1931: REMEMBERING THE COAL BIN

It's fun to remember long forgotten vestiges of my and many other visitors' past. For instance, take a look at the Kuser Coal ad. Go ahead, call your children or grandchildren to the computer and show them a part of earlier households where a coal bin was built for storing coal before oil and gas heat were the flavor of the day. As a boy, I can still remember the thrill of our coal man backing his dump truck up to our cellar window, sliding the coal chute off of the truck, setting the end on our cellar window sill, lifting the door on the back of his dump truck and the coal sliding noisily into our coal bin with another load of "Chestnut" or "Pea"

coal. And what about Manny Moe and Jack? I didn't patronize that store, but I was there a time or two. My preference was for Penn Jersey over on South Warren Street. Check out those prices!

1921: THE COCA COLA BUILDING IN CHAMBERSBURG

Were it not for Coca Cola, I would be sporting a 34 inch waist instead of the 40 incher I now carry around. I am a "teetotaler" when it comes to beer and other forms of yucky tasting alcoholic beverages. But Coke? High test, please, not that diet junk that all true Cola lovers find distasteful. However, back to more mundane subjects. Here's a very elusive photo of the Coca Cola building on Chestnut Avenue in the Burg. Do any of my visitors remember when their competitor, Royal Crown Cola, had a bottling plant on Hamilton Avenue in the 12 or 1300 block? I sure do. We used to stand in front of their big picture windows and watch the bottles slide by on the conveyor, the employees all dressed in white from white caps to white socks.Ahh, the memories!

THANKS FOR THIS COMMENT FROM BEN TABARINI RECEIVED 9/13:

The recent comment and photo of the Coka Cola factory was a great reminder. I received the message from Art recchi. It brought back memories of my walking past the facility from 1936 to 1939 on my daily walking to Junior 4.

Art's mesage was to inquire as to what was across the street. Just happened to be the elementary school for Immaculate conception.

Ben Tabarini

1895: THE "KOMBI" CAMERA

Go ahead; use that newfangled "digital" camera. As for me, I think I'll stay with my high tech analog "KOMBI" camera. After all, can you take 25 pictures on one roll of film?.,f you can, will they be as large as my KOMBI which produces photographs that are an inch and a half in size?

1938: TRENTON'S WESTINGHOUSE PLANT

The "Trenton" magazine was a monthly publication published by the Trenton Chamber of Commerce. It is a wellspring of wonderful historic photos. The above cover from July 1938 illustrates employees heading home from the Westinghouse plant on Pennington Avenue in Trenton. "Sales Mean Jobs" was a slogan added to the cover to emphasize the fact that Trenton and America was recovering from the devastating "Great Depression."

1922: Jacob Rue's Horse Shoeing and Carriage Shop

I posted the above photo some time ago and received the message above from Warren Rue, whose family is pictured in the graphic. Warren, thank you very much for your message. I am happy to see that I struck still another chord with still another visitor. Visitors who have a personal connection to my posts makes all the effort worth while. I went back and did a bit of "tweaking" to enlarge and try to enhance the photo a bit.

ADAM EXTON: Various Dates

I spent a bit of extra time combining a few graphics from the Local Collection's "Businesses, Trenton" folder. I have a strange fascination with that area of South Trenton along the Delaware River. There are promising improvements being made to that area of Trenton. As I traverse Centre Street every Sunday Morning, I look with interest on the "Cracker Factory" which is being converted into living quarters. Another fascinating building which is still in what appears to be very nice condition is the old Centre Theater, now a drug store.

1932: SOUTH TRENTON BRIDGE AND FERRY STREETS

IT'S VERY DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE AN ERA WHEN SOUTH TRENTON ALONG THE WATERFRONT IN THE SO. WARREN STREET AREA WAS ONCE A HOT BED OF COMMERCE. THIS RARE PHOTO OF PETE'S SUNOC STATION IS A TREASURE.

1865: EMERSON & SILVER; CIVIL WAR CONTRACTOR

ONE OF THE MORE ELUSIVE AND DESIRABLE CIVIL WAR ANTIQUES IS A SWORD MANUFACTURED BY TRENTON'S EMERSON & SILVER COMPAN.

1934: TATTERSALL'S: "JUST PHONE 8201"

BROTHER BUD WAS A TATTERSALL EMPLOYEE FOR OVER 40 YEARS. PERHAPS THAT IS WHY I RECALL SO MUCH ABOUT THE COMPANY. (SILVER TRUCKS, AND THE SLOGAN, "LET THE SILVER FLEET DELIVER YOUR HEAT.") THE ABOVE AD IS FROM THE YEARS WHEN THE MAJORITY OF CITIZENS WERE BURNING COAL.

1931: TIME TO THINK ABOUT MOWING THAT LAWN

NOTE THAT I HAVE A TYPO IN THE GRAPHIC ABOVE. WHEN I SET UP THE BLACK BACKGROUND, I MIS-SPELLED SATTERTHWAITE'S. ACTUALLY, MY PROBLEM IS THIS TOSHIBA NOTEBOOK. I TOUCH TYPE AT A RELATIVELY RAPID SPEED. IF I JUST BRUSH AGAINST ANY ADJACENT KEY, THE CURSOR JUMPS AHEAD, BEHIND, OVER, UNDER, OR WHO KNOWS WHERE ELSE. I CONTACTED TOSHIBA AND TOLD THEM OF MY PROBLEM, TELLING THEM THAT MY GATEWAY NOTEBOOK ALLOWS FOR TOUCH TYPING, AND MY TOSHIBA HAS A FEATHER TOUCH KEYBOARD WHICH CANNOT BE ADJUSTED. I WAS TOLD THAT I HAD TO HIT EXACTLY ON THE RIGHT KEY AND EVEN IF I BRUSHED AGAINST AN ADJACENT KEY, THE PROBLEM WOULD PERSIST. SO NOW I HAVE TO VERY GINGERLY MAKE SURE MY FINGERNAILS ARE TRIMMED AND THAT I HIT ONLY THE KEY I AM TRYING TO ENTER; NOT AN EASY TASK FOR A TOUCH TYPIST!

THE TECH SPECIALIST SAID MOST PEOPLE "HUNT AND PECK!" NEXT TIME IT'S ANOTHER GATEWAY NOTEBOOK FOR ME! NOW, ABOUT THE GRAPHIC:

WE NEVER HAD A REEL TYPE LAWNMOWER WHEN I WAS A BOY. WE NEVER HAD A LAWN WHEN I WAS A BOY! ALL OF OUR YARD SPACE WAS TAKEN UP WITH ROWS OF CORN, TOMATOES, PEPPERS, AND I FORGET HOW MANY OTHER VEGETABLES.

1930: OBIT OF HENRY COMFORT OF THE CASTANEA DAIRY

THE GLOVERS WERE CASTANEA CUSTOMERS BACK IN THE 30'S AND 40'S. THE STRANGE NAME CAME FROM MR. COMFORT'S FALLSINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA ESTATE OF THE SAME NAME. I BELIEVE THE NAME CASTANEA HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH CHESTNUTS, BUT I AM NOT CERTAIN.

1922: ANOTHER GRAPHIC ON THE FITZGERALD DRY GOODS CO.

AN EARLIER POST FROM LAST WEEK DEALT WITH THE FITZCHARLES ORGANIZATION. I MUST ADMIT I AM HAVING A PROBLEM ENVISIONING THIS BUILDING BEING ON E. HANOVER AND NORTH MONTGOMERY. IS THIS NEAR THE "ALITA" BUILDING OR IS THAT A DIFFERENT CORNER? IS THERE A VIEWER WHO CAN SET ME STRAIGHT ON THIS?

1922: TABRAM'S: SO. WARREN AND FRONT STREET, Ca. 1872

"..FURNITURE AND ANTIQUE SHOP.." WOULDN'T YOU LOVE TO TAKE A 21st CENTURY VISIT TO THAT STORE? YOU WOULD PROBABLY FIND COUNTLESS ANTIQUES THAT DATE BACK TO REVOLUTIONARY AND COLONIAL DAYS.

1893:The Brick Manufacturing Business

Over the past few years, I have had a number of interested citizens asking if I had anything on the Trenton area's brick manufacturing companies. Most of the queries dealt with the area between Trenton and Bordentown.

1940: D&W Blueprint Co.http://www2.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=19041693

Most of us in the over 60 generation remember D&W when they were located on Perry Street in Trenton. How the company grew! They evolved into the Triangle Blueprint Company; a very popular location for artists and other workers in the graphic arts.

1936: Trenton's Central Phone Center

"Number, Please!" This was the era of the "Elliot Ness" upright phone and two and three party lines. The Glover's didn't enter the telephone fraternity until the middle of the 1940's. As I recall, our phone was answered after 2 rings. If it rang 3 times it was an unknown party, and I must confess some of us occasionally eavesdropped!

1924: GOLDBERG'S: A TRENTON TREASURE

Those viewers who have been reading my many columns over the past 25 years will recall how very fond I was of Goldberg's Department Store. It was here that I lusted for a genuine Red Ryder Bee Bee gun at just about the same time as Ralphie did in that now classic movie, "The Christmas Story." And don't you know, that admonition of putting 'yer eye out was indeed the stock answer a mom gave to a kid. I wasn't as fortunate as Ralphie. My mom really meant it when she said I would never get a bee bee gun. Ahhhh... memories are indeed made of this!

1940: Remember Rowley's Bakery?

When I was a boy......., back when a dozen donuts would have been out of the question for the impoverished Glover family, a single Rowley cream donut was a treat I remember to this day! I recall a few occasions when Mom Glover treated me to ONE cream donut on one of our trips to Hamilton and South Olden Avenues. Then, when I started "Reception" grade at Kuser School, another local baker had a little bake shop at the Mack home on Newkirk Avenue and Liberty Street. There too, I tasted many a fabulous Mack Bakery cream donut!

1909: A Dunham's 1909 Christmas

Articles such as this is what makes historical research so fascinating. Not only does it give a pretty interesting view of "Christmas Past," it also provides an interesting view of the merchants in downtown Trenton may decades ago.

1873: Remember the "Original Trenton Cracker?"

Adam Exton's cracker factory was a thriving industry back in the 19th and early 20th century. The manufacturing complex still stands on Centre Street, and the building is being renovated and will ultimately be made into apartments. My friend Billy Powers from DeSantis Mason establishment is busily re-pointing and repairing the red bricks on the building. Centre Street holds a special fascination for me. The antiquity of the area as it is today still maintains a bit of the old Centre Street as it was in the 1800's and early 20th century. Of special fascination to me is the old Centre Street Theater building, now a pharmacy. However, the old cement "Centre Street Theatre" is still proudly displayed on the top front of the old building.