I was only 6 when this beautiful photo was taken. I tried to picture it as I remember it back in the mid 40's and 50's, and the Mercer Beverage Company being across the street confused me. I always envisioned that old brewery as being on the very corner of Lalor and Lamberton Street and across the street the Delaware River. I don't remember the "dog leg" curve on Lamberton Street and I leave it to my knowledgeable South Trenton resident visitors to expand on their memories of this historic Trenton landmark. Correct me if I am in error, but we are in the middle of Lamberton Street looking toward Lalor Street.
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SJBill said... Correct, Sir, the middle of Lamberton. If you were a bit more to the right, you should see the corner of Lalor St. The brewery changed a bit over time. There was a roof added to the loading dock on the right for a little shelter and there were changes (from damage) on the river side. This answers a question I've had about Mercer Beverages - definitely a brewed malt beverage rather than a soft drink. Since the pic was taken six years after the repeal of Prohibition, what was the product during those "dark years"?
Correct, Sir, the middle of Lamberton. If you were a bit more to the right, you should see the corner of Lalor St. The brewery changed a bit over time. There was a roof added to the loading dock on the right for a little shelter and there were changes (from damage) on the river side.
ReplyDeleteThis answers a question I've had about Mercer Beverages - definitely a brewed malt beverage rather than a soft drink.
Since the pic was taken six years after the repeal of Prohibition, what was the product during those "dark years"?
I grew up in the area and later worked there when it was Champale, Inc. The building on the right, at least in 1950’s through the mid-seventies, was the brewery’s bottling facility. It backed up directly to the river. That structure was demolished in the early 1970’s as an early part of the Route 29 highway project, and new packaging facilities were built on the other side of Lamberton. As kids, we used to walk by the bottle-shop on our way to the 6-11 Little League and Babe Ruth League fields. We would sometimes talk to the workers on break, and once cajoled one of them into giving us a bottle of brew. There were five or six of us who shared that bottle, and we thought that we were big shots. I guess that we were eleven or twelve at the time.
ReplyDeleteWhile not visible in the photo, Lalor Street intersects Lamberton just beyond the brewery on the left. If the picture had been taken from a bit further back, we would have seen the restored 18th century inn that served as the company’s office building.
New townhouses have been built where the brewery once sat. Sadly, the former office building, while still standing, has long been vacant and is in a sad state of disrepair.