Leigh Avenue

It's another cold (2ºC), grey, overcast but thankfully sunny and windless morning in Montgomery Township today. The air is a lot dryer and cooler. I was hoping to get outside to complete the roll of Rollei RPX 25, but the vertigo is still present from yesterday. I am not keen to walk or drive when my sense of balance is off-kilter, so I expect to spend another day indoors. I took the day off from work yesterday to rest up, but the nausea has subsided enough to get back to work.

It was cold and damp last Saturday when I captured these images along Leigh Avenue in Princeton. The kind of damp cold that aches my ageing joints and numbs my fingers. The sky was filled with grey clouds worsened by the subdued illumination one would expect to see in the late afternoon. I explored the homes and other buildings between Witherspoon and John Streets.

12 Leigh Ave, Princeton | Saturday 5 December, 2020 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | f/11 | ISO 4000

Named after Albert Leigh, a businessman who opened a slaughterhouse on the street, Leigh Avenue was laid out circa 1900. Still, by 1918, several slaughterhouse buildings had been taken down and replaced with housing units. Today Leigh Avenue is mainly residential, and the block between Witherspoon and John Streets is lined on either side by tiny early 20th-century houses with flights of steps to reach the orch. Many of these single-family dwellings have a large front porch. Numbers 14-16, a four-family double house.

19 Leigh Ave, Princeton | Saturday 5 December, 2020 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | f/11 | ISO 6400

Leigh Avenue contains a small commercial area at John Street with buildings constructed in the first decades of the 1900s.

Maria's Hair Salon, Leigh Avenue
Maria's Hair Salon, 42 Leigh Avenue | Saturday 5 December, 2020 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | f/11 | ISO 4000

In the 1930s to 1960s, these buildings, at the corner of Leigh Avenue and John Street were grocery stores, candy stores and restaurants owned by black, Italian, Jewish and Greek families. The residents in this community patronized these stores because the stores on Nassau Street did not welcome black customers.

In the 1930s and 40s there was a grocery store owned by Mr Irvin Ferrar. Frederick and Doris Burrell purchased the building in 1943. Doris started a beauty parlor, and in later years she added a fashion boutique, conducted Yoga classes, and provided nutrition information for her clients. Fred opened a florist shop, where he supplied flowers and plants for weddings, funerals, dances and many events in Princeton.

Princeton History

Local Greek, 44 Leigh Avenue | Saturday 5 December, 2020 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | f/11 | ISO 3200

This continues today. Maria's Hair Salon at 42 Leigh Avenue offers hair styling and haircuts preferred by the mostly black and Latinx communities in this section of Princeton. Over the years I have lived in the area, the location at 44 Leigh Avenue has been a Mexican restaurant, a coffee house, and a middle eastern restaurant. It's now the location of a Mediterranean restaurant, Local Greek.

Caesar Trent's Property

Ceasar Trent was a controversial character in Princeton history.

Last night Bhavna told me that the weather forecast called for rain today. But I wanted to finish a 36 exposure roll of Rollei RPX 25 that I had loaded into my Minolta X-700 a few weeks ago. RPX 25 is a slow film. Shooting handheld was challenging and required more light than the overcast skies could provide. To avoid blurry photographs, I had to use my tripod. I had planned on photographing some of the historic buildings around my area. On my list was Rockingham and Einstein's home on Mercer Street. But when I awoke this morning, I did some more searching on the Princeton I stumbled upon a link to Albert E. Hinds Memorial Walking Tour: African American Life in Princeton and discovered things about Princeton's history that I never knew. I did a quick tour of the tour and changed my shot list.

I looked out my bedroom window. The sky was grey, moody, and a bit of fine rain silvered the street. I knew I had to dress warmly.

I had breakfast with Alphie and then packed my gear for the morning. I packed my Peak Design camera sling with my Minolta X-700 and MD Rokkor-X 45mm f/2.8, AKG headphones, Fuji X-T2 and Fujinon XF27mmF2.8 lens (approximately 41mm full-frame). I wanted to try out Ritchie's Tri-X film simulation and capture some images for the Lens Artist Photo Challenge.

I parked on Leigh Street, intending to start my photo walk at the shops, walk over to Witherspoon Street for more photographs before finishing my photo walk at Bank of America on the corner of Witherspoon Street and Nassau Street. I have walked by this street and even entered the bank to use the ATM but never known its significance. According to the Historical Society of Princeton, around 1795, Ceasar Trent became the first Black property owner in Princeton, with his residence at the building.

Ceasar Trent was a controversial character in Princeton history. According to Princeton University, he was a former enslaved person who owned enslaved people and gained significant wealth for a black man through his business dealings with white Princeton business people.

An occasional employee of a prominent landowner, the object of a townsperson’s published recollections, and a slave owner, Cezar Trent was one of a select few free black citizens of antebellum Princeton whose life can be rendered in detail through the examination of historical records. Significantly, his dual status as both a member of Princeton’s free black community and slaveholder challenges notions that free blacks were consistent critics of United States slavery. ~ [Princeton University]

Caesar Trent's Property at 90 Nassau Street in Princeton
Saturday 5 December, 2020 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | Tri-X Film Simulation
Caesar Trent's Property at 90 Nassau Street in Princeton
Saturday 5 December, 2020 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | Tri-X Film Simulation

Submitted for the 100DaysToOffload project.