Trenton Ferry Historic District Mercer County, New Jersey

NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024- 0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Trenton Ferry Historic District Mercer County, New Jersey Section number 7 Page 1 The Trenton Ferry Historic District, in the City of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, is an urban mixed-use neighborhood composed primarily of modest working class row homes and duplexes, commercial buildings, school buildings and churches. Although significant ties to the district’s 18th-century past survive, the vast majority of its historic resources date to the 19th and early 20th centuries and relate to the period of the City of Trenton’s greatest urban and industrial expansion. Consistency in scale, massing, form and materials has led to a multi-faceted yet cohesive collection of buildings that together form rich streetscapes and give the district a unified architectural character. With only a handful of modern intrusions, the Trenton Ferry Historic District readily conveys its historic significance and represents an important aspect of the City of Trenton’s urban fabric. The architectural character of the district reflects the diverse and complex nature of the neighborhood’s history. The majority of the building stock falls within the National Register of Historic Places architectural classification categories of “Mid-19th Century” and “Late Victorian.” Less numerous are buildings best classified as belonging within the “Colonial,” “Early Republic” and “Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals” categories. Although design elements that relate to the Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and even the Spanish Mission Revival can all be found within the historic district, Mid-Atlantic vernacular urban building tradition played a larger role in defining the character of the district’s streetscapes than architectural trends of the moment. The relatively modest nature of so much of the housing stock further emphasizes the significance of the vernacular. Constructed to house Trenton’s working class, most of the residences are relatively restrained in terms of their architectural ornamentation. There has been loss of superficial exterior details and many of the buildings have been aluminum or vinyl sided, but the essential vernacular features of the Trenton Ferry Historic District, including historic massing and fenestration patterns and intact streetscapes, all remain unchanged. Largely shaped between the years 1704 and 1938, the urban landscape of the Trenton Ferry District is the complex end product of nearly a quarter millennium of human environmental evolution. Contributing resources survive from every period of the district’s history and it is this diverse mix that gives the district its rich architectural character. With that said, although the Colonial and Federal Period history of the Trenton Ferry Historic District is interpretable within the urban landscape, the district most clearly reflects a time when Trenton was an important industrial center and offers a window into the lives of the city’s working class: the millworkers and laborers upon which the city’s economic success was so firmly founded. Within the 70-acre historic district, there are 582 contributing buildings (one of which is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places) and three contributing archaeological sites. There are 73 non-contributing resources. The majority of non-contributing resources are buildings constructed after the close of the historic district’s period of significance. Many of these are outbuildings, typically small garage buildings fronting alleys. A relatively small number of the non-contributing resources are historic buildings which have been modified to the extent that they no longer possess the ability to convey their historic character and significance. Of the buildings identified as contributing to the significance of the historic district, 415 or approximately 71% were identified as having been constructed in the 19th century. One hundred and sixty five or approximately 28% of the contributing X See continuation sheet NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024- 0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Trenton Ferry Historic District Mercer County, New Jersey Section number 7 Page 2 buildings were constructed in the 20th century and less than 1% were identified as dating to the 18th century. All three archaeological sites were identified as being historic archaeological sites. One site is associated with 18th- century historic contexts. A second is associated with 18th-and 19th-century contexts and a third relates to the 19th- century industrialization of the area. The Trenton Ferry Historic District is roughly bounded by South Broad Street, Federal Street, the Pennsylvania Railroad embankment (now Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor) and the Delaware River. Various properties along the edges of the district have been excluded due to loss of integrity or demolition. The area so defined reflects the waterfront core of the Trenton Ferry Plantation, a historically significant 18th-century landholding. The district’s street pattern is the product of competing 18th- and 19th-century influences. The alignments of Ferry and Broad Streets reflect pre-urban roadways and cut at sharp angles accross the system of city blocks later overlaid atop the landscape of the Ferry Plantation. In type, scale and prominence, the buildings that line these two roads reflect this fact and the enduring importance of these routes as urban thoroughfares. Bridge Street, although of later date, also belongs within this group of roadways. Laid out in the opening years of the 19th century in connection with construction of the first bridge across the Delaware River at Trenton, Bridge Street came into existence before the Trenton Ferry Historic District’s city grid was fully developed and initially functioned more as a local/regional transportation conduit than a neighborhood street. In the eastern part of the district, a relatively rectilinear street grid is established by the generally north/south alignments of Lamberton, Centre and Second Streets and the roughly east/west alignments of Bridge, Furman and Federal Streets. The street pattern in the western part of the district, defined by the generally north/south courses of Warren, Union, Asbury and Daymond Streets, is more irregular. The north/south streets in this part of the district do not parallel those in the eastern section nor do they directly correlate with street alignments in other adjacent areas. The street patterns divide following the alignment of the former Trenton Water Power Canal, which was in-filled during the early 20th century and overlaid by Power Street. The Trenton Ferry Historic District is situated on the eastern bank of the Delaware River and its physical relationship to the river is important to a fuller understanding of its early history. N.J. Route 29 runs through the extreme western end of the district. The construction of the street/highway known at various times as Commercial Avenue, John Fitch Way and now N.J. Route 29 occurred in stages from north to south over the course of the 20th century and, within the district, required the removal of approximately 20 buildings along Warren and Fair Streets dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. During the early 20th century, most of the Trenton Ferry Historic District waterfront was occupied by the Trenton Municipal Wharf, a complex that included a large warehouse/terminal building, turning basin, bulkhead and wharf. The terminal building was removed in the first half of the 20th century but portions of the concrete wharf and bulkhead remain. Although N.J. Route 29 represents a substantial barrier between the waterfront and the rest of the Trenton Ferry Historic District, the relationship between the western terminus of Ferry Street and the riverbank still remains visually clear and is important contextually to the historic integrity of the district. The alignment of Ferry X See continuation sheet NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024- 0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Trenton Ferry Historic District Mercer County, New Jersey Section number 7 Page 3 Street between the Delaware River and South Broad Street is probably the single most important tangible link to the pre-urban history of the Trenton Ferry Historic District. The alignment of Ferry Street is one of the earliest roads in the City of Trenton and has remained a constant for over three centuries. The earliest known map representing Ferry Street dates to 1714 and shows the roadway following its present course. Although later 18th century maps would seem to indicate a no longer extant “dog leg” in the western section of the road, careful examination of the maps indicates that the “Ferry Wharf” was always at the location of the modern day foot of Ferry Street indicating that the course of the early transportation route was actually the same as the present Ferry Street alignment. Other resources that contextually relate to the Trenton Ferry Historic District’s 18th and 19th century significance as an important transportation corridor are the Ferry Plantation Archaeological Site (28-Me-93), the Ferry Tavern Site and the Eagle Tavern Site (28-Me-303). The Ferry Plantation Site occupies the northeast corner of the intersection of Ferry and South Warren Streets. Preliminary archaeological investigations undertaken on the site in 1979-80 identified the buried remains of the “Beakes House,” the primary dwelling house of the Ferry Plantation which was constructed circa 1704 and burned circa 1777. A total of thirty-three 8-inch diameter auger holes and 6-inch diameter posthole shovel tests, three shovel probes, and eleven test excavations were employed to “define and sample the site.” These investigations identified a rectangular feature approximately 19’ x 24’6” extending to a depth of approximately 4’4” below present grade that was interpreted as the filled remains of a cellar hole.

Load more