Hunterdon County Courthouse
Trenton served as the seat of Hunterdon County government from 1714 until 1791. The first Hunterdon County Court House was built in 1719 on the east side of Warren Street between State and Front. By the early 1720s it was also being used as a jail. The court house was the scene of several notable events in the Revolutionary War era. Its front steps were one of three locations where the Declaration of Independence was first publicly read on Monday, July 8, 1776. On April 15, 1783, Governor William Livingston read a proclamation, again on the front steps, declaring the end of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain. In November of 1784, the New Jersey Assembly met here, while the Continental Congress was in session across the street at the French Arms Tavern. On December 19, 1787, New Jersey's ratification of the U.S. Constitution was read aloud at the court house before the Trenton citizenry. The court house property was acquired by the Trenton Banking Company in 1805 and converted into a bank. In 1839, the building was pulled down and a new bank erected. Today, the site is a parking lot adjoining Checkers bar and restaurant; a recently completed outdoor mural across the street commemorates the first reading here of the Declaration of Independence.
[credit: engraving by George A. Bradshaw for A History of Trenton, 1679-1929]