838, it was, most likely, the executive mansion during his governorship.

Joseph Wood, a former mayor of Trenton, acquired the property from James M. Redmond in 1852, and, except as noted in the following paragraph, lived in it until his death on May 8, 1860. Mr. Wood conducted a general store at Ringoes before coming to Trenton. He acquired a very large amount of real estate after coming here, and at the time of his death was probably the wealthiest man in Trenton. His only daughter, Permelia Sargent, married Edward H. Stokes, and in August 1861 the executors of the estate of Joseph Wood conveyed the Trent House to Edward H. Stokes. The latter on March 17, 1887, conveyed it to his son Edward A. Stokes, the present owner, who vacated the building about a dozen years ago and has since resided at Morristown.

The Trent House became the executive mansion for the last time during the encumbency of Governor Rodman Price, 1854 to 1857. When Mr. Wood resided in the mansion it was called “Woodlawn.”

THE OLD HUNTERDON COUNTY COURT HOUSE AND JAIL

The first public building to be erected in Trenton was the Hunterdon County Court House. It stood on the east side of Warren Street, midway between Front and State Streets, on the site occupied by the building recently vacated by the Trenton Banking Company. The lot on which it stood is commonly believed to have been given to the County of Hunterdon by William Trent. The Court House, a two-story building of grey sandstone with stuccoed front, 4 was built in 1719 and soon after its lower story was used for confining offenders of the law.

4 Raum gives a rather detailed description of the place in his History of Trenton. See also pp. 77-8, above.

The court had sat alternately in Maidenhead and Hopewell townships from 1714 to 1719, pursuant to an ordinance of the seventh of April, XIII of Anne, which directed that the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions be held alternately at those places “until a court-house and gaol for the county should be built.” It having been represented to the governor that the then existent arrangement was inconvenient, the governor accordingly directed (March 1719) that the courts be held at Trenton from September on.

The Court House was used as a jail probably as early as 1721. John Muirheid, the high sheriff, had complained to the court concerning the lack of a jail in 1714, 1717, June 1719 and again in March 1720. Escapes from the jail were frequent and the New Jersey Archives abound with notices of rewards by the jailor for the capture of escaped prisoners.

In 1755 a group of Indians, who had been skulking about the countryside of Sussex County, were taken into custody and kept in this jail for the safety of the terrorized inhabitants. British soldiers, Tories and other persons arrested for high treason, were kept there during the Revolution. When the Hessians were stationed at Trenton, a part of Colonel Rall’s own Grenadier Regiment was quartered in the old Court House. It is said that the walls around the rear and sides of the building were struck by a cannon ball fired from a Continental battery during the Battle of the Assunpink. Goods taken from the local Tories after the Battle of Trenton were stored in the jail of the Court House and were later returned to the rightful owners through the generosity of General Washington.

Part of the old jail wall still stands in the rear of the present building and marks of where the cells had been may be seen in the basement of the building.

The court room was the scene of many interesting trials, among them the case of the Rev. John Rowland, a travelling preacher. Here, too, the renowned Presbyterian minister, the Rev. William Tennent, then pastor of the church at Freehold, was tried for perjury.

The Declaration of Independence was first read publicly from the steps of the old Court House on Monday, July 8, 1776. In all probability it was Samuel Tucker, then president of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, who read this document to the citizens of the town. The Declaration had been agreed to on Thursday, July 4, 1776, and after being printed it was rushed post-haste to the larger towns of the Colonies. We are informed that the reading at Trenton took place “in the presence of the Provincial Congress, the gentlemen of the committee, the officers and privates of the militia under arms, and a large concourse of the inhabitants.”

From these same steps on April 15, 1783, the proclamation of Governor William Livingston, declaring the cessation of hostilities between Great Britain and the United States, was read in the presence of the vice-president of the State, members of the Legislature, judges of the Supreme Court and other public officials, together with a great number of the inhabitants of the town and vicinity. On December 19, 1787, the ratification of the Constitution of the United States by New Jersey was read aloud at the old Court House in the presence of the principal citizens of Trenton.

The events which centered interest on the Court House are too many to be noted here. Mention may be made, however, of the use of the Court House as a borough hall during the period when Trenton had its first charter.

The Court of Commissioners appointed by the Continental Congress in 1782 to settle the land dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania met in this building, convening here on November 12, 1782. The New Jersey House of Assembly met in the Court House in November 1784. The Baptists held services in the building for a while and the city government met here until the enraged freeholders locked them out.

By an Act of the Legislature passed March 4, 1780, the court was removed from Trenton to the house of Henry Mershon in Amwell Township (Flemington became the county seat for Hunterdon in 1791). Thereafter prisoners of war were kept in the Trenton court house and for a while the Admiralty Court held its sessions there. When the jail was abandoned by the County, the town jailor took over the jail for the custody of city prisoners.

In February 1805, the freeholders of Hunterdon County sold the “Old Court-house and Gaol” to the Trenton Banking Company for $2,025. The history of the building since that date is given in Chapter XI below, “Banks and Commerce.”

THE OLD BARRACKS AT TRENTON

For a time preceding the year 1757, and especially during the French and Indian War, the colonists here were put in fear of a threatened invasion. Their desire that suitable protection be afforded them against the expected incursions of the savage Indians, and also that they be relieved of the burden and inconvenience of supporting soldiers quartered in their homes, found expression in petitions to the Legislature for the erection of barracks in the Colony, in which to house the troops of Great Britain mobilized for defensive purposes. In compliance with the prayers of these petitions the Legislature made an appropriation for the erection of the Trenton barracks, among others, and they stand today the only one remaining of the five built in 1757-58.

THE OLD BARRACKS

On March 31, 1757, a petition was sent to the General Assembly of the Province by magistrates, freeholders and inhabitants of the town of Trenton and other places adjacent in the County of Hunterdon, which recited:

That altho we your Petitioners do with truly Loyal and gratefull Hearts acknowledge how much we Owe to our Most Gracious Sovereign, and his Parliament, for furnishing us with repeated supplys of Troops at this Critical Juncture of Affairs when our all is threatened and endangered by our Inveterate and Potent Enemy, in Conjunction with surrounding nations of Cruel and deceitful Savages. And altho we are chearfully willing to exert the utmost of our power to render these his Majesties Troops perfectly usefull, and to answer the just end for which they were designed, in proportion to the number that shall from time to time fall to our share to support: Yet such is the Scituation of Trenton being so great a thoroughfare, and consequently so many soldiers continually passing and repassing upon their Severall Commands, and Quartered upon us Night and day, that unless by the Assistance of this Honourable House we can by some wholesome Law and legal Remedy be eased of this present Distress, the Country will be no longer able to bear the Burden, nor the Officers have it in their Power to keep their stragling Soldiers under due Command and Subjection.

We shall not take upon us to dictate to this Honourable House what should be the method of this Remedy, but hope we may presume to offer our Sentiments, that if we could be provided with convenient Barracks it would answer all ends both as to the conveniency and safety that would redound to the Troops, as well as the great ease and advantage it would be to the Subject.

We therefore your petitioners Humbly request that this Honourable House would speedily take it into Consideration and enable us to erect and Build such sufficient and Convenient Barracks for the purposes aforesaid or to give us such other adequate Remedy, in such Measure, and with such Power & Authority, and with such Clauses, Proviso’s and restrictions as to this Honourable House, in their Wisdom shall think meet and fitt.

And your Petitioners as in duty Bound shall ever Pray, &c.

This petition was signed by many persons, of whom descendants are now living in Trenton and vicinity, and believing it will be of interest to have them fully set out, the names follow:

There are thirty-nine petitions of similar character on file in the military records of the State. 5

5 Stryker, The Old Barracks at Trenton, pp. 4, 5.

On March 31, 1758, at a session of the Colonial Legislature at Burlington, petitions were presented from Middlesex County setting forth that the quartering of soldiers in that County was found by experience to be very inconvenient, and praying that a number of barracks might be built. It was thereupon ordered that members Johnston, Yard, Read, Paxson and Leaming be a committee to prepare a plan of the manner and an estimate of the expense of building barracks for 1500 men and lay the same before the House. The above-named committee on the same day made the following report:

We, the Committee appointed to consider a Plan for building Barracks for 1500 men; and computing the Expences thereof, do hereby report, that we are of Opinion, it will be proper to build . . . one at Trenton, for 300 Men . . . . And it appearing to us . . . the Expence and Method are . . . too uncertain for us to form any tolerable Estimate; Our Opinion therefore is, that the best Method the House can fall upon, will be to appoint three responsible Freeholders in each of the above Places, and to impower any two of them to draw on the Treasury for . . . the sum of £1400, for Trenton . . . and with the moneys so received, to compleat the said Buildings, in the most cheap, expeditious and convenient Manner they are capable of. All which is, nevertheless, submitted to the House by

CHARLES READ

AARON LEAMING

HENRY PAXSON

JOSEPH YARD.

THE BUILDING OF THE BARRACKS AUTHORIZED

The report was unanimously agreed to and on Saturday, April 15, 1758, the bill having passed both Houses, Governor John Reading was pleased to give his assent to the bill “Entituled an Act for Building of Barracks within this Colony,” etc. 6

6 Journal of The Provincial Council, New Jersey Archives, Vol. XVII, p. 165.

In his sketch, The Old Barracks at Trenton, Adjutant General Stryker says:

Soon after the passage of the law a lot was purchased of Mrs. Sarah Chubb, at a place on the west end of Front Street, where the River Road entered Trenton. The purchase money was forty pounds, and the lot contained about one acre. Joseph Peace, the father of Mrs. Chubb, purchased this lot in a tract of thirty-six acres, from James Trent, son of William Trent, March 10, 1732, for one hundred and seventy pounds, silver money.

Joseph Peace, the father of Mrs. Chubb, did purchase from James Trent a tract of thirty-six acres, by deed dated March 10, 1732, but this tract lies south of Front Street, and consequently could not have included all of the barracks lot.

In 1714 William Trent had purchased from Mahlon Stacy, Jr., 800 acres on both sides of the Assunpink Creek; the 500 acres north of the creek were bounded on the west by a tract of l00 acres then belonging to Nathaniel Pettit, on which the State House is now erected. Front Street, as laid out by Trent, ran westward to within 165 feet of the Pettit tract, where it was intersected and terminated by another (unnamed) street running north. When the Barracks were erected the building was placed directly over Front Street, closing off its west end as well as the unnamed street running north, which it intersected, That part of Front Street from Willow Street to the cast wall of the Barracks had always remained a street and it was impossible for Mrs. Chubb to sell it.

ERECTION COMMENCED IN 1758

The erection of the Barracks was commenced on May 31, 1758. 7 The deed for the lot does not appear to have been recorded. A diligent search for it in the office of the secretary of State and in the county clerk's office at Flemington fails to disclose it.

The committee of the Provincial Assembly was quite right in its surmise that the expenses of building would vary greatly according to the place where the building was to be erected, as it is found in the minutes 8 that the Barracks at Trenton cost £1040 14s. 2d., plus £2446 6s. 9d. The building of the Trenton Barracks was pushed so rapidly that more than one-half of the structure was filled with soldiers in December 1758. It was fully completed in March 1759.

7 The Old Barracks at Trenton, pp. 10, 11, 12.

8 pp. 33, 52, 59.

THE OFFICERS’ QUARTERS

We now come to the interesting question of the old Colonial house at the northwest corner of Front and Willow Streets, - the officers’ quarters. General Stryker says that in December 1759 a small addition was built to the Barracks for the exclusive use of the officers in charge of the English troops. 9

9 The Old Barracks at Trenton, p. 12.

The Barracks, as is well known, were erected in the form of three sides of a hollow square, the main building running north and south, with two wings, one at the northerly and the other at the southerly end, both extending eastward. General Stryker says it was built entirely of stone, undressed, two stories in height, the main building 130 feet in length and 18 1/2 feet in width, with the two wings each 58 feet in length. The time between the completion of the Barracks in March 1759, until December when the addition for the officers was built, is a period of months only, after which time until the partial demolition of the building for the opening of Front Street. the appearance of the building must have remained unchanged and included the officers’ quarters, which were, in fact, the Colonial house on the northwest corner of Front and Willow Streets. It is assumed that General Stryker was correct when he says that the officers’ quarters were built in December 1759 although he does not disclose the source of his authority nor does he mention the Colonial house or building as being those quarters.

Chancellor Walker says that he was able to find only one person who could assure him of the historical fact that this building was the officers quarters, and part and parcel of the Barracks, in 1759, and that person was Miss Emeline R. Johnston, since deceased, whom he interviewed in 1910. She was then eighty-eight years of age, and in the full possession of her faculties. She told him her father purchased this very house in 1836 when she was fourteen years of age, and the family then moved into it. She and her sister resided there until the Civil War, when she left, and her sister, who is also now deceased, continued to reside there for many years afterwards. Miss Johnston not only informed the Chancellor that she had always understood that the old house was part of the Barracks and occupied by the British officers, but also that a daughter of Conrad Kotts (who lived on the west side of South Warren Street between State and Front Streets during the Revolutionary War), 10 who was sixteen years old at the time of the Battle of Trenton, had called upon the Johnston family in 1836 when they first moved into the Barracks house and in conversation told them that the house in which they were living was standing there during the Revolutionary War and was occupied by the officers in command of the troops occupying the Barracks. Miss Johnston also informed the Chancellor that when she lived in the house there was an iron plate in the fireplace in the kitchen, about one yard square, with the British coat of arms upon it, the lion and the unicorn being distinctly remembered by her.

10 Stryker, Trenton One Hundred Years Ago, p. 11.

THE PLANS OF THE BUILDING

A few years ago there was found in the cellar of the State House a ground-floor plan of the Barracks which showed the old house as the officers’ quarters. The plan, or rather plans, referred to are in duplicate and have been photographed. These photographs now hang in the Barracks. From inspection it would appear that they are not the working plans from which the Barracks were built in 1758-59, but that they were made at a later date and for a different purpose as will now be shown.

The French and Indian War ended with the establishment of peace with France in 1765. During that year the buildings seem to have been unoccupied, The attention of the General Assembly was called to this fact in May of that year, and they ordered that the perishable articles therein should be sold and the building kept in repair and rented. William Clayton and Abraham Hunt were appointed commissioners to carry out these orders of the Legislature and they immediately sold the furniture and rented the building and premises, a clause in the lease providing that the premises be surrendered up at any time, on suitable notice being given by the governor that they were needed for the use of the British soldiers. 11 Now it will be observed, by looking at the photographs of the plans, that the building was divided into rooms, which are numbered, and a price set opposite the number of each room. It is obvious that there was no one in Trenton in the Colonial period who for any reason or purpose desired to rent the Barracks as an entirety, and therefore it clearly appears that the building was divided into rooms for the purpose of renting to families and others, and this arrangement must have been made about the year 1765 and continued down to 1776. This plan, then, must have been made not earlier than seven nor later than seventeen years after the erection and completion of the Barracks, by a person contemporary with the structure as erected, who marked indelibly upon the plan the words “Officers Quarters” in making a correct drawing and truly stating a fact concerning the Colonial mansion on the corner of Front and Willow Streets.

11 The Old Barracks at Trenton, pp. 13, 14.

At a meeting of the Provincial Council in 1767, William Franklin, the last Colonial governor, presented a communication from Earl Shelburn, one of the Secretaries of State for England, disallowing an Act of the Legislature of this Province for supplying the several barracks with necessaries for the King's troops, and for defraying other incidental charges. This Act was disallowed by the King upon the advice of the Privy Council, because the Act made the nomination of commissioners for carrying it out depend on an Act of the Legislature and not of Parliament. Another reason for the disallowance was that the articles with which the troops were to be supplied, and limiting the money to be paid therefor, was referred to as the usage of the Province.

The history of the Barracks during the Revolutionary War is succinctly told on the tablet inside the building which was unveiled on the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the celebration of its construction, as follows:

THESE BARRACKS WERE

ERECTED 1758-9

By authority of the Legislature of the Colony of New Jersey for the purpose of quartering British and Provincial troops to resist the threatened invasion by the French and Indians.

In its original form presented three sides of a hollow square, which was intersected by the extension of Front Street, in 1813.

The building was constantly occupied by troops from the time of completion until peace was established with France in 1765. From that time until the breaking out of the war which resulted in the independence of the United States it was practically disused. For a short time preceding the battles of Trenton and Assunpink it was occupied by the British troops, Hessians, Provincial recruits for the service of the Crown, and Tory refugees, and during the remainder of the war by troops of the Continental Line, State Militia and their French Allies.

After the cessation of hostilities it was used for various private and philanthropic purposes, until purchased by the Old Barracks Fund Committee, November 3, 1902, and is now cared for by

THE OLD BARRACKS

ASSOCIATION,

its present owner and preserver, by whom this tablet was erected on the 150th anniversary of the construction of the building.

For three years after the Revolution the Barracks were disused and on June 1, 1786, Moore Furman, commissioner for the State, sold them to William Ogden and William Patterson. 12

12 Deed, Hunterdon County Clerk's Office, Vol. 1, pp. 222 ff.

FRONT STREET CONTINUED WESTWARDLY

Afterwards, Front Street was continued westwardly from Willow Street to the State House lot, and the question is, when was this done? We find that on May 27, 1793, the surveyors of the townships of Trenton, Maidenhead and Hopewell agreed to lay out a road 42 feet wide beginning at the end of Front Strect, near the Barracks, from thence running in the middle of the road north 70 degrees, west 4 chains and 70 links to the State House lot, thence north 22 degrees, east 3 chains and 49 links out into the road leading from Abraham Hunt’s to Beatty’s Ferry (now West State Street) and that the said road should be opened on or before September 1, 1793. That part of the road running north into what is now West State Street was afterwards opened southerly to the river, and was first known as Wall Street, but from 1842 until vacated (as hereafter noted) was called Delaware Street.

There are two or three conveyances of land on Front Street prior to 1800 which run to the wall of the Barracks; also one in 1809 and another in 1811. Mr. Raum 13 says that Front Street was continued to the State House yard through the Old Barracks in 1801. General Stryker 14 says that this was done in 1813. The opinion of General Stryker probably rightly expresses the date when part of the walls of the Barracks were demolished to make a continuous highway through from Willow Street to the State House grounds. General Stryker was more accurate that Mr. Raum; the latter says that buildings known as White Hall (Old Barracks) were erected by the King as barracks for his officers. This is a mistake. The King never erected the Barracks, nor was his permission even asked. True, they housed the soldiers of the King, but they were never built exclusively for officers, - in fact the officers’ building was erected after the Barracks proper. As there is no authority showing that part of the walls of the building was actually demolished for the projection of Front Street through the Barracks prior to 1813 (although the street was undoubtedly opened to the westward of the Barracks after it was laid out by the surveyors of the highway in 1793), General Stryker’s assertion, it appears, should be accepted. He says that the building was entirely stone. This is important when we know that at the time of the restoration the front wall of the officers’ quarters facing on the north side of Front Street was of brick, doubtless put there by the owner after the extension of the street, so as to give the dwelling a more modern appearance and in a measure to dissociate it from what it had formerly been. The stone wall has since happily been replaced.

13 History of Trenton, p. 271.

14 The Old Barracks at Trenton, p. 14.

HISTORIC STRUCTURE NOW RESTORED

This historic structure has now beers restored to its pristine condition and presents exactly the same appearance it had when originally erected. The restoration was not difficult, - only expensive, and the State of New Jersey generously provided the necessary funds.

That part of the structure on the south side of Front Street has never been altered externally, though the interior was undoubtedly changed by a division into rooms for renting to individuals, and that division is still maintained. The projection of Front Street westward was through the north end of the main building where it joined the north wing running easterly. None of the walls of that part which was left standing was demolished (except for the substitution of brick for stone in the front wall of the officers’ quarters, now restored) and they stand today as originally built.

When the Indigent Widows’ and Single Women’s Home Society, which had occupied that portion of the structure known as White Hall on the southerly side of Front Street, removed to its new home on Spring Street, the Old Barracks was put up for sale. To prevent it from passing into the hands of speculators or contractors, and save it from demolition, some of the patriotic ladies of Trenton, through a committee, known as the Purchase Fund Committee and composed of Mrs. Samuel D. Oliphant, Mrs. Eliza Warren Hook, Mrs. William S. Stryker, Mrs. Washington A. Roebling and Mrs. James B. Breese, assisted by others, by great effort raised a fund and purchased the property, which they opened and maintained as the Old Barracks. The State, becoming interested, persuaded the City of Trenton to vacate so much of West Front Street as extended through from Willow to Delaware Streets and all of Delaware Street; bought the houses and lots on the vacated streets, and restored the Barracks to exactly the state that they were in when built, except as to the interior, which at first probably consisted of large rooms, some of which were afterwards undoubtedly made much smaller. The purchase fund committee and other ladies interested formed on June 13, 1902, the Old Barracks Association of Trenton, New Jersey, which the State has graciously continued as managers and custodians of the Barracks as an historical landmark and repository forever.

By deed dated February 10, 1914,the Old Barracks Association conveyed, to the State of New Jersey, White Hall or that part of the property which was owned by the association. 15 The State, therefore, now owns the entire property, with the management and control, as stated, in the Old Barracks Association.

15 Deed recorded in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Vol. 366, p. 434.

The Old Barracks are now largely used as a museum of Colonial and Revolutionary relics. The main entrance is in the old officers’ quarters, the ground floor of which is one large reception room. On the second floor is an armory, where weapons are displayed. The ground floor of the main building contains the administration quarters and rooms of patriotic societies; and so, generally, does the second floor. The doors are open to visitors from 9 to 5 daily and the entire premises are open to inspection. On the second floor there is an auditorium running through the north wing, turning at right angles and running southerly for some distance through the main building, with the speaker's rostrum at the middle or turning-point, so that observation from that point can be had both ways. A similarly arranged banquet hall is located in the basement, with facilities for about 175 guests, where patriotic societies and the like may give dinners.

DOUGLASS HOUSE

On the front of the German Evangelical Trinity Lutheran Church, on South Broad Street nearly opposite Livingston, is a bronze tablet bearing this inscription:

Here in the house of Alexander Douglass  Washington called a council of war on the evening of January 2, 1777, when the flank movement to Princeton was decided upon.

Erected by the Trenton High School Class of 1903, February 22, 1902.

The church stands upon the original site of the Douglass House, in which the conference between Washington and his generals took place on the night preceding the momentous Battle of Princeton. 16 The modest little two-and-a-half-story frame building was then owned by Quartermaster Alexander Douglass, who had turned it over to Brigadier General Arthur St. Clair for his headquarters. Situated farther from the enemy’s gunfire, incident to the second Battle of Trenton, than was General Washington’s own headquarters in the True American Inn, the Douglass House was selected as the meeting place of the little group of patriots upon whose determination the fate of the new-born nation depended.

16 See Frederick E. Ferris's chapter, above, on “The Two Battles of Trenton.”

THE DOUGLASS HOUSE COUNCIL OF WAR

The Douglass House was built by George Bright about the year 1766 on lot No. 9 in the “New Town of Kingsbury.” Bright had purchased the lot from Robert Lettis Hooper on September 21, 1756, and conveyed it to Alexander Douglass on May 12, 1769. Douglass remained in possession of the property for over 66 years, and upon his death on April 4, 1836, devised it to Joseph Douglass, son of his brother William. Quartermaster Douglass had been one of Trenton’s true patriots, serving his country throughout the Revolution. He took part in the Battles of Long Island, the Assunpink and Princeton, and the battle at Springfield, N.J., on June 23, 1780.

Upon the death of Joseph Douglass, intestate, on October 16, 1847, the property descended to Ann Douglass, his daughter. She was the last of the family to occupy the historic house, parting ownership with it in 1852. Ann lived to the ripe age of ninety and died on December 17, 1893. 17

17 Her body is interred in St. Michael’s churchyard, Trenton, an exception having been made in her case after the cessation of burials in that graveyard.

The Douglass House came into the possession of the German Lutherans soon after they had organized a church here in 1851. Thereafter it was used as a parsonage adjoining the small house of worship. In 1871 a larger church building was found necessary; the Douglass House was thereupon sold and removed to 478 Centre Street, where it was remodelled for tenant purposes. For many years its historic significance was lost sight of, until the writer’s interest was aroused in 1912 and he eventually succeeded in positively identifying the building. 18

18 Trenton Sunday Advertiser, March 3, 1912.

Following upon this discovery and identification, the late Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler became interested in the preservation of the shrine. In 1913 he obtained an option to purchase the house, and this was turned over to the Trenton Catholic Club with the understanding that the club should supervise the financing of the purchase of the property.

Patriotic societies and the school children of Trenton were solicited to aid in raising the money needed for purchase and restoration. Within a few weeks a sufficient fund was raised wherewith to purchase the property but not sufficient to carry on the work of removal and restoration. The World War then interfered with the collection of further funds, but in 1923, ten years after General Sadler had turned his option over to the Catholic Club, Dr. William A. Wetzel, principal of the Trenton High School, successfully supported the club’s campaign for collection of funds, appealing to the children of the city and parochial schools for small contributions. The response was quick and generous. The total amount of money collected from all sources for purchase, removal and restoration of the Douglass House was $14,699.18. In 1923 the Douglass House was moved from Centre Street to a site in Mahlon Stacy Park set aside for its permanent location by the State of New Jersey. Here the house was restored. On January 2, 1926, the 149th anniversary of the second Battle of Trenton, the building was dedicated to the public.

The officers of the Douglass House committee, a corporation not for pecuniary profit, which had charge of the entire project, were: William J. Backes, president; Vincent P. Bradley, secretary; Thomas M. Durnan, treasurer.

BOW HILL AND ANNETTE SAVAGE

Bow Hill, or “Beau Hill,” as the local wits of a century ago called the house, was the property of Barnt De Klyn, who, so the story goes, leased it for a season to his friend, Joseph Bonaparte, as a sequestered retreat for his protegee, the beautiful Annette Savage. Here on the outskirts of South Trenton, at the head of a long lane surrounded by beautiful shade trees, stood and still stands today the old red brick mansion to which over a century ago the former King of Spain brought the lovely Quakeress. The highly decorous society of Philadelphia had previously declined to “know” the fair Annette, when she lived there, and her friend and protector, Comte de Survilliers, as he called himself, sought for her what he hoped would prove a more favorable social atmosphere in the little provincial town on the banks of the Delaware. But if such was his expectation it was soon made evident that the local dispensers of social favors were no more inclined to take a complacent attitude towards Bonaparte’s “friend” than were the moral arbiters of the more sophisticated Quaker capital. Little is known of her life here, but it must have been a lonely one. In the early 1820’s Bow Hill was vacated, and its occupant departed for the wilds of Jefferson County, N.Y., where Bonaparte laid out a town which he called Diana, and built a villa to which he gave the title “White Horse.” Here Annette Savage presided as mistress until the Revolution of 1830 called Bonaparte back to France. Subsequently she was married to Joseph de la Foille, a young Frenchman then living in Diana. In addition to the child, Pauline Josephann, whose grave is in St. Michael’s churchyard, there appears to have been a younger daughter, Charlotte, who grew to womanhood and died in Richfield Springs in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

“Pine Grove,” a house which stood on the bluff overlooking the Delaware River, now apart of Riverview Cemetery, was also occupied by Annette Savage for a period.

Bow Hill is now, and has been for many years, in possession of members of the Lalor family, descendants of Barnt De Klyn, though none of that name is living in Trenton today. Miss Caroline Lalor, who died about twenty years ago, was the last of the family to occupy the mansion. The house since her death has remained closed, with a caretaker in charge of the property. 19

19 See Heston, South Jersey, a history, p. 120; Woodward, Bonaparte', Park, and the Murats; Mills, Historic Houses of New Jersey, “Bow Hill”; Schuyler, A History of St. Michael’s Church, p. 358.

THE DICKINSON HOMESTEAD - THE “HERMITAGE”

The “Hermitage,” originally built and occupied by the Rutherford family previous to the War of the Revolution, was purchased by General Philemon Dickinson in 1776, shortly before the Battle of Trenton. It was occupied for many years by the Dickinson family, being the home of Samuel Dickinson, son of the General, who married Ann, a daughter of General Samuel Meredith. Subsequently it was the home of his son Philemon. Many famous people were entertained in this mansion during the Dickinson regime. John Adams, a personal friend of General Dickinson, was a frequent guest. Later Madame Moreau “the beautiful Parisian,” and Louis Philippe, a future King of France, together with many other notables, enjoyed the hospitality of the Hermitage. A partial list of the celebrities entertained was compiled some years ago by Philip Wharton Dickinson. It includes the names of Washington, Adams (John), Jefferson, Livingston, Franklin, Morris (Robert and Gouveneur), Clymer, Witherspoon, Rutledge, Pinckney, Middleton, Carroll, Lafayette, Steuben, Rocharnbeau, Greene, Putnam, Stirling, Wayne, Knox, Lincoln and two kings, viz., Louis Philippe, mentioned above, and Joseph Bonaparte. The mansion, subsequently rebuilt, came into the possession of the Atterbury family, and early in the present century was sold by them, and is now occupied as an apartment house. “Sic transit gloria mundi!” 20

20 See Mills, Historic Houses of New Jersey, “The Hermitage”; and Schuyler, A History of St. Michael’s Church, p. 206.

BELLEVILLE

This mansion formerly stood near what is now the corner of West State and Prospect Streets. Attached to it was an estate of several hundred acres. It was first occupied by Sir John Sinclair, of the baronetcy of Nova Scotia. The Rev. Andrew Burnaby, an English traveller, visited Belleville when he was in Trenton in 1759. Subsequently it belonged to Brigadier General “Lord” Stirling whose correct name was William Alexander, but who claimed a title from the English Crown and immense tracts in Nova Scotia.

He was a native of New York, was born in 1726 and had been in service in the French and Indian War on the Staff of General Shirley, but his home was near Baskingridge in Somerset County. His wife was a sister of Governor Livingston of this State. He was Colonel of the first battalion, Somerset Militia, at the breaking out of the war; was appointed Colonel of the first battalion New Jersey Continental line November 7, 1775, Brigadier General by Congress, March it, 1776, and Major General nearly a year later. 21

21 Stryker, The Battles of Trenton and Princeton, pp. 348-9.

The mansion was afterwards occupied by Robert Lettis Hooper, III, at one time vice-president of the State, who died there July 30, 1797, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. Soon afterwards is advertised for sale “that elegant seat called Belleville, late the residence of R. L. Hooper on the Delaware and containing one hundred acres.” In September 1806 Belleville was advertised by John Rutherford as “the summer residence of the subscriber in the City of Trenton, having three hundred and thirty acres on both sides of the river and one of the lots between the new street and Calhoun’s lane including Prospect Hill.” The Sinclair, Alexander and Rutherford families were all related. 22

22 Hall, History of the Presbyterian Church, 2nd ed., p. 151.

THE GROVE

The Dickinson house, the old stone mansion, sometimes known as the “Grange” but more properly as the “Grove,” so called because of the fine grove of trees which surrounded the house, situated at the corner of North Clinton and Girard Avenues, is the oldest building in East Trenton. It was built, probably in 1792, by Samuel Dickinson, son of General Philemon Dickinson. He was born in 1770 and died in 1839. By profession he was a lawyer but did not practise. His wife was a daughter of Samuel Meredith, the first treasurer of the United States. After the death of his father in 1809, Samuel Dickinson moved from the “Grove” to the Hermitage. His eldest son, John Dickinson, and family, were the last of the name to occupy the mansion. John Dickinson, among others in the locality, attempted the culture of silk-worms and planted many mulberry trees for the silk-worms to feed on. Mulberry Street took its name from these trees. Silk culture as a local industry proved a dismal failure. About 1860 the “Grove” passed out of the Dickinson family. Since that time the house has changed hands a number of times. At one time it was a saloon and later a branch of the Y.W.C.A. In 1928 it was bought by the trustees of the Free Public Library for branch library purposes.