288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915
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New Jersey Building (Trenton Barrack)

A travertine copy of the old Trenton Barrack of the Revolution, with tall-posted galleries, dormers and green blinds around a hollow square.

New Jersey copied the old Trenton Barrack, a barracks of the Revolution, in 'travertine' and red tile: tall-posted galleries, quaint dormers, green blinds and 'stern, uncompromising gables.' The architects were Hugh Roberts of Jersey City and G. S. Drew of Trenton. The building wrapped around a hollow square where the flag flew. Two extra wings reached north to make a second square facing the bay.

Visitors entered a lobby from the west. On the east was a lounge about a hundred feet long, hung with portraits of Woodrow Wilson and Governor Fielder. There were a Princeton Room and a four-room upstairs suite kept for President Wilson, who never came. A carved Governors' Chair and a table stamped with every state seal stood inside. A relief model of the state, 17 by 29 feet, lay on the lawn outside.

The flag of the Union waved from a staff in the hollow square, and looked as though it thoroughly belonged there.

Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), p. 334

At a glance

  • Total cost about $50,000 including about $10,000 of furnishings; appropriation $120,000 (Todd; Condensed Facts gives $200,000).
  • Dedicated April 1, 1915, with a telegram from President Wilson.
  • Lounge about 100 ft long; relief map of the state 17 x 29 ft on the lawn.

Afterward

Not recorded; presumably auctioned and wrecked.

Where it stood

New Jersey Building (Trenton Barrack) stood at about 37.80576 N, 122.45037 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →

Sources