Trenton Housing Authority officials have launched a new effort to highlight the Revolutionary War history of the city’s Battle Monument neighborhood.
The Trenton Housing Authority signed an agreement in February with the National Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association to recognize Trenton as a “Victory Town” along the historic route taken by American and French troops marching toward victory at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.
The national nonprofit organization promotes the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail, a roughly 700-mile route that passes through about 200 municipalities from New England to Virginia.
Under the partnership, “Victory Town” branding and signage will be installed along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Brunswick Avenue in Trenton. Plans also call for a cast aluminum historic marker recognizing the area’s role in the Revolutionary War.
The organizations have also signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue grant funding for a monument honoring soldiers of color who marched through the neighborhood during the campaign that led to the decisive victory at Yorktown.
“Trentonians should be deeply proud of the fact that our city played such a key role in the American Revolution, not only at the Battles of Trenton in 1776 and 1777, but also on the march to victory in 1781,” said Clifford Godfrey, executive director of the Trenton Housing Authority.
“Our aim with this project is to increase awareness of the fact that many of the soldiers in the Continental Army were Black and Indigenous, including many members of the famous Rhode Island Regiment who we aim to honor with a monument,” Godfrey said.
The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association has been working with the Seward Johnson Atelier in Hamilton to design the monument honoring the Rhode Island Regiment. The sculpture will also recognize local reenactors who have portrayed Black and Brown Revolutionary War soldiers for more than two decades.
Two of the three soldiers depicted in the monument will be modeled after local men involved in the reenactment group, including North Ward resident Algernon Ward, who died in March 2025 after battling cancer, and Kevin Chapman, who continues to participate in the reenactments.
This month, the Trenton Housing Authority and W3R-US applied for a grant from the Capital City Redevelopment Corporation to help fund the fabrication and installation of the monument.
“We think it is vitally important that all Americans see their faces in the founding story of our nation,” said Lawrence Abell, president of W3R-US.
“The fact is, a significant percentage of George Washington’s Continental Army were soldiers of color, and they marched through communities like Trenton that are very diverse today,” Abell said. “Trenton’s historic reenactor community has been leaders in telling these important stories.”
Officials plan to install a Victory Town historic marker at Trenton’s “Five Points,” the intersection of North Broad Street, Warren Street, Brunswick Avenue, Pennington Avenue and Princeton Avenue, in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration on July 4.
If grant funding and fundraising efforts are successful, officials estimate the monument could take about two years to complete.
“The Trenton Housing Authority is committed to erecting this monument as part of our strategic Choice Neighborhoods Transformation plan, which calls for emphasizing our community’s history and instilling pride among our residents,” Godfrey said.
The Trenton Housing Authority is a public agency chartered by the city and the State of New Jersey, with partial funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The authority is governed by a seven-member board of commissioners and works to provide affordable housing while pursuing redevelopment and community revitalization projects throughout Trenton.
The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association is a nonprofit organization that supports the National Park Service trail commemorating the 1781–1782 march of French and Continental forces to the Siege of Yorktown, a campaign that helped secure American independence.
A close-up of the Revolutionary War monument proposed for two vacant lots near the Trenton Battle Monument, at the gateway to the Trenton Housing Authority’s Choice Neighborhood project.,
