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Monday, January 21, 2008

1917: STATE AND BROAD

How I love to find these old original photographs of downtown Trenton. This one is from Mr. Leland (Lee) Buker, who was a dear friend of mine during my St. Anthony years.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tom,
Enjoyed the "walk" down memory lane tonight. Good to see you again for it has been a while. When we got home, I went directly to your blog and found this photo. Question: Could that trolley be coming from East State Street and turning down South Broad Street? Reason: Kresge's sign is on the upper left side of the photo and behind the trolley is a large sign that reads Opera House. Think the Baptist Church tower is on the upper right of the photo. What do you think?

Don Nugent said...

Yes Tom, I agree with Kathy.
My reasonings:

As Kathy points out Kresge's was on the Southeast corner.

South Broad St. goes DOWNHILL from State and Broad, as it clearly shows in the photo. Conversely, of course, N. Broad St. is more or less level at that point.

I bet that "Opera House" Kathy spotted turned into the "Capitol" theater at some point, which stood just about where the Opera House was.

Also the building right on the corner next to Kresge's looks very familiar, maybe still there on that Southeast corner? (I have lived in Florida since 1976)

What really clinched it for me is the church spire Kathy saw too. That IS still there, it being of the First United Methodist Church. A recent picture of which is on their website.

I am sure all natives of the Trenton area have many many memories of this intersection. If only we could turn back the clock and show the generation of today what Trenton once was!
State and Broad was the very heart of a vibrant city. Not perfect, but a place one could be proud to be from. I am still proud of THAT place, but the place today....enough said.

Again, thank you Tom for doing this important history for us.

Don Nugent
Hamilton High '60

Tom Glover said...

HEY DAN: THANKS MUCH FOR YOUR COMMENTS. I ALSO HAVE VERY EXPLICIT MEMORIES OF STATE AND BROAD IN DOWNTOWN TRENTON. I WAS THERE NEARLY EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT PICKING UP MY FIANCE AT YARD'S. OFFICER CHET HUGHES RECOGNIZED MY CAR AND CUT ME SOME SLACK JUST BEYOND THE E. STATE STREET BUS STOP. AS TO THE GRAPHIC. IF YOU READ KATHY'S ORIGINAL NOTE, YOU WILL SEE THAT SHE THOUGHT THE BUS WAS TURNING ON TO SOUTH BROAD ST. I MUST ADMIT THAT THE KRESGE STORE CONFUSED ME AT FIRST. THANKS FOR BEING A VISITOR. I HOPE YOU RETURN OFTEN, AND THANKS TO YOU KATHY FOR ALL YOU DO AND I LOOK FORWARD TO ANY FUTURE MATERIAL.

TOM GLOVER