The Trenton Trust Company Building in 1918, Trenton, New Jersey


I'm in Trenton, New Jersey today in my imagination not because I have a particular fascination with the city, nor any type of knowledge, but because the Duke University Libraries Digital Libraries have some amazing high-resolution images of Trenton. The one I found is especially cool, because of that gorgeous building on Chancery and State.

Just in case you're wondering, the Duke collection features advertising, which is why this image is there - it's all about the poster that says "Buy Bonds". The site has all kinds of vintage advertising, but the images from Trenton are very beautiful, and rich in detail. Let's time-travel.


The first thing that caught my eye, aside from the beautiful and ornate building, was the fire hydrant. I immediately jumped on Google Street View to see if it was still in the same place, but sadly it's gone. I've actually found a lot of fire hydrants still in the same place as in old photos, sometimes being the only thing left. The sign on it says, "Parking within 10 feet prohibited", and the curb also says, "Keep away 10 feet". That must have been kind of confusing for people in 1918, but in my lifetime I've found that most people know that they shouldn't block fire hydrants. The lady walking there, by the way, is blurred because of the long exposure that the camera used (and that's why there's so much wonderful detail).


And how about that car! If you can tell me the make and model that would be wonderful, and I'll update this post. My best guess is that it was owned by the guy with the cigar, who is looking over at the photographer. In those days cameras were big contraptions on tripods, with probably a hood over the camera and the photographer. It's a long exposure, so cigar guy is kind of blurry, too.






Update: December 12, 2020: The building shown in the 1918 R.C. Maxwell photo at Duke University Library is not the same building as the one that stands on that site today. In 1925, the bank constructed a new, 14-story building on the same site. The original building which it replaced was only 2/12-stories. See comment below. Thank you, John!

If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

  1. John SkiltonDecember 12, 2020 at 6:22 AM

    I hate to ruin your story and the delight you feel in the preservation of historical buildings, but the fact is that the building shown in the 1918 R.C. Maxwell photo at Duke University Library is not the same building as the one that stands on that site today.

    In 1925, the bank constructed a new, 14-story building on the same site. That is the building you saw on your visit to Trenton. The original building which it replaced was only 2/12-stories.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John SkiltonDecember 12, 2020 at 6:30 AM

    Sorry - the original building was 2-1/2 stories.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brad HallDecember 12, 2020 at 6:34 AM

    Thank you, John! Love the info! I'll do a rewrite.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Learning to drive in the 1970s

Image
Although most of my history adventuring is done in my imagination, traveling into the distant past or future, I was actually there in the 1970s. In fact, that's when I learned how to drive a car. Time-travel with me. I learned to drive on my parents 1973 Ford Torino Station Wagon, which was a monstrous, clumsy boat of a car that had a hood that a friend of mine in high school described as "getting there fifteen minutes before you did". In fact, the nose of the car was so ridiculously long that my dad actually made a bump-out at the end of the garage for it to fit so you could close the garage door. Parking that car in the tiny garage that my parents had was like threading a needle! By the way, we're in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the neighborhood where I grew up, which was built in the late 1920s. But don't imagine that it was some kind of historic neighborhood, it was just old, and very worn. The streets were terribly narrow, and even more so after it snowed (which...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more