Hopewell officially celebrated the restoration of Hopewell Railroad Station which has gone through several years of renovations to restore the historic landmark.
A dedication ceremony occurred at the three-story station, which is located at Railroad Place, on Oct. 10.
“We kicked off the day recognizing our Borough’s commitment to its historic past and then has some fantastic examples of the promise of our community’s future, when the Hopewell Valley Central High School a cappella group Con Brio performed,” Mayor Ryan Kennedy said.
“Their set also helped kick of the 4th annual Hopewell Porchfest, a volunteer lead community music event featuring dozens of bands at front porch stages all over town. The Borough is grateful for the musicians, sponsors and organizers who on such a fantastic show for us all this weekend.”
Local officials joined residents, former borough officials and staff, and local students to recognize the work done and celebrate the exterior restoration of the station that has been used by the community as a community room.
“It was an honor to welcome so many members of our community this Saturday to recognize the recent restoration of our historic train station,” Kennedy explained.
“I want to thank Peter Lindsay, immediate past chair of the New Jersey Historic Trust for joining us, members of Borough Council (especially Council President Deb Stuhler for helping to organize) as well as our administrator Jerry Giaimis and past administrator Doug Walker, for marking the occasion and making the project possible.”
Hopewell Railroad Station was built in 1876 and is a historic National Register-listed property.
“A restoration like this might be a rounding error for a larger municipality, but the Trust’s financial and technical assistance can the difference between protecting or forgetting important pieces of our past,” Kennedy added.
“I’m also thankful for our resident historic architect Michael Mills for his work over the years, and the Knights family for joining in the celebration in honor of David Knights, for whom the community room at the station is named. David was instrumental in the preservation of this special place as our long-time Council President and chair of Preservation NJ.”
The station in the 1940s had between 16 to 20 trains a day. However, the train service declined by the 1960s and was reduced to four trains a day, according to the Hopewell Living History project.
All train service was discontinued in 1982. The station and the 4.3-acre property changed owners in the mid-1980s from New Jersey Transit to Bernard Fedor, a private developer. By 1993, the borough acquired the station from Fedor.
In 2001, the station opened as a community center following extensive renovations through federal and state grants of more than $1.2 million.
The borough received a $250,000 preservation grant in 2020 from the Preserve New Jersey Historic Preservation Fund, which is under the New Jersey Historic Trust, for exterior renovation of the station.
The fund provides matching grants to historic preservation construction and planning projects.
The borough had a matching share in the station project for about $250,000.
That same year, Borough Council members adopted a bond ordinance appropriating the funds for the station improvements that included roof replacement and repairs, gutters, woodworking, painting, carpentry, and brick repainting.
In October 2024, borough officials announced that they received another grant for the exterior restoration work, close to $147,000, from the New Jersey Historic Trust for the railroad station project to help fund Phase II of the exterior improvements.
The New Jersey Historic Trust was created in the 1960s to preserve historic sites across the state and it is currently affiliated with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
Mills Schnoering Architects, which is based in Princeton and Philadelphia, was hired by the borough to plan and oversee the restoration of the historic train station.
The project started in June 2024 with the roof recoated, a new gutter liner placed on the northeast corner, bricks replaced, and mortar joints renewed on the lower level and first level to prevent water damage and issues. Spot repointing (renewing mortar joints) in the masonry was done on the upper two floors.
In addition, there were brick replacements, reinforcement of the brownstone, graffiti removal, replacement of the door to the basement, adn replacement of one of the guard rails. The balcony was re-roofed, balustrades were reset, and new rails were put in.
The exterior of the historic train station had suffered from what all old buildings suffer from rain, wind, snow, ice, high and low temperatures that lead to peeling paint, metal corrosion, a wood rot, according to a presentation in 2025 by architect Michael Mills, a partner of Mills Schnoering.
Jennifer Arnoldi, who was project manager, explained in the presentation how the roof had some surface corrosion. They had to scrape and prep the roof but did not have to make any major repairs to the roof.
Some slate shingles were missing, and they went on to replace the ones missing on the building. An upper gutter had to get fixed on the building and a lower canopy lost its paint and did not have a lot of ponding (pooling water) in the gutter, so water had been draining pretty well from the canopy.
However, the northside balcony had biological growth and some of the wood was starting to rot. Arnoldi said that on the front side opposite the south elevation of the building there was an opposite problem which came from the sun.
The wood was splitting and opening up from so much sun hitting the wood. They had balcony rails replaced as part of the project.
The masonry (brick) was missing a lot of mortar (workable paste used to bind building blocks), due to drainage issues.
All the brownstone next to drainage downspouts always looked wet, added Arnoldi. Additionally, there were stone repairs at areas in bad condition.
Hopewell Railroad Station dedication on Oct. 10 in Hopewell Borough.
