If you’re interested in the history and architecture of our local communities, it might interest you to discover that Hopewell Township performed a cultural resource survey in 1985 – 1985 that researched more than 1,000 pre-1875 sites in our 60 square mile area. Unfortunately, the results of this work, including the survey forms and associated photographs, are not readily available in local libraries or museums, although the full survey is on file at the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office in Trenton.
But it turns out that a photocopy of the Pennington Borough section of the survey is stored at the Hopewell Valley Historic Society archives at the Mercer County Library Hopewell Branch in Pennington. And Richard Porter, one of the original authors, also has provided a copy of the Hopewell Borough section to the Hopewell Museum.
This Hopewell Borough section of the 1985 Hopewell Cultural Resource Survey now has been scanned and is available here for download.
The Hopewell Borough historic sites survey includes both a Streetscape Survey with the history and important buildings of each street in the borough (actually divided into 56 blocks for longer streets, 114 pages), and a Buildings Survey of 54 historic buildings, including businesses and residences (63 pages). Each entry also includes photos of the building or street.
The posted document contains the full Hopewell Cultural Resource Survey for Hopewell Borough (PDF scan with searchable text), plus additional front matter with information on the contents, including full contents of the Buildings Survey (organized by block / lot) and Streetscape Survey (organized by streets and blocks).
Note that the Hopewell Borough property block and lot numbers have changed since the 1800’s (see the 1916 Hopewell Borough Tax Map).
