The Facebook page ‘Views of Trenton’ has attracted over 4,600 local Trentonians since its creation seven years ago. The page is dedicated to sharing and highlighting the simple sights residents of the city see on the daily, along with the natural beauty that comes with living in the historical area of Trenton.
Whether it is notable artists, photographers, historians or officials of the city, ‘Views of Trenton’ attracts anyone with love for the state capital and a camera to capture the moments within it.
“Trenton is a very beautiful place once you peel back some of the layers of the onion,” said Rich Hundley, professional photographer and co-admin of the Facebook page. “I want people to see how nice it is to shoot here and that you can take good photos pretty much anywhere in the city.”
In 2013, Dan Dodson, the founder of ‘Views of Trenton,’ made a post to Facebook asking if anyone in the community was willing to help run the page. That is when Hundley stepped in to join. He said jokingly, “I must have had nothing else to do at that point in time and bit off a little more than I could chew, like I always do.”
Initially, the page consisted of just a handful of Trentonians posting their photos of the city. As time passed, the page steadily grew in popularity and formed a following. Now, almost every day, there is new posts from the community sharing their sights of Trenton.
“It’s always had a steady amount of people coming in,” said Hundley. “Somebody will come in and go invite 15 or 20 of their friends because they’ll recognize a photo or someplace they had a barbecue 40 years ago or whatever. Things just bounce around.”
If you scroll through the page today, you will come across a variety of shots showcasing scenes from recognizable landmarks such as the Trenton Makes bridge [seen above] and the Trenton Battle Monument, as well as small, intimate moments of residents relaxing on their porch or business owners fixing up their shops.
“I like how exclusive it is,” said Hundley. “The rules are that the photos have to be within the city limits, so I think that’s a nice little caveat.”
Although Facebook is swarmed with a copious amount of photography pages to choose from, Hundley believes the ‘Views of Trenton’ page holds a special quality. He said, “I think that little niche uptrend is a nice little history book to a certain extent.”
Because members are able to pin the specific location of their photos, the ‘Views of Trenton’ page acts as a historical archive to sights of the city. According to Hundley, around 80 percent of the posts to the page are recent photos.
“I mean, it’s not the Duke library or anything like that, but there may come a time that you’re looking for something, however many years from now, [and] hopefully people can still look at that archive,” said Hundley. “I hope it stays not just a popular page, but looked at as something that people can go for reference.”
Check out the ‘Views of Trenton’ Facebook page HERE.
