St. Michael's Church History: Architecture, Graveyard, and Parishioners

The members of St. Michael’s church continued to make changes to the building. In 1843, the church was brought forward to its present footage on Warren Street. The rare version of the Gothic Revival Style in the castigated mode, was made in 1851. Thomas U. Walter, a prominent Philadelphia architect, Augustine M. VanKirk and George T. Pearson contributed to this present design of the church.

 The Parish House, including a chapel was constructed in 1892. There is a churchyard/cemetery on both sides of the church with simple gravestones, obelisks and prone tablets. The cemetery includes graves dating from the mid-eighteenth century. David Brearly, an early churchwarden and signer of the U.S. Constitution, is buried here. Pauline Holton, a daughter of Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte, and Joseph Wood, Trenton mayor from 1856-1859, are also buried in St. Michael’s Church cemetery.

 Prominent parishioners in the early years of St. Michael’s include: Samuel Meredith, the first Treasurer of the United States; John Rutherford, United States Senator froim 1791-1798; Richard Howell, Governor of New Jersey from 1792-1801; James Westcott, Secretary of State from 1840-1850; Garret D. W. Vroom, Mayor of Trenton from 1881-1884; Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, founder of the first Trenton Public Library, and prominent physician.