Trenton Mayor Arthur "Art" Holland
I was born in 1962 so for most of my life in the Burg
Art Holland was the Mayor and that was that. It seemed
to folks of my era that he was there forever and would
stay there forever. My Dad knew Art as did so many of
the readers of this blog. This is not a political blog
as there are plenty of them on the net already and I
avoid politics here as I do not want to tiff half of
my readers..your views are your own and mine are mine.
This is about Burg Memory Lane. But Art Holland is an
exception to the rule as he was our Mayor all those
years. From what all the folks who knew him tell me
he was a good guy. I remember him most from the big
event of my Burg Day which involved him, the Water
Crisis of 1975. The Trenton Water Filtration Plant
broke down and he got it up and running again in a
few days. I remember we had to boil the water for baths
and had to drink water from trucks that came by
in the neighborhood (The National Guard?) . I
think we had flooding that year and the Civic Center
burned down. Folks were selling Tee Shirts with all
3 of the events on them. I forget what the caption
was on those shirts. I think the State Workers were
off a few days to save water. The bars I assume stayed
open so if you were thirsty in the Burg you at least
had them.. Do you remember?
4 comments:
Oh yeah...I remember. My dad was a Trenton fireman, so he and I went down to the river plant to watch the goings on. It was right around Labor Day, because the school openings were delayed that year. I also remember taking our canoe down to the St Anthony's High School area when the floods hit. It was quite a summer.
Hi Mack: Art Holland and I were close friends. In the 30s we played on the same team for 2 years. We played for a manager whose wife would bake us a pie or cake for triples and home runs. We called Art "Chirp", his nick name at the time. He would stop at third base when he hit a long ball because he liked the pies better. He was very popular as Mayor and was elected as President of the Mayor's Assoc. of America.
I think the shirts read "Trenton What Next"?
Lord, it was during a hot spell to boot! First couple of days I went to Hightstown and got water from a pal. Then I discovered a little secret. "Little Saint Ann's" (Brunswick Ave.), had a well and they turned it on late at night. Kept the mob away I guess.
Art was a friend of my Dads and I remember a few years after he died Betty opened a crafts store on Broad near Market. Christmas Eve and I picked some items out but left my wallet at home. She didn't even know me but told me to come back after Christmas with the money.
Skipper
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