Street, crosswalk repair heated debate in 1884
By: Iris Naylor
In 1884, letters to the editor were long and heated.
Taxpayers were pitted against one of the three Lambertville freeholders, and the street committee and the Common Council were drawn into the argument. It was a question of the condition of the streets and crosswalks and the cost of repairing same.
Common Council sought to remedy the situation in January 1885 by passing an ordinance that created a board of five commissioners "to examine into and report on the best method of paving the streets of Lambertville."
Council was accused of "railroading" the ordinance through before the citizens had a chance to challenge it. And the battle raged on.
Still, there was some progress.
"The Man About Town," in his regular weekly column, commented: "The Street Committee are doing a good thing in having the loose stones removed from the street. Now if the committee will only send the men around and have them take the loose bricks out of the broken pavements it will receive the hearty thanks of – well, at least one who is tired of tramping over broken bricks."
When a supplement to the ordinance that created the board of commissioners was introduced in July, the mayor refused to sign it, saying it would cause a conflict of authority between the board and the street committee. Then, in August 1885, the ordinance that had appointed the commissioners back in January was repealed. A special committee was appointed to check into the cost of purchasing a stone crusher, stationary engine and a roller. The equipment was ordered, and a location for it was leased at the end of Swan street on the Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s land.
The Man About Town observed: "It is a pity that all people cannot think alike on some subjects at least."
He referred to the fact that not everybody was pleased with the decision to macadamize the streets after the equipment to do it had been obtained. Then, he said, "There comes a cry that the kind of pavement selected is not the one we want and will not give satisfaction."
He suggested that each new council should adopt a different style of pavement in a different section of town. Then after a period of years, the question of durability and expense would be settled "from practical experience."
Nov. 6, The Man About Town was satisfied the improvements made on the streets in the way of paving was "gratifying to the taxpayers generally."
He said, "What may be done during the winter, of course, no one can say anything about, but if the work should compare favorably with that already done, little complaint can be made."
The minds of the citizens on both sides of the river were relieved from the subject of streets when a fire engulfed a row of buildings in the Ferry Street area of New Hope. It was a devastating fire, one that destroyed Mr. Max Garrish’s general store in minutes and made its way down the row of buildings. It took the roof off the store next door and the stone house next to it, and a frame structure that was the home of David M. Lewis’ bandwagon. Fortunately, the "musical chariot" was saved "without even the smell of fire fastening itself upon it."
The fire took the household goods of Mr. Himes whose wife had sounded the alarm of fire, and the contents of Mr. Bird’s carpenter shop. Mrs. Watson had to be carried from her bed of sickness to escape the flames.
Hardest hit was Mr. Garrish who lost not only his store, his stock and his watchdog in the fire but found later the insurance company would not pay off on the claim because all of his books were burned up, and he had no proof of the amount of stock burned up with them.
The Eagle Fire Company, with the assistance of two Lambertville companies, the Union and the Fleet Wing, managed to stem the fire spectators said could not have been worse "had coal oil been poured through the upper stories of all the buildings."