CHARLES FULKERT'S BROMLEY INN

This rare photo of the Bromley Inn came from a glass slide. I date it circa 1912. I have been searching for historical news items on the founding of the inn. The guest list at Mr. and Mrs. Fulkert's 25th anniversary party lists many local notable Bromley pioneers, including Peter Dolan whose Hamilton Hotel was a favorite watering hole for Bromley residents and also visitors to the New Jersey State Fair. John Harter operated a nursery on Nottingham Way behind today's Hamilton Municipal Building. Daniel Klockner operated a cabbage farm in the area of today's Klockner School.

1910: BROMLEY PLACE

The above plat map shows the layout for Bromley Place as developed by Charles Teunon, who was also the developer of Lakeside Park in Yardville. This is a fascinating graphic. The map does not indicate where the "Entrance To Bromley Manor" was located. However, the directions indicate Greenwood and Johnston Avenue. I took "artistic license" in the engraving above showing the entrance to Bromley Place in 1910. The original ad was black and white. I'm sure you will agree that it is much more attractive when "tweaked" with computer image editing software. It is pure speculation on my part that the view could be looking from Greenwood Avenue toward E. State Street on Johnston Avenue. Remember, the area was newly developed and the buildings we see on the corner of Greenwood and Johnston Avenue today were probably not there in the early years of the settlement. Fascinating!

HENRY N. SMITH'S FASHION STUD FARM

One of the more fascinating historical places in Hamilton along with Charles Fulkert's Bromley Inn is the Fashion Stud Farm, once located in the area of Hamilton in the area of the New Jersey State Fair grounds. Newspaper descriptions of Smith's Fashion Stud Farm indicated that it was a sumptuous facility with a grandstand, a race track and the home of the fabled "Goldsmith Maid," whose tomb is now on the Kuser Farm property. General Grant kept his horse at the Fashion Stud Farm. Unfortunately, the farm was involved in a number of destructive fires over the years of its existance. Back then, there was no Bromley fire company, and fires were fought by Trenton fire companies.

1987: OFFICERS ELECTED

Hamilton Volunteer Fire Company
officers for the year 1987.

1987:THE BROMLEY TAX REVOLT

Even then citizens were up in arms about the high taxes. Those folks would tremble with rage if they saw our tax bills today.
(You will note that the graphic is not quite as clear as those I scan in "grayscale." Grayscale is much cleaner, but large text files can take up huge amounts of space. The graphic above has been scanned using the "Black and White" mode, which is a "bare-bones," non-adjustable graphic, but very small in relation to the size of a grayscale graphic.

1963: HAMILTON VOLUNTEER FIRE CO.

With this graphic, I am beginning a completely new departure from posting HUGE grayscale articles. Thanks to Mr. George Conwell, Director of the Hamilton Township Public Library, a full size tabloid scanner has been added to the arsenal of the Local History Collection. Add to this the fact that the Director has also updated my equipment with an incredible 17 inch Dell laptop, which will be used for my many outreach programs here in Hamilton, and we are well on our way to 21st century technology. It is truly gratifying that our Director has in interest in local history,

(If this graphic were to have been posted in "Grayscale" Jpeg format, it would be a huge 8 megabytes in size, versus the "Black and White" scan above of 970 Kilobytes.)

2009: COME SING WITH ME!

A case of bad planning, along with a lack of publicity will probably result in a dismal turnout for my Wednesday night May 13th musical program at the Kuser Mansion. Unfortunately, the dates available did not coincide with the appearance of my "Sentimental Journey" column in the Times of Trenton. However, the program will go on, and perhaps a visitor or visitors to this website will be interested in participating in our journey back to the years of good music.

Here's the advertising poster for another of my very popular Kuser Mansion music programs. If you have two hours available next Wednesday evening from 6:30 to 8:30, come on over to Kuser Mansion on Newkirk Avenue and Cedar Lane and join those of us who love the music we grew up with. We'll be remembering all those great 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's vocalists that sang the music we loved. Remember Tony Orlando and Dawn?....Barry Manilow?.....Englebert Humperdinck? Perry Como? Bobby Goldsboro? There's music with a melody and understandable lyrics....music for all ages from World War II right up to the recent past, when the music died, vocals turned to spoken words or screams, and instrumentals that puncture the ear drums.