- September 1, 2025
- Darren Tobia
Daniel Brenna, founder of Ajax Management, is banking on Trenton’s future – a city with great transit, an underutilized riverfront, a highway, and buildings with “great bones.” But the city’s downtown comprises aging structures that have been neglected and face costly repairs if the neighborhood is ever to turn around.
Brenna, who grew up in Trenton as the son of a city councilman, knew that a listing on the National Register comes with certain perks that include tax credits and eligibility for federal grants that can be used to renovate historic buildings.
“It’s an important corridor and a lot of buildings there have potential,” Brenna said. “In order to take these old buildings and make them work economically sometimes you need to utilize historic tax credits.”
In March, an important commercial corridor in the city’s downtown finally got listed on the National Register and Brenna, who owns property in the new historic district, was the driving force behind it. It was an achievement that preservationists believed was long overdue as other neighborhoods – like Berkeley Square and Mill Hill – had already been listed. It was also noteworthy because historical societies and conservancies are often the ones behind landmarking efforts.
Brenna teamed up with architectural historian Kevin McMahon, senior associate at Powers & Company, to write the register nomination. The two had first teamed up about a decade ago, when McMahon wrote the nomination that landed the Bell Telephone Company headquarters on the National Register in 2017. Brenna owns that building and recently completed a conversion of the 1913 building at 216 East State Street into apartments.
“It’s a really good example of what the National Register can do for a project,” McMahon said.
The renovation of the Bell Telephone Company building is part of a local movement to revive downtown Trenton as a residential neighborhood. Another recent renovation is the Golden Swan Inn, one of the oldest buildings in the new district, constructed in 1815, that Woodrose Properties turned into market-rate apartments, also utilizing historic tax credits.
“There’s a hope that that will spur a revitalization of business activity as well,” McMahon said.
Trenton, which was once a candidate for the nation’s capital, is today known mostly as the place where the affairs of state government take place.
The Bell Telephone Company Building.
But it also was a thriving commercial district with well-known department stores, such as S.S. Kresge Co., which still stands at 109 East State Street within the new historic district. Around 1910, the city became the fourth largest in New Jersey and this is when downtown began to see the construction of high rises, such as the Bell Telephone Company building.
McMahon said authoring the nomination gave him a new appreciation for the city’s bygone industrial history. “By the early 20th century, a huge part of Trenton’s economy was ceramics, everything from tilework to bathroom fixtures like toilets and sinks,” he said.
It was after the 1950s, when the city reached its population peak at 128,000, that Trenton, like many cities in the United States, began to see a decline. Industry left. Trenton has also suffered from waves of urban renewal that destroyed portions of downtown.
The easiest way to experience the Downtown Trenton Commercial Historic District is to walk down East State Street, which is at the center of the district. Perhaps the most prominent building is the First Presbyterian Church, built in 1839, which is flanked by two historic cemeteries with the earliest grave markers dating to the 1730s. Next door is the Old City Hall from 1837.
Once you reach First Trenton National Bank, which announces itself by the series of arches along the street front, turn onto South Warren Street. This is where the city’s commercial district began and therefore has some of the oldest buildings, including the Golden Swan Inn.
“It’s like a little museum,” McMahon said about South Warren Street.
