Bill Dwyer’s Bygone Days
Trenton Sunday Times, Oct 22, 1972
These are among the persons, places
and things recalled by old-timers who grew up in Trenton’s ‘Valley of the
Israelites.’
‘That,’ says 9one longtime resident
‘is what some say people called the area.
But, to what you would call the
unsophisticated or the insensitive it was Jewtown. By whatever name, it was a
great place and it produced some the brightest, some of the most artistic and
most successful people the Delaware Valley has ever known.
The ammonia-scented icehouse on Bloomsbury
Street where you could witch the ice come down the chute.
Levinson’s milk store where you
bought eggs by the score.
Zorn’s butcher store with ta sawdust
thick on the floor.
Brodsky’s hat store where you got
your caps for the Jewish Holidays.
Harry Berkowtiz of 87 Liberty St. is
one of those who remembers. In fact, he seems to have total recall of who and
what were where in the area roughly bounded by Market St., S. Warren St., and Lumberton
St.
Starting with Warren St., Harry
says, ‘I can remember so many places that were landmarks a generation or two ago.
The American Bridge Field, for example, where your best
baseball teams (Cadets, Bashes, Morrisville Reds, etc.) played. The kinds
called it the Greengrass.
The old farmers’ market where corn was ten cents a dozen and tomatoes one to three cents per pound, Net came the
Round House where all the railroaders stayed, Then Elias’s store where we got
our Buster Brown stockings. Then up the
street to Hymie Gerofsky’s bar and my father’s bar (big beer for a nickel and a
free lunch with hot soup.)
Next the Trenton Shirt Factory where
they made mens’ wok shirts . . . Randelman’s blanket factory, Litowitz’s fruit
and Produce and the Turkish bath (where for 25 cents you could meet everybody
in town on Saturday night.
Then Weinstein’s bicycle Store,
Urken’s Glass Shop, he Sach Harness shop, and the Warren Grocery Store.
Then the home of the Josephson
family (one son, Louis, became City Attorney of Trenton. Dave had a shoe store
on Broad St and Barney Josephson owner the famous New York Nightclub, and the Café
Society.
