Early homes built by Pilgrims were simple dwellings, one or two room cottages, complete
with 400 to 500 square foot layouts. A 20 ft-by-20 foot floorpan was common.
The framing of homes would have been shaped through timber harvesting. Raising the frame to a home involved reliance upon close-by oak tress, pine tress or walnut tress. Cut down, for the build.
Framing of oak logs, or pine logs or walnut logs done by hand.
Structures were anchored with heavy posts and beams, linked by mortise-and-tenon joints. Then secured by treenails, or pins.
The underpinning for a moise-and-tenon joint was an insertion of tongue-like projections – tenons – at the end of one board into matching rectangular holes in the next board. Those matching rectangular holes, moises.
Taking harshness of winters into account, clapboards were split from logs, then nailed over a home’s exterior.
A clapboard is an angled, beveled wood board, typically measuring 1 1/4 inches.
Clapboards overlap. Their contour, a preventative design which proved to be effective in shielding a home’s framing from gusts of cold winter winds.
Chimneys were added to a floor plan, then built out of timber and clay.
Chimneys were complimentary to fireplaces, to wood-burning stoves or to hearths. One of which serving as the origin for a home’s warmth.
Unfortunately, a good deal of heat generated would have escaped through the chimney, causing much of the dwelling – just about all areas not near the fireplace, or the hearth, or wood-burning stove – to hold at near-freezing temperatures on arctic nights.
Winter evenings were relegated to warmest sections of the main living area. Those sections, nearest the fireplace.
Walls were filled with woven branches, then plastered, using clay and mud. To capture heat, homes were built with thick wooden walls.
Bundled marsh or grasses were the ingredients of a roof. It would have been thatched roofs, early on.
As for a home’s floors, those fortunate enough to be well-off may have considered laying wood planks as floorboards. For the majority of Pilgrims, dirt floors. Basic hard–packed earth.
Windows were added to blueprints…windows without glass. Wooden shutters were used as window coverings.
Twenty-six would be the number of land banks which have been established, to date, in the great state of New York.
So far, twenty-six New York State towns, cities, villages and counties elected to go the land bank route since then-Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Land Bank Program into law in July of 2011 – The Land Bank Act.
One of the tasks for New York land banks is to think through how to best address the nearly one million or so investor-owned properties in New York State which sit vacant – somewhere in the range of between 25,000 and 30,000 properties.
These vacant properties are too often positioned as write-offs for investors. While many of these “write-offs” could become affordable options for families who dream of one day becoming New York homeowners.
Thanks to The Land Bank Law, twenty-six New York cities, villages, towns and counties were able to draft their own unique “blue prints” to address housing needs within their distinct communities.
In New York, the municipality establishes a foreclosing governmental unit. The foreclosing governmental unit operates within guidelines established through local laws, ordinances and resolutions – the proverbial “home rule.”
Foreclosing governmental units have the capability to take possession of vacant, non-performing properties within the municipality. According to applicable municipal ordinances.
Oversight and governance for a New York land bank is bestowed upon a land bank boards of directors.
Here is the list of land banks which have been established in regions throughout New York State, to date.
Greater Syracuse
Buffalo Erie Niagara (Buffalo)
Lackawanna
Tonawanda/Erie County
Schenectady County
Chautauqua County
AmsterdamCounty
Newburgh
Broome County
Suffolk County
Rochester
Albany County
Capital Region Land Bank
Troy Community Land Bank
Oswego County
Finger Lakes Regional
Wayne County Regional
Tioga County
Steuben County
Kingston, Newburgh Community
Sullivan County
Greater Mohawk Valley
Ogdensburg
Nassau County
Suffolk County
Allegany, Cattaraugua, Chautauqua
Brad Lander is now the Democratic nominee for Congress in New York’s 10th District. New York’s 10th District includes lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. Brad Lander was born in St. Louis, Missouri.
Missouri is widely recognized as having been the first state to set up a land bank – St. Louis Land Reutilization Authority (LRA). The country’s first land bank was established in Brad Lander’s hometown.
In 1971, LRA was created in St. Louis under Missouri’s land reutilization law. The nation’s first land bank.
In Brad Lander, Congress will soon be adding a land bank proponent to their Capitol Building roster.
During the 1850s settlers started arriving on the plains of Kansas’s Flint Hills, thirty miles northeast of Wichita, at a site that would soon become El Dorado.
Early El Dorado Kansans established trading posts along the Walnut River. A 140-acre townsite was platted in 1858. El Dorado was incorporated in 1871.
Early on, what attracted frontiersmen to El Dorado was the Walnut River and the timber belts found alongside the Walnut.
The Walnut River is a 154-mile long tributary of the Arkansas River, formed through a union of Cole Creek and Durechon Creek. Walnut Rover flows southward through Butler and Cowley Counties, passing through El Dorado, Augusta, Winfield and Douglas before joining the Arkansas River in Arkansas City in south-central Kansas, four miles north of the Oklahoma border.
The timber belts frontiersmen found nearby El Dorado ranged from a quarter mile to one mile in width – oak, walnut, hickory, mulberry, sycamore, elm, and hackberry timber belts. River bottom timber was the only lumber supply available on the prairie. El Dorado and the Walnut River provided that lumber supply.
While oak timber belts and Walnut River trading posts represented underpinnings for the early days of El Dorado, it would prove to be neither trading posts nor hickory timber belts which made El Dorado indispensable to President Woodrow Wilson. It was oil.
The first oil development around El Dorado occurred in nearby Augusta. Black gold was discovered in Butler County Kansas in June of 1914, just outside of Augusta.
World War I began that same year, on July 28th.
Less than one year after World War I broke out, on October 5, 1915 wildcatters hit it big when oil started gushing from a massive oilfield located a stone’s throw northwest of El Dorado on North Oil Hill Road. That oilfield was Stapleton No. 1, named after the man on whose land black gold had been discovered, John Stapleton.
That oilfield would go on to become El Dorado Oil Field. El Dorado Oil Field triggered the El Dorado Oil Field boom.
By 1918, El Dorado Oil Field produced 29 million barrels of oil, supplying the United States with 9% of oil consumed by the country.
World War I increased demand for oil. El Dorado Oil Field’s importance grew, as the Butler County oilfield was delivering nearly 13% of all oil consumed in the United States.
El Dorado Oil Field became “the oil field that won World War I.”
Ottawa, Kansas was founded on September 6, 1864 along the Marais des Cygnes River as a reservation for the Ottawa, Kansas tribe. The Marais des Cygnes River runs right through the center of town. The Marais de Cygnes was named by 17th Century visitors to Ottawa – explorers and trappers from France.
Explorers and trappers from France were drawn to Ottawa by prospects arising through the lucrative local fur trade with Native American tribes. By the late 1600s, French explorers known as coureurs des bois – the translation for coureurs des bois is, woodsmen – journeyed throughout eastern Kansas, pursuing beaver and otter pelts. Beavers and otters are native to eastern Kansas. Translated from French to English, Marais des Cygnes River is “Marsh of the Swans.”
The source of the Marais des Cygnes River is found in east-central Kansas in Wabaunsee County, near Eskridge.
The mouth of the 217-mile long Marais des Cygnes touches Little Osage River in western Missouri.
At the point where the Marais des Cygnes River empties into the Little Osage River, the two rivers join to become the Osage River. The reach of Marais des Cygnes River in Ottawa encompasses 9 miles of Midwest riverbanks.
Ottawa’s early settlers envisioned the Marais des Cygnes River as navigable maritime asset which would prove to be useful in transporting agricultural products – such as grain – to outside markets. However, what Ottawa’s first residents soon discovered was that their stream was shallow. At its deepest point in Ottawa, the Marais des Cygnes River measures only four feet deep. And…the steam meanders.
During dry seasons, the water depth of Marais des Cygnes drops significantly. Furthermore, its riverbed consists of a solid rock bottom…exposed during the dry season. In relation to Ottawa’s economy, the river’s purpose went from navigation to powering of mills.
Ottawa’s early mills were built in the latter part of the 20th Century, mostly along Walnut Street, close by North Main Street. Just a stone’s throw from the Marais des Cygnes.
The Ottawa Mill was built in 1867 at the intersection of Main Street and First Street. Forest Mills was constructed in 1872 at the corner of 1st Street and Walnut. Ottawa Oil Mill went up in 1873 on Walnut Street, just north of the Marais des Cygnes. The Excelsior Mill – built in 1881 – was found at the corner of Main and Tecumseh Street.
The Marais des Cygnes River functioned as a reliable energy source for Ottawa’s mills. The mills used water power to turn their heavy mill wheels. Through the utilization of buhrs made of stone, Ottawa mills produced 20,000 pounds of processed grain products, daily.
While the Marais des Cygnes River provided the initial idea upon which Ottawa commerce could be built upon, and while Ottawa was not set up as a railroad town, it ended up being the advent of the railroad which contributed to the town’s growth.
Constructed using limestone extracted from nearby hills, Ottawa’s original depot was built in 1888. The town’s depot was designed by one of Ottawa’s most prominent citizens, George Washburn.
George Washburn was the local architect. And a prominent architect, at that.
After working as a carpenter In Kansas City, George Washburn set foot in Ottawa in 1882, establishing himself as skilled tradesman.
George Washburn was an architect. An architect from Ottawa who would go on to make several noteworthy architectural contributions to Ottawa, and to Kansas, beyond Ottawa.
George Washburn designed nine Carnegie library buildings, as well as 13 county courthouses. Among the Kansas courthouses Washburn designed was the courthouse found in his hometown of Ottawa – Franklin County Courthouse. Washburn’s design for the Franklin County Courthouse integrated a tasteful blending of two styles: 1) Romanesque Revival, and 2) Colonial.
The Ottawa depot design Washburn came up with was part of a larger rail yard, a rail yard which consisted of a 13-stall roundhouse for engine repairs, as well as a freight depot.
You can visit Ottawa’s original depot today – it’s now a museum.
Ottawa’s Old Depot Museum is located at 135 W Tecumseh Street. Old Depot Museum sits at the northernmost trailhead of the Prairie Spirit Trail – a bike and walking trail. The Depot is not far from Forest Park and Haley Park.
You can’t buy Amtrak tickets at the Old Depot Museum. No trains arrive at Old Depot Museum. What you will find at Old Depot Museum is the Model Railroad Room, complete with HO-scale model train layout depicting 1950s rail lines. You will also find a recreation of a 19th Century schoolhouse, a Victorian parlor, a Soda Fountain Room and the General Store.
Using Washburn’s plans, Kansas City, Lawrence, and Southern Kansas Railway – now part of Santa Fe Railroad – built Ottawa’s depot. By the time two additional railroads – Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad and Missouri Pacific Railroad – arrived in Ottawa, the town became a busy transport. Ottawa’s depot was primarily a passenger depot, although adjacent freight-handling structures were soon built next to the depot.
The first train pulled into Ottawa’s depot in 1888. The last train left Ottawa’s depot in 1962. At which time the Sata Fe Railroad donated the Ottawa’s depot to the Franklin County Historical Society.
Salina, Kansas owes its founding to an expedition. Or rather, to a tour. Or rather, to be more specific, to a foot tour.
In 1857 a Scottish-born journalist, Free-State abolitionist, Civil War colonel for the Union army and future Kansas Congressman headed up a group that ventured west – by foot – from Fort Riley. Their goal? Find a new townsite.
That Colonel who led the foot tour was William A. Phillips. Colonel Phillips commanded the Indian Home Guard regiments during the Civil War.
To find his new townsite, Colonel Phillips led his men along the Smokey Hill River’s course. The Smokey Hill extends all the way to eastern Colorado. In Kansas, the Smokey Hill connects with the Republican River to form the Kansas River, just a tad east of Fort Riley in Junction City.
On their 35-mile foot tour, running low on supplies, Colonel Phillips and his men restocked in Manhattan. Then followed the bends of Blue River from Manhattan to Saline County.
Upon their arrival, on the banks of the Smoky Hill River, Colonel Phillips found an ideal setting. And what Colonel Phillips found would go on to become the very first settlement in the future Saline County.
Prior to Colonel Phillips arrival in today’s Saline County, the region had been claimed as hunting grounds by High Plains tribes. The High Plains tribes were hostile to American settlers. Attacks on settlers was commonplace. By 1858, the threat of those High Plains tribes attacks had been put to rest. Enabling Colonel Phillips to establish his settlement.
That same year, Colonel Phillips along with the group he led – David Phillips, Alexander M. Campbell Sr., A.C. Spillman, and James Muir – chartered the Salina Town Company with the Kansas territory legislature.
The following year Phillips, Phillips, Campbell, Spillman and Muir organized the surrounding area as Saline County.
The Kansas territory legislature approved the formation of five new Kansas territory counties. Saline County was one of the five.
Saline County was incorporated in 1860. Salina, Kansas – incorporated ten years later – would go on to become the county seat.
William A. Phillips was elected to the United States House of Representatives 1872. He served from 1873 through 1879.
Founded in Salina by Henry David Lee as the H.D. Lee Mercantile Company – originally, a grocery store – H.D. Lee Mercantile Company would go on to become Lee Jeans.
Lee Jeans opened their first garment factory in 1889. In Salina. Twenty-nine years after Salina was incorporated.
Question: Why should we focus on reducing the number of vacant homes in cities?
One answer: Vacant homes become a financial drain on that city’s resources.
For example, the cost to demolish one vacant home could reach up to $20,000. Sometimes more.
There are social costs as well…
Neighborhoods with high concentrations of vacant homes become breeding grounds for crime: social costs.
Yet social costs are not always correlated to dollars and cents. Social costs are sometimes deemed to be someone else’s problem.
But are social costs really someone else’s problem?
Social costs attributed to vacant homes lead to financial costs incurred by a city, by that city’s stakeholders and by that city’s taxpayers.
Social costs do affect those who may (at first) believe one vacant home in another part of town is not their problem.
A New Yorker living in Tribeca or on the Upper East Side is part of the New York City family. As such, they pay New York City taxes.
So, while there may be no vacant homes in Tribeca or the Upper East Side, Tribeca and the Upper East Side are still linked to the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. To the Morrisania neighborhood or the Crotona neighborhood in the Bronx, where just about 4-out-of-10 live below the poverty line.
Be it Morrisania or be it Tribeca. Be it Crotona or be it the Upper East Side. Each neighborhood – all four of them – is still part of the New York City family.
Let’s say there is a foreclosure in Crotona. And let’s say that foreclosure in Crotona becomes a vacant home.
Increased police patrolling in Crotona might be enacted. So as to avert utilization of that vacant home for illegal purposes.
More police cars driving through Crotona becomes a financial cost which addresses the social cost. That financial cost is a New York City cost: a cost bourne by Crotona, a cost bourne by the Upper East Side, a cost bourne by Tribeca.
The cost of the vacant home to Crotona is obvious: Lower home values. An overgrown yard. Broken windows. Possible break-ins. More police cars driving by.
The cost of that vacant home to the Upper East Side or to Tribeca? Less obvious. Yet real, nonetheless.
Homeowners on the Upper East Side and Tribeca contribute to New York City police officer salaries too.
Today’s Old Bridge Township was established in the year 1869. Yet the beginning for Old Bridge involved an Old Bridge which was not, at its very beginning, Old Bridge.
Old Bridge Township was originally Madison Township. Named after President James Madison.
This name of Madison Township was later changed. From Madison Township to Old Bridge Township. This township name change took place in 1975.
The township name change was enacted so as to avoid confusing this Madison Township – the one located in Middlesex County – with the Madison located in northern New Jersey. In Morris County.
Yet long, long before there ever was an Old Bridge Township – and before that, long, long before there ever was a Madison Township – before the Garden State Parkway, Route 9, Route 18 and Route 34 winded through this town, Old Bridge Township started out as a 17th Century trading post.
The Old Bridge Township we know today traces its history back to 1683.
In 1683 the King of England granted 1,000 acres of land to John and Suzannah Brown. This settlement became, Brownsville.
One year later, this settlement, granted to the Browns by the king, became South Amboy.
There would be no Old Bridge without there first being, South Amboy.
Today’s Old Bridge started out as a trading post. A trading post which emerged in Brownsville after the English gained control over today’s Old Bridge from the Dutch. Leading to the Brown’s land grant from the king.
During the 17th Century, English settlers recognized how today’s Old Bridge Township – as a trading post – would enhance commercial interests through its location alongside Raritan Bay and South River.
The English recognized an opportunity through maritime commerce. And it was this opportunity to transport goods by ship which had been identified to be a perfect trade route junction.
In the 17th Century, goods made their way to today’s Old Bridge by stagecoach. Upon arrival in Old Bridge, goods could then be shipped further along by waterway – South River or Raritan Bay.
During the 17th Century, maritime commerce originating in today’s Old Bridge involved the use of flat-bottomed river boats. Horses pulled these vessels. Slow though these vessels were, maritime commerce for English merchants in what today is Old Bridge established the settlement’s foundation.
Found on these 17th Century horse-drawn barges would have been, primarily, flour. And later, oysters.
Oysters…
In times before harvesting oysters from Chesapeake Creek was decimated by polluted waters and overharvesting, during the 17th and 18th Centuries, getting oysters out of Chesapeake Creek represented a core commercial activity.
While the English were developing their trading post, Old Bridge represented the center of an unincorporated collection of plantations located to the east and to the west of the Raritan River. At that time, Old Bridge was not a town. Old Bridge was a settlement. A maritime head…among a collection of plantations.
Throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries, flour was arriving in today’s Old Bridge after having been packed into stagecoach boots. Flour arriving in Old Bridge was then loaded onto slow moving riverboats. On South River. Or Raritan Bay.
In the latter days of the 18th Century, the steamboat was invented…
For this settlement, the invention of the steamboat quickened how stagecoach-delivered flour could be transported along the river. Furthermore, the use of steamboats quickened the pace for the transport of flour across the Raritan Bay. To New York City markets.
Old Bridge is located just under 40 miles across Raritan Bay from Manhattan. There is no direct waterway route from Old Bridge to Manhattan. But there is a direct waterway route to Manhattan from South Amboy. The Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge sits right next to South Amboy.
Through the advent of steamboats, Old Bridge’s economy grew. This old English settlement – where once one found gristmills, sawmills and shops – added banks, taverns and small homes to the landscape. Resting among a sleepy collection of plantations along South River and Raritan Bay, this bayside settlement was undergoing a transformation. This settlement was becoming a bustling bayside-riverside locale.
The beginning for what would go on to become New Jersey’s Old Bridge came in 1869. Through the formation of a town which once had been that 17th Century trading post. From which flour was had been shipped off to New York City. On steamboats.
In February of 1798, South Amboy, was incorporated.
When South Amboy was established, South Amboy included what later would become the independent townships of Monroe, Sayreville and a stand-alone South Amboy. As well as, Old Bridge.
Through an act of the New Jersey legislature in 1869, Madison Township was spun off from the consortium.
One hundred and six years later – in 1975 – Madison Township would become, Old Bridge Township.
For questions or comments about this article you can reach the author, Ted Ihde, by email – authortedihde@gmail.com – or at 816-699-6804.
Within the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, to the southeast Kansas City – a 20-minute drive from Kansas City’s Central Business District – 10 miles outside of Independence, with a land area totaling 10 square miles, bisected by Blue Parkway, we find Raytown.
The origin of Raytown goes back to how significant the Santa Fe Trail was to the opening up of the West to American settlement.
In the 1820’s, Raytown – at that time, a settlement known as Blue Ridge – was a trading post. Established as a stopover along the Santa Fe Trail.
Frontiersmen heading west rested up at this Blue Ridge settlement. Settlers purchased supplies they needed for their long trek west at Blue Ridge. They repaired their wagons. Settlers purchased flour, bacon and coffee at Blue Ridge. Settlers bought shoes for their horses at Blue Ridge. They visited the local Blue Ridge blacksmith. That local Blue Ridge blacksmith, coming to play a most significant role in Raytown’s history.
Attributed to how Blue Ridge has been written into the annals of our American story is the role Blue Ridge took on along the Santa Fe Trail.
Early in the 19th Century, Blue Ridge served as a “refueling depot” for those who confronted the rigors of the Plains as they pursued adventure.
Blue Ridge was a busy post along the Santa Fe. Iron workers, wagon makers and blacksmiths flocked to Blue Ridge. Tradesmen. Tradesmen attracted to opportunities found in Blue Ridge emanating from the ever-growing number of wagon trains traveling the Santa Fe Trail.
This Blue Ridge settlement came to be named for one such tradesman. A tradesman who came from the East. Arriving at Blue Ridge to partake in business opportunities created by Santa Fe Trail traffic. This tradesman was William Ray.
William Ray left his native Ohio, opting to make a new home for himself at Blue Ridge. William Ray built a new life for himself in Missouri. At this settlement along the Santa Fe Trail which would one day be named for him.
William Ray was a tradesman. William Ray was a blacksmith. As a blacksmith along the Santa Fe Trail, the shop William Ray established for himself was located at today what would be the corner of Raytown Road and 63rd Street. In the heart of Raytown.
This settlement of Blue Ridge would later come to be known as Ray’s Town. Ray’s Town…named for our Blue Ridge blacksmith from Ohio, William Ray.
William Ray was born in Butler County, Ohio in 1808. William Ray arrived in Missouri in 1848. Purchasing seven acres of land where today 63rd Street meets Raytown Road. In Raytown.
That acreage acquired by William Ray along the Santa Fe Trail was located at a junction where several trade routes met.
With his blacksmith shop – and his seven acres -situated at the heart of those Blue Ridge trade routes, William Ray’s address positioned him at the nucleus of where locals were clamoring for better roads to be built in Blue Ridge. The construction of new and improved roads – I.e.: local trade routes – which would connect Blue Ridge to the local, larger nearby markets of Independence and Kansas City.
William Ray’s blacksmith shop was located where those new roads would emanate from. Through William Ray’s geographical relevance, Blue Ridge locals started referring to Blue Ridge as “Ray’s Town.” Because planned growth for Blue Ridge involved the building of new roads which were to have beginning points at what today is the intersection of 63rd Street and Raytown Road. William Ray’s seven acres. William Ray’s blacksmith shop.
Within the American story there is an inescapability one encounters in the forever-association between the Santa Fe Trail and Blue Ridge. I.e.: Ray’s Town. I.e.: Raytown.
In Raytown today, the path Blue Ridge Boulevard follows is the path of the original Santa Fe Trail. Yet there is no “blue ridge” in Raytown. There never was a blue ridge in Raytown.
The Blue Ridge Mountains…
Blue Ridge Parkway in Raytown was named after a mountain range – the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Frontiersmen arriving at what would be, first, Blue Ridge, then later, Ray’s Town, then later, Raytown were taken back by how the wooded ridges they encountered in Missouri reminded them of the high wooded ridges familiar to them in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A mountain range located where their expedition west – to Missouri – began.
William Ray’s contribution to Raytown proved to be long lasting. Although William Ray’s residence in Raytown was nothing of the sort.
William Ray resided in Blue Ridge for only five years. Leaving Blue Ridge in 1853.
The story of William Ray leaving Blue Ridge – as well as the story of William Ray arriving in Blue Ridge – are each interwoven with famous American trails heading west.
William Ray left Blue Ridge for Oregon in 1853. To live near his children. William Ray’s children lived in Oregon.
The beginning point for the Oregon Trail is found in Missouri. In Independence, Missouri.
The beginning point for the Oregon Trail – the trail which took William Ray’s children west, from Missouri to Oregon – is located ten miles from where William Ray had his blacksmith shop. At the corner of today what would be 63rd Street and Raytown Road. In Raytown.
Trenton’s population peaked in the mid-1950’s. While at the same time, socioeconomic challenges were gripping Trenton. And industrial cities like Trenton. Throughout the United States.
Trenton, like countless mid-Century manufacturing hubs, encountered substantial problems resulting from a national movement towards de-industrialization. Akron. Detroit. St. Louis. Cleveland. Trenton. To name but a few. Each, once an industrial powerhouse. Each, sadly brought to their knees by globalization. By de-industrialization. By an economy which moved away from manufacturing.
Problems accompanying de-industrialization can be seen in circumstances which overtook labor. Decimating workers. Shuttering factories.
The platform for this problem…
As northern industrial cities grew, workers migrated from southern states to northern cities which possessed strong manufacturing bases. Workers pursued higher paying jobs found in factories. Workers went north to attain higher wages and good weekly paychecks. They found what they were looking for in northern manufacturing cities.
Yet the economy was changing…
A notable portion of mid-century workers who came to Trenton lacked the skill sets required to retain wages which were sufficient enough to support the purchase of (and the upkeep of) homes as the economy changed. As factory jobs were shed. As the United States de-industrialized.
Lacking the incomes needed to update their homes and pay property taxes, over time, more and more Trenton homes fell into a state of disrepair.
An inability to afford the upkeep of homes, combined with (arguably, by some) a trend towards lax oversight by the City in regard to enforcing housing maintenance standards led to the deterioration of Trenton’s housing stock. Which, when combined with White flight, redlining by lenders and suburbanization, led to a decrease in center city Trenton home values. A problem which was then compounded by a newfound ease in the commute by workers into (and out of) Trenton.
Easy commutes exacerbated center city housing challenges. The ability to commute to and from jobs in cities such as Trenton was made possible by the construction of roads and highways.
One could buy a home in the suburbs. Then drive to their job in Trenton. Leading to a decrease in demand for center city Trenton homes. A perfect elixir for urban blight.
Today upwards of 60% of those who live in Trenton rent. Whereas in Mercer County – as well as in New Jersey overall – the rental rate is between 30% to 40%. A disproportionately high percentage of Trenton residents rent.
The consequence? Lack of homeownership.
In Trenton one will see hundreds of vacant lots, vacant buildings and vacant homes. The result of a hollowing out of Trenton’s industrial base. Redlining. And easy commutes. Each contributing in their own unique way to a deterioration of Trenton’s center city housing stock.
This one time industrial powerhouse certainly owns its share of economic and housing challenges. Yet, with thousands of vacant lots, vacant buildings and vacant homes, this former Mid-Atlantic industrial heavyweight also possesses the ingredients to establish processes to transition now non-performing properties to affordable homes.
The construction of new homes. Older homes renovated. Repurposed center city made available to those who would like call Trenton “home.” As homeowners. Not as renters. While at the same time, increasing the city’s property tax base. Decreasing blight.
The solution?
A comprehensive land bank in Trenton. Or, a commitment made by City officials to the issuance of RFP’s. RFP’s which real estate developers could submit Responses to.
The slogan – “Trenton Makes, the World Takes” – is stamped to Lower Trenton Bridge. Illuminated. Bold. “Trenton Makes, the World Takes” is a testament to Trenton’s past manufacturing glory. “Trenton Makes, the World Takes,” hung on the first bridge ever built across the Delaware River. The bridge was built in 1935. In the City which would, for a very short time, that is, be our nation’s capital.
Trenton was the nation’s capital. From November 1, 1784 to December 24, 1784.
This confident slogan of Trenton’s originated in 1917. Justifiably so. What Trenton was really good at was manufacturing. The City thrived. Trenton’s manufacturing prowess was the foundation for the City’s successes.
Trenton built an economy based on exports. Attributed to the City’s strong manufacturing base. Trenton’s industrial might was coupled to the City’s expertise in the manufacture of finished products such as wire rope and rubber. Trenton became a booming Mid-Atlantic industrial hub.
Wrought iron beams. The very same beams used to build the dome in the U.S. Capital at the east end of the National Mall. Those were manufactured in Trenton.
Wire rope. The very same wire rope used to build the Brooklyn Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Wheeling Bridge (the bridge which connects West Virginia to Ohio). That bridge-building wire rope came from Trenton.
Mechanicals used in San Francisco’s first streetcars? Manufactured in Trenton.
The cable, spark plugs and electrical wire used in Charles Lindbergh’s single-engine Spirit of St Louis? Manufactured in Trenton.
The cable used for the Wright Brother first airplane? Manufactured in Trenton.
Prior to Akron, Ohio claiming the “Rubber Capital of the World” title early on in the Twentieth Century, Trenton was the nation’s tire capital.
John A. Roebling established his steel wire empire – The Roebling Steel Company – in Trenton.
In 1849 Roebling set out to build his company alongside the Delaware Canal and the Raritan Canal. John A. Roebling’s company would go on to become a manufacturing stalwart. Becoming Trenton’s largest employer. Built on the 25 acres Roebling purchased in 1848.
Twenty years after John A. Roebling laid the groundwork for Roebling Steel Company, a father and son team placed their signatures upon Trenton’s industrial past.
Alan and Frank Magowan founded the oldest rubber mill in the United States – Trenton Rubber Company. By the late/1800’s, Trenton was a major production center for rubber…while Roebling went on to become the world’s largest manufacturer of wire rope.
Wire rope, shipping, mining, construction, electrical power transmission, cable cars, tramways, aircraft, submarine netting, musical instruments, elevators, logging, oil drilling. At one time, each representing products proudly made in Trenton.
Trenton’s industrial prominence was routed in the City’s ability to harness productivity gains attributed to the canals and the railroads built in Trenton. Trenton’s expansive network of canals and railroads enabled the City to ship finished manufactures off to New York City and Philadelphia.
While Trenton enjoyed its long and storied run as an American manufacturing center, in June of 1974, a Trenton chapter was forever closed.
In June of that year the final 1,400 employees of what had once been the Roebling industrial empire lost their jobs. These final Roebling layoffs coming after numerous failed attempts to revive the Trenton plant. The plant, that time, a subsidiary of Colorado Fuel & Iron.
Both Roebling manufacturing plants closed their doors for good in Trenton in 1974. Marking the formal ending of Roebling’s presence in Trenton. The closing of Roebling…poetic justice in that this end to an era was representative of Trenton’s last days as a manufacturing center.
Cheap foreign goods. Foreign competition. The hollowing out of the City’s property tax base due the demise of manufacturing. Suburbanization. Each contributed in their own unique way to Trenton’s decline. Declining productivity. Bleeding over into a decline in the City’s population. A decade-by-decade descent.
Long before Trenton’s descent, the City’s population steadily increased. Year-by-year. Beginning in the latter part of the 18th Century through the 1950’s. Topping off at just about 128,000 in 1955.
