The Ruins of Trenton

The Broad Street Bank building is quite an amazing place.

That was well known to me prior to this weekend, but now that I have moved in, I realized I did not even know the half of it.

Spotless hallways, beautiful new apartments, exercise facilities, and of course the rooftop garden all combine to make a residential opportunity that cannot be found nearly anywhere between Manhattan and Philadelphia.

One of the smallest features, but one of the most noticeable to me, are the large wooden 10-foot doors that serve as the entrance to each of the building’s 124 living spaces. It is likely that those oversized doorways are part of the building’s past as a structure devoted to high finance, and probably counting the riches of the men who masterminded Trenton’s industrial domination.

All of the people already living in the building have been extremely friendly, always eager to introduce themselves and exchange apartment floors and numbers.

“This is paradise for me,” said one man I ran into, while moving boxes, furniture, and other items up to my seventh-floor one bedroom home.

Both the super and a security guard live in the building, meaning there is 24-hour assistance for tenants who need help with their apartments or building, and there is always a watchful presence observing the goings-on in and around the stately structure.

This building is exactly the kind of thing that can help bring Trenton back from the brink, by attracting people with disposable, middle-class income into the city to live.

They will likely walk the city’s downtown area, perhaps providing the impetus to make Trenton’s downtown the kind of place the survives the departure of state workers off to the suburbs each weekday, at 5 p.m.

Come check out the building, if you get a chance.