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The History

French and Indian War

In 1758, the Barracks was the biggest building in Trenton. About 300 British and Irish soldiers were the first to live here. The building was made of stone and had dark red woodwork. There were about 20 soldiers' rooms, each with two windows, a door and a fireplace. Twelve soldiers were housed in each room, with two men sleeping in each wooden bunk. The soldiers received rations of food, firewood, candles, cider, salt, and vinegar. There was a kitchen in the cellar, but most soldiers cooked in their rooms. In the center of the building was a little house with a staircase to the second floor and the balcony. The Officers' House was fancier and more comfortable. Cows, pigs, chickens and horses were kept outside in the yard. The first soldiers to occupy the Barracks were two companies of Irishmen, the Inniskillin's (1758-1759); two companies of lowland Scots, the First Regiment of Foot (1759-1760); and two companies of British soldiers with Swiss officers, the Royal American (1761-1762).

Revolution

When the Revolutionary War started, the Barracks was used by American troops. British prisoners of war from St. John and Chambly, Canada, were imprisoned in the Officers House while four companies of the Second New Jersey Regiment of the Continental Line were raised here. In December, 1776, British and Hessian troops occupied Trenton. Some of them stayed in the Barracks. Colonists loyal to the English king also arrived so that they could be protected by the soldiers. During the First Battle of Trenton on Dec. 26, in a miraculously successful morning raid, General Washington captured many of the Hessians. The Americans returned to Trenton and used the Barracks. In 1777, the Barracks became an army hospital under Dr. Bodo Otto. Many soldiers and supplies passed through Trenton until the end of the war. The last soldiers in the Barracks may have been sick and wounded soldiers from the siege of Yorktown in 1781.

For more detail on the events surrounding the Battles of Trenton.

Post-Revolution

After the Revolution, the Barracks was sold and divided into private homes. When Trenton was named the State capital in 1790, and a site was chosen for the State House in 1791, the middle section of the building was torn down so that Front Street could run through to the State House. New owners decorated the buildings and gave the place the fashionable name of "Whitehall."

1800's

Many families lived in the small apartments in the two parts of the original Barracks on each side of Front Street. The outside and inside of the building changed in many ways: porches and inside walls were put up and taken down; chimneys and roofs were rebuilt; doors and windows were moved; and even a third story was added to one section. From 1857 to 1899, many elderly women lived in the Trenton "Widows and Single Women's Home" in the south wing. The old Officers House became a school for young boys and girls.

1900's

In the early part of the century, Trenton was a thriving industrial center, and its residents were proud of their growing, prosperous city. An organization of wealthy patriotic women, mostly from the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, wanted to save and restore the forgotten, tumble-down buildings that once were the Barracks. In 1902, they formed the Old Barracks Association and bought the south section of the building. In 1914 the State of New Jersey bought the north section and agreed to start a museum. The building was restored as some thought it must have looked in 1758, with a rebuilt middle section and new corridors, balconies, windows and landscaping.

The Old Barracks became a State Registered Landmark in 1970, a National Register Landmark in 1971 and a National Historic Landmark in 1972. The second restoration of the Barracks began in 1985 and ended in 1998. Archaeologists, architects, historians, and specialist craftsmen worked together to determine how the Barracks was made, and how to best repair it. Today the exterior fence and parade ground emphasize the original military nature of the building.

The Archaeology

During the Summer of 1995, a major archaeological investigation of the Barracks' grounds provided some much-sought details about the local landscape in the 18th century. The excavations were conducted in preparation for the restoration of the Old Barracks and its site, which was completed in 1998.

A team of archaeologists, headed by Ian Burrow from the firm of Hunter Research, Inc. of Trenton, opened several exploratory trenches in the parade ground and on the perimeter of the South and West of the building. They were looking for the original surface level of the parade ground and evidence of the palisade, or barracks fence that surrounded the structure during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.

The team removed topsoil in selected areas and discovered the original parade ground surface and post holes from the Barracks palisade fence. The foundations of 19th century buildings that faced Front Street and a roadway laid in 1792 that cut through the Barracks were uncovered. A trench was excavated through 16 feet of 19th and 20th century fill to the rear, or West, of the Barracks, where Petty's Run once flowed.

It was determined that the Barracks once stood on a rather steep escarpment immediately above the Run, which was a creek that powered a local forge and plating mill. Portions of the palisade fence were unearthed in the 18th century layer at the bottom of this trench.

Also uncovered was a 200 year old leather shoe, almost intact, a section of an adze-dressed post, and a number of barrel staves that were pulled from the mud that was once Petty's Run. A shoe buckle turned up in the same test pit as one of the barracks-fence post holes on the south side of the building. The soil between the foundations of the 19th century houses yielded evidence that pre-dated the Barracks, including pottery shards and a Lehigh broadspear point from Native American (Late Archaic/Early Woodland) occupation.

Overall, the landscape is remarkably different since soldiers first slept in the Barracks in 1759. Click below to see the current topography of the Barracks, and a very different topography from when the Barracks was first built.