New Jersey State House
The Art and Architecture
The New Jersey State House is located in Trenton across the Delaware River from Pennsylvania, and about half way between Philadelphia and the New York City metropolitan area. The land area to the north consists of farm lands on low rolling hills, merging with high density populations to the northeast, where the state borders New York City. The northern tip reaches the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains where a short section of the Appalachian Trail can be found crossing between Pennsylvania and New York. To the east and south of Trenton there is a coastal plain with agricultural lands between the Delaware River and Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1787, New Jersey became the 3rd state to ratify the United States Constitution.
The State House has been under renovation for several years and has only recently opened for tours of a beautifully restored interior. The exterior renovation is near completion where the remaining scaffolding and barriers should be removed soon. The site is in an urban park setting overlooking a highway along the Delaware River instead of a downtown square. Also, the original State House appears to have faced Washington DC to the south southwest but today that face is obstructed with many additions, with the main entrance on the north northeast side facing West State Street.
The New Jersey State House was originally built in 1792, in a Federal architectural style by the master builder Jonathan Dòan. It was a simple, but massive stone building with stucco finished walls. The Senate and House chambers were in opposite wings on the first floor with the Speaker’s chair in the octagonal extensions at each end. A central stair extended up to the bell tower above with a courtroom and executive offices on the second floor, and a partial third floor under the sloped roof.
Johnathan Dòan was born in Pennsylvania and became a master builder, doing work primarily in New Jersey and New York. No architect has been identified for this work, so Dòan may have prepared the design himself, which has similarities to other courthouses and state houses in the region from this time period.
In 1845, an addition to the State House was constructed to include a Rotunda, Dome, and Portico extension that provided additional office space. It was designed in a Classical architectural style by John Notman.
John Notman, 1810 to 1865, was born near Edinburgh Scotland where he received his training as an architect. He immigrated to the United States in 1831 where he soon set up a practice in Philadelphia. John Notman is noted for many Italianate architectural style churches and buildings, and as one of the founding members of the American Institute of Architects.
After the Civil War in the 1872 another addition was constructed in a Victorian architectural style by Samuel Sloan. The addition completely encapsulated the original State House by adding new House and Senate Chambers and more office space.
Samuel Sloan, 1815 to 1884, was born in Chester County Pennsylvania, and practiced architecture from his office in Philadelphia. He was a noted author of many architectural books and also specialized in designs using the Italianate architectural style.
In 1885 a fire destroyed the west wing facing State Street, and so a reconstruction and remodeling was begun. That work was completed in 1889 in a Second Empire architectural style by Lewis Broome, and included a new Rotunda and Dome that is still in place today. The State House dome is located between the north entrance wing along West State Street, and the center wing, with the rotunda acting as a main connector between the two.
The dome has been beautifully restored inside and out, but the exterior is difficult to see from the front, and is better viewed from the east or west side between the wings, or at a distance from the Delaware River.
In 1891 following the reconstruction work by Broome, a new Assembly Wing was added by James Moylan in a Late Victorian architectural style. James Moylan was noted as both an architect and an Assemblyman in the State House.
In 1903, Arnold Moses renovated the Senate wing and led the effort to unify of the exterior design in an American Renaissance architectural style. Today the current appearance is dominated by the 1903 renovation by Moses, the 1891 Assembly Wing by James Moylan, and the 1885 Rotunda and Dome by Lewis Broome.
Little is known about Arnold Moses, James Moylan, and Lewis Broome, the three architects whose architectural designs are most notable in the appearance of the State House today.
House and Senate Chambers
The House and Senate Chambers by Moylan, include beautiful adornments with large stained glass skylights overhead. Each has a main entrance floor to the Chamber for state representatives and an upper level gallery for public viewing. In addition, the Senate Chamber has sixteen lunette murals above the public gallery with allegorical figures representing New Jersey history.
The murals were designed by artist William Brantley Van Ingen to celebrate freedom and prosperity with depictions from the Revolutionary War and important industries in New Jersey. The battle scenes include those fought in Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth, and the industries include construction, agriculture, glass, and ceramics.
Van Ingen was also noted for his work in stained glass, indicating that the skylights in the House and Senate Chambers may have been his work too.
William Brantley Van Ingen, 1858 to 1955, was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and apprenticed in New York City under John La Farge, Francis Lathrop, and Lewis C Tiffany.
In the lobbies outside the House and Senate Chambers there are additional works of art like the stained glass panels titled “Peace” and “Justice” by artist Nicola D’Ascenzo.
Nicola D’Ascenzo, 1871 to 1874, was born in Torricella Peligna, Italy, where he immigrated with his family to the United States in 1882. He was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma in Rome Italy.
State House Annex
In 1929 a State House Annex was constructed on the west side connected through an underground tunnel. It is a Classical Revival architectural style building by an unknown architect. In the connecting concourse the floor includes a terrazzo artistic work depicting a stylized goldfinch representative of the State bird by the artist Livio Saganić.
Livio Saganić, born in1950, was born in Yugoslavia before immigrating to the United States where he was educated at Pratt Institute and Yale School of Art.
In the east wing of the Annex there is a large stained glass skylight panel titled “New Jersey a 360 Degree View” by Kenneth Leap. It celebrates New Jersey’s varied geography, folklore, legends and major historical events.
J. Kenneth Leap, born in 1964, was educated at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
The New Jersey State House is a beautiful building, rich in history and artistic craftsmanship. The State House and the Annex include many additional areas and works of art that were not accessible on this visit or were located where photography was prohibited, so depending on what is happening on site there may be much more to see.
Travel Notes
This tour was done as part of a road trip from Huntsville Alabama to Boston Massachusetts, where I took an extra day to visit the Delaware Legislative Hall in the morning and the New Jersey State House in the afternoon. I had a 3:00 tour in New Jersey and was about 10 minutes late, but Carol the guide was gracious enough to take me through for a private tour anyway. It was excellent! Free parking is available in the parking garage under the State House Annex when you sign up for a tour online, or you can park out in metered spaces on West Main Street. The visitor entrance is from the parking garage where you enter through the connecting tunnel from the Annex to the State House.
I had no problems finding Tesla superchargers along the route, but as usual, planning is important especially when looking for hotel locations. As mentioned in my Delaware Legislative Hall tour I stayed in a Fairfield Inn in Strasburg Virginia just up the street from a Tesla supercharger. This permitted me time to top the car off while eating breakfast in the hotel before heading out to Dover Delaware.
In Trenton New Jersey the next day I did the same, staying at a Homewood Suites not far from a Tesla Supercharger adjacent to a Panera Bread where I had breakfast before heading out for Boston.
Notes and References
Story and photographs by David Smitherman, with data collected from onsite inscriptions and brochures, Wikipedia, and Google Maps. Site visits were made in August 2020 and May 2023.
State House tour information: https://njstatehousetours.org/tour/
“Temples of Democracy: The State Capitols of the U.S.A.,” by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and William Seale, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, London, 1976. The 1889 photograph of the State House is from page 197.