History of the Station

The following information is from Pennington Profile: A Capsule of State and Nation by Margaret J. O’Connell; Hopewell: A Historical Geography by Richard W. Hunter & Richard L. Porter; Hopewell Valley Heritage by Alice Blackwell Lewis & Hopewell Valley Historical Society.

Welcome to the Station at Pennington. This charming cluster of three inhabited courtyards is adjacent to the nationally historic Train Station Building. The community was conceived by The Hillier Group, founded by Robert Hillier in 1966 and now the third largest architectural firm in the country, and Erwin Harbat, the local owner of the 3.882 acres bounded by North Main Street, West Franklin Avenue, the old Conrail Railroad tracks and AGrain, a commercial grain merchandising, equipment sale and fuel oil depot.

The Station at Pennington is situated in Pennington Borough, Hopewell Township, Mercer County, New Jersey. This location once contained small farm plots situated where forest fires had cleared and fertilized the earth with ash. These plots were tended by the Lenape Indian women, who grew corn and beans during the summer months while their men were away fishing. Thus, the early Dutch and Swedish explorers found well worn paths already established from the Delaware River to Trenton and beyond. However, by 1664 the English, ruled by Charles II, gained control of the area to be called New Jersey and colonists soon followed. In 1708 a small crossroads settlement named Queenstown in honor of Queen Anne, monarch of England from 1702 until 1714, developed in our area, but by 1725 it was called Pennytown, a name that had evolved into Pennington by the 1740’s.

The area was a rural community of necessity. Colonists had to grow the part of their food not provided by the forests. They also needed supplies, schools and churches; these requirements were soon met by small villages such as Pennington in the midst of more and more cleared land. Anyone interested in the earlier times of our town, including its part in the Revolutionary War would do well to read Pennington Profile by Margaret O’Connell, which is available in the Pennington Library. Skipping ahead to 1876, when our particular interest, the Railroad Station, was built to accommodate the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad, we find a small, pleasant and prosperous village about to experience exposure to the larger cities of Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere. The Station, designed in the 2nd Empire style with typical Victorian exuberance, was probably constructed (as was its twin in Hopewell Borough) by Daniel A.Clarkson, a well-known engineer responsible for several railroad stations and bridges in the Trenton-Philadelphia area.

Clarkson arrived in Pennington in 1870 with a contract to build an earlier local railroad and remained to become an ardent town supporter and civic leader. In 1886 he invested in the first water company and became its president. In 1891 he instigated the first Pennington Fire Company and served it as a trustee. A year earlier in 1890 he had supported the incorporation of the borough, as it split from Hopewell Township, and was elected President of the first Board of Commissioners, a position comparable to mayor of the borough. Their first action was to establish a tax of one dollar per thousand to provide street lamps and other improvements. Residents of our community may find their initial ordinances of interest. These included a $200 fine for dumping refuse in the Borough and prohibited the firing of cannon, guns or pistols; making bonfires; breaking lamps, windows or doors; destroying trees, shrubs or plants; defacing buildings, porches or fences or writing obscene or offensive language on any premise or tree. The ordinances prevented animals from running at large and forbade disorderly or immoral conduct. These laws, made over a hundred years ago, seem almost modern and in keeping with the master deed regulations of our own association.

Service from the Pennington Station began on May 20, 1876 with a free round trip to Philadelphia to view the Centennial Exposition, the fair which celebrated America’s birth by depicting one hundred years of growth in agriculture and industry. Many eagerly availed themselves of the trip powered at that time by a steam locomotive. Pennington’s sudden new connection to the outside world became the boost that over time would provide a steady growth in population, new businesses, educational institutions and small factories. In 1879 the Delaware & Bound Brook Railroad was leased for 999 years by the extremely successful Reading Company, which was in its heyday a multifaceted industrial giant. Its pioneering 94 mile railroad line grew to service eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, transporting primarily anthracite coal. It developed shops for locomotive building and repair and made constant advances in railroad technology making it a leader in the industry for over a hundred years. With its lines reaching north, south, east and west, it served the heart of our industrial areas and fueled the advances that led the United States to economic leadership. By the 1870’s it had become the largest corporation in the world.

The Reading Railroad instigated service from Philadelphia to New York which proved very successful and the Pennington Railroad Station saw more and more activity. The station was the natural hub for the expanding community. In 1889 Green Street was constructed to connect to the Pennington Seminary, which received its mail, its instructors and its visitors via the railroad. Cattle were transported for local meat markets. Boxes, trunks and bags were received for pickup by Pennington owners. Farmers delivered cans of milk in time for the 6:00 a.m. train. The telegraph ticker clicked incessantly with messages of every kind. A horse-drawn hack delivered passengers to and from the station. The fare was twenty-five cents. By 1904 no less than fifty-three trains stopped in Pennington. The area around the station had been beautifully landscaped. Its gardens included a splashing fountain and Reading personnel arrived regularly by train to care for the grounds. An agent who lived on the second floor and three clerks manned the station around the clock. In addition to the freight and regular passenger cars, trains often carried luxury accommodations: pullman cars for sleeping and dining cars, where white-jacked waiters served meals at tables set with fine linens, sparkling crystal, expensive china and silver place settings. There were also the news-worthy moments, such as when five masked men tied up the Station Master and blew a hole in the safe to retrieve the cash and, in 1912, when former President Theodore Roosevelt, on his “Bull Moose” campaign to defeat Woodrow Wilson, addressed the citizens from the back of the train. In 1897 a spark from a passing train ignited the freight yards just north of the station, and the volunteer firemen managed to save the near-by cattle pens, but they could not extinguish the blazing freight house before it was destroyed. Access to the railroad facility had also encouraged industry and by the turn of the century Pennington housed a sizable factory, a coal and lumber yard and other prosperous operations. The Pennington Foundry and Heater Company, constructed of massive stone in 1899, had its own spur linking it to the railroad. The spur is gone, but the buildings remain as the Straube Center. Reed’s Feed mill was constructed in 1901, north of the station’s freight yards, and remains today as Agrain.

The Pennington Canning Company and The Pennington Creamery built in1902 to the east of the tracks and next to the lumber yard, are still visible on Brookside Avenue. The Pennington Post reported the news of the day. The station and its grounds also provided a social opportunity for the population of the town. It was quite common to take an early evening walk to the station where outdoor benches awaited and passing trains were observed. For many years the Reading Railroad prospered and the Pennington Station remained vibrant, but eventually transportation methods expanded with automobiles, buses, trucks and finally airplanes handling much of the traffic once carried by trains. Rail traffic through our town gradually declined. In 1962 only 12 tickets were sold and in 1964 the Reading abandoned its stop here. Then, without a purpose, the station stood forlorn, quietly awaiting its uncertain future.

For a time it existed as rental property and in1965 Susan Howe obtained space there and opened her Pennington School of Ballet with fifty would-be ballerinas. As the dancers pirouetted, conditions for the railroads worsened and in 1971 the Reading Company sought bankruptcy protection. Eventually, it became one of the six failing railroads organized by the government into the Conrail Corporation. The railroad sold its Pennington property to Erwin Harbat, a local farmer and entrepreneur. Harbat developed the AGrain business and enjoyed living in the station for some time. On December 31, 1974 the Pennington Station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In June of 1984 it was given an outstanding rating as a prime example of the rise and fall of railroad transportation and its importance to small, rural towns in this country. Then in 1986 Harbat joined with The Hillier Group to develop the property. Their concept resulted in twenty-four condominium units: two in the existing Station Building and twenty-two new units, constructed and situated in three courtyards located along a new road leading to the Station House. Today, one of the old tracks is still an important freight conduit for CSX, one of the two entities created when Conrail was divided in 1998.