Trenton, New Jersey

New Jersey State Museum -- © Brian Rose

Last week I took the train down to Trenton, capital of New Jersey, a once vibrant industrial city on the Delaware River. I'd been to the city a few times--I photographed the New Jersey Statehouse some years back, and I photographed a new minor league baseball stadium--even got to take pictures during a game, which was great fun. This time I was there to scout the New Jersey State Museum, a 60s modern building adjacent to the Statehouse complex.

Walking from the train station through a largely desolate downtown on a rainy afternoon I was momentarily shocked. I guess I've spent too much time in New York and Amsterdam, both incredibly vital places.


State Street, Trenton, mid-afternoon -- © Brian Rose

Traffic was light in downtown Trenton, and several kids on banana bikes weaved down State Street oblivious to traffic, forcing cars to screech to a halt as the bikes swerved into their paths. A trickle of shoppers moved desultorily by pawn shops, sneaker and t-shirt outlets, fast food restaurants, and jewelry store windows filled with gold chains. These shops, mostly occupying small buildings cowered alongside hulking stone civic structures and office monoliths housing government bureaucrats. On the blocks beyond, were acres of parking lots and scattered commercial and residential structures, some in ruins.


Dowtown Trenton -- © Brian Rose


Dowtown Trenton -- © Brian Rose

Further down State Street I reached the Statehouse and other public buildings including my destination, the recently renovated museum. A row of handsome townhouses stood opposite. Tall trees lined the street. This being August, and the legislature out of session, the government quarter was empty. And all this marble and brick emptiness stood just a few blocks from the largely empty downtown.


Thomas Edison College/Kelsey Building-- © Brian Rose
Designed by Cass Gilbert, architect of the Woolworth Building
in Manhattan. One of many such gems sprinkled about the city.


Statehouse Annex -- © Brian Rose

There are still 80,000 people living in Trenton, and I do not mean to insult those who live there by choice or by circumstance. Undoubtedly, there are efforts being made to bolster existing neighborhoods and chart a course forward for the city as a whole. I would love to be taken around the city by someone who knows the place from within. But as a traveler passing through, I left feeling saddened, confused, wondering how things could be allowed to decline so far.

Just up the road, of course, is Princeton with its gleaming corporate office parks, research institutions, and the university, one of the greatest in the world. The dissonance between these two worlds is troubling--and not an isolated phenomenon in a society where money flows freely from one favored place to another, and even major cities are left behind, their architectural and human assets essentially abandoned.