Category: Announcements

Schedule a tour for your group, class, or family trip!

Come walk around the site where, for only a few minutes, the First Battle of Trenton raged. Discover a church that’s been all-but-forgotten to history… another piece of Trenton’s ‘hidden history’.. and then take a few steps down to see the crypt! But if you want a single-page preview — here’s the “quick tour.”

Call us at 609-392-8086 to discuss your needs & interests (and appropriate donations). As you can guess from our website (HISTORY) page, your guide can address different levels – schedule and help us customize a Powerpoint lecture for your needs, a walk-around, or hands-on (with old books and sermons or turkey feathers!). (AND be sure to ask us about the very special ghost story about the OLD HAMMOND ORGAN).

Schedule an activity for a camp or class group or simply your own family (see below)! Up to ten children can take a turkey-quill home that they’ve learned to write with, and learned how it was made. During Patriots Week 2024 we were featured on Channel 6 News. Contact us – leave a message at 609 392-8086 and we’ll get back to you to discuss the arrangements and any appropriate donations. All our feathers were graciously supplied by LEE TURKEY FARM, Hightstown, NJ who let us pick out all the best from the floors of their barns after Thanksgiving!

October 3 – FIRE in the NORTH TOWER!!

St. Michael’s is in tight financial shape due to failure of our boiler in April 2024 and the October accidental “arson.” TPD detectives used a distant video image to establish the cause: an elderly woman eating breakfast on the steps several hours prior had put out her cigarette under the lintel of the old door. Stuffed under the lintel were twigs and scraps of a squirrel nest behind the frame (as the South tower doorframe is witness). Smouldering and smoking for nearly two hours, a 5-year-old boy saw it from a window across the street and had his grandfather call 911. And so, with a 5-year old’s help and God’s blessing, the Trenton Fire Department could save the church from conflagration.

This, however subjected us to a detailed State Fire Inspection. Bringing the church up to Fire Safety Code may be the straw to break our financial back. But we are resilient. Most critical to our well-being is the fact that the church will not have any heating through the coming winter save electric space-heaters. The main sanctuary will be closed entirely.

UPDATE: We made it through WINTER 2025

As of April 25, 2025, the space heaters are taken away, all the fire code infractions (except extra front stair bannisters) are closed, and the camel is still walking, carrying its century’s old load.

The Facility’s ability to stay afloat.

Our two 2024 fund-raisers held in June and October only broke even in our attempt to bring the church to the attention of large philanthropies. It is clear that St. Michael’s has the potential to serve as an iconic symbol of the American heritage, however, with no significant endowments to carry the church forward into the 21st century, the facility’s ability to stay afloat is gravely in peril. Looking to the future, however, our goal is to create a foundation of our own —Friends of Old St.Michael’s Trenton.. which is now to be renamed “The David Brearley Legacy Foundation. David was, of course, one of the first Friends of Old St. Michaels.

• We are the sole surviving structure directly involved at the scene of battle during the First Battle of Trenton. Contrary to popular myth, the Barracks played no part in the battle. The battle, with bullets and shrapnel flying around our church, is recognized as the actual turning point in a failing war, after which Washington was able to establish a united Continental Army prior to the 2nd Battle of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton.
• Our Senior Warden, David Brearley, served as the chief conciliator between small and large states throughout the US Constitutional Convention of 1787; he chaired the committee that defined the powers of the President and created the office of Vice President; in 1780 he had set the American legal precedent regarding the very nature of constitutionality to law while serving as Chief Justice of NJ.
• In 1801 our church served as the site of the national convention of Episcopal churches that established the Articles of Religion for the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer still used today.
• In our commitment to all aspects of community involvement, we continue to model the tradition and ideals of both democracy and faith.

STAYING AFLOAT for 2026

HEATING: We’ve got a $100,000 grant from the City’s Federal COVID funds on this one… but the winter is closing in on us and work hasn’t yet begun! However, quotes to install an HVAC (heat-pump) system in the Parish House came in upwards of $200,000.

FIRE CODE: Infractions fall under a number of categories: electrical, structural (egress doors & locks, handrails), and internal structural changes (stairwell enclosure). Addressing fire safety infractions comes to approximately $15,000.

WINDOWS: An inspection of our stained glass windows by the 100-yr-old BAUT Family Window Studios produced a report for restoration/maintenance of $31,670, with major attention to two Kempe windows by the chapel altar, and one Lamb window by the organ in the sanctuary. The quote to manufacture and install modern insulated windows in the Parish Hall to replace the original broken jalousies from the 1900’s is an additional $69,830.

FOUNDATION: in the coming DECADE amount to upwards of $300,000, particularly to support the sanctuary floor, requiring archeological work in the unexcavated dirt-floor supporting the old wood column uprights, since several portions of the existing sanctuary were built over colonial graves.

DEMOLITION & REMOVAL of oil tanks, two decommissioned cast-iron boilers, and entire steam radiator system can be estimated at upwards of $75,000.

A rather auspicious occasion for St. Michael’s, the installation of our permanent David Brearley exhibit coincided with the 200th anniversary of Marquis de Lafayette’s Farewell Tour, a year-long event being celebrated by a day-to-day re-enactment of all of the late general’s visits to all 24 states existing in 1824. Though he visited Trenton, and prayed at 1st Presbyterian Church down the block on Sept. 26, 1824 we did not know if he visited his old compatriot’s grave at that time, but Michael Halbert, the re-enactor did an amazing amount of research on our old First Warden, and delivered a eulogy worthy of an old-friend. (Click on the photo above to read the Trenton Daily article covering the event.)

Conceived as a way to promote the church, a series of half-hour radio variety shows was created to be premiered and recorded live in our cafe in the upstairs Parish Hall, e.g. THE UPPER ROOM, with the goal of taking it to senior centers, making The St. Michael Players into an old-time travelling road-show. Like many a great idea, we got bogged down in rehearsals for episode 2, and episode 3, dedicated to crossing guards, is still a-waitn’ trial.

Ernie Kovacs graduated Trenton Central High, and then went on radio. Many consider him the ‘father of TV comedy.” Radio shows in those days were somewhat like “Sesame Street,” built around recurring themes and characters, introducing new songs, which is what Kovac’s Cafe does. At the “Kovac’s Cafe,” St. Michael himself is one of our characters- a saint whose spirit is stuck in a creaky old building.

The theme of “The Upper Room” is a twist on the Last Supper, but in Kovacs’ style, this is a Passover Seder. Each episode we hear from a Genesis couple, who let us in on a few unknown twists to their tale, as well as a twist on the seder’s own theme of FREEDOM through recovery.

Now if you don’t think this can be turned into comedy, click on the demo below!!! (You can tune to the theme-song for the Delaware River exactly at 7:00 on your podcast dial, and The Mother’s Day Song at 25:44).

The St. Michael’s Players (Mr. Boggs, Momie Ariel, and The Voice of St. Michaels) are currently seeking grant funding under the auspices of 12-Steps & More Books for Mental and Spiritual Health. Listen to our opening “demo.” We’re ready and waiting to flower!