1896: SKATING AT BROAD STREET PARK

Before computers, a number of articles relating to the local area were filed in Microsoft Word text files.

THE FOLLOWING IS ONE OF THOSE TRANSCRIBED FILES:

TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1896

BROAD STREET PARK SKATING

MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1896

SKATING IN STYLE AT SPRING LAKE, BROAD STREET PARK

The Trenton Passenger Railway Company have twenty acres of firm ice at Broad Street Park, to which the public is invited free of charge. A house thirty feet in length has been built at the lakeside, just at the foot of the stairway behind Overlook mansion. This has been enclosed with two sets of sash, so that the glasses will not cloud with condensations. It will be heated to day and the evening, when eighteen electric lights will illuminate the lake. These are set about the lake on all sides, and will serve to make the sport of skating delightful. Should the cold weather continue, it is the purpose of the company to have Winkler’s Seventh Regiment Band present every evening. It is expected that there will be at least 2,000 people at the lake this evening.

Some Incidents of Last Evening’s Pastime on the Ice-clad Lake.

Over fifteen hundred persons last night took advantage of the cold weather and the immense lake at Broad Street Park, which is so solidly and evenly frozen over, and went on the South Broad street cars to Trenton’s most largely attended outdoor place of amusement, whether in winter or in summer. From early in the evening until late at night the cars going both ways were well filled with men and women. Many went in couples and some went in crowds, others went in a hurry, but more took life leisurely and enjoyed themselves.

From eight o’clock on, the lake was a most beautiful sight. Electric lights on poles expressly erected for the purpose, shed rays sunshining electricity over all. Some couples liked this and others did not, but around each of these lights a crowd of boys and young men fluttered like bugs around a lamp in the summertime. The entire expanse of ice, covering a claimed area of twenty acres, was covered with graceful skaters darting swiftly to and fro. Signs of happiness and cold feet were visible everywhere. For the former, no care was wanted but for the latter there was a thoughtfully provided remedy. At the edge of the lake near the steps, a long yellow house has been erected by the Passenger Railway Company and to its welcome warm shelter hundreds of people thankfully repaired during the course of the evening. Nearby there was another, but smaller house, where something hot to drink was sold but no intoxicants were served.

Many exciting little incidents happened to enliven the occasion. Ever and anon some enthusiastic skater, speeding along at a terrific rate, would run into some fellow or other, who to his knowledge had never harmed anyone, and therefore did not deserve such treatment. The inevitable result would be that both young gentlemen would sit down upon the ice more or less violently and think the matter over. Notwithstanding several mishaps of this his kind, the crowd, as a whole, was an unusually orderly one.