1941: HARRY PODMORE'S "TRENTON IN BYGONE DAYS"

 

Harry Podmore, and John Cleary before him were always of interest to me as a young boy. I became an avid follower of these two historians and their "Bygone Days" columns right up to the time when the late, great Bill Dwyer took over the reins. Now to the above graphics. They are from the same January 1941 column and took up nearly 12 inches of the newspaper page. It occurred to me that it would be much more relevant to historians and researchers if extracts from different subjects were to be cut and pasted into an easily read article featuring one specific subject. Additionally, the original Dolton's Block Bygone Days portion was extracted, and from my own history database a vintage newspaper photo of the Dolton building was placed aside the BGD column with a mini map of the area showing where the building is located. Unfortunately, I am unable to determine whether the building was on the South or Northwest corner of the intersection. 
As this blog approaches 900,000 "hits," it is nice to know that part of its success is due to visitors who add historical articles, photos and maps to those which I post. Such was the case with visitor Rich Sauers who was kind enough to do research and come up with these two graphics which focus on the actual location of Dolton's Block. Many thanks Rich; your two scans are much appreciated and I can now remove the last line of my original caption "I am unable to determine whether the building was on the South or Northwest corner of the intersection."Rich's scans follow along with his email to me. THANKS, RICH!

Mr. Glover,

Great blog, been reading for quite a while.

Today's post about Dolton's Block caught my eye, and sent me online for a bit of internet research this evening.

A panoramic map of Trenton by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler in 1874 had Dolton's Block highlighted as number 10. That view (detail from map attached) shows that the photo in your article shows Dolton's Block facing Warren Street, and from Google Maps it looks to have been directly across the street from today's Warren Street Plaza. Evert and Stewart's 1875 county atlas also marked the block's location (also attached).

1946: TRENTON INDUSTRY-AMERICAN SAW COMPANY

John Cleary, Harry Podmore, Bill Dwyer and Sally Lane are all my heroes who have enlightened all of us who are interested in our local historical heritage. The above is a digital copy of the "TRENTON IN BYGONE DAYS" series that ran so many years in the Trenton Sunday Times Advertiser. Most libraries disposed of their huge bound newspaper collection in favor of scratchy microfilm; long before computers and digital imaging was made possible.  Back in the early 1980's I saw the potential for historic preservation of these chronicles of local history and managed to save a 100 year run of Trenton newspapers. Included in the collection are bound copies of the Trenton State Gazette, Trenton Evening Times, Daily True American and the Trenton Sunday Advertiser from the 1930's and 1940's. Historians agree that one of the best sources of local history lies in the daily Trenton newspaper as articles and photos increase in historical interest as time passes. How true!

1920: HARRY PODMORE ON THE D & R CANAL

Always a fascinating subject. The area history is full of romantic stories of life on the canal as the boats plied the waters with cargo of sand, coal, bricks, cobblestones, and other early commerce.

PETTY'S RUN GOLD COINS; A METAL DETECTOR OPERATOR'S DREAM!

AS AN AVID METAL DETECTOR OPERATOR WHO IS ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT FOR OLD BURIED COINS THAT HAVE BEEN DROPPED OVER THE AGES, I FOUND THIS ARTICLE FROM ONE OF HARRY PODMORE'S "TRENTON IN BYGONE DAYS" COLUMNS TO BE COMPLETELY FASCINATING. JUST THINK WHAT A 21ST CENTURY METAL DETECTOR COULD DO SEARCHING THE AREA FOR THOSE 18TH CENTURY GOLD COINS! THE AREA DESCRIBED IS IN THE AREA OF BANK ST. CHANCERY LANE IN BACK OF ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL. I HAVE A NUMBER OF THE ORIGINAL 1870'S PETTY'S RUN GOLD COIN STORIES AND WILL POST THEM AS THEY ARE DIGITIZED.

Harry Podmore Writes About Trenton Street Names

Here's another PRISTINE copy of the Harry Podmore "Trenton in Bygone Days" column; one of the many in the BYGONE DAYS folder in my Hamilton Library Local History Collection.

"TRENTON IN BYGONE DAYS"

As a young boy, I eagerly went to the pages of the Trenton Sunday Times Advertiser to read "Trenton in Bygone Days." John Cleary and Harry Podmore made local history come to life. Their writings are a treasure trove of local history.
One of the very exciting aspects of my local history digitization project is the ability to preserve my collection of "Trenton In Bygone Days" columns. Most of the Bygone Days columns I have seen were pasted into scrapbooks, and through the natural aging process have faded and the scrapbook pages developed a "rippled" effect.
Thanks to computer technology, the pristine original newspapers in my collection allow for equally pristine reproduction of the many BGD columns available. For the benefit of the many senior citizens who are interested in history, these files are being scanned at high definition, allowing those who need large print to zoom in to a comfortable reading level.