II. Inns and Taverns
THE inns and taverns 23
of long ago filled a large place in the life of the community. They
were the social clubs of an age which had so few of our modern conveniences.
Public bodies utilized their chambers for the transaction of official
business. Travellers over poor roads had to break their journey frequently
for comfort and refreshment and the little inn with its lights aglow
after nightfall was a welcome sight to many a stranger. Therein were
food and shelter for man and beast. In coaching days, Trenton was
an important stopping point and Warren Street, on the direct line
of traffic between New York and Philadelphia, was lined with houses
of public entertainment. As the capital of the State and the place
of meeting of the Courts and the Legislature, this city had to be
prepared for unusual numbers of transient guests. The following pages
describe in some detail many of the hostelries which have served Trenton's
residents and visitors from early Colonial times until the present.
23
“Ordinary” was the general term applied to public places where transients
were accommodated. Afterwards the terms “inn” and “tavern” were applied
to them. These terms have been used interchangeably by almost everyone.
However, there is this distinction - that an inn is a house which
is held out to the public as a place where all transient persons who
come will be received and entertained as guests for compensation,
while a tavern, according to the early nomenclature, signifies a place
where food and drink without lodging may be obtained.
THE LIGONIER OR BLACK HORSE TAVERN
The Ligonier stood on the northwest
corner of Queen (Broad) and Second (State) Streets, and was kept by
Robert Rutherford. It is described by many writers as located at the
northwest corner of Queen and Front Streets, but this is an error.
Samuel Tucker, sheriff of Hunterdon
County, on November 29, 1764, advertised the tavern for sale in the
Pennsylvania Gazette, as follows:
By virtue of several Writs of Fieri
Facias to me directed, will be exposed to Sale, at public Vendue,
to the highest Bidder, on Tuesday, the 15th Day of January next, between
the Hours of Twelve and Five o’clock in the Afternoon, on the Premises,
that commodious, and most agreeable situated House, which has long
been known to be an elegant and well accustomed Tavern, with the Lots
of Land thereunto belonging, situated in Trenton, is on the Corner
67 Feet front on Queen-street, and 174 Feet front on Market-street,
adjoining the Lands of William Morris, Esq; William Clayton, Esq;
James Smith, and Robert Singar, containing Half an Acre, more or less;
the House is built of Brick, 35 by 35 Feet square, two Stories high,
four Rooms on the lower Floor, a spacious Entry through it, there
are three Rooms on the Second Story, one of which is a genteel Assembly
Room, with a Door that opens into a fine Balcony fronting on Queen
Street, good lodging Rooms in the third Story or Garret, neatly finished,
convenient Fire-places, in the House, and excellent Cellars underneath
the whole. Also, a large Brick Kitchen, 21 Feet front on Queen-street,
and 41 Feet back, two Stories high, in which is a Wash-house, with
good lodging Rooms in the second Story and Garret; the whole compleatly
finished, large Stables fronting Market-street, with Cow-houses, Hen-houses,
Pigeon-houses, a good Garden, with a large Yard, in which is an excellent
Well; late the Property, and now in the Possession of Robert Rutherford;
Seized and taken in Execution at the Suit of Moore Furman, Robert
Lettis Hooper, and others, and to be sold by
SAMUEL TUCKER,
Sheriff. 24
24
New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXIV, p. 460.
Robert Lettis Hooper evidently purchased
the property at the sale. He in turn advertised it for sale, along
with other property, in March 1767, and described it as “one handsome
brick house, lately the property of Robert Rutherford, and allowed
the best stand for a tavern or a gentleman in any part of Trenton.”
There followed a detailed description of the property. 25
25
ibid., Vol. XXV, p. 314.
The land on which the house was erected
was owned by Benjamin Smith in 1733. Smith purchased it from Enoch
Andrews and built the house on it. Some time prior to 1744 he conveyed
the property to William Morris, who on February 26, 1748, conveyed
it to Thomas Cadwalader, the first chief burgess of Trenton. Since
the house was “allowed the best stand for a tavern or a gentleman
in any part of Trenton,” we presume it was Dr. Cadwalader’s residence
while in Trenton.
In August 1750 Dr. Cadwalader advertised
all his Trenton properties for sale, among them “a large commodious
corner brick house, two stories high furnished with three good rooms
on the lower floor and a large entry through; four good rooms on the
upper floor and four lodging rooms plaistered in the upper story,
with good cellars, stone kitchen, garden and stables, situated in
Queen Street in a very public part of the Town of Trenton very convenient
for any public business.” 26
He conveyed the property on February 4, 1754, to James Rutherford,
“yeoman,” who in turn conveyed it to Robert Rutherford, his nephew,
by deed dated July 27, 1759. The deed refers to the grantee as “tavern
keeper”; Robert Rutherford had been licensed to keep a tavern three
years before.
26
ibid., Vol. XII, p. 661.
Robert Rutherford was imprisoned in
Trenton gaol for debt in 1765. On November 27, 1766, he made an assignment
for the benefit of his creditors and was discharged from confinement
by the court. He continued to conduct the Ligonier Tavern, as a license
was granted him afterwards on May 3, 1768.
Under execution of several judgments
entered in Hunterdon County. John Barnes, sheriff of that County,
on April 10, 1771, sold the Ligonier Tavern, as the property of Robert
Rutherford, to John Johnson of Perth Amboy. 27
The latter on April 23, 1778, conveyed it to Joseph Millner, and it
was afterwards commonly known as Millner’s corner.
27
Deed Book G. 3, p. 78, Office of the Secretary of State.
No account of the Ligonier Tavern would
be complete without some reference being made to the romance which
budded there and the fate which befell Robert Rutherford and his family.
In May 1856 London papers carried the report of a suit then in the
equity court, of which the following is an extract:
Robert Rutherford
[as the result of a family quarrel] quitted his father’s house [in
the north of Ireland], and shortly afterwards enlisted in Ligonier’s
troop of Black Horse. After a time he . . . settled at the village
of Trenton, in the United States, where he opened a tavern, which
he called “The Ligonier or Black Horse.”
. . . About
that period [1770] there one day drove up to the tavern, in a carriage
and four, an English officer, by name of Fortescue. Colonel Fortescue
dined at the tavern, and after dinner had a conversation in private
with one of Rutherford’s daughters. Within two hours after this conversation
Francis Mary Rutherford had, notwithstanding her sisters’ entreaties,
quitted her father’s house in company with Colonel Fortescue. With
him she went to Paris, where after a few years he died, leaving her,
it is supposed, a considerable sum of money. On his death she quitted
Paris and came to England; and here she married a gentleman of considerable
property, named Shard. In 1798 Mrs. Shard had a great desire to discover
what had become of her father’s family, [but] inquiries were fruitless
- her brother and three sisters were dead . . . . In 1819 Mrs. Shard
died a widow, childless and intestate. No next of kin appearing, the
Crown took possession of the property. In 1823 an attempt was made
to set up a document as the will of Mrs. Shard, but it was declared
a forgery. In 1846 the present plaintiff made a claim to the property,
setting up that claim through a Mrs. Davies, who was alleged to be
first cousin of the deceased . . . . The Vice-Chancellor came to the
conclusion that as between the Crown and the claimant the latter made
out a case . . . but as it did not follow that there might not be
still nearer relatives than the claimant, . . . the matter must go
back to chambers for further inquiries.
ROYAL OAK
After Robert Rutherford left the Ligonier,
Rensselaer Williams occupied the building in 1768 as the Royal Oak.
Williams was from Middlesex County, and was first licensed to keep
a tavern in Trenton as early as 1766. Where his first inn was located
has not been ascertained.
Early in 1773 Williams removed the Royal
Oak inn to Trenton Ferry, the notice of the removal appearing in the
Philadelphia papers on March 22. 28
Before March 1, 1776, Williams left the inn at Trenton Ferry
and opened a public house in Trenton, “at the sign of the Royal Oak,
in the house where the late Mr. Cottnam dwelt.” Williams’ advertisement
describes his new stand as well accommodated with good stables, carriage
house and hay. 29 The Mr. Cottnam here referred to was Abraham
Cottnam, one of the leading lawyers of Trenton before the Revolution. 30
28
New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXVIII, p. 461.
29
New Jersey Archives, 2nd Ser., Vol. I, pp. 8, 79.
30
See Chap. XII, below, “Courts, Judges and Lawyers.”
Former writers have stated that in the
latter part of his life Cottnam removed to Dowd’s Dale, locating his
tenement at what is now the northwest corner of Bank and Warren Streets,
and that at his death it became the inn of Rensselaer Williams.
31
31
See footnote, New Jersey Archives, 2nd Ser., Vol, I, p. 59.
This seems to be an error, in view of
existing evidence indicating that Abraham Cottmum lived elsewhere.
Under his will, bearing date December 16, 1775, Cottnam devised to
his wife Elizabeth Ann Cottnam “the house and Lott of land wherein
I now live, together with the gardens, barns, stables and all the
outhouses belonging thereto, for and during her natural life” and
after her decease to his son-in-law Robert Hoops and to his son George
Cottnam, forever, as tenants in common. On March 2, 1779, Cottnam's
executors advertised the property for sale:
To
be sold and may be entered on the first day of April, next. All that
tenement whereon Abraham Cottnam, Esq., lately lived, situate on the
east side of Queen Street, in Trenton. There are on the .premises
a large commodious brick dwelling house two stories and a half high,
four rooms on a floor, with convenient upper lodging rooms, a convenient
kitchen adjoining, an elegant brick out house fronting the street
at a small distance a large convenient barn, stables, carriage house
and other out building; a garden containing about three quarters of
an acre. It has been a tavern for upwards of two years past, and is
a very convenient and an excellent stand for that business or any
other, being situate on the street leading directly through the town,
and is a very agreeable situation for a private gentleman.
32
32
New Jersey Archives, 2nd Ser., Vol. II, p. 149.
The house in which Abraham Cottnam dwelt
at the time of his death was the northeast corner of what is now Broad
and Hanover Streets. 33
33
See Deed, Highbee to Tucker, Vol. XXXV of Deeds, p. 175, recorded
February 2, 1856, in Mercer County Clerk’s Office; and Deed, Morris
to Smith, Book A.F., p. 236, Secretary of State’s Office.
George Cottnam on behalf of himself
and the other executors of Abraham Cottnam, on April 20, 1779, entered
into a written agreement to sell and convey this property to Rensselaer
Williams for £5000. The agreement states that it was then in the actual
possession of Williams. 34
34
Book A.L, p. 428, Secretary of State’s Office.
References to Rensselaer Williams’ inn
are frequently found in the early records. Thus we learn that many
prisoners of war were sent there upon their parole during the Revolution;
notable among them was Dr. John Lawrence of Monmouth County.
35 The Admiralty Courts met at the Inn in January, February
and March, 1778, 36 and on December 8 of the same year the law
library of Daniel W. Coxe and the household goods of John Barnes,
two prominent loyalists, were sold there.
37
35
Minutes of Provincial Congress and Committee of Safety, p. 495.
36
New Jersey Archives, 2nd Ser., Vol. II, pp. 10, 48, 92.
37
ibid., p. 555.
THE CITY TAVERN
On the southwest corner of King and
Second (Warren and State) Streets, where the Mechanics National Bank
now stands, stood the City Tavern. On September 20 and 21, 1730, Peter
Bard conveyed to John Dagworthy a lot 66 feet on King Street by 330
feet on Second Street. Dagworthy at that time owned and lived in the
house located immediately south of this corner lot. On the corner
lot Dagworthy built a stone house two stories high with gable roof.
The building measured 45 feet front by 53 feet in depth, with a kitchen
in the rear containing rooms for servants on the second floor. It
was the handsomest and most commodious house in Trenton in its day.
From 1740 to 1742 it was the official residence of Governor Lewis
Morris. Mr. Dagworthy died in 1756 and in 1760 the property was sold
by his executors to Samuel Henry, who occupied it as his residence
until 1780. Henry leased the property to Jacob Bergen, who, after
making extensive changes, opened it as a tavern under the name of
the Thirteen Stars.
In 1780 the General Assembly of New
Jersey is said to have held its sessions in this place. About 1781,
Mr. Bergen went to Philadelphia to conduct the Bunch of Grapes, and
one John Cape took over the Thirteen Stars, changing its name to the
French Arms. Cape quit the inn in 1783 and Bergen returned to take
over the management of the place.
When the Continental Congress met in
Trenton in 1784, its sessions were held in the Long Room of Mr. Bergen’s
French Arms. It was here that the Marquis de Lafayette took leave
of the Congress on December 11, 1784. When that body adjourned on
December 24, 1784 the commissioners who had leased the property for
the use of Congress for a period ending March 31, 1786, assigned the
unexpired term to Francis Witt.
Witt had entered the tavern business
a few years previously by taking over Joseph Clunn’s inn, the Alexander
the Great, later changing its name to the Blazing Star. Carrying the
Blazing Star sign with him to his new stand, Witt substituted it for
the French Arms. After Witt left the inn on April 1, 1789, Henry Drake
took possession, naming it the City Tavern. Here it was that Washington
was dined and received by the citizens of Trenton, April 21, 1789,
while on his way to New York to be inaugurated the first President
of the United States. Earlier in the day he had been received and
greeted by the ladies of Trenton at the Triumphal Arch erected over
the Assunpink Bridge.
Drake was followed by Joseph Broadhurst
in 1793. Broadhurst, as well as the many subsequent proprietors, continued
the inn under the name of the City Tavern. In 1837, when The Mechanics
and Manufacturers Bank purchased the property, the tavern was taken
down and the banking house erected.
THE AMERICAN HOUSE
The American House corner has been the
site of a tavern or hotel for over two hundred years. The present
American House is on the southwest corner of Warren and Hanover Streets.
Prior to 1849 it was known as the Rising Sun Hotel. On July 30, 1725,
James Trent conveyed the lot, on which the American House now stands,
to James Severns. The latter, on August 13, 1730, conveyed it “together
with the new house or tenement built by the said John Severns on the
hereby granted premises” to William Allen. The deed conveys a lot
66 by 165 feet commencing 330 feet from the northwest corner of State
and Warren Streets. This is the northerly part of the present lot
occupied by the American House.
It was advertised for sale by Samuel
Tucker, sheriff, under an execution as the property of John Allen
in 1764. 38 This execution was
satisfied as Isaac Allen, a Trenton lawyer, inherited the property
from his father John Allen. During the Revolution Isaac Allen remained
loyal to Great Britain and joined His Majesty’s troops under the command
of Sir William Howe in New Jersey in December 1776. As a consequence
he was attainted August 1, 1778, and his whole estate confiscated
and sold. Included in his property was his dwelling house of stone,
two stories high, in Trenton. Stephen Lowrey purchased it from the
commissioners of forfeited estates on March 20, 1779. On July 26,
1792, Lowrey conveyed the premises to Colonel Isaac Smith, who by
profession was a physician and not a lawyer, but was placed on the
Supreme Court bench in February 1777. He was later elected to Congress
and was the first president of the Trenton Banking Company, serving
from February 13, 1805, until his death August 29, 1807.
38
New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXIV, p. 324.
The first mention of the Rising Sun
Tavern appears in an advertisement in the Federalist of May
2, 1808, wherein John V. Hart and Samuel T. Mahette announced that
they had opened a new store in Warren Street next door south of the
Rising Sun Tavern. At that time the Rising Sun was conducted by John
Anderson who, in 1801, had quit the Indian Queen to be succeeded there
by Peter Probasco. Anderson ran the Rising Sun until 1821 when he
was succeeded by Jacob Herbert, who had formerly been at the City
Hotel. Herbert died in 1825 but Mrs. Hannah Herbert, his widow, continued
the Rising Sun until 1828, when she removed to the City Hotel. In
1828 Joseph Wildes, who came from Mount Holly, took over the tavern
and ran it until 1831. In December of that year we find Hannah Wildes
running it. Joshua Hollinshead followed in May 1834 and ran it until
1842. The next proprietor was Joshua English, who remained until February
2, 1847, when a great fire practically destroyed the Rising Sun. At
the time, the hotel was pretty well filled with members of the Legislature
and other guests but they were either at the State House or at a lecture
at the City Hall. The loss to the owner, Joseph Wood, was estimated
at $12,000. Mr. Wood immediately rebuilt the house and on June 8,
1847, it was opened as the American Hotel with Charles Wyckoff as
its new proprietor.
Mr. Wyckoff continued at the hotel for
a number of years. Then Isaac Heuling had it for a while. In February
1857 John V. D. Joline, formerly of Princeton, purchased it. Some
of the subsequent proprietors were Edmund Bartlett, Walter F. Bartlett,
Charles Kropp, and others. The American House Realty Company (all
members of the Kuser family) are now the owners, with Benedict C.
Kuser as manager. It contains about seventy-five rooms.
For many years this was the principal
hotel in the city and many great men have been guests there. President
Monroe arrived in Trenton on June 7, 1817. He was escorted to the
Rising Sun Hotel and remained in Trenton until the morning of June
9. President Jackson stopped at Trenton on June 11, 1833, when on
his tour through the States. He was received by the citizens in large
numbers, and dined at the Rising Sun Hotel. General William H. Harrison
stopped there on September 9, 1836. President James K. Polk who had
been invited to be present at the Independence Day celebration on
July 4, 1847, was received by the citizens of Trenton with great rejoicing
and after the speeches at the State House he was escorted to the American
Hotel where he dined. Daniel Webster was a guest at the American Hotel
March 20, 1852, when he appeared as counsel for the Goodyears in the
celebrated India rubber case in the United States Court, which is
discussed elsewhere in this History.
THE INDIAN KING
The Indian King Tavern is said to have
stood on the west side of North Warren Street, facing .East Hanover.
As far back as 1782 we find a printed reference to the Indian King
in a notice of Jacob Beck, a blue-dyer, of Germantown, Pa., which
informed his customers that they might send their yarn, cloth, etc.,
to him by leaving it “at Mr. Isaac Britton’s, inn-keeper, at the sign
of the Indian King in Trenton.” 39
No other mention of this hotel by name appears until August 16, 1853,
when the State Gazette informs its readers that the ancient
building occupied by Benjamin S. Disbrow at 88 Warren Street was being
torn down. The newspaper then went on to say that the place had at
one time been known as the “Indian King Tavern” and that it dated
back to the Revolution. In 1800, continued the article, Peter Probasco
kept the place, then known as the Eagle Tavern, but for the past twenty
or thirty years it had not been used as a tavern.
39
New Jersey Gazette, March 6, 1732.
The next reference to the Indian King
is found in E. M. Woodward’s History of Burlington and Mercer Counties
(p. 709) where we read:
“The Indian King was located in Warren
Street facing East Hanover Street. Benjamin S. Disbrow afterwards
erected his large iron building on the same spot, where he kept a
furniture store until his death.”
Thus Woodward embalmed the error made
earlier in the century by the State Gazette, for the fact is
that the Indian King did not stand on the site of the Disbrow building.
The truth of this is evidenced by several considerations, the first
among them being the taverns that flourished here in 1782. We have
heretofore noted that Francis Witt conducted the Alexander the Great
before moving down to the French Arms. Witt was at the Alexander the
Great, then the Blazing Star, on January 23, 1782.
40 and remained there until January 1785, when he took possession
of the French Arms. The Jacob Beck advertisement, set out above, bears
date of February 27, 1782. It is quite evident that Isaac Brittain’s
“Indian King” and Francis Witt’s “Alexander the Great” were not one
and the same tavern. The truth of the matter is that Isaac Brittain’s
tavern was located at what is now the northwest corner of Warren and
Hanover Streets. It was advertised by John Anderson, sheriff, to be
sold under execution on July 12, 1783, as late the property of Isaac
Brittain, and is described as “that house and lot where the said Isaac
Britton [sic] now dwells, which has been a noted and well accustomed
tavern for many years past, with a lot of land containing 16 acres
adjoining the tavern.”
40
New Jersey Archives, 2nd Ser., Vol. V, p. 364.
John Howell and Abner Scudder advertise
the tavern in October 1817 as the Union Tavern, then occupied by Mr.
Runyan. 41 In April 1818 one Hugley informs the public
that he has moved to the house lately occupied by William J. Leslie
(the Phoenix Hotel) between the Indian Queen Tavern and the Union
Hotel, “where he will continue the business of clock and watchmaking.” 42
41
Trenton Federalist, October 2o, 2827.
42
ibid., April 6, 2828.
A word as to the Alexander the Great
site. William Trent conveyed the lot on which the tavern stood to
Barbara Talbot on April 25, 1723, and the latter’s daughter, Sarah,
conveyed it to Samuel Johnson on July 1, 1731 The deed to Johnson
designates the lot as No. 4 in the plan of Trenton, and this is the
only evidence we have of the fact that Trent numbered his lots. The
southerly 28 feet of the lot belonged to Dorothy Wright in 1787. The
remaining 38 feet of lot No. 4, and the land between it and Isaac
Allen’s (the American House to the north), was conveyed to William
and Robert Chambers by Harrison Palmer on July 22, 1780.
43 These two, by deed dated September 8, 1781.
44 partitioned the property between them, William releasing
the lower 38 feet to Robert and retaining the balance. This remaining
acreage, measuring about 33 1/2 feet by 165, was sold by the sheriff
of Hunterdon County under execution against the Chambers, to James
B. Machett, by deed dated February 11, 1796. 45
43
Deed Book I, p. 267, of Hunterdon County.
44
ibid.
45
Deed Book I, p. 442, of Hunterdon County.
The Alexander the Great was sold to
Francis Witt, then located at the French Arms, by Robert Chambers
and Francina, his wife, on August 22, 1787.
46 Witt never moved back to the stand he had once kept, nor
was the place ever used again as a tavern. It is described in the
deed from the Chambers to Witt as lying between the house late of
Dorothy Wright on the south and James Machett on the north. The tavern
lot was conveyed by George T. Olmstead to Theodore Blackwell on June
30, 1842 47 and the latter on
March 31, 1853, conveyed it to Benjamin S. Disbrow. In the same year
the old structure was pulled down and a large iron-front building
erected in its place. 48 Mr. Disbrow used the new structure as a furniture
store until his death. After that it was used by William S. Sharp
as a book- and job-printing establishment. The Daily Public Opinion
was printed in this office. Later the ground floor was turned into
a billiard-room, restaurant and saloon, which at different times bore
the names of the Galaxy and the Alhambra, Frederick Caminade, Edward
Updegrove and James H. Letts being proprietors. Finally, in 1928,
the building was torn down to make way for the Lincoln Theatre.
46
Deed Book I, p. 269, Hunterdon County.
47
Deed Book D, p. 613, of Mercer County.
48
State Gazette, August 16, 1853.
THE CITY HOTEL
The City Hotel used to stand on the
west side of North Warren Street, opposite Perry Street, the present
site of St. Mary's Cathedral rectory and the offices of the Trenton
Roman Catholic Diocese. It was the commodious residence of Stacy Potts
until 1784. In January 1785 we find it advertised to let:
To be let until the first
day of November next and may be entered immediately, the House wherein
Stacy Potts lately lived in Trenton, which was taken for the use of
the President of Congress, and is now vacant by his removal. The house
is two stories high, spacious and elegant, having three rooms with
fireplaces, besides a large dining room with two fireplaces on the
lower floor, five rooms on the second floor, a large convenient kitchen,
a cellar under the whole, a pump at the door, a convenient lot with
a stream of running water through it and an excellent garden - a stable
sufficient to contain eight horses, with room for hay to keep them,
may be had with it. . . 49
49
State Gazette, June 12, 1857.
Colonel Gottlieb Rall had made the Potts
house his headquarters when he and his Hessians came to Trenton in
1776. After the Battle of Trenton, General Washington and General
Greene visited the wounded Colonel at this house and offered their
consolations before leaving him.
In 1784, Potts’ tenancy of the house
came to an end. In that year Congress located in Trenton and the State,
through Moons Furman, Conrad Kotts and James Ewing, commissioners,
leased it for the use of the president of Congress for the term of
one year, beginning October 30, 1784. Colonel Richard Henry Lee of
Virginia, having been chosen president of the Congress on November
30, 1784, immediately took possession and continued to reside there
until January 5, 1785. The place was then advertised for rent for
the remainder of the lease. 50
50
See reprint in State Gazette, June 12, 1857, of the original
advertisement which ran January 10, 1785.
After Mr. Potts had sold the house in
1785 it was converted into a tavern. When General Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney, Ambassador to France, visited Trenton early in November
1798 he was tendered a reception at the tavern, then known as the
City Hotel. James Ewing, mayor, made the address of welcome and the
distinguished guest replied.
The hotel was the scene of many receptions
and meetings in years following. In February 1803 the question of
uniting the Delaware and Raritan Rivers by a canal was discussed here
by a meeting of the citizens. The State Bank opened its subscription
books at the City Hotel in February 1812.
In 1816, Richard Davis and William Scott
advertised the hotel as “long kept as a public house” and one of the
finest stands in Trenton. Soon after, the building was turned into
a boarding house, John Mount, Jr., being one of the keepers. On December
28, 1838, the place was reopened as a tavern under the name of the
Trenton City Hotel, by John Van Fleet. 51 During Mr. Van Fleet’s proprietorship, travelling
shows frequently set up their attractions at the City Hotel.
51
New Jersey Gazette, December 28, 1838.
Dr. Jacob Quick became the owner of
the property under a conveyance made by Samuel Evans, July 23, 1853.
He demolished the building four years later 52
to make room for a brick dwelling house in which he afterwards lived
and had his office. On March 27, 1865, Dr. Quick sold the property
to the Right Rev. James Roosevelt Bayley, Roman Catholic Bishop of
Newark. In 1866, Father Anthony Smith began the building of Saint
Mary’s Church over a part of the site of the old tavern, leaving Dr.
Quick’s house undisturbed that it might be used as a rectory. A few
years later Dr. Quick’s house gave way to the present five-story brownstone
rectory, whose foundation covers about two-thirds of the foundation
of the old tavern.
52
State Gazette, June 12, 1857.
Some of those who operated the City
Hotel at one time or another, besides those mentioned, were: John
Anderson, Peter Howell, Scott and Herbert, the Widow Harvey, Hannah
Herbert, Nicholas Bendel and Samuel Heath.
WILLIAM YARD’S INN
Probably the first inn to be built in
Trenton was that owned by William Yard. He had settled here in 1710,
and in 1712 purchased from Mahlon Stacy, Jr., about two acres of land.
On this land he built a substantial stone dwelling, part of which
is still standing at 24 East Front Street, at the corner of Warner’s
Alley. Before the old Hunterdon County Court House was built in 1719,
the Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions Courts were held in public houses.
It was at William Yard’s house, then in Hopewell township, that the
first session of the courts of the newly created county of Hunterdon
were held. Yard was appointed the first clerk of these courts, and
was such in 1720, when he issued a subpoena to several witnesses to
appear “before our Justices of the Peace at the next General Quarter
Sessions of ye Peace, to be held in and for the said county, at Trenton,
then and there to give evidence,” etc. This indicates that as early
as 1720 the town was recognized by the courts as bearing the name
“Trenton.” It also shows that there was a court house here in 1720,
for had the court met in any private building the witnesses would
have been specifically directed to come to such place in the subpoena.
MADISON HOUSE
The Madison House was an ancient inn
standing on Greene Street (North Broad) nearly opposite to Academy
Street, where a number of brick houses and stores were built in the
centennial year (1876) and called the Centennial Row, Its last proprietor
was Charles Fow, who remained until the building was taken down. From
time to time it had been kept by William Morton, Nathaniel Richardwn,
Solomon Sutphin and Samuel Mulford. During the Rebellion this tavern
was used as a recruiting station.
Like the Lafayette House close by, the
Madison flourished while the street markets on Greene Street were
maintained.
THE LAFAYETTE HOUSE
The Lafayette House stood on the west
side of Broad Street, between State and Hanover Streets, where the
S. P. Dunham & Co. store is now located. The original dwelling
which stood on this site (a lot fronting 70 feet in Greene Street
and 166 feet deep) was two stories high and had two parlors on the
first floor and a number of lodging rooms on the second. The house
belonged to Dr. Nicholas de Belleville and was occupied by the Rev.
William Johnson, rector of St. Michael’s Church, in 1830.
53 It was opened as a tavern in 1845 by A. H. Reed, who was
granted a license to run “the New Tavern in Green Street, formerly
the residence of Dr. Clark” on November 18 of that year.
54 Charles Howell owned the place in 1848 and in November of
the next year removed the roof of the hotel, known as the “Lafayette
House in Greene Street” and added two stories to the structure. 55
The improvement brought popularity to the hotel. Elijah Mount conducted
it from 1853 to 1855, when it was taken over by Charles Fow, who was
a popular host, until 1863 when he sold it to William P. Brewer. In
1864 the hotel was managed by Richardson and Sutphin, and in 1866
by David Wagner. Mr. Richardson again took charge in 1867 and in the
following year John Barnet and others purchased the property. The
old hotel was torn down in the late ‘70’s to make room for a row of
stores, known for years afterward as “Lafayette Row.”
53
State Gazette, February 20, 1830.
54
ibid., November 19, 1845.
55
ibid., November 1, 1849.
BULL’S HEAD TAVERN
On the south side of State Street (15
and 17 East State Street), about 150 feet east of Warren Street, stood
the Bull’s Head Tavern. Sylvester Doyle was the proprietor prior to
1801. In May of that year it was taken over by Amos Howell. From 1808
to 1824 Thomas Atkinson ran it. In the latter year Atkinson removed
to the large three-story building on the northwest corner of Front
and Warren Streets. A livery stable used by him in connection with
the latter site was on the opposite side of Warren Street, the northeast
corner, which remained for many years the exchange stable for the
post riders going through Trenton.
The Bull’s Head Tavern on State Street
was sold in 1817 as the property of the late Sylvester Doyle. It was
a two-story frame building. Thomas Combs became its proprietor in
1824 and named it the Farmers Inn. Charles Green kept it later.
In 1847 Joshua English built the large
stuccoed building, still standing on the same site. He called it the
Mansion House, and ran it until his death.
For upwards of fifty years past it has
ceased to be an hotel and has been occupied as law offices and stores.
The Bull’s Head Tavern (saloon) of the latter quarter of the nineteenth
century was on the east side of North Warren Street opposite the Reading
Railroad station, formerly Lamb Tavern. This building, a three-story
dwelling, had been used as a tavern from a time prior to 1763, and
was then the Sign of the King of Prussia, kept by Richard Cox. 56
56
New Jersey Archives, Vol. XXIV, pp. 212, 375.
UNITED STATES HOTEL
The United States Hotel was located
on the site of the present Trent Theatre on the west side of Warren
Street. On this site as early as 1788 stood the Indian Queen Tavern.
It was built of stone, two stories high with a large brick kitchen
adjoining. A large stable, carriage house, shed, ire house, etc.,
were in the rear. In 1801 the Indian Queen Tavern was in possession
of John Anderson, who advertised that he “is about to leave Town and
will dispose of his household goods.” Enoch Green took possession
of the Indian Queen about 1820 and ran it until his death in 1827.
John D. Green then conducted it until his death on December 25, 1830.
His widow Frances ran it until 1835 when she went to the City Tavern.
During the Green regime the tavern seems to have been the museum of
Trenton. On March 31, 1823, an exhibition was advertised to be held
there on April 1 and 2, of “a large and learned Elephant.” An “Egyptian
mummy three thousand years old” was on exhibition there during the
second week of May 1825; and during the first week of June 1826 “live
rattlesnakes lately taken in the interior of Pennsylvania and New
York” were on exhibition at the inn.
Joshua English took over the tavern
in 1835, and advertises that he has furnished it “in a style inferior
to none in the said city.” English left the inn sometime in 1842,
after which we find him interested in the Mansion House on State Street.
Charles Howell next followed him as tenant from 1842 to 1847. In January
1847 Samuel Kay became proprietor of the Indian Queen and opened it
under the name of The United States Hotel. It saw several other landlords
up to the time it was razed, including Austin Walton and J. J. McCarthy.
PHOENIX HOTEL
The Phoenix Hotel stood on the west
side of North Warren Street where Hanover Street now cuts through.
On its site previously stood a dwelling which is commonly supposed
to have been the residence of President John Adams when he, along
with the other heads of the federal departments, fled the yellow fever
prevalent in Philadelphia in 1799.
The first mention of the dwelling being
used as an inn or tavern is found in an advertisement of William J.
Leslie57 in which he announces that he has opened a hotel in Trenton directly
opposite the postoffice, next door to the Rising Sun Tavern. Leslie
ran the Phoenix Hotel until 1824, when he removed to the house of
Philip F. Howell on the east side of Warren Street, immediately south
of St. Michael’s Church, to open an hotel known as the Mansion House.
In 1831 he changed its name to Temperance Hall. Mary Wright was the
owner of the Phoenix in 1842; at that time it was called the Phoenix
and Cornucopia Hotel.
57
Federalist, April 3o, 1821.
John Miller, it would appear, was in
possession of the Phoenix Hotel from 1848 to 1864. In the latter year,
Captain Michael Dewan became the proprietor. On his death in 1869
his brother, William, took over the place. Other proprietors of the
hotel include: Peter Smick, Charles Green, Enoch Cook, Norbury Bashford,
William S. Yard and James Davison.
In 1870 the city bought in the lot on
which the Phoenix stood in order to extend the present West Hanover
Street. The price paid to Mrs. Miller, the then owner, was $14,780.
At that time William Harley ran the hotel. After he had conducted
a sale of his personal effects in February 1871, he moved out and
the building was demolished to make way for the new street.
THE FOX CHASE TAVERN
General William S. Stryker in his Battles
of Trenton and Princeton, p. 101, in speaking of the Hessians
under Colonel Rall in Trenton in December 1776, says that “the principal
picket of the Trenton cantonment was at the Fox Chase Tavern, kept
by Mrs. Joseph Bond, on the Maidenhead Road, now Brunswick Avenue,
and nearly opposite to what is at the present time the head of Montgomery
Street. It consisted of one commissioned officer, three under officers,
and about seventy men. This picket did sentinel and watch duty in
the town. A captain was always at this post, on duty as inspector.”
From the following advertisement appearing
in the Emporium and True American, on January 31, 1835, it
would seem that the tavern stood much nearer to Broad Street: “The
old established Tavern Stand, long kept by Mrs. Bond, sign of the
Fox Chase, in the city of Trenton, at the head of Greene Street, on
the commencement of the straight Turnpike to New Brunswick, is to
be let, and possession given on the first day of April next.” Joseph
Bond ran the Fox Chase Tavern in 1776, and continued to do so until
his death on October 25, 1826, an aged inhabitant of Trenton. He had
married Mary, the widow of William Cain, a former ,proprietor. She
survived Bond also.
THE TREMONT HOUSE
The brick stuccoed building, forty feet
square and three stories high, on the northwest corner of East State
and Canal Streets, is the Tremont House. It was erected by Peter Grim,
Jr., between March and September 1847, and was first named the Rail
Road House. The announcement of the opening of the house for guests,
as published in the State Gazette of September 16, 1847, reads:
The subscriber, having completed
his new and spacious building at the Depot in State Street, 58 is now prepared to receive visitors. His house has been built
for a hotel, and the rooms have been arranged as to afford every convenience
to those who may occupy them, having been thoroughly furnished with
beds, bedding and furniture.
Gentlemen and Ladies, who may visit
Trenton for a short time, will find every accommodation at this Hotel,
besides the desirable convenience of being near the Depot, and but
a few steps from the cars. The location is a very pleasant one, being
near the cottages, and an equal distance from Trenton and South Trenton.
- Peter Grim, Jr.
58
The old Camden and Amboy Railroad station stood across the canal from
the hotel.
The Rail Road House for a number of
years was a popular stopping place for travellers, members of the
Legislature and theatrical performers. Grim ran the hotel until his
death in 1847 when Joseph Cunningham, an active Democratic politician
and postmaster at Trenton by appointment from Andrew Jackson, purchased
the property and changed the name to the Tremont House.
On March 13, 1848, Henry Clay, the famous
statesman and orator, visited Trenton, while touring the States as
a candidate for the presidency. Upon his arrival at the depot he was
escorted to the Tremont House. Here in response to the greetings of
a large crowd of citizens gathered about the building, he ascended
the balcony in front of the second-story windows and made a brief
address.
Following the death of Cunningham in
1869 Lucius R. Wright became the proprietor. The late John J. Brown
owned the building in 1904 and remodelled it It now belongs to his
widow, but is no longer used as an hotel.
NATIONAL HOTEL
The National Hotel stood on the north
side of Hanover Street, midway between Broad and Warren, at 10 and
12 East Hanover. It was a three-story brick building, with a driveway
at the side and a spacious stableyard in the rear. The hotel was patronized
by legislators during the sessions of the Legislature and by many
of the show people who came to Trenton after the middle of the last
century. Buffalo Bill and his troupe made this place their headquarters.
One of the earliest owners of the National
Hotel was Runyon Toms. We find his advertisement in the June 22, 1860,
issue of the Daily True American, wherein he announces that
he had but recently enlarged his yard and stable room. Henry Earley
and William H. Earley were two other proprietors. After them, the
Johnson family, originally of New Brunswick, took over the operation
of the hotel. Mrs. Johnson, a widow, and her four popular sons, John,
Thaddeus J., Oscar and Frank, managed the hotel so that it soon became
a favorite eating and stopping place for those remaining overnight
in Trenton.
Competition soon .put the National Hotel
out of the race. The lower floor was divided into three stores while
the upper stories were turned into apartments. Late in 1928 Sears
Roebuck and Company purchased the property and tore it down. In its
place a three-story brick building was built, to be used as show-rooms
and a place for the sale of that company’s goods.
THE GOLDEN SWAN
The Golden Swan Tavern, known variously
as the Sign of the Swan, Swan Inn and Mechanics Hail, stood on the
southwest corner of Warren and Front Streets. The building in which
it was located is commonly believed to have been erected about 1815.
In its day it was one of the largest buildings in the town. An advertisement
by William Hancock probably its original owner, appearing in the Trenton
Federalist of May 22, 1815, offers for sale “a new three-story
brick house, constructed of the very best material, five rooms and
pantry on the first floor, six rooms on the second, nine on the third,
finished garrett with six rooms, also good four-room kitchen attached.”
In the summer of the same year, Thomas
Barnes, Jr., and William Van Hart opened a shoemaking establishment
on the site, trading as William Van Hart and Company. In February
1822 David McKean advertised the corner for rent, John Voorhees being
named as occupant . 59 In 1824
another advertisement, announcing the place for rent or sale, mentions
Peter Smick as the occupant. Smick kept a tavern on the premises.
In April 1826 Joseph Palmer took over the tavern, his notice announcing
that he had removed to “the tavern stand, Sign of the Golden Swan.” 60 Following Palmer as proprietors came Joel Gordon,
Isaac Pitcher, Mrs. Pitcher and then Samuel Quicksall.
59
Trenton Federalist, February 4, 1822.
60
The Emporium, April 15, 1826.
Judge David Naar, who had been publishing
the virile Democratic sheet, The Daily True American, at his
establishment one door north of the old City Hall, which stood on
the northeast corner of State and Broad Streets, purchased the Golden
Swan corner in December 1855 and moved his publishing house there
about two years later. The offices and printing shop were located
on the first floor, while the Naar family occupied the upper stories.
At about this time, Jewish religions services were held on the second
floor of the building.
On April I, 1872, the Daily True
American removed to the southeast corner of State and Broad Streets.
Mathias Miller and John Hartman, trading as Miller & Hartman,
conducted an upholstering and furniture business on the Golden Swan
corner after the departure of the Naars. A few years ago, Carll Sons’
Company occupied the place as a tinsmith shop. In 1907 J. Harry Hearnen
began business as a locksmith next to the corner; in 1921 he took
over the corner property and set up an extensive business in electrical,
auto supply and radio goods, in addition to a lock and safe establishment.
TRUE AMERICAN INN
Just south of the AssunpinkCreek stood
the True American Inn, destroyed by fire in 1843 during the proprietorship
of Henry Katzenbach, whose young daughter lost her life in the flames.
This inn was the headquarters of General Washington on the morning
of the second Battle of Trenton, January 2, 1777. At that time it
was conducted by Jonathan Richmond. The inn was located on the east
side of South Broad Street just below the line of Factory Street.
About 1834 it was kept by Joseph Palmer, and on his death was advertised
for sale in the True American for January 19, 1835.
On the same lot judge John H. Stewart,
in the latter part of the ‘7o’s, erected the building now occupied
as a clothing and haberdashery shop by Harry Haveson.
NATIONAL HOTEL
On the opposite side of Broad Street,
about 200 feet farther south, long stood South Trenton’s National
Hotel. It was once called Iron Hall. It is said to have first been
kept as an hotel by Margaret Gordon; John McGuire acquired it in 1841
and kept it as an hotel until his death in 1856. Robert Dowling was
its proprietor during the ‘7o’s and ‘8o’s of the last century and
from him it derived the name of Dowling’s Hotel. This place was conducted
as an hotel continuously for about one hundred years. Dowling greatly
enlarged it.
When the Knights of Labor became powerful
as a national and local body, the hotel was acquired as Trenton headquarters.
Transfer of the property from Robert S. Dowling to Knights of Labor
representatives occurred July 1, 1886. For some years it figured as
an industrial center where labor’s cohorts assembled at frequent intervals,
T. V. Powderly and other national labor leaders appearing on various
important occasions. This interesting stage of the old hotel’s existence
ended April 13, 1893, when the “Organized Labor Hall Association of
Mercer County” transferred its title to John A. O’Neill. Litigation
followed and the property was held from April 29, 1893, to April 1,
1901, by Hugh H. Hamill and Benjamin M. Phillips. Later landlords
were William C. Cobine, John J. McCarthy, Harry and Samuel Levin,
Benjamin Robinson, Leo Eisner and Solomon and Samuel Shankman.
About 1915 Samuel Levin took it over
and added rooms, increasing its size to double of what it had been.
Samuel Shankman in 1925 purchased the property and turned it into
fifteen apartments and several stores.
MERCER COUNTY HOTEL
The Mercer County Hotel was located
on the northeast corner of South Broad and Market Streets, the present
site of The Mercer Trust Co. It stood directly opposite the court
house - hence its name. Its proprietors successively were Margaret
Gordon, Charles D. Warner and George Davis. It was discontinued as
an hotel long before the coming of the bank building, and was used
for years as a drug store with a boarding house overhead.
EAGLE HOTEL
The oldest hotel building south of the
creek, though it is no longer kept as an hotel, is the Eagle Hotel,
on the northwest corner of South Broad and Ferry Streets. It is said
that this building was occupied as an hotel during the Revolution.
The lot on which it was built was No. 34 on the plan of lots of Kingsbury,
laid out by Robert Lettis Hooper about 1754. Hooper conveyed the lot,
60 by 181 1/2 feet, to George Bright by deed dated July 27, 1763.
Bright conveyed it to Robert Waln on October 10, 1765. The latter
built a house on it soon after obtaining title, the house being but
one-half of its present size, and standing on the northerly part of
the lot. It is referred to by Evan Runyan in his advertisement in
the New Jersey Gazette of February 6, 1782, as the brick house
at the ferry lane. 61 Gideon H. Wells was the owner of the property on October 1,
1805.
61
New Jersey Archives, 2nd Ser., Vol. V., p. 370.
The Eagle Hotel was closed as a tavern
when its present owner, Dr. Henry M. Beatty, acquired it in 1896.
Prior thereto it had been the scene of many Third Ward political gatherings
and earlier still, in the period when the Eagle race course was at
the height of its success, it was the stopping place of many of the
well-known horse owners of the country who used periodically to assemble
in Trenton for races of national importance. There was abundant stabling
in the rear. Among the Eagle Hotel’s landlords the most famous was
William Doble of country-wide fame in the equestrian world. This tavern
in Revolutionary times and later was a landmark where many travellers
halted, coming from or going to the ferry at the foot of Ferry Street.
The usual route was up Ferry to Broad and thence to the center of
the town, in the era before Warren Street was opened below Front Street.
OTHER SOUTH TRENTON HOTELS
Other hotels of note in South Trenton
were located in the Fourth Ward.
The Jennie Lind, named after
the famous singer, stood on the southeast corner of South Warren and
Ferry Streets. It was taken down when the present row of brick houses
was built about 1900. At one time this was the hotel connected with
the Trent Ferry, and was called the Ferry House.
The Bloomsbury House is located
at the foot of Ferry Street and faces it. It now belongs to the city,
having been purchased for purposes in connection with the municipal
wharf. It was built prior to 1800 but its history is unknown.
The Railroad House (which is
not to be confused with the Rail Road House, as the Tremont House
was first named) was situated at the northeast corner of .South Warren
and Bridge Streets. When the railroad ran through this part of Bridge
Street, the house stood just north of its line of travel - hence its
name. The house still stands, having been converted into an automobile
salesroom. Cornelius Vanderveer, Charles F0w, Dominick Caminade, Peter
Rafferty, Joseph O’Neil and John Aiken, have been a few of its proprietors.
The Delaware House on South Warren
Street was prominent as a political and sporting headquarters for
years.
In the Sixth Ward there were but two
inns, the one located on the almost forgotten “prairie” between Race
Street and the River, south of Cass (formerly Washington) Street.
It was kept by S. Lake and called the Raftsman’s Inn. The other
was the Delaware Inn on the east side of Lamberton Street below
Landing. The building is still standing. These were frequented by
the rivermen, when rafting and the catching and curing of fish were
real industries at Lamberton.
HOTEL WINDSOR
The Hotel Windsor was erected in 1881
by the late Captain Woodbury D. Holt, an able and prominent lawyer
of the latter part of the past century. The hotel is on East State
Street, opposite the First Presbyterian Church, with a frontage of
63 and a depth of 240 feet. Captain Holt was able to keep the property
only for a few years. In July 1894 it was sold in foreclosure proceedings
to the late A. V. Manning, the furniture dealer. After several proprietorships
it has passed to The Trenton Trust Company. Originally the lobby was
on the ground floor in the west half of the front of the building
and the parlors were on the second-floor front. After Mr. Manning
acquired it the ground-floor front was turned into stores. At the
present time F. W. Woolworth’s five-and-ten-cent store occupies the
entire front floor. In 1924 the hotel was completely remodelled, the
lobby, parlors and dining-rooms being transferred to the second floor,
and all the furniture renewed. Besides this an entirely new heating
and lighting system was installed, and practically all the rooms equipped
with private baths. The hotel has 125 rooms. Remodernized, it was
opened for business on April 21, 1925, by the present.proprietor,
Joseph G. Buch.
THE STERLING HOTEL
The Sterling Hotel stands on the northeast
corner of State Street and Chancery Lane. The site originally belonged
to Daniel Coxe whose lands were forfeited and sold by the commissioners
of forfeited estates for Hunterdon County after he had been found
guilty of aiding and assisting the British during the Revolution.
The hotel lot was sold to Charles Pettit on April 20, 1779,
62 who in turn sold it to Moore Furman on January 31, 1780.
63
62
Deed Book A.T., p. 169, Secretary of State’s Office.
63
ibid., p. 171.
In March 1798, Moore Furman sold this
lot and his residence thereon to the State to be used as the official
residence of the governor, and it was thereafter popularly known as
Government House. Several attempts were made by the State to sell
the place during the early years of the nineteenth century, but the
efforts were not crowned with success until April 2, 1845, when Samuel
R. Gummere, Samuel R. Hamilton and Stacy Paxton were appointed commissioners
to make sale of the house and lot. Messrs. Joseph Wood, Dr. John McKelway,
John A. Weart and Joseph C. Potts purchased the property for the sum
of $13,800. The new purchasers immediately set to work to turn the
place into an hotel, which was ready in December 1845.
The building was considerably enlarged
in 1862 and opened by the new managers, Daniel Peixotto and Charles
M. Norcross. Samuel K. Wilson purchased the property in 1866 and held
it to his death. His executors sold it to Ogden D. W ilkinson, the
present owner, on March 16, 1902.
The hotel was known as the State Street
House until 1903. Some of its proprietors were: Thomas Crozer and
William P. Brewer, George H. Snowhill, John W. Souder, and Henry P.
Paul and Eli K. Ale. In 1903 Mr. Wilkinson remodelled the State Street
House and leased it to John J. Fleming, who formed the Fleming Hotel
Company. The company bought new furniture and completely renovated
the place, formally dedicating it as the Hotel Sterling on New Year’s
Eve, 1903, with a banquet given to newspapermen and other guests.
The place was opened to the public about ten days later. 64
64
Trenton Times, January 11, 1904.
The Fleming Hotel Company was unable
to meet the bills incurred in the purchase of the new furniture, so
that the Court of Chancery appointed a receiver for the company in
1905. Charles J. Fury bought in the furniture and equipment at the
sale, later purchasing the unexpired term of seven years under the
lease. Edward J. Mahoney took charge of the hotel for about one year
when Mr. Fury, who had been conducting a hotel in Somerville, returned
to Trenton to conduct the Sterling. He ran it until 1919. The hotel
contains sixty bedrooms and is now under the management of L. L. Hudders.
THE TRENTON HOUSE
The Trenton House is the only hotel
in Trenton which has had continuous existence for over one hundred
years without a change in its name. It is located at the southeast
corner of North Warren and East Hanover Streets. The beginning of
it is succinctly given in a notice appearing in the True American
of May 8 1824, reading as follows:
The subscriber has removed from the
City Tavern to a house on the East side of the Main [Warren] Street,
to be designated the “Trenton House,” - J. M. Bispham.
Bispham ran the hotel until May 1, 1829,
when he went to New York to take charge of the Clinton House. He let
the Trenton House to H. G. Herbert, who ran it for about three years,
Joseph Thomas taking it in 1832. The latter was in possession when
the hotel was sold at public vendue by John E. Bispham, the administrator
of Joseph Bispham’s estate, in 1830.
Joseph Bispham was a famous boniface
of his day and the Trenton House was commonly called “Bispham’s at
Trenton.” A traveller who came to Trenton at about this time gives
us this impression of the Trenton House and its proprietor:
He said he stopped at fifty such,
some not quite so good and some better than the one he chooses to
describe, namely, Bispham’s at Trenton, New Jersey. We were received
by the landlord with perfect civility, but without the slightest shade
of obsequiousness. The deportment of the innkeeper was manly, courteous,
and even kind; but there was that in his air which sufficiently proved
that both parties were expected to manifest the same qualities. We
were asked if we all formed one party, or whether the gentlemen who
alighted from stage number one wished to be by themselves. We were
shown into a neat well-furnished little parlour, where our supper
made its appearance in the course of twenty minutes. The table contained
many little delicacies, such as game, oysters, and choice fish, and
several things were named to us at hand if needed. The tea was excellent,
the coffee as usual indifferent enough. The papers of New York and
Philadelphia were brought at our request, and we sat with our two
candles before a cheerful fire reading them as long as we pleased.
Our bed-chambers were spacious, well-furnished, and as neat as possible;
the beds as good as one usually finds them out of France. Now for
these accommodations, which were just as good with one solitary exception
(sanitary) as you would meet in the better order of English provincial
inns, and much better in the quality and abundance of the food, we
paid the sum of 4s. 6d. each.
There is considerable uncertainty as
to the exact date of the building of the original Trenton House, but
prior to 1794 William Churchill Houston was the owner of the land
and the building thereon. His executors on March 13 of that year conveyed
the property to Thomas Yardley. The lot was 62 by 234 feet and lay
between Job Moore’s lot on the south and an alley which ran eastward
from King to Queen Street.
The building on thus lot was two stories
high, built of brick, 42 feet front (running to the alley) by 32 feet
in depth and contained twelve rooms.
The alley referred to was laid out in
1736 by William Morris. On March 31 of that year he purchased from
Joseph Green twelve feet of land on King Street, running back to the
rear of his own lots on Greene Street, for the purpose of laying out
a public alley. At various times afterwards it has been known as Morris’,
Paxton’s, Pinkerton’s and Yardley’s Alley after the several owners
who had acquired lots on its several corners. In 1837 it was widened
and laid out as it now appears, and named Hanover Street.
From 1804 to 1814 George Abbott was
the owner of the building and in it conducted a dry-goods store. Adjoining
the store on the south was a two-story frame storehouse 15 by 32 feet,
and on the rear of the lot was the coach house and stabling for twelve
horses.
Samuel Evans owned and lived in the
house in 1813.
Colonel William Snowden leased the hotel
property about 1834 and ran it until his death on September 21, 1846.
His widow Maria, as his executrix, conducted it for a few years after
his death, with Peter Katzenbach as her manager. He became lessee
of the hotel in 1851, and the owner of it in 1854. At that time the
hotel consisted of only twelve rooms. During his ownership many improvements
were made to the old house. In 1854 he raised it to four stories and
added the large dining-room on the Hanover Street side. This enlarged
the hotel to fifty rooms; seventy-five more were added in 1869.
Room 100 on the second floor was a famous
meeting place for politicians in the latter quarter of the past century,
and many political deals (and some not political) were made there.
Room 100 was permanently engaged by the late General William J. Sewell,
and the proprietor was well pleased with the yearly rent paid him,
although the room remained unoccupied the greater part of the year.
It is alleged that much money exchanged hands in room 100 in those
days, and that more than one legislator returned to his home and paid
off the mortgage.
Secretary of State Henry C. Kelsey and
Henry “Staff” Little, both deceased, occupied rooms on the second
floor of the Trenton House for thirty-five years. Many famous men
have been guests at the Trenton House, especially during Peter Katzenbach’s
proprietorship. Abraham Lincoln was given a reception by the citizens
of Trenton and dined there on February 21, 1861, while on his way
to Washington to be inaugurated President of the Unted States.
Peter Katzenbach died January 14, 1906.
About 1895 he had made extensive improvements in the rear of the building
on Hanover Street, laying it out first as a spacious, modern billiard
room with bedrooms overhead, the billiard room later being converted
into a grill room, banquet hall and barroom. Frederick F. Katzenbach,
a son of Peter Katzenbach, continued to run the hotel for about ten
years after his father’s death. The Trenton House Company acquired
the property from the estate of Peter Katzenbach in April 1906.
THE STACY-TRENT
Trenton’s largest hotel is located at
the southeast corner of West State and Willow Streets. It was officially
opened on September 19, 1921, and named after Mahlon Stacy, the first
settler here, and William Trent, who afterwards laid out the town
and from whom it derives its name. The Stacy-Trent is described in
some detail in Chapter XIX below, “Trenton in the Twentieth Century.”
THE HOTEL
PENN
This hotel stands on South Clinton Avenue,
opposite the Pennsylvania Railroad Station and immediately south of
the Mercer Cemetery. Ground was broken for its erection by the late
Richard Barlow in May 1893, and it was opened for guests on the Saturday
preceding Christmas Day of the same year. After Richard Barlow’s death
his son, George H. Barlow, a member of the present Board of Freeholders,
conducted the hotel until October 1, 1920, when it was taken over
by its present owner and manager, Joseph G. Buch. He immediately refurnished
and renovated the place, turning it into a comfortable, up-to-date
hostelry. It contains fifty rooms. The lobby, office, dining-rooms
and kitchen are on the ground floor. On the same floor on the north
side was the barroom, now unoccupied, which was one of the largest
and best equipped barrooms in the city during Mr. Barlow’s ownership.
HOTEL HILDEBRECHT
The hotel stands on the corner of State
Street and Chancery Lane, fronting 67 feet on State Street and running
back to Front Street, The first two floors of the building were erected
in 1921. The first floor is used for soda and lunch-rooms and also
for a lobby-lounge for patrons of the restaurant. Eight additional
stories are to be erected in 1929 and will contain 216 guest rooms
with bath. In the rear of the first floor is an automobile garage,
and above it is a junior ball room and a large banquet room, seating
five hundred guests.
The total cost of the building is approximately
a million and a half dollars. It is under the management of Charles
F. Hildebrecht, who has been associated with the restaurant business
in Trenton for the past thirty years, succeeding his father, who conducted
a restaurant here for ten years previous.
THE MANZE HOTEL
The Manze Hotel is a four-story brick
.building containing thirty-six sleeping and six bath rooms. It stands
on South Clinton Avenue opposite the Pennsylvania Railroad Station.
In pre-prohibition days it had one of the finest barrooms in the city,
A wide hallway on the north side of the barroom leads to a large dining-room,
capable of seating upwards of one hundred and twenty-five guests.
The hotel was erected and opened by Frank Manze in 1907. It was operated
by his son John until his death in 1917, and afterwards by another
son Joseph until 1924. Since it passed out of the Manze family it
has had a rather checkered career and at the present time is closed.
OTHER TRENTON TAVERNS
Several taverns deserve passing mention.
The New Jersey Dragoon stood on the corner of Warren and Union
(Bank) Streets in 1798. It was called the Union Inn when kept
by John C. Hummell and later by his widow in 1803. Sorrel Horse
Tavern was located on the southeast corner of Broad and State
Streets and was kept by Henry Drake (1799). In 1831 Thomas Combs was
in charge of the tavern and five years later we find Asher Temple
at the spot. On the southwest corner of Broad and State Streets stood
the Washington Hotel, kept by Gabriel Allen in 1827 and by
Joseph English from 1832 to 1834. There was, also, the Sign of
the Buck, on the northeast corner of Broad and Ferry Streets.
John Sully owned it in 1824 and in 1834 we find Patrick Carrigan taking
out a license to run the place. Finally we note the Franklin House,
situated on the northeast corner of Warren and Hanover Streets. Charles
Weber ran it in 1868. The tavern stood on a 100-foot-deep lot, facing
33 feet on Warren Street.
There were, of worse, many other places
in the city which carried the name of “hotel,” but for the greater
part they hold no especial interest for us. In almost every case they
were wine-shops or saloons where whiskey and beer were served and
consumed on the premises. Few of these establishments had a restaurant
or sleeping quarters attached, and therefore need not be mentioned
.in connection with the inns and taverns discussed above.