WELCOME TO GLEN AFTON
A BRIEF HISTORY OF GLEN AFTON
Glen Afton: a development of unusual features...or so was titled the booklet prepared in 1926 by developer Charles G. Teunon to introduce this new community touted by the Trenton Times that year as "the latest addition to Trenton's high class residential sections…"
At the city's far north western edge, between the river and canal, beyond which stretch the velvet links of Trenton Country Club, lies a community residents have likened to "Brigadoon", referencing the mythical Scottish village of musical lore that appears for one day every 100 years. Glen Afton was in fact conceived as an idyllic village, laced with narrow gently winding streets reminiscent of rural cow paths, and complete with Scottish themed names such as Argyle, Abernathy, and Aberfeldy, even the cheerfully titled Morningside Drive boasts an Edinburg ancestor. Yet however pastoral, this carefully planned new suburb would contain all the conveniences and amenities of modern-day city living, such as ease of access to public transportation, and the curb-lined side-walked streets with extra wide margins that are still a unique feature, in addition to the social and recreational facilities awaiting at the country club across the canal.
This unique location, between the natural beauty of the river and the man-made beauty of the golf course, was touted as a major selling feature in the original sales brochure. Marketing specifically to the sportsmen and women of leisure. “It offers unusual advantages to those who love out-of-door sports. The golf course of Trenton Country Club lies along its entire Northern boundary. Water sports – canoeing, fishing, swimming, and, in winter, skating on the Sanhican Creek for which the upper reaches of the Delaware are so well known, are just across the highway from Glen Afton.” While the Sanhican Creek was long ago paved over in the expansion of that highway into today’s Route 29, the residents of Glen Afton now enjoy fishing, boating, hiking, and biking on one of the prettiest stretches of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park towpath that now also runs along our northern boundary.
The history of the inhabitants of our area dates back to the Sanhican tribe of the Lenape Indians, for which Sanhican Drive was named. Meaning “Fire-Makers” the Sanhicans are described in De Laet’s Nieueue Wereldt of 1625 as “deadly enemies of the Manhattans, and a much better people”. By 1687 the area was a part of Hopewell Township when surveyed by the Yorkshire Quaker Thomas Hutchinson as part of his 2,500-acre manor. In 1834 the land was incorporated into the newly formed Ewing Township and then in 1900 absorbed into the city of Trenton as exists today.
Mainly rural before the 1920’s, a small commercial strip straddling Mill Road along Sanhican Drive is a reminder of the village of Brookville, which once existed here when a long-lost bridge on Mill Road connected Sullivan Way to the river where a rubber mill once operated. The village of about a dozen dwellings boasted a depot of the now defunct Belvidere Delaware Railroad, which ran along today’s towpath. A gristmill also once operated on Mill Road as well as a schoolhouse, which closed soon after the 1900 annexation by Trenton. In the early 1980’s the then derelict 1848 mill was restored and renovated into a residence by the late graphic designer Barbara Macak and her father, while the 1890’s schoolhouse still remains forgotten on the abandoned stretch of Mill Road across the canal.
The late nineteenth century saw an industrial boom for Trenton and as the city and its private fortunes swelled well-heeled Trentonians naturally sought the space and fresh air of the then rural western sections along the river. Heading westward along the River Road stretched a line of gentleman’s country estates dating back to the 18th and early 19th centuries, including the Cadwalader family’s Greenwood, Oaklands which became Trenton Country Club, and the Hermitage where Philemon Dickenson, Commanding General of the state militia during the Revolutionary War, once entertained Founding Fathers and European royalty alike. In 1888 noting the trend in westward expansion, Trenton’s civic hero Edmund C. Hill brought about the preservation of Ellarslie, built in 1848 by renowned architect John Notman, for use as a public park to be designed by the grandfather of American landscape architecture Fredrick Law Olmstead of Central Park fame.
In the 1890’s Hill would begin to develop the land immediately east of the new Cadwalader Park into Cadwalader Place, now also known as Berkeley Square, Trenton’s first planned residential development laid out with a grid of curb-lined side-walked streets. After the turn of the century with the new neighborhood nearly complete, Hill turned his attention to the land north of the canal reengaging the Olmstead firm in 1907 to lay out Cadwalader Heights, a new neighborhood featuring curved gently winding streets that would give a naturally organic flow as opposed to strict city grid of the past. This new design philosophy would have a major influence on the later development of Glen Afton as the original sales brochure reads, The most thorough study, and the greatest skill, were employed in order to enhance, rather than detract from, its natural charm…Glen Afton has none of the severity and squared-off precision which tend to the commonplace. Its streets curve gracefully through it, lending a touch of individuality that keeps it in perfect key with its surroundings…”
In 1907 an ad for Cadwalader Heights referred to Cadwalader Park and Place as –“the gateways leading from the city to the beautiful country to the west” by the mid 1920’s these gateways were bursting at the seams as the Glen Afton brochure noted, “This country is in the midst of an era of home building. Everywhere people are seeking the outlying sections in which to build, where there is freedom from city noise, from city dust and dirt…In Trenton this condition has been particularly marked. Trenton’s population is making a steady and rapid increase. Development after development has been opened, rapidly sold, filled with newly built and beautiful homes.”
The West Ward was fast reaching the city limits in 1924 when the area immediately east of the park was laid out into the Hiltonia neighborhood by local developer Sam Hilton. Soon after in 1926 Charles Teunon would begin the development of Glen Afton stretching from Sullivan Way to the city line, fulfilling the dream of Edmund C. Hill who had originally acquired the land over two decades before intending to develop it himself, but never able to do so between the founding of Cadwalader Park, Place and Heights.
“Glen Afton is without a doubt, the most attractive development that has ever been opened in this vicinity. There can never be another development to compare with it in or near Trenton so far as location, natural beauty, and convenience are concerned.” or so ended the original brochure. Finally fleshed out in the building boom of the 1950’s and 60’s following a lull in construction during the war years, "The Glen" still remains one of the cities most beautiful and desirable neighborhoods, especially now with the renewed interest in our vintage architecture which still enjoys a special location surrounded as it is by natural beauty offering out-of-doors recreational opportunities as the founders originally intended.