941 Berkeley Avenue, listed for $229,900.
By Scott Morgan
What do you think when someone mentions Trenton?
Be honest, it’s OK. J. Jay Smith has heard it all before. Actually, he has thought it himself. But that was before he found his own dream house in the western section of the city.
Some years ago, Smith, a Realtor at Weidel Realty in Pennington, lived in a townhouse in Lawrenceville. But he’d always wanted to have what he calls “a large, grand home.” He couldn’t afford one in Princeton or Hopewell and didn’t know what to do about his dream until a friend from Trenton invited him over.
“I was amazed,” he says. And soon enough, Smith found his large, grand home in Cadwalader Heights, right across the street from the entrance to Cadwalader Park.
He also found his ideal neighborhood; one of professionals drawn to the architecture and grandeur of Trenton’s historic homes. An active civic association and involved neighbors hold him to the neighborhood, and the longer he lives there, the more he sees families and people like himself discovering what far too many others dismiss based on their perceptions of the capital city.
That’s until they change their minds, of course, once they get a look at the size of the houses and the beautiful grounds on which they sit.
Smith has been selling real estate for about 20 years now and concentrates on his home turf, in the western end of Trenton. More and more, he says, buyers looking for that combination of grand architecture, affordability, and an active, involved neighborhood are becoming his neighbors.
“People want to know their neighbors,” he says. “This is a great place to live. There’s minimal crime where the large house are in the western section.”
Most buyers, he says, are drawn, as he was, to the grand architecture and the solid, old-school construction. It’s not uncommon for homes in neighborhoods like Glen Afton or the Island to feature stone exteriors, wrap-around porches, stained glass, iron radiators, fireplaces, and hardwood floors. All of which are original, by the way.
But, also like him, most folks stay because they want a community, not just a house, and they find the neighborhood to be full of people like themselves.
If there’s a trend, Smith says, it’s that younger professional families are moving in these days. These families, he says, trade the high price of a Princeton home for an affordable grand home and use the difference by sending their children to private school.
“Most people here are so friendly and so social,” he says. “That’s a big part of the neighborhood.”
Contact: (609) 737-1500 x2025, cell: (609) 468-0154. jjaysmith.com.
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