The Mill Hill section of Trenton holds a special interest in my history project. Every Sunday morning I travel down Centre Street to the South Village apartments as a Eucharistic Minister. Passing by that legendary Baptist Church, the Exton Cracker factory historic Ferry Street always sets my imagination in an historic journey to the past. The above graphic is from a very very faded and detached page in my collection. With a bit of cutting, copying, and pasting, I have managed to restore the "BAPTISTS TO GIVE "JOLLY FARMERS" headline to its original pristine condition. Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended is an archivist's dream!
Tom:
ReplyDeleteIt never ceases to amaze me, that one day I am telling someone here in Virginia a story about being a kid in Trenton, and darn if within a day or two, I find it mentioned in your column.
South Village of course was the old Stokely's Canning factory. Each summer, the local farmers brought their trucks ladened with ripe red tomatoes from thoughout Central NJ to be cooked, and canned. The aroma of tomates permeated all of South Trenton. It was like Chanel #5 to us kids. If you recall, during the war (II) they housed German prisoner's of war there to work in the plant, since all the local men were overseas fighting for Freedom.
When the plant closed down, and lay dormant, in the 70's, I was working at NJ DCA (Community Affairs) housing. We saw the great work a father and son develoment team were doing in Hoboken, Turning the old K& E plant into lovely apartments, along with rejuvinating Washington Ave. by converting 5 story walkups to condominiums.
We thought why not have them come to Trenton and do the same with the Stokely's plant. I met with them in the famous Clam house, and quickly learned of a family connection. The developer's sister was an old neighbor, who took my youngest sister with her to visit her brother in Conn. and baby sit for the family. Knowing that Walter, and Joe quickly agreed to come to Trenton and do the converseion.
Seems tp prove an old adage, "no matter how far you roam, you always seem to come back to the beginning"!
Tell Fr. Apoldite I;ll be back to Sacred Heart, one last time, so leave the light on for me.
Regards
Mike Kuzma