Mill Hill Historic District

About this property

Mill Hill is a historic neighborhood located within the city of Trenton in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is considered to be part of Downtown Trenton. The Mill Hill Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The name Mill Hill refers to central New Jersey's first industrial site, a mill, erected in 1679, at the southeast corner of the present Broad Street crossing of the Assunpink Creek. Mill Hill and its wooden grist mill were among the holdings of the first settler in the vicinity of Trenton, Mahlon Stacy, a Quaker who arrived in North America in 1678. The mill was destroyed in a flood. During the First Battle of Trenton, the last Hessian defense holdouts surrendered in what is now Mill Hill Park. Mill Hill became famous in the late 18th century for being the site of the Second Battle of Trenton, a battle many historians consider the turning point in the American Revolutionary War. On January 1, 1777, Washington met with his generals at the Douglass House, which later served as his headquarters for the Battle of Princeton. The battle took place on January 2, 1777, in what is now Mill Hill Park. Every year, this battle is re-enacted during Patriots Week in Trenton. The name Mill Hill was applied to the area at least as early as 1821, with Market, Livingston, and parts of Jackson Streets having been laid out. During this time it was not yet part of the City of Trenton. Mill Hill remained relatively undeveloped during the first decades of the 19th century. In 1840, the entire area was incorporated as South Trenton and then into the City of Trenton in 1851. Mill Hill grew rapidly during the second half of the 19th century as Trenton grew into an industrial center, with some major manufacturers opening near the neighborhood such as the Roebling steelworks. By 1849, the original Stacy grist mill had been rebuilt as a paper mill. In 1849, a stone bridge was completed, connecting Mercer Street with Montgomery Street, which later changed into ornamental cast-iron railings in 1873. In the 1850s, sidewalks were required on Jackson, Mercer, and Livingston Streets, later being laid out with brick pavement in the 1890s. The Mercer Street Friends Center, a Quaker meeting house at 151 Mercer Street, was completed in 1858. In 1888, a Pratt truss bridge opened, connecting Jackson Street to the other side of the Assunpink Creek. Between 1854-1895, the neighborhood's household count grew from 128 to 181, although it had reached a peak of 267 in 1865. Mill Hill's largely residential character was built primarily as two to three-story, three bay wide brick row homes, using various architectural styles such as Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, and Eastlake. Around this time, Mill Hill was a middle class neighborhood populated predominately of small tradesmen, skilled industrial workers, and a few professionals. Asides from the Friends Meeting House, most of the buildings on Mercer Street were built between the 1870s-1890s. Many prominent local figures lived in the neighborhood during the mid-late 19th century.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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