Chambersburg: Trenton’s “Little Italy”
December 2024
By: Tom Frascella
2024 represents the 150th anniversary of the New Jersey Legislative creation of the Trenton community known as “Chambersburg’. The community was organized and came into being by Legislative Act in 1874. It was initially structured as the independent “Borough”. The Borough was carved out of the northern part of Hamilton Township. For those interested in commemorating or examining the early history of the area, I have drafted the following short summary of the highlights of that process.
Part One: The Beginning
The story of “Chambersburg” begins in the early colonial period with the arrival in 1685, at the port of Perth Amboy, of three brothers, John, Robert, and Marion Chambers from Scotland. Marion shortly after his arrival went west and eventually founded the town of Chambersburg, Pa.
John and Robert Chambers settled on colonial farmsteads in what was then, Middlesex County. One of John’s grandsons became a colonial circuit judge serving in Perth Amboy and New York City. Chambers St. in New York City is named after him.
The Chambers family became associated with the Trenton area when one of John’s descendants purchased a farm in what was then Middlesex County, Maidenhead Township, on Brunswick Ave. In 1838 this farm became part of the newly created Mercer County, and eventually a part of the City of Trenton. Today that farm site would be recognized as the property upon which Helene Fuld Hospital in Trenton is located.
Part Two: The Second Chambers Farm, Nottingham Township
Our story regarding the creation of the Borough of Chambersburg begins with a seventh, generation descendant of the family, his name also being “Robert” Chambers. In the early decades of the 19th century, this Robert Chambers was locally recognized as a successful Trenton merchant. In 1830 he purchased a 35 acre farm located in what was then Nottingham Township, Bulington County. The property was located between what was Coleman and Washington streets and bordered on the eastern side of South Broad St. Using modern reference points, the property would correspond to a location about three blocks south of the intersection of Dye and South Broad St. in Trenton.
The late 1830’s and early 1840’s saw, for N.J. political organizational purposes, a substantial municipal reconfiguration and renaming of municipalities in central New Jersey. As I referenced above, the New Jersey Legislature in 1838 created Mercer County, named after Revolutionary War hero General Hugh Mercer. Mercer County was created by taking southern parts of Hunterdon, Somerset, and Middlesex Counties and joining them to part of northern Burlington County. This created a “new” county which was designated as Mercer County, with Trenton, already the State Capitol, serving as County seat. Around this same period 1842, Nottingham Township was renamed Hamilton Township placing the Chambers Farm in the newly named Hamilton Township, Mercer County. Robert Chambers actively farmed the property for twenty-three years while he continued other business ventures. Among his “other” activities Mr. Chambers, was appointed one of Mercer County’s first judges.
The future development of the Chambers farm property in the 19th century was directly related to the early development of the land along the Delaware River to the west of the farm. This area originally known as the Lamberton section of Nottingham Twp in northern Burlington County has an interesting history. The area was the site of several colonial era estates, with some of the original houses still existing. These include the “Trent” house, and the mansion rented by Joseph Bonaparte for his American mistress and family. It is also the area where once stood the “Sartori” mansion, the first American embassy representing the Vatican State to the United States. In 1814 this area was also the location where Mr. Sartori funded the purchase of land for the construction of the First Catholic Church built in New Jersey. After the return of Mr. Sartori to Italy in 1832, the mansion was sold. The mansion subsequently became the home of the first President of the Cooper-Hewitt foundry. In the 1850’s the mansion was converted into the corporate offices of the Cooper-Hewitt company. The Sartori mansion was torn down in the 1970’s as part of the Rt. 29 road construction project.
The Lamberton area development revolved around its commercial value due to river accessibility. As the northern most point for ship navigation on the Delaware the location represented an important transportation resource. At the time roads, bridges and alternative means of transportation were limited in the U.S. In essence, the area began to serve and develop as Trenton’s port.
As the early 1800’s progressed the Lamberton section/south Trenton saw a steady development of Mills, foundries and produce centers all associated with its river access. By Act of the New Jersey Legislature the area was separated from Nottingham Twp., in 1840. The Legislative Act created the independent, Borough of South Trenton. Among the many enterprises which located in the area around this time, was the Cooper-Hewitt foundry established by Peter Cooper and managed by his son and son-in-law. The steady commercial and attendant residential development in the Borough of South Trenton eventually led to the Borough being ‘annexed” to the city of Trenton in 1851.
Peter Cooper, one of the most successful inventors and businessmen of his age owned iron and coal mining interests in northern New Jersey along the Delaware. The raw iron ore, mined in northern New Jersey was transported southward to Easton Pa. where it was refined and then floated by barge to the Trenton foundry for further processing.
It was Peter Cooper who encouraged John A. Roebling in 1848, to locate his wire rope manufacturing factory on property next to the Cooper foundry along the Delaware. The location was beneficial to both companies as the iron cable could be produced at the Cooper-Hewitt foundry and the wire rope weaving, for which Roebling held the patent, could then be manufactured at the Roebling factory.
Part Three: Chambers Village
The early success of the Roebling enterprise along the Delaware in the 1850’s is what provided Robert Chambers, ever the astute business man, to envision a new use for his farm property. In 1853 he subdivided the property with the intent of creating a small commercial hamlet. In 1854 he began construction along South Broad St. Judge Chambers initially constructed three, three story brick buildings with store fronts, he also constructed other buildings including, a residence, a woolen Mill and as a centerpiece a small hotel. The hamlet by 1859 became known as “Chambers Village”. This hamlet was not set up as an independent municipality but rather as a small part of the vastly larger Hamilton Township.
The early success of the hamlet and hotel in the late 1850’s was directly related to the number of guests who arrived in connection to Roebling’s manufacturing of wire rope products and from Roebling’s growing international reputation for his successful suspension bridge projects. One such project, the Roebling’s bridge project being built across the Ohio River in the late 1850’s was suspended in 1861 because of the Civil War. However, the hotel continued to attract guests during the war. This continued hotel success was the result of the Roebling and Cooper-Hewitt companies change over to war material production. In addition, the farmland to the east of Chambers’ Village underwent a war time conversion as well. This farmland consisting of the area which today would roughly border Hamilton Ave. between S. Clinton and Chambers streets, was taken over by the army during the Civil War. The land was used as a temporary military parade ground, training area and encampment. The encampment was known as Camp Perrine. This temporary military use resulted in a second source of guests to the nearby hotel and hamlet. Businessmen supplying contracts for military supplies and visiting military personnel would frequently stop there for lodging during the war.
After the conclusion of the Civil War, the eastern farmland returned to agricultural endeavors. The Roebling company restarted and continued building on its earlier success, completing the Roebling Bridge project over the Ohio River in the late 1860’s. This bridge which is known as the Roebling Bridge was the longest suspension span bridge in the world when completed. Following that success, the Roebling company was awarded the design and contract to build the Brooklyn Bridge project in 1869. Of note, Judge Robert Chambers died in 1865 leaving behind as part of his estate and legacy, Chambers Village in Hamilton Township.
Part Four: The Roebling Company’s Need To Grow
With the success of the Roebling company in the 1860’s came the corporate need for additional labor and the expansion of its manufacturing facilities. Cheap labor was an essential part for the planned expansion and future success of both the Roebling manufacturing company and the Cooper-Hewitt foundry, later known as the American Bridge company.
In the first three quarters of the 19th century the origin of the largest source of cheap labor in the U.S northeast, were immigrants. At the time, the largest immigrant groups were arriving in the U.S. from Ireland and the German speaking countries in central Europe. John A. Roebling, himself a German immigrant, had a personal preference for hiring mostly German immigrant labor at his factory. This resulted in the creation of a substantial German speaking community within Trenton starting in the 1850 and 1860’s.
Many of the German factory workers in Trenton were from southern European German speaking countries and were Roman Catholic. Most, upon settling in the Trenton area and going to work for Roebling, attended religious services at St. Francis Church on Front St. This Church was situated about a mile from the first Roebling factory building. The substantial German speaking immigrant community gave rise to a need for German speaking Catholic clergy to service it. The late 1860’s found St. Francis parish without a German speaking pastor, and in fact, a shortage of German speaking clergy throughout the State. To resolve this shortage, Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley of New Jersey arranged by negotiated agreement in 1869 for German speaking priests from the newly created Franciscan Provence in New York to be sent to serve at St. Francis, parish. This agreement gave the Franciscans authority to create an independent Franciscan mission in New Jersey. The Franciscan Provence in New York State, at that point, was staffed by several dozen priests most of whom had recently immigrated to New York from the Assisi Franciscan Provence in Italy. The priests were all multi-lingual. In 1869 the first three Italian immigrant Franciscan priests arrived in Trenton from Buffalo. Fr. Peter Jachetti was designated as leader of the group and he immediately assumed pastoral duties at St. Francis Church in Trenton.
In addition to providing services at St. Francis Church, the three priests provided Catholic services to German speaking communities within a 50 mile radius of Trenton. Over the course of the next 23 years under Fr. Jachetti’s guidance the Franciscans priests would establish over a half dozen new parishes throughout New Jersey. To aid in their ministry Fr. Jachetti enlisted the help of Franciscan nuns from a convent established in Philadelphia in the mid-1850’s by authority of Bishop John Neumann. The convent in Philadelphia had already established as part of its mission elementary schools and a hospital for the poor by 1860.
Within a year of his arrival as pastor at St. Francis, Fr. Jachetti learned of Roebling’s corporate plan to greatly expand the company’s operations and facilities. He also learned that the proposed targeted area for this new facility construction was the northeastern part of Hamilton Township proximate to the Chambers Village.
Part Five: The Italian Influence
Fr. Jachetti understood that the future large scale factory expansion into this relatively underdeveloped suburban area would likely result in a corresponding large residential development for workers. In the case of Roebling many of these workers were likely immigrant Germans and Catholic, precisely the group he was charged with servicing. In 1870 anticipating a large residential influx, Fr. Jachetti purchased a plot of land on Chestnut Ave. upon which to start a new parish. Part of his reasoning was that this area was more proximate to the immigrants’ work and future residences. As the head of the Order in New Jersey he chose the name of the parish to be, Our Lady of Lourdes. Between 1870 and 1874 Fr. Jachetti raised funds and constructed a rectory, convent, chapel, and started an elementary school on the Our Lady of Lourdes, Chestnut Ave. site.
In 1874 Fr. Jachetti resigned as pastor of St. Francis and relocated his pastoral headquarters and the operational headquarters for the Franciscan mission in New Jersy to the Our Lady of Lourdes Chestnut Ave. site. Two things of historical significance are important to note, when Fr. Jachetti and his first assistant Fr. Dominic Marzetti, in 1874, located their religious residence to the Chestnut Ave. site the two priests became the first Italian immigrants to take up residence in what was about to become the “Borough of Chambersburg”. Second, in so doing the two Italian priests oriented the then existing small Italian immigrant community in Trenton to the Chestnut Ave. site for their spiritual needs. For historical reference, the Italian immigrant population in the city was not numerically significant for census recording in 1874, so there is no official count. However, based on newspaper interviews of one of these early Italian immigrants, they appear to have numbered only about 16 souls and were predominately males. Articles also suggest that most were residing around First St. in the south Trenton area. This would have been across south Broad St. and proximate to the Chambers Village, within a half mile of th new Church site.
Part Six: The Borough of Chambersburg Is Created
Later in 1874, by Act of the New Jersey Legislature, the independent Borough of Chambersburg was created. This political action was spearheaded by the combined efforts of then State Senator Hewitt, of the Cooper-Hewitt foundry, and the endorsement of the Roebling family. The Legislative Act established the name of the newly created municipality as the Borough of Chambersburg, named in honor of the recently deceased Judge Robert Chambers.
Once created, a Borough council was organized and a Borough Hall was built just south of the Chambers Village site on South Broad St. It should be noted that the Roebling family chose a site just north of the Chambers farm as the site of their corporate headquarters. They also purchased approximately seven acres just east of the headquarters building for construction of what would become a massive production complex. At this point, in the mid 1870’s, it was already clear that the Borough of Chambersburg was going to have at its economic core a large steel production facility. It was also clear that many of the laborers in this new industrial complex were going to be poor immigrants.
Part Seven: Progressive Charities
What is often overlooked in the development of early Borough of Chambersburg is that the anticipated influx of large numbers of immigrant factory workers combined with large tracks of farmland created the opportunity for “progressive” civic minded leaders to organize institutions dedicated to serving the working poor. These institutions could be located close to the community they were intended to serve.
Part of the story of 19th century industrial development was a growing societal interest in the plight of the urban industrial lower class. As European and American urban centers industrialized, they attracted many destitute people looking for work. These people often lived in run down crowded tenements in areas with poor sanitation, high crime, pollution and little access to education or health care. Private based institutions began to develop as social “Aide” organizations. These organizations were often set up and funded as religious or private charities for the benefit of the industrial poor.
Among the first of these “progressive” institutions set up in the Borough of Chambersburg was the headquarters for the N.J. Franciscan mission. The Franciscan Order since its inception has focused on its work among the poor. So, it should not be a surprise that as part of the N.J. Franciscan mission headquarter design, Fr. Jachetti’s plans included a seminary, a college, and a church to be built on the Our Lady of Lourdes site. Fr. Jachetti envisioned these institutional appendages as the best way the future spiritual and professional needs of the developing immigrant poor community could be perpetually served. He believed that recruiting, training, and educating from within the community was the best way to serve long term. I should note, that almost every newspaper article written in the 1880’s about the parish site mentions the college. If the college had been built it would have been Trenton’s first institution of higher education.
A second and equally important “progressive” institution established in Chambersburg in 1874 was Trenton’s first hospital. Here the Franciscans were again and integral and important part of the emerging community’s overall development. The Franciscan nuns, with the endorsement of Fr. Jachetti raised the funds and purchased a suitable site for the hospital at the corner of Hamilton Ave. and Chambers St. The stated purpose of the hospital was to tend to the needs of the community’s poor, sick and elderly. St Francis Hospital was built and served the community from 1874 until its closing last year.
The Borough also saw the building of the Union Industrial Home, and the Soldiers’ Children’ Home, which later became the State Home for the Deaf located at Hamilton and Chestnut Avenues. The school for the Deaf, a very progressive institution for its day, operated at the Chestnut Ave. site until the 1930’s when the school relocated to a larger facility in the northern suburbs of Trenton. The school building was torn down around 1940 and a community park was built. In the 1940’s thru mid-1960’s this park was generally referred to as Chestnut Park or by the less than politically correct name the “Deafees” recalling the site’s previous school use.
Although not within Chambersburg proper, I should mention in the 1880’s Fr. Jachetti became aware of a pressing need for a designated cemetery for Our Lady of Lourdes parish. This became increasing apparent as the Italian immigrant community began to grow in both south Trenton and Chambersburg Borough. Toward that end, Fr. Jachetti purchased the land for what became Our Lady of Lourdes Cemetery in Hamilton Township.
I should note that part of the need for this cemetery was that Italian immigrants in the city in the 1880’s experienced substantial discrimination in both housing and access to burial plots. This discrimination was based on prejudices regarding their foreign birth, religion, and their race. As a young practicing attorney in the Trenton area forty to fifty years ago I reviewed deeds to houses and burial plots that contained restrictive covenants against the sale to Italians. If visiting Our Lady of Lourdes Cemetery today, you will observe that the oldest section of the cemetery, where internments began during Fr. Jachetti’s time, have burials that are almost exclusively Italian. This was despite the fact the majority of Our Lady of Lourdes parishioners in the 1880’s, were German or Irish not Italian. This cemetery was one of the few places where Italians or Italian-Americans could escape burial discrimination based on race. This was an actual concern that my own ancestral family experienced first-hand when they moved into Chambersburg and suffered what was the common loss of infant children in the 1880’s.
Most Italian-Americans today are not familiar with the prejudices experienced by our ancestors or that in many cases the discrimination was “racially” motivated. Probably, most would be surprised that when the Italian immigrant numbers were still small in Chambersburg there were even intimidation visits from the Ku Klux Klan.
As Italian immigration increased attitudes of resentment and discrimination actually intensified. This in part is reflected in the treatment of Fr. Jachetti and his first assistant Fr. Marzetti. By 1886 Fr. Jachetti had accomplished the acquiring of the architectural design and fundraising for the start of the building of the Church, the centerpiece of the Chestnut Ave site. However, by then it is my understanding, that a new generation of American born, non-Italian administrators were in charge at the N.Y. Provencial level. In fact, the Order separated out the Italian based ”old Guard”. Fr. Jachetti’s duties and authority within the parish and the mission were greatly reduced. His first assistant was transferred out of the parish. Fr. Jachetti was permitted to remain but only to oversee the church construction to completion in 1892. He was then removed as well. At the direction of the Franciscan Provencial headquarters in Buffalo, New York the name of Our Lady of Lourdes parish was changed to Immaculate Conception parish in 1886. Of note, no dedication plaque or memorial evidencing Fr, Jachetti’s contributions to the establishment of the parish or the construction of the church building was ever erected by his successors. Recognition of his efforts had to wait until the property was transferred to the Trenton Diocese and the new pastor Fr. Jeffrey Lee corrected the oversight around 2010. The removal of the Two Italian priests occasioned an ethnic rift between the parish and the early Chambersburg Italian Catholics.
Part Eight: Chambersburg Annexed to Trenton
The Borough of Chambersburg Council showed remarkable openness to progressive development throughout its fourteen years of existence. In one of its last official acts as a Council, it purchased land for the Borough’s first public park to be located at Emory, Division, Morris, and Chestnut in 1888. The park was named Roebling Park. Again, setting aside funds for recreational space was a rather “new” urban concept and this purchase created the area’s first public park.
By the time the City of Trenton annexed the land encompassing the Borough of Chambersburg in 1888 the area composed of Bayard, Butler, Elmer, and Mott Streets, which is the area between the Roebling factory and Immaculate Conception Church, was predominately Italian. It is accurate to say that the jobs and new housing construction created by the Roebling factory expansion certainly attracted working class/ factory workers and their families to the Chambersburg section of the city. It is also accurate to say that once Roebling began hiring Italian immigrants in 1879 the Italian immigrant population grew rapidly as well. Estimates suggest that the population of Italian immigrants in Trenton went from about 20 in 1879 to about 800 by 1889. In the 1880’s most of the Italian immigrants working at the Roebling factory hailed from Basilicata, Italy. These early Italian arrivals oriented specifically toward Chambersburg because of the presence of Fr. Jachetti and his first assistant Fr. Marzetti. By way of example, the first Italian immigrant couples in the Trenton area to marry did so in the Borough of Chambersburg at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel in 1881 and 1882. The marriage records note that the priests, Jachetti and Marzetti, took the time to co-officiate at each of these weddings. Co-officiation is not typical at weddings and the fact that it was done at each wedding shows a certain affinity between the priests and the emerging Italian community. There was a mutual respect, support and affection between the community and the priests. In one his last actions in the community before his removal Fr. Jachetti headed the organization of Trenton’s first Columbus Day celebration in 1892 which commemorated the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage.
The subject of a negative change in attitude the predominate American culture toward Italians, especially as their numbers grew, changed after the demotion and then removal of the two Italian priests. Those changes and the community response will be the subject of future articles.