Trenton Mayor Eric E. Jackson will break ground on renovations to Douglass House on E. Front and Montgomery Streets in Mill Hill Park on Monday at 12:30 p.m.
The Douglass House is one of the city’s oldest structures. General George Washington and his war council made pivotal decisions at house during the American Revolution, specifically the Battle of Assunpink on Jan. 2, 1777. This battle is also known as the Second Battle of Trenton, an American victory.
“Trenton is a place of deep history, culture and industrial innovation,” Jackson said. “Our great city has had a profound impact on the shaping of the American experience, and Douglass House is an essential part of that history.”
Funded by a portion of a $534,000 grant from the New Jersey Historic Preservation Trust Fund that the city matched dollar-for-dollar, the Douglass House interior will be restored—floors, plaster, woodwork, utilities.
The project will also involve the installation of accessible restrooms for Mill Hill Park visitors in the house’s lower level, along with an accessible path and ramp to the house.
A key renovation focus will be to create signs that educate visitors on the history of the site: One at the house itself and three throughout the park that detail the role of Douglass House in influencing the American experience. One interpretive sign will be unveiled at the groundbreaking.
Douglass House was built in 1760 and purchased by Alexander Douglass Quartermaster in 1769. The property was later moved three times: First, from its original location at 191 S. Broad Street, to 478 Centre Street in 1876; to Stacy Park in 1926; then to its final location in Mill Hill Park in 1972. Douglass House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
