Trenton, the capital of New Jersey

Two capitals for two Jerseys

New Jersey began as two colonies, each with its own capital. East Jersey was governed first from Elizabethtown, under Governor Philip Carteret, and from 1686 from Perth Amboy. West Jersey’s first assembly met at Burlington in 1681. When the two halves were united as a single royal colony in 1702, neither town gave way, and government business moved back and forth between Perth Amboy and Burlington.

A government on the road

The Revolution scattered the government. From 1776 to 1790 the state legislature had no fixed seat. It first sat at Princeton in August 1776 and later met at Burlington, Trenton, Haddonfield, Perth Amboy and other towns. Trenton was a frequent host, and the convention that ratified the US Constitution met there in December 1787.

Trenton also had its turn on the national stage. In November and December 1784, the US Congress met in the town, making it briefly the capital of the United States.

Choosing Trenton

On November 25, 1790, the state ended the shuttling and designated Trenton as its single capital, and the government relocated there. The first State House, designed by Jonathan Doane, was finished two years later, in 1792.

The State House

The State House has grown in stages. John Notman enlarged it in 1845 and Samuel Sloan in 1871. Early on March 21, 1885, a fire destroyed the wing along West State Street, and Lewis Broome rebuilt it and added the present rotunda and dome, which rises 145 feet. From 1996 to 1999 schoolchildren raised money for the dome’s restoration through a “Dimes for the Dome” campaign, and it is now covered with 48,000 pieces of gold leaf.

New Jersey’s official pages call it the second-oldest state capitol in continuous use, after Maryland’s. Virginia’s Capitol, in continuous use since 1788, is older too, so it is safest to say that New Jersey’s is one of the oldest.

Visiting

Public tours of the State House are offered. During the renovation of the building’s front portion that began in 2017, tours started from the State House Annex. See the State House tours site for current details.