The Trenton Times published the following article regarding Mercer County’s 175th Anniversary.

Mercer County celebrates its 175th anniversary

By Jenna Pizzi/The Times of Trenton 
on January 23, 2013 at 7:30 AM, updated January 23, 2013 at 7:33 AM

This year marks 175 years since Mercer County was established as New Jersey’s capital county. To commemorate that year, county officials are planning a series of events.

The celebration will begin tonight with the opening of an exhibition at Mercer County Community College that will feature maps from different points in the county’s history.

“We want to show that we have come a long, long way,” County Executive Brian Hughes said last week.

The exhibition, hosted at the college’s gallery at the West Windsor campus, will feature maps drafted in the 1930s as part of the county’s master plan, which have not been seen publicly since. There will be several Victorian bird’s-eye view maps of Hightstown, Hopewell Borough and Trenton.

One map on display was the last official map of New Jersey, drafted in 1833, before Mercer County was formed in 1838 from parts of the five counties that now surround it.
The gallery will open with a reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. today and will run until Feb. 14.

There will be two gallery lectures offered regarding the maps. On Jan. 31 at noon, Donna Lewis, director of the county’s planning division, will speak with Paul Pogorzelski, township administrator and engineer for Hopewell Township, about planning and engineering in the county today.

On Feb. 13 at noon, Maxine Lurie and Michael Siegel — editor and cartographer, respectively, of “Mapping New Jersey: An Evolving Landscape” — will discuss their book.

It is published by Riverside, a Rutgers University Press imprint that focuses on New Jersey.

County officials said there will be other programs focusing on different aspects of the county’s history throughout the year, but no further announcements of events have been made.

The county launched a website, www.mercer175.org, to coordinate the celebration. The website allows members of the public to upload historic photos of different things around the county from the last 175 years. For those who do not have the capability to scan and upload the photos, the county will be hosting different locations where residents can bring in their photos to be scanned and added to the digital gallery, which will be maintained by the county’s Culture and Heritage Commission.

Although there are no concrete plans of how to use the photos yet, county officials said they will be applying for grants to curate and expand the gallery in the coming years to better preserve pieces of the county’s history.

Hughes said he hopes the anniversary will help others to acknowledge the county’s long and historic history, filled with gems dating to the Revolutionary War.

“We hope that the 175th anniversary will promote tourism in the county,” Hughes said.

The area has been host of several important pieces of American history, including Gen. George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River, and the pivotal battles of Trenton and Princeton during the Revolutionary War.

The county was named for Gen. Hugh Mercer, who died of wounds inflicted in the battle of Princeton in 1777.

Later, the county was the site of another invasion force: Orson Welles had Martians land in the Grover’s Mill section of West Windsor for his radio dramatization of “The War of the Worlds” in 1938.

Trenton also was host to manufacturing, including Trenton Iron Works and Roebling Steel, which fueled the country’s expansion during the Industrial Revolution.

For more information about Mercer’s 175th anniversary celebration, visit
www.mercer175.org. For information about MCCC’s gallery or to attend the gallery’s
map exhibition visit www.mccc.edu/gallery or contact the gallery at (609) 570-3589.