There’s a new way to explore the city’s historic spots with tours throughout downtown Trenton. The last two tours allowed Trenton residents to enjoy a fresh perspective of the city’s unique past, with the most recent tour featuring Pokemon GO.
“We are going around Trenton doing some Pokemon hunting,” said event coordinator Arthur Iurilli, who explained that this was a helpful tool to get residents and tourists across the city. “It’s called an augmented reality game; you walk around, and the geographic points in the real world give you either creatures to catch by throwing what’s called the Pokeball at it or places where you can get that Pokeball or other various items,” Iurillir said.
The group stopped at poke stops throughout the afternoon, caught Pokemon, and laughed as they walked in through downtown Trenton. There are five Poke stops located in downtown Trenton at different historic and notable stops in the city.
“I like the city incorporating things like game apps and our devices which are always glued to our hands anyway,” Anne Davenport, a Pokemon GO player said, “And this is a nice way to take a walk downtown, see what’s what, maybe stop in, have a bite to eat while you’re down here supporting some local businesses, catching Pokemon that I didn’t know existed because I haven’t played in 167 days.”
The second tour was on the second week of April and was led by the Trenton City Museum. Karl Flesch , a tour guide with the museum, is an expert in the architecture of Trenton. “I do a lot of research. A lot of it is done by looking up, you know, print Times newspapers from the past. That’s where a lot of that history I get comes from. And a lot of photos,” Flesch said.
“I think you have to know the past to see where you’re going… I think if people walk and you talk about it and you get more appreciation of the beauty that’s still here that you can still see and hopefully just don’t tear it down,” Flesch said.
Tourists were treated to learnings about the history of buildings. It included interesting facts about the city of Trenton. For instance, after the war, the Congress of the Confederation met for two months at the French Arms Tavern from November 1, 1784, to December 24, 1784.
“We were the capital of the country,” Flesch explained to the group of listeners, “So that’s why it’s called the corner (of E State Street and S Broad Street) historic because of what happened here. Lafayette met here, Washington met here at this building,” Flesh said.
Mary Karanik, a resident of Cadwalader Heights in Trenton, was happy to learn about the buildings of Trenton. “There’s a rich history and those who appreciate Trenton need to know what we’re building on top of.”
Be on the lookout for new tours as they continue every Saturday throughout the spring and summer months.
