Edinburg Hotel
Edinburg Hotel, November 2022.
Historical Overview
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A large, 7-bay, 2.5-story stucco-and-brick building stands at 1719 Old Trenton road. This building - historically a hotel - is one of the key contributing structures of the historic community of Edinburg as well as a member of West Windsor's "100 Club."
However, this wasn't the first hotel in Edinburg. Starting in 1764, a man named Thomas Hooper kept an inn on the south side of Windsor Road, a few hundred yards from the crossroads of Windsor and Old Trenton Roads. At the time, the community of Edinburg was located along a colonial-era highway surveyed ten years prior to connect Princeton to Allentown. Thus, Hooper's inn was a convenient stop for travelers, providing food, drink, and accommodations. It was also a common gathering place for elections and township meetings. Thomas Hooper maintained his inn until at least 1775. However, he was reputedly a Loyalist during the American Revolution. In 1784/5 - amid an era of post-war persecution of British sympathizers - he, his family, and about a dozen other New Jersey families emigrated to Prince Edward Island, Canada and established a colony in Bedeque Bay. Hooper died in 1816, hundreds of miles from his place of birth. |
Hooper's Tavern lot (approx.) and current (2023) Edinburg Hotel lot.
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Around the time he fled, Hooper's property was forcibly seized by the government - a practice commonly employed against Loyalists during and after the American Revolution, in order to discourage their activities and fund the revolutionary cause.
Other recorded owners of the inn after Hooper included:
By 1806, the property had passed to Joseph and Elizabeth Story. That year, they sold the six-acre inn lot to a man named Joseph Keelor. Also in 1806, Keelor also purchased, from James and Martha Hooper, a parcel of land directly at the intersection of Edinburg, Windsor, and Old Trenton Roads. It was there that, some time in the early 1800s, the old inn was moved to the Edinburg Hotel's current location. |
Edinburg, 1849. Note the "Tavern."
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In 1811, the property was purchased by James and Sarah Hutchinson. This is very likely the same James who owned the general store across the street, as well as the Sailey-Tantum house next door. However, despite owning the property, James and Sarah may not have actually operated the establishment, for inn licenses from 1811-15 show a Jonathan D Hutchinson (himself a Township Committeeman from the 1820s-30s) operating in Edinburg as well. Other potential innkeepers were James and Sarah's sons, Jonathan T. Hutchinson (in 1822) and Aaron C. Hutchinson (1824-26).
In 1828, James and Sarah sold the property, whereupon the Edinburg Hotel passed through multiple owners:
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Edinburg, 1875. Note the "Hotel" and "J. B. Richardson."
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After the Holmes were:
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From the August 3, 1924 Trenton Evening Times.
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Tradition says that the old hotel burned down circa 1895. At the time, it was reputedly operated by Edward Wright. A new Victorian style building - the current one (in 2023) - was constructed in its place, and an icehouse added.
Next in ownership, starting in 1902, was Rudolph V. Kuser, with Edward Mahan as innkeeper around the same time. However, in 1903, Mahan moved to the historic West Windsor community of Princeton Junction to run the hotel there. By the 1910s, William V. Howell was in possession of the Edinburg Hotel. In 1919, he sold it to Cornelia A. VanDuyne. It's unknown for many years she owned the hotel. However, what is known is that during Prohibition, the Edinburg Hotel was also a speakeasy, and even got raided by agents in 1924. |
Edinburg Hotel, 1962. Photographed by Howard E. Schrader.
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By 1929, the property had passed to Margaret B Huley. That year, she sold the Edinburg Hotel to Jennie & Lawrence Maurer. During their ownership, the hotel became the base for recreational hunting weekends. People came from far and wide to shoot pheasants and other game birds raised by Bill McManus.
In 1955, Carl and Luci Nami purchased the property. After them (starting in 1959) were Edward and Dorothy Bambo and the Zmudas, who renovated the building inside and out. The upper floors were gutted and converted into living quarters with a two-story cathedral ceiling. The hotel was now a tavern only. Around that time, Bernice Tantum painted murals with a colonial theme on the walls of the tavern. |
Edinburg, 1975. Old meets new. Hotel on right.
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In 1983, the property was sold to Leonard and Rose Anklowitz. It was during this decade that the building was converted into offices. A series of owners has bought and sold the old Edinburg Hotel. However, the building remains a key landmark of the historic West Windsor community of Edinburg.
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Former Edinburg Hotel, probably 1980s or '90s.
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Bibliography
- "West Windsor Tax Assessor Address List, 2019.” West Windsor, 2019. List of all residences in West Windsor with dates of construction, according to tax assessor. Sent to the Historical Society by Lorraine Jones and Dawn Moretti.
- Slayback, Abel, Bergen, John G. Ms. Deed. New Jersey State Archives, 1811. Found in New Jersey State Archives Manuscript Room - Middlesex County Deeds - Middlesex County Deed Book 9 Page 211.
- Hill, Joseph, Updike, William. Ms. Deed. New Jersey State Archives, 1843. Found in the Mercer County Clerk's Office - Mercer County Deeds - Mercer County Deed Book G Page 17.
- Conover, Rose R., Conover, Walter F. Mount, John S., Mount, Walter S. “Indenture” West Windsor, 1924. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 530 Page 375.
- “West Windsor Township Meeting Minutes, 1797-2012.,” n.d. Original Township Committee meeting minute database located in the Municipal Center.
- Ibid.
- Conover, Rose R., Conover, Walter F. Mount, John S., Mount, Walter S. “Indenture” West Windsor, 1924. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 530 Page 375.
- Conover, Rose R., Conover, Walter F Sr., Heidrick, Dorothy B., Heidrick, Gardner W. “Deed.” West Windsor, 1965. Deed from Lyorah Vannest to Lydia C. Wyckoff for 136 South Mill Road. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 1732 Page 854. Mentions the 1963 Robins-Conover transfer.
- Ibid.
- Conover, Rose R., Conover, Walter F Sr., Mather, Dorothy C. “Deed.” West Windsor, 1942. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 844 Page 535.
- "Obituaries: Dorothy C. Mather.” Town Topics, July 3, 2002.
- “Light Plane Crashes, Walton, Mather Killed.” Princeton Herald, August 6, 1952.
- Greenwich Investors XI, LLC., Vogel, Sarah. "Deed.” West Windsor, 2003. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 4451 Page 277.