Seminary Avenue Tour – References

References and links for the Seminary Avenue Historic Walking Tour, which also included East Broad Street and South Greenwood Avenue. The tour was held the weekend of Saturday, May 21, as part of Hopewell Valley Heritage Week.

See the References for the tour below, including the Handout, plus briefs on Seminary Ave. and East Broad / South Greenwood, and on individual properties along the route.

– Tour Handout – Street Briefs – Property Briefs –

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Seminary Avenue Historic Walking Tour

A one-hour historic walking tour of Seminary Avenue in Hopewell Borough – plus two more blocks down Broad and Greenwood to Gazebo Park.

This tour by Douglas Dixon explores the stories of the people and businesses of this apparently nondescript street that helped provide initiative and energy as a small village grew into a prosperous town – from barbers, butchers, and bakers, to auto, clothing, and grocery stores, to the Hopewell Fire Department and Public Library.

The tour continues two more blocks, down East Broad to South Greenwood to the Hopewell Gazebo Park. These blocks illustrate the institutions that helped to expand the town, including the hotel, library, church, bank, pharmacy, community hall, school, borough hall, firehouse, and post office.

The one block of Seminary Avenue off East Broad Street in Hopewell Borough is rather prosaic; It has no well-known buildings, or architecturally distinguished homes, or historical markers. But once it was opened around 1880 after the arrival of the railroad, Seminary became a “starter street” for Hopewell, a place to find subdivided buildings with apartments and storefronts where young families and small businesses could establish themselves in a new town, and grow and prosper.

A Hopewell Valley Heritage Week Event
Co-sponsored by the Hopewell Public Library

• See Seminary Avenue Historic Walking Tour for a full description.

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Seminary Avenue Tour – Handout

The presentation included these slides on the history and design of the two train stations, plus a visual history of the station (the slide shows below).

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Seminary Avenue Tour – Street Briefs

Street history briefs covering Seminary Avenue, and the full route along Seminary, East Broad, and South Greenwood.

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Seminary Avenue Tour – Property Briefs

History briefs covering some of the major properties along Seminary / East Broad / South Greenwood, plus History briefs on several related Hopewell organizations.

The main link below is the blog post; click “Brief” for history brief with full details

• Harry Cox – 6 Seminary – Harry L. Cox, Barber (1906) – Brief (PDF, 6 pp.)
• Barbers – Seminary Ave. / Hopewell Borough Barbers (1890s) – Brief (PDF, 7 pp.)

• Hopewell Inn – 15 East Broad – Hopewell Inn (c1878) – Brief (PDF, 31 pp.)
• Corner Stores – 21 East Broad – Groceries / Cox Barber / Restaurants – Brief (PDF, 12 pp.)

• Public Library – The Hopewell Public Library (1914) – Brief (PDF, 16 pp.)
• Fire Companies – Hopewell Boro Fire Companies (1877) – Brief (PDF, 16 pp.)

Related posts:

• See Lost Hopewell Photos – Seminary & Broad for newly-discovered historical images
• See Hopewell’s Lost Liveries for rear views of the west side of Seminary Avenue
• See full list of Hopewell Borough History Briefs