Photo courtesy of the Island neighborhood
Photo courtesy of the Cadwalader Heights Civic Association.
Three Trenton neighborhoods will be showing off with garden and house tours this month.
Mill Hill
Now in its 22nd year, the Mill Hill Garden Tour features examples of urban and small space gardening.
The tour is set to take place Saturday, June 8, from noon to 5 p.m., rain or shine. More than 20 gardens and public spaces will be open. The theme of this year’s tour is Sustainability and Urban Farming.
Tourgoers will also have the opportunity to patronize a traditional lemonade stand manned by neighborhood children and to buy homemade ice cream to benefit Mill Hill Park.
The Mill Hill Historic District is on the local, state and national registries. The brick sidewalks, gas lights and townhomes give this Victorian era neighborhood its historic charm.
The Garden Tour is sponsored by the Old Mill Hill Society and proceeds from the tour help fund the Mill Hill Neighborhood Historic Preservation Grant Program, which helps residents make historically appropriate repairs to the exterior of their homes. Since 2007, the Old Mill Hill Society has distributed more than $23,000 in historic preservation grants.
The tour starts at Artworks, 19 Everett Alley at South Stockton Street, where there is abundant parking. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased on the Society’s webpage, trentonmillhill.org or at various locations around Mercer County. See the Web page for advance ticket locations. For more information, visit the website, send an email to info@trentonmillhill.org or call (609) 815-1359.
Cadwalader Heights
This year’s Cadwalader Heights house tour will be held on Saturday, June 15, from 12-5 p.m.
The theme of the tour is A Great Day in Trenton and will feature 11 homes, several gardens, plein air artists, chats with a beekeeper and master gardeners. There will be dessert tastings from several local businesses and there is ample on street parking.
Afterward, tourgoers will be encouraged to have dinner at one of the city’s restaurants and visit Art All Night at the Roebling Complex, thus completing that “Great Day in Trenton.”
In the late 1800s, Frederick Law Olmsted, in his time the country’s preeminent landscape architect, designed Trenton’s Cadwalader Park and the adjoining neighborhood. Cadwalader Heights is the only residential community Olmsted designed in New Jersey.
The houses range in size from cottage to castle, and in style from colonial revival to Tudor revival. Meant to make up “a most exclusive residential” community and populated by “the elite (and) best people” in the capital city, the leafy enclave with curving roads, “giant trees and a healthful atmosphere,” did indeed, become home to the most prominent captains of Trenton’s industry, government, education and fraternal organizations.
One hundred years later, the houses still stand as one of Trenton’s premier neighborhoods. Newer homeowners as well as those who have lived there for 20 or 30 years continue to carefully restore and maintain their homes.
Tickets are available in advance for $20 online via PayPal or may be bought the day of for $25. A percentage of the proceeds from the tour will benefit the Mercer Street Friends.
The tour starts at Cadwalader-Asbury Methodist Church, 900 Stuyvesant Avenue. For information, directions or tickets go to: dathil.com/cadwalader/HouseTour2013_Homes.html or email questions to info@cadwaladerheights.com.
The Island Garden Tour
The Island is a riverfront neighborhood in Trenton that truly was an island at one time. The neighborhood was surrounded by the Delaware River on one side and by the Trenton Water Power, a canal, on the other side. The Water Power was filled in during the middle of the last century and Route 29 built in its place. The name “The Island” persists for this little gem of a neighborhood where there are no palm trees, but there are many beautiful gardens and scenic views of the Delaware.
This is the second annual Island Garden Tour. Organizers report that last year’s event was so well attended and the feedback so strong that the neighborhood association decided to make it an annual event.
Visitors are invited to stroll through the neighborhood checking out the inviting landscapes and interesting hardscapes. Additional information on the history of “The Island” is included in a presentation of old maps and photos at the garden tour.
The tour will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 22, rain or shine. Tickets are $10 and available day of the tour at 308 Columbia Ave.
If you go
Advance tickets for the Cadwalader Heights House Tour can be purchased online at dathil.com/cadwalader.
Advance tickets for the Mill Hill Garden Tour may be purchased at the following locations:
TRENTON
Artifacts Gallery. 1025 S. Broad St. (609) 599-9081.
Classics Used and Rare Books. 117 S. Warren St. (609) 394-8400.
Mill Hill Saloon. 300 S. Broad St. (609) 394-7222.
Trenton Social. 449 S. Broad St. (609) 989-7777.
BORDENTOWN
Shoppe 202. 202 Farnsworth Ave. (609) 298-1424.
LAWRENCE
Fedora Cafe. 2633 Main St. (609) 895-0844.
PRINCETON
infini-T Cafe & Spice Souk. 4 Hulfish St. (609) 454-3959.
Kale’s Nursery. 133 Carter Road. (609) 921-9248.
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