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Thursday, August 23, 2012

1939: North Olden and Princeton Avenues

That would be North Olden Avenue running across the photo with Princeton Avenue heading toward the city. I traversed this very intersection for many years when I worked at my dead end job at the Trenton Bearing Company on North Olden Avenue Extension and Parkside Avenue. When last I checked, Extension Patio occupied the corner where the Stacy Laundry Sign is shown.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Correct Tom, that would become Extension Toy and Patio with Pohart's Polish Deli right alongside it (where the Stacy sign is painted), he made the best Kelbasi in the area. The brick home on the left was owned by the Galinski family and a few years after the picture they built a large lit up sign in their yard for Colonial Cadillac. The lot on the corner (out of sight had an Esso Station owned by the Buckely family. They always had a beautiful 1951 Chevy sedan delivery parked there. Now I am sure Mike will set me straight here but before Korvettes moved in and displaced the soccer fields that corner may have have been the original Cathcart Pontiac (they would later move down Olden), before it became a Hess station.

Ed Millerick

Anonymous said...

Taking a second look, that place with the Stacy sign was demolished to build Extension Patio.

Right behind the CocaCola sign is the "real" Olden Avenue and you had to be careful giving directions since everyone thought of the Extension as Olden Avenue. I caught the "B Crosstown Special" to get to Trenton High on that corner.

Ed Millerick

Anonymous said...

Ed:

You are too incorrigible to "set straight"! LOL.
I played soccer on that field, and during that time, the patriach of the clan that owned "Paul's liqoure store, Murphy's Tavern, and other Ewing landmarks ran a fruit and produce stand where you see the trees in the foreground (Hess Station is now there I think)
Further up near Spruce St. was "Bob's Pony farm", and on the field they held carnivals, and the circus would visit the site.
Anyone remember Whimpy's burger stand north of Spruce St. where the entrance to the Farmer's market is now?
In the cartoon of the same name, the buttons on his shirt would pop from eating all the burgers. There was always a chicken nearby to catch the button in his mouth.

Good call Ed on the real No. Olden Ave. Give you five extra points if you can name the street just below The short No. Olden Ave. off of Princeton. Just about across from the Polonaise bar.

Regards

Mike Kuzma

rayfromvillapark said...

Hi Tom, Earl Cathcart, purchased Stacy Trent Pontiac, which was located on West Hanover St, near the White Gate Caterers. Previous to this, he had a used car lot, near the intersection of Princeton Ave. and Olden Avenue Extension. It was called Earl Cathcart's House of Class. He then moved the Pontiac dealership to Olden and Arctic Parkway.
I do remember the carnivals setting up on the vacant property between Olden and Spruce, probably in the late forties, or early fifties. You were drawn to the location by these huge searchlights mounted on trailers, that crisscrossed across the night sky. There were a lot of them around after the War, sold as surplus. The Cadillac dealership further up Olden Avenue, was Johnston Cadillac, before it was Colonial. Just west on Princeton Ave., but not visible in the photo was Trenton White Truck. White's were heavy duty quality vehicles, quite popular in their day. I bought plenty of Kalbasi from Pohart's, but I never thought the place was the most sanitary, I had ever been in. My wife wouldn't even go in with me. Those were the days. rayfromvillapark

Anonymous said...

Looking down Princeton towards town you had Stout Avenue after "Little Olden" and it was fun to watch a truck trying to get up the ramp to the second floor. Heath Avenue followed and they had the Trenton Poultry with live birds and Hoffman's "Big Little" hardware on the corner. Two diners were in the area and Fritz's would have been after the hardware with Barrett Paving behind it and The Uncle Sam Diner near Spruce. New Jersey Manufacturers had a clinic almost across from where the photo was taken with Reither Brothers gas and auto repairs on the corner af Spruce. Old Reither had a 54' Corvette that was never quite for sale but his "thinking about it" kept a lot of us coming back for gas. I got my first legal car at Cathcart (before the Arctic move), a 1961 Tempest. Before that, was a 49 Ford purchased at the Salvation Army that I kept at Andy Gilton's Auto Body on Heath Avenue.

Ed Millerick

Anonymous said...

The bar sign poking out may have been Atwood's Tavern.

Ed M.

Anonymous said...

Tom: & Ed:

It took a while to engage the memory portion of my brain, but it has just come to me; The operators of the fruit and produce stand where the Hess Station is, was the senior MR. & Mrs. Vegotsky. The "Patio" store was run by Bill Troll and his wife, formerly of Introlligators Dept. store on Perry & Broad, and in Chambersburg @ Hewitt & Division (?)

A lttle late, but certain.

Hey Tom, your killing us old guys with these indistinguishable pass words!

Mike Kuzma