N Warren St
Trenton, NJ, USA

12 North Warren St (Commercial Building), Trenton, Mercer County, NJ

For much of the 19th century, this building was the home of Samuel and Edmund Roberts` jewelry business. The two made and sold jewelry, and sold and repaired watches, clocks, and silverware. After their business closed in 1885, the building houses a drugstore and then a barber shop from about 1910-1927, as well as residential tenants on the upper floors. As restaurant occupied the building the 1930s; after 1946 a laundry and shoe repair shop were located here. This succession of commercial uses proves the utility of the Federal style building, and reflects the vitality of downtown Trenton over the past century and a half.
Roberts` Jewelry Store Building is one of only a handful of survivors from before the Civil War in downtown Trenton. Despite alterations to the storefront and the interior, the building retains details characteristic of the urban vernacular architecture of the early 19th century, like the broad chimney and low arched pedimented dormer at the fourth floor.