HOPEWELL
VALLEY
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Collection Corner
One of the most vital parts of Hopewell Valley Historical Society’s mission is collecting and preserving items pertaining to the community’s past. These physical links connect us directly to our local history.
As the items started coming in a storage location was set up for the collection in a former doctor’s office (thanks to Jerry and Al Farina). Then as it grew, its next home was located in an ancient church in Harbourton. But when a new library building was constructed just outside of Pennington Boro by Mercer County, officials there invited us to store our collection in a room they would provide. We were thrilled with the offer and our collection has grown nicely there for many years. The trustees and members of the Society are grateful to Mercer County for continuing to provide us with a secure home for these precious artifacts.
Several important individual collections exist within the Society's holdings. The first was a group of historical items gathered by a legend of local history, Alice Blackwell Lewis. These items are priceless reminders of our rich past. The old letters, photographs, brochures, tickets, etc., that make up the collection got our archives off to a great start. Thank you Betty Davis !
Next a collection of old glass plate negatives, similarly stored, surfaced. It contained nearly seven hundred images of the Pennington area from the 1890 - 1910 period. The Society is extremely grateful to Alice Frisbie and her daughter, Mary Thornton, for their donation of the George Frisbie Collection.
Our collection continues to grow, thanks to a modest budget funded by membership. If you enjoy learning about these featured items, please stop back from time to time. If you’d like to help support our efforts then please consider becoming an HVHS member today. JOIN NOW
Featured Item
The 19th century witnessed several private schools opening for business around Hopewell Valley. Today the only one to have survived is known as “The Pennington School.” In the 18th century the tiny village of Hopewell Meeting House (Hopewell Borough) had established a name for itself as the first place in Colonial America
where young men could be trained as Baptist ministers (Hopewell Baptist Academy 1756-1764).
One such 19th century school, that is almost unknown today, was located on West Delaware in Pennington. It
sat across the street from its male counterpart, the Pennington Male Seminary (The Pennington School).
The little we do know about the Pennington Female Institute comes to us from an original brochure in the collection of the Hopewell Valley Historical Society.
This wonderfully insightful booklet came to us from
Alice Blackwell Lewis, legendary historian, author and former curator of the Hopewell Museum.
The large 3-story frame building (36’x 50’) originally housed the Pennington Female Institute. When the Pennington Methodist Male Seminary went co-educational in the 1850’s, the Methodist Conference ended their sponsorship of the female school. The building was sold to Albert P. Lasher who operated it as the Pennington Institute beginning in 1852. Margaret J. O’Connell in her excellent book Pennington Profile : A Capsule of State and Nation quotes from this very
booklet on pages 63-65.
The building, sited just about where Green Street intersects West Delaware today, was enlarged just after the Civil War to ninety feet across the front. This massive structure (for 19th century Pennington) had thirty-two rooms for boarding students, six music rooms, numerous classrooms, a chapel and “a spacious area for the fine art department.” For a small town, connected to the outside world by one daily stagecoach, these two private institutions provided excellent educational facilities for “young ladies and gentlemen” of the era.
Jack Koeppel
"In 1986 the Society's trustees wisely established a committee devoted to locating these artifacts, safely storing them, and sharing this wealth with future generations."
"From time to time, we’ll feature an item from our archives on his page. For a relatively small community we're proud of the size and scope
of our present collection."
"They had been stored for years in Pennington Market shopping bags, beneath a bed in Pennington
...waiting for a good home."
“Most likely this is the only copy in existence today.”
This single document demonstrates the importance of maintaining a collection of artifacts for Hopewell Valley. Without it, all record of its existence might have been lost forever. The Society houses many other wonderful items in its archives. In future articles we’ll explore the collection and dig out other pieces of Hopewell Valley’s past.
click image to enlarge
click image to enlarge
