"Look what they've done to my song, ma, look what they've done to my song.." The lyrics on that oldie from the 60's could well be changed to,
"Look what they've done to our town, Ma, Look what they've done to our town.." The marquee on the Mayfair Theater in the photo indicates that the movie playing there at the time this photo was taken by a
Trenton Times* photographer was "Shaft in Africa," which would date it as around 1973. Many of us from my generation thought that the transformation of downtown Trenton in that era was a garish and ugly mistake. After the street was re-surfaced, traffic was prohibited on that area of East State and Broad Street. Those beautiful red bricks that once lent a very "classy"ambiance to that area of East State Street were no more. The decision was also made to place ugly cylindrical kiosks along the street, changing forever the essence of downtown Trenton.
*This photo is from "the Trenton Times'
Trenton-300 Years of an American Town," October 16, 1979
HI AGAIN TOM; COVERING STREETS WITH BRICKS IN THOSE DAYS MUST HAVE BEEN A COMMON THING. SWAN STREET IN CHAMBERSBURG ALSO WAS COVERED WITH BRICKS AND WAS VERY ATTRACTIVE WHILE IT LASTED.
ReplyDeleteThe city has been ruined by recent administrations thinking they could improve on what was a very nice town before 1970. One need look no farther than the new main firehouse and the new railroad station. Architecture??
ReplyDeleteI might add, the addition to the library. I'm sure there are other so called improvements, but I don't get into center city too often these days.