Good Shepherd Church of Faith

 

The Good Shepherd Church of Faith was built in 1866. It was a small wooden building with few ornamental elements used primarily by an Episcopal congregation 

Services stopped being held in the church sometime around 2013. The ancient building had already fallen pretty seriously into disrepair by then. 

The most unique feature of the building was definitely the barrel vaulted pressed tin ceiling. 

It was finally sold in 2024. The new owner promptly got to work repairing the roof and fixing up the exterior. The building is currently being used as storage until the new owner finds a practical use for it. 

Thanks for reading.

South River Trust Company

 

TFPNJ Postcard Archive

The South River Trust Company was established in 1919 at the junction of Main and Ferry Streets. The building itself is small but lavish. Two large ionic columns flank the front door, supporting a terra cotta pediment with the banks name embossed into it. Though records don't exist online, the terra cotta was almost certainly manufactured at the nearby Sayre - Fisher brickworks. Steel spandrel panels separated the first and second floor windows. The entire rest of the facade was clad in limestone. 

The banking hall was a stunner. A massive stained glass tray ceiling lit the room, supplemented by large chandeliers as well as another large window at the rear of the building. The teller counter was made of beautifully veined white marble. 

The bank managers office had the best view, overlooking the banking floor. 

The bank closed in 1931, right at the start of the Great Depression. The closure was short lived though, as the bank reorganized and reopened in 1933. 

As is the case with many banks SRTC ended up merging into a bunch of other institutions before eventually being functionally  closed. The space was being utilized by Bank of America in the fall of 2013, when it closed for renovations. 

The building never reopened as a bank. Instead it stood vacant for over a decade. I would visit the structure from time to time whenever I was in the area with time to kill. The back door was always open. It blew my mind that there wasnt any vandalism inside, and that it never ended up on the "Urbex" radar. People flocked to Sayreville for years from all over the world to sneak into the old generating station along the river. The only people who ever found out about it were friends of mine who happened to be in the area with me at the time

Work finally began to convert the space into a lobby for a brand new apartment building in 2026. Considering First National Bank just a block away was demolished entirely, I consider this new future for the SRTC building a blessing. As the town continues to grow people like me will still have the opportunity to stop by and appreciate the building.

Thanks for reading!

St Mary's Greek Catholic School

When most of the population of the United States  thinks of schools and hospitals, we think of them as public institutions that have always existed and always will. The reality is that they both trace their origins back to the Catholic church in early ninteeth century. Nearly 100 years after the first parochial school was founded, St. Mary's Assumption of Trenton established a K-8 facility on a lot across Malone St from their house of worship. 

The school was built in 1921. The facade was made of buff brick with limestone accents, a common design choice for the time. It rose three stories on a linear footprint, with classroom space on the first two floors and a large "gymatorium" on the third. 

Everything about the facility was classic parochial school. It had 11 foot ceilings on every floor. Large transom windows sat above each door in order to encourage air flow on warm days. 

Like so many neighborhood buildings the school operated without much fanfare as the neighborhood evolved around it. A large arson attack destroyed the parish church in 1956, along with nearly a dozen others. It took three years to rebuild. During the rebuild process mass was held inside the gym. 

The school officially closed in 1999. Like many other catholic schools it continued to be maintained and used for parish activities. Since churches don't pay taxes, its easy for them to sit on property rather than immediately selling off or demolishing their empty buildings. This ended up paying off during the demolition and reconstruction of Trenton Central High School in 2015. Some students from that facility were sent to St Mary's until the new high school opened in 2019. 

St. Mary's parish took advantage of the recent refurbishment and ended up putting the building on the market immediately after Trenton Central reopened. It was sold the following year. The new owners immediately replaced the roof, but aside from that nothing happened with the building for another several years. Renovation work finally began in 2026 with the goal of reopening the space as apartments. The entire building was gutted back to bare walls, erasing the well kept 1920s floorplan. 

The building will undoubtedly be more productive as apartments than it has been for the last 5 or so years, so I'll count this as a win. 

Thanks for reading.

257 Upper Mountain

257 Upper Mountain Ave was a large Colonial Revival home on an acre of land. 

The exterior of the home was wrapped in cedar clapboard and capped with a slate roof. The interior was equally simple. 

The original portion of the home was built in 1889, with a large sunroom added to the right side of the building.

The home had an unremarkable history and was redecorated several times over the next century. 

In 2021 the home was purchased for $1.25 Million. It was left vacant without a security system, so neighborhood kids started hanging out on the property. 

They smashed a bunch of windows out which eventually got boarded over. The fresh plywood caught my eye while driving past, and before long I made a trip over to try and get inside.

I only made the one trip to 257, and only shot it on my phone. By 2025 the home was entirely gutted and reborn as a new modern dwelling. 

The Griffith Piano Company Building

Photo hanging in the lobby of an adjacent building

The city of Newark was a much different place 100 years ago. With both a booming industrial force and a bustling commercial downtown, the city was growing in fine fashion. Newark was a perfect place for the Griffith Piano Company to open their new factory and headquarters.

The limestone and yellow brick tower was constructed adjacent to the iconic Hahne Company Building in 1927. The site was already home to two buildings outgrown by the Griffith company. 

Griffith's new headquarters was a beautiful gothic edifice designed by city architect George Elwood Jones. The fourteen story tower featured an elegant facade clad in polychromatic terra-cotta tilework on the upper floors.

Behind the front doors was a handsome two story lobby. The walls on the first floor are marble clad, and the second floor contains a wraparound mezzanine. The ceiling inside the space was a gorgeous plaster design like one might expect to see inside a bank or post office. To call the space overwhelming would be an understatement.

Also on the second floor was the Griffith Recital Hall. The 50ftx75ft space had a seating capacity of 200, which made the room an ideal space to demonstrate new models of Griffith Pianos to potential buyers. The room had a hardwood floor and mirror clad walls. The ceiling had a beautiful plaster design and recessed stained glass light fixtures.

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The beautiful decoration seemed to come at you from every angle, making it truly one of the most remarkable office buildings in Newark at the time. The finished structure topped out at 210 feet tall, making it one of the tallest in the city at the time.

At its time Griffith was one of the most successful piano companies in the country. Some of the greatest pianists of the time reportedly used Griffith pianos, including Sergei Rachmaninoff. This was largely in part to the pioneering efforts of Mrs. Lena Donaldson Griffith, who also went by Mrs. Parker O. Griffith. A firm believer in equitable resource access, she started the Griffith Music Foundation. 

The goal of the foundation was to draw some of the greatest musical artists of the time to Newark for performances that could be attended by people of every creed, color and class. In 1938 the foundation took over operations of the Mosque Theater, which would go on to become the Newark Symphony Hall.

Tragically, Parker O. Griffith passed away at Orange Memorial Hospiral on March 12th, 1960. Mrs. Parker passed away the following year. Griffith Piano Company continued to operate for just over a decade, declining until eventually going bankrupt in 1973. The city of Newark was experiencing a recession at the time, therefore the only tenant that could be found for the property was a discount dress shop which functioned inside the lobby. 

The tower was subjected to a decade of neglect, which decimated the interior of the structure. Despite that the building was snapped up by NYC real estate developer Sol Gillman in 1983 for $500,000. The purchase was so significant the New York Times ran an article about the purchase. To the city of Newark it was symbolic of a potential downtown renaissance. However, aside from being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 nothing became of Gillmans $2 million plans to restore the building. Newarks economic resurgence wouldn't be coming any time soon.

The building wouldn't change hands for another 19 years, but in 2003 the Cogswell Reality group entered into an agreement to purchase the tower. Unfortunately when the group toured their perspective purchase, they saw the significant structural degradation the interior of the building had faced, and they rescinded their offer for the property. 

Another thirteen years later the building once again changed hands, this time under the stewardship of the Berger Group. The group had already taken on and completed several large scale projects in the city, including the restoration of the adjacent Hahne building. Even the Bergers couldn't make it work, so they sold it to a newly formed LLC not affiliated with any established group. 

Somehow this new team managed to find a plan that seemed viable, and in 2019 the building underwent a  The Covid 19 pandemic took its toll on the building, causing the construction to last longer than expected. The newly reborn building, dubbed "The Griffith" opened in 2025 with a mix of retail and residential.

Another win for the city of Newark. Thanks for learning with me. 

Collingswood Presbyterian Church

Collingswood is a small, quaint suburb of Camden founded on 1888. Despite being mostly farmland at the time, the township experienced rapid population growth around the turn of the century. These new residents had a diverse range of religious beliefs, and the building stock of the town reflects that. One such congregation was the Presbyterian church, founded in Collingswood in 1903. 

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The congregation first met in a building elsewhere in the town. It wasn't long before they outgrew that space, so a new church was planned at the corner of Fern & Maple. 

The new church was completed in 1929. It featured a large worship space with a full wraparound balcony as well as a school building attached to the south side of the building. 

The congregation used the space until 2023, when it was announced they were leaving their historic home. They sold the structure to a developer, who immediately submitted plans to the town to convert the church into twenty five apartments.

The pre-school which used the school building finally left the building in June of 2024. By that time some preliminary work had already been done in the main church. The submitted plans show that the exterior of the building will be relatively unchanged, with most of the stained glass windows remaining in place. 

By 2025 construction was well underway. I'm grateful I was able to take a brief walk around the space before the interior was split up. And honestly, more housing is always a good thing. All things considered, this is a pretty good win for the town.

Congregation B'nai Jeshurun

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High Street, now known as MLK Boulevard, was once an epicenter of jewish culture in the city. The corner of the Boulevard and Muhammed Ali Avenue holds one of the finest religious structures ever constructed within the boundaries of Newark. However, the story goes back even further than the landmark structure might lead you to assume. 

The B'nai Jeshurun congregation established Newarks first synagague in 1858. The building that we see today wasn't built until almost 60 years later though. The architect chosen in 1915 for the new temple was Albert S. Gotleib. The building rose up from the ground made of mighty brick and limestone. The inside of the temple was adorned with marble and Gustavino acoustical tile. 

The congregation left the city in favor of South Orange, and then moved again to Short Hills in 1968. The Hopewell Baptist church moved into the building, and continued to use it until 2017. We visited this incredible building before it got popular amongst the instagram tourist crowd. As a result, we had no idea what to expect as we descended the stairs towards the sanctuary. As we got close we heard someone sweeping up the corridor between us and the doorway we needed to walk through. I peeked around the corner and saw who it was; a lone man who didnt seem too much older than me. I called over to him and told him we didn't mean to bother him and that we just wanted a few photos of the building. After a brief moment of panic he welcomed us through, telling us he was just cleaning up the room he was going to be staying in. He also seemed mildly concerned, and told us that there are several other folks inside who might not be as cool with us. We took our photos quickly and went to head out but struck up another conversation with him on the way. Turns out he was just trying to find a good deserted place he and all his friends to live in while they worked out their demons. The most suprising thing of all was that he started talking about some YouTube videos of local abandoned places that he used to watch. Videos that I made 10 years ago. It was one of the most bizzare moments I've ever experienced.

Eventually the squatters were evicted and work started to bring the building back to life. For whatever reason the new owners stripped out all the pews and the original woodwork to replace them with cheap poplar. Thankfully that seems to be the only major change made to the main structure. The building hasn't reopened yet, but New Jersey Jewish News released an [article](https://njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com/renovating-bnai-jeshurun/) that shows the new furnishings. I'm so grateful to be able to end this story on a happy note since the building was definitely facing an uncertain future. Thankfully now the building will go on to serve the city for decades more.