14. Happy Fourth of July!!!

       Many thanks to Carla Olszewski Cook who brought us this terrific photograph of the Fourth of July, 1945, taken in the Chambersburg section of Trenton. Elizabeth and Nancy Morzillo and their friends show off their babydoll carriages decorated with red, white, and blue crepe paper for the holiday. They’re gathered in front of the old Liberty Theater building on Cummings Avenue and West Street. The theater operated briefly as one of Trenton’s early “moving picture” venues in the early 1900s (listed in Trenton’s 1917 City Directory.) The structure, which still stands is used today as a warehouse (by Landolfi’s?) on Cummings Avenue.

[UPDATE: Nancy Morzillo Paulus, Carla's aunt, shares her memories of this location:

"When we lived at 325 Cummings Ave. (approx. 1939--1949), our home faced the side of the then-abandoned large building which previously had been "The Old Liberty," a theatre.   I think it is still there used as a warehouse for Italian frozen foods? This triangularly-shaped piece of real estate divides West Street from Cummings Ave., with – what in a child's eye – was fronted with a large side-walked area that was great for roller skating, bicycling and parades, as you see in the picture on the fourth of July........it was a fun spot.......

"I loved climbing up the boarded windows and looking at the cobwebbed interior of abandoned stage, seats and old draperies. Outside rear was the high-fenced forgotten parking lot. I have no idea of its life, its placement just seems odd, there on the border of Chambersburg, a then mostly residential neighborhood. Maybe some Italian city planner envisioned the spot as a little city/suburbia town with Hamilton Township so close by at Liberty St. and Chambers St...(there's that name Liberty, so maybe it was on the planning board......cruise by and check out its existence.....now I'm curious. Love, Aunt Nancy  Have fun.."

 

     
       This charming photo of a family gathering on the Fourth of July, 1924, comes from the collection of the Historical Society of Princeton, celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year! This image, and many others from the HSP can also be found on their FaceBook page. Remember to "like" them!

       And, finally, thanks once again to our friend Tom Glover who compiled and posted these Trenton articles and ads from July 3, 4, and 5, 1904 for this fun fireworks "blow by blow." Though we don't see free firecrackers given away with our coffee purchases anymore, the cautionary tales on July 4 and 5 continue to resonate today. Hope everyone in the Capitol County of Mercer and beyond had a safe and happy 4th!

3. Fannie Benjamin Johnston and Drumthwacket

       The lush gardens of the “Moses Taylor Pyne house”, as Drumthwacket (NJ’s Governor’s mansion in Princeton, NJ) was then called, were a featured subject for Frances (Fannie) Benjamin Johnston in the early 1900s. Johnston, one of the first professional woman photographer and photojournalist in the US, established a reputation for portraiture among the affluent and influential of Washington, DC high society in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. At the turn of the 19^th century, Johnston became engaged with the “City Beautiful”/“Garden Beautiful” movements. These movements were, in large part, a reaction to the rapid industrialization and crowded urbanization of the American landscape that came with the affluence of the Gilded Age.

 

       Originally hired to document the new “row house” lots and growing number of formal gardens on estates as new design models, Johnston became a passionate advocate in the movement to beautify America. These images of Drumthwacket (taken around 1906) were among the hand-colored slides she featured in her talk “Our American Gardens,” which was given to groups throughout the nation.



       Moses Taylor Pyne, an industrialist and banker, purchased Drumthwacket from the widow of Charles Smith Olden, the estate’s original owner, in 1893. Money was no object for this successful industrialist. He and his wife Margaretta Stockton Pyne (of the Morven Stocktons) added hundreds of acres to the existing estate, bringing in noted landscape architect Daniel Webster Langton (NJ native and a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects) to create the formal Italian gardens that visitors to Drumthwacket may enjoy to this day.

For insight on how hand colored glass slides like Johnston’s were made, see this article by John Tennant in an 1899 issue of The Photo Miniature