CHABERSBURG MAP SHOWING WHO WAS WHERE - UNDATED

I found this map in an old scrapbook that has been reposing quietly in the many, many historical photos, articles and digitized documents I have yet to uncover and categorize. I find this to be an incredible artifact as it shows many very historic "Burg" persons, places and things.

1927: WEST FROM SOUTHARD STREET EASWARD TO HAMILTON TOWNSHIP

I am also posting this interesting 1927 map from Fitzgerald's Trenton City Directory on Facebook but in order to see it Facebookers will have to see it fully on www.glover320.blogspot.com. Unfortunately maps are a challenge even here in the blogosphere as their mere size intimidates even the larger computer monitors. How I would love to have a computer and monitor that would present an entire newspaper page with clarity. This 20 inch monitor on mine does a reasonable job, but as you can see there are areas on all 4 sides of the map that are too big for current technology. My 11 x 17 tabloid scanner does a fine job, but I still end up with clipping. HOWEVER, you will find that the area scanned on this map is quite complete from the Southard Street area over to Cedar Lawn, Homedell, and nort the the Greenwood cemetery. Enjoy!

1872: TRENTON HAD YET TO EXPAND EASTWARD

This map of the Tyler Street area offers mute testimony to the fact that Trenton had yet to fully expand. The city was faced with few expansion alternatives. The proximity to the Delaware River automatically formed a boundary that precluded expansion. The only option was to move in the other directions on the compass. The eastern section was logical. I have been finding all the information I can on the transition of the city as orchards and corn fields and other rural land became developed. A close inspection of this map will show the few homes that dotted a very rural and open area.

1875: PENNINGTON AS IT WAS DURING THE "1776 CENTENNIAL"

What a delightful map! I have digitized this map to allow for close inspection of who was where in the "Pennytown" of  139 years ago. I have a special interest in the town of Pennington. First, because I always wanted to live in a small town where most everyone knew everyone else. (Back then). It also holds a special interest for me as I recall my many visits there to Edna Howe Kuser's place of birth. I had a number of Cola Colas in the Howe kitchen with Fritz and "Mayor," as Fritz always referred to Mr. Howe.

1875: FABULOUS MAP OF 1875 CHAMBERSBURG

I have digitized this map in numerous resolutions. For this website, I chose a lesser number of dots per inch that will hopefully give legible details to the complete areas of  "The Burg," including details of the 1875 boundary.

1872: SOUTH TRENTON OVER TO CHAMBERSBURG

The original version of this map is in color. Converting it to "gray scale" saves a vast amount of space. To those of us who are interested in the city of Trenton before the downtown Trenton renovations of the 1960's, and specifically the old South Trenton area and Chambersburg, this map should prove interesting. Instead of the current trip down South Warren Street from West State Street and the rerouting of the road over to South Boad Street in the 1960's, you will see that South Warren Street continued on a more or less straight line southward terminating at Federal Street.

1905: FOREST VALLEY, CEDAR LAWN, BROAD ST. PARK

I have a special fondness for old maps. Indeed there are a number of digitized maps in the Hamilton Library's Local History Collection dated back to the 1840's and earlier. However, one of my favorites is from a 1905 Atlas of Trenton, New Jersey with only a smattering of Hamilton Township which is shown in the map above. Over the years, I have been asked to define the boundaries of Forest Valley. The adjoining community of]
Cedar Lawn makes the task impossible for me. Perhaps a visitor familiar with the area can determine which streets fall within which neighborhood.

1909: TRENTON EXPANDS IT BOUNDARIES

Here is an interesting 1907 map by Abram Swan that shows the various "neighborhoods" that were annexed and became a part of "Greater Trenton." Even though it looks like a huge metropolis, many of the annexed areas were moving gradually from rural status.

1700'S: VERY EARLY TRENTON STREETS

Had our town fathers widened the streets shown in the above map, the parking situation in downtown Trenton would have been much improved. The above map came from a 1922 news clipping which was pasted on a very faded scrapbook page, scanned hand colored and restored to its former black and white glory. What would ultimately become Princeton Avenue is shown as Beake's Lane; a road that lead to the sizeable Beake's estate.

1964: FROM BEAR SWAMP TO PART OF LAKESIDE PARK

The physical map is far too large to be scanned and stitched together to be legible on the computer. Accordingly, I scanned just a small portion of the Colonial era map from the Bear Swamp on the Lawrence border diagonally down to part of Lakeside Park. This map was widely distributed during Mayor Krueger's administration in 1964.

Forty years after the Battle of Trenton in 1776, this map was published. It was re-produced in John Raum's famous history of Trenton. It is part of the Hamilton Library Local History Collection's "TRENTON-BATTLE  OF" folder. I have scanned it in high definition in order that a bit more detail can be seen.

1927 SANBORN PLAT MAP GROVEVILLE TEXTILE MILLS

Here's a rare glimpse of "Grovevilliana" from 1927 showing the layout of that historic little village as it looked along the bend in Crosswicks Creek. Note that the Anchor Thread Company has Mercer Textile Mills as a neighboring industry. Groveville historian Gary Lippincott has an extensive Groveville page at  http://www.grovevillememories.blogspot.com; check it out.

1897: HAVE I FOUND ASAY SPRINGS?

I have had two or three visitors to my website asking about the location of Asay Springs. I think I may have found the answer. The obit in the shaded area above right reports the passing of Mr. Pearson A. Cubberley, and as you can see, it mentions his farm which is located on the site of Asay Springs. I have super-imposed a black arrow, pointing to the farm of "P. Cubberley, including two buildings, and if you look closeley, you will see that he held 80 acres. That area along Crosswick's Creek, along with Broad Street Park's Spring Lake, was the location of numerous underground springs. The draw bridge shown in the map is long gone, replaced by the bridge that crosses Crosswicks Creek on Route 206 South.

(A note from Tom: There was a Revolutionary War skirmish
at that draw bridge.)

1875: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EWING!

Here's a pleasant Happy Birthday gift to all my visitors from Ewing Township. It is extracted from the 1875 Everts and Stewart Altlas in my collection. Enjoy!

WHEN YARDVILLE WAS SAND HILLS

I wrote the following mini article on the early years of Yardville for the Mercer Messenger when they devoted an issue to various towns and villages in Hamilton Township. Following is a transcription of that article, copied from the original typewritten pages.

NOTE: THE MAP WILL BE LARGER IF YOU CHANGE YOUR DISPLAY TO
800 X 600

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SAND HILLS
by Tom Glover

In the very early years of old Nottingham, the area we know of today as Yardville was called Sand Hills. Anyone familiar with the topography of the area will readily see where the name originated. Yardville has a very interesting and romantic past. The remarkable growth of Hamilton Township over the past one hundred years makes it very difficult to envision the area as it was. Today, (1997) the very busy U.S. Route 130 (formerly route 25) runs through the town, with an immense volume of traffic at all hours. How different it is from the rural Sand Hills of the past.
If we could go back to take a privileged peek at the little farm village, we would see a sleepy little town surrounded by vast farmland, and lush forests. From center city Trenton, some five miles away, to the nearby settlements of Newtown (today's Robbinsville), Crosswicks and Allentown, the area was basically open fields, forests and farms.
Sand Hills was one of the terminals served by the stage coach line which plied its way from Camden to South Amboy. It is said to be one of the very earliest lines in the history of rapid transportation. Just a small amount of imagination is needed to conjure up the image of the Sand Hills villagers of the seventeen and eighteen hundreds as they waited in anticipation for the mail to arrive via the stage. According to historical accounts, the stage passed through Sand Hills at a point pretty close to today's route 130. At the approach of the stage, a watchman rang a bell to herald the arrival of the mail. The stage slowed down to a speed which would allow one of the stage coach operators to drop off a sack of mail, and then proceed northward to South Amboy, or south to Camden.
On those occasions where there was a passenger for the stage, the pickup and departure point was the old hotel, which was the center of village activity. Over the years, that old hotel has remained an historic link with Hamilton's past. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, it was operated as Zwirlein's; one of the many gathering places for sportsmen who participated in the grotesque sport of pigeon shooting. Organized shooting matches were held regularly, and it was not an unusual sight to see one of the Kuser boys firing in the thick of the contest. In the early part of this century, the old hotel came into the proprietorship of the Widman family, whose descendants are still with us here in Hamilton. More recently, the old hotel was under the proprietorship of William Binder.

1875: Ewing Township as it was in 1875

This map is from the 1875 Evert and Stewart Atlas of Mercer County. Many Ewing visitors to thi site will be interested in seeing the area "the way it was. The numbers in the map which are found near the names of the land owners represents the number of acres of the owner.

1940: THE ABNER CHAMBERS FARM

Many years ago, Robert Chambers established a hotel at what is now the intersection of South Broad and Cass Streets. The area was ultimately known as Chambersburg. While most local residents associate the Butler, Bayard, Divison, Streets and Emory Avenue as the center of Chambersburg, the original area was along South Broad Street. The article above is an interview with Chambers grand daughter, Sarah Chambers, who recalled the story of Robert Chambers and his huge land holdings in the area of Hamilton and Chambers Street. The site of today's Trenton Central High School is on a part of the Chambers farm. The above map gives a pretty good idea of the Chambers land holdings in the area. As can be seen in the map, the homestead Sarah Chambers described in the article can be seen in the lower left of the 1905 map.

1905 BERRYVILLE

This is "Berryville;" an 1891 real estate development established by Mr. Patrick J. Berry, at the time a resident of 494 West State Street. The development was located between Edmund C. Hill's Cadwalader Place and the city of Trenton, in the area West State Street, Prospect Street, and West End Avenue.

1935: THE HAMILTON TOWNSHIP DUMP AND INCINERATOR

IT WOULD MAKE 21st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

1935: WOODLAWN PARK

IN ITS HEYDAY, WOODLAWN PARK WAS ONE OF THE MORE POPULAR CENTRAL JERSEY AMUSEMENT PARKS. THE MAP SHOWS THE LOCATION IN THE BROMLEY SECTION OF HAMILTON. NOTE THAT MY STREET, ATLANTIC AVENUE WAS NOT CUT THROUGH TO GREENWOOD AVENUE AT THE TIME, IT IS SAID THAT RED SKELTON GOT HIS PROFESSIONAL START AT WOODLAWN PARK. I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO VERIFY THE CLAIM. PHOTOS OF WOODLAWN PARK ARE EXTREMELY HARD TO COME BY. YEARS AGO, MR. YEAGER, WHO LIVED ON CONNECTICUT AVENUE GAVE A PHOTO TO COPY OF A PORTION OF THE PARK. HOWEVER, THERE ARE NO OTHERS IN MY COLLECTION.