Groveville Cotton Mills ~ 1896

This is a photo of the Groveville Cotton Mill Raceway. A race or raceway is usually a canal shaped stream or the current of a stream that is diverted to turn a wheel or in some way it's power is converted to energy. In this case the power of the Crosswicks Creek was diverted through a Raceway, by means of a Lock on the creek. This diverted enough water to power the turbine wheels that powered the mill.

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This photo was taken from the Raceway Bridge. This bridge was located parallel with the existing bridge and was located just about where the bend in Main Street is now. As I mentioned before, if you walk behind the "Welcome To Hamilton" sign, especially when the trees are bare, you can still see the depression left in the ground from the raceway.

Groveville Community News ~ 1936

Tom Glover is always telling me to feel free to borrow from his site, but I never do. From time to time I go back and read his old postings, in fact I even go back and read my own old postings. This is one I could just not pass up borrowing, it has to many old familiar names. Thanks, Tom.

Groveville Fire Company Bowling Team ~ 1961

Left to right Bill Wolinsky, Phil Kaiser, Larry Plummer, Colin Stackhouse, & Len Bolz.

This was one of Groveville Fire Company’s teams from 1961, Wow that was a long time ago, where did the time go.

Every Friday night the Mercer County Fireman’s Bowling League bowled at the White Horse Bowling Academy. Almost every fire company in Mercer County sponsored at least one or two teams of bowlers, Groveville had two.

I remember Crosswicks Fire Company only needed one team, because they had Fred Hendrickson. He threw the ball so hard the pins did not need to be hit; they just got out of the way.

We had more fun, just getting together with people with the same interest. As bowlers go I was considered poor and still am today, but who cared, we had fun.

It was not only a time for the firemen to get together, but wives and girlfriends would show up and it was a chance for everyone to go out after bowling, for most of us it was a chance for a few drinks and pizza on a Friday night.

At the end of the season there was always an awards banquet, another chance to get together.

I believe these chances to get together for fun gave us a chance to get to know other fireman from all over Mercer County and this helped us work together better in an emergency.

It was amazing how we could get together, laugh, have fun and enjoy each other’s company, yet get very serious if there were an emergency and work so hard together, I learned so much about life and people being in the fire company.

One of the oldest homes in Groveville

Now ~ January, 2008

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Then ~ Circa 1883

Said to be one of the oldest houses in Groveville

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Mr. and Mrs. Reiter

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This house is on Main Street at the intersection of Church Street, it has been said that this is one of the oldest houses in Groveville. This photo was taken about 1883. The adults in the photo and the small photo are Mr. and Mrs. Reiter. Mr. Reiter was a shoemaker in Groveville. The small child he is holding is Margaret Reiter, she married Walter Dwier and they had a daughter Mary Dwier, She married Al Wright and they had two children Wayne and Marilyn.
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When Al Wright passed away, and later Mary passed away the house was sold out of the family. There were rumors around Groveville that the house was to be torn down, mainly because of the foundation and its age, it was not. I know Marilyn reads this and I hope she will correct me if I am wrong.

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I know the long time Groveville People find it hard to believe that rumors still spread in Groveville, since the Fire Company, Post Office, "Jo" Hepburn's Store, and General Store have all left town, but the network is still intact. Now they use "Cell Phones", progress, a wonderful thing.

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The house looks as good as it ever did, the new owners have added a new coat of paint, other than that the house looks the same on the exterior as it did as I grew up in Groveville. I don't know when the front porch was inclosed, but it's been that way as long as I can remember.

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One story that relates to this home. In my house there was a glass bowl, it was cut glass, kind of "Boat" shaped, about 10" long, 6" wide and maybe 3" deep. All year long this bowl remained in the China Cabinet, a place as a child I was not allowed to venture. Then came Thanksgiving Dinner, this and Christmas Dinner were the only time this bowl was allowed out of the China Cabinet, it was placed on the table and each year it held the same thing, Carrot and Celery sticks, Olives, and small Pickles, this was our relish tray. As I grew older and became the preparer of these holiday feasts I carried on the tradition, even getting more adventuress adding Artichoke Hearts. One holiday my daughter, Kati, was putting away this bowl, after diner, the bowl slipped out of her hand and broke, she was heart broken, so was I but I did not let it show. She said "But Dad, you told me that bowl had been in the family, since you were a kid". True, but no reason to be upset. I don't remember the China Cabinet without that bowl.

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Several years later, when Wayne and Marilyn were selling the contents of their parents house, it was at our annual June Street Sale, I wandered in with Wayne to look around. On the table were assorted glassware, kitchen items, and dishes. In the center of the table was "The bowl", the exact bowl Kati had broken. Wayne told me to take it, just take it, but I bought it, it was only a few dollars, took it home and placed it on the table, when Kati saw it she could not believe it "It's the bowl". The tradition lives on.

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I related this story to other long time Groveville residents one Sunday after church. What were the chances that Al and Mary Wright would have the exact same bowl as my parents. Ruth McElmoyl Knight said "It was most likely Borden Cut Glass" everybody in Groveville owned some of that. I never thought of that, Borden Cut Glass was manufactured right in Groveville, where else, in the old Borden Mincemeat Factory, on Church Street.

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It seems if you look hard enough there was always a tie of some type between families in Groveville, usually if you look back far enough they are related.

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Al and Mary Wright were some of the Groveville people that just seemed like they would be a part of Groveville forever, as were Mary's parents, Walt and Maggie Dwier. All were well liked in the community, Mary was very active in the church and is still spoken fondly of today, and Al, he was just well liked.

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As a child the house was always referred to as "Maggie Dwier's House" and in later years it was always referred to as "Mary Wright's House", guess some day that will change, but not to me.

Yardville View, 1959

Then ~ 1959

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Now ~ 2008

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This was posted before, but since I got "creative" and added the "Now ~ 2008" photo, I moved it to the top again, just showing off.

This view of Yardville was taken about 1959. Once I look at these photos, the memories seem to "Kick"in, all good ones.

The small white “L” shaped building with the black roof, in the lower right corner is “Tony Rossi’s, Take it Easy Bar”. Our big treat, as young teenagers, if we had more money than we could spend in Groveville, was get a few of us together and walk to “Take It Easy”, knock on the back door (we were not old enough to go to the front) and Jean Rossi would come to the door. We would order “Meat Ball Sandwiches”. These were no ordinary meatball sandwiches, the meatballs were hand made by Mrs. Rossi and the sauce was from scratch. They were made on thick slices of Italian Bread and wrapped with white paper that seemed like Butcher Paper. If you ordered these in the bar they were served on a plate covered with sauce and served with a knife and fork.

Back then you could not buy cans or bottles of beer after 10:00 pm, so they had those quart cardboard drink containers (pre-Styrofoam) and they were allowed to sell draft beer in these for “Take out” after 10:00 pm, so we would buy quarts of draught Birch Beer, great birch beer, to go with our Meatball sandwiches and walk to the Church Street over pass of Route 130 and eat our sandwiches and Birch Beer.

The row of homes across from Take It Easy is Martins Lane and the area at the end was then Best Block Company, now Clayton Block, They were manufactures of Cinder Blocks, at the time of this photo.

In the large triangle shaped wooded area in the center you can see a factory; this was the Chandler-Palruba Company, this company made Oil Cloth Floor Covering, The factory was torn down years ago and the houses have since been removed and this entire triangular area is now home to the Yardville Acme Market, Roma Bank and an office building

The large barren area in the center left is the Yardville Concrete Company. This is now know as Yardville Supply, and where the barren area meets Church Street is where Yardville Supply’s Ace Hardware is now.

In the center – left are the coal elevators of T.B. Anderson and Martin Brothers, next to the Yardville train station.

In the top left center, where the railroad tracks intersect with the Yardville – Hamilton Square Road there is another large white area and this is where the GLF Fertilizer plant was located. GLF stood for The Cooperative Grange League Federation Exchange, a farmers Cooperative. All that is now known as Agway.

Above GLF is a large house with big trees around it that was the home of Tim Bowers. Tim had a large dairy farm and was everybody’s “Milkman” for years. This house is now the office of Attorney Richard Kelly. I have a Milk Bottle from the Bower’s Dairy, some day I’ll take a photo of it and post it. The area left to the Hedge Row and south towards the railroad tracks was his pasture land.

The large clear area in the upper left, other side of the Hedge Row was the Sunnybrae Golf Course, some of the round Sand Traps are visible, but it appears this was about the time that they were starting to develop the area into “Sunnybrae Village”

The entire upper portion of this photo is now covered completely with homes.

I remember as a kid driving to Hamilton Square, once you passed Tim Bowers house it was a long dark ride, no streetlights, no Interstate 195, no traffic lights and the only houses were the Simpkins Farm, the Selmon Farm on the corner of Kuser Road, and the farm house between the small creek and Klockner road and there was a farm house that sat off the road across from where Reynolds Middle School is now, its still there, but its built up around it.

Where the Briarwood Stores are and the Briarwood Condos are now was a large wooded swamp, very, very close to the road, separated by those black and white posts with two cables running through them, lot of protection there.

Driving by on a summer night, with my parents, with the car windows open (no A/C) the sound of the “Peepers” was so loud and so scary on that dark, unlit road.

I think I am still having “issues” with that swamp.

Ann, Charlie, Emma and "Blackie"

This is a Photo of Ann Reynolds, Charlie Donnell, Emma Reynolds, and of course "Blackie" Charlie's Dog. This photo was taken in Charlie's back yard on Church Street, the house next to the cemetery drive, Ann and Emma lived two doors away, in fact theirs is the house in the background. I am not sure of the exact date, but it was in the early 1950's. As in the past someone will see this and send me the correct date.

Trenton Speedway - April 21, 1968

This is a very interesting article, I have had this brochure for some time and have always wanted to post it for others to see and appreciate, but the bottom line is it does not fit with my theme and takes up too much valuable "Groveville" information space.

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I created a "Trenton Speedway" blog expressly for this article. To view this brochure and any other articles I should find on The The Trenton Speedway, please click on the link to that blog in the right column.

Thanks, Gary

The Working Men's Club of Groveville

This article appeared in the “Daily State Gazette” April, 11, 1881. One item mentioned here is that the children were attending night school. From what I have read, I believe that is so they are able to work in the Cotton Mill during the day. Good luck getting that to work today. Mr James S. Woodward was the owner of the Groveville Cotton Mill.

One gentleman mentioned in this article is Mr. Clark Hutchinson, of Yardville. Mr. Hutchinson lived on what is now Route 156. His home is the large house owned by the Catholic Diocese, formerly St. Elisabeth’s Home.

A Mr. S. Hutchinson owned the large home next door, somewhat on the corner of Route 156 and South Broad Street, both across from the old Yardville Elementary School and The Mechanics Hall.

The Hutchinson family owned and operated the Store and Post Office in the store like building on the corner of Route 156 and Church Street.

They also operated the Grist and Saw Mills at Groveville Mill Pond on Church Street and along with Amos Hutchinson Cole, who was engaged in the Coal, wood, lime, cement and farming tool business, operated a shipping dock at the junction of The Crosswicks Creek and The Doctors Creek where they shipped Lime and Lumber to Philadelphia, via the Crosswicks Creek.