Lambertville – Then and Now

• Address: 14 Bridge Street
• Historic Name: The Beacon Building
• Today: Green Street Shop and Consign

In 1845, the telegraph reached Lambertville from New York City and Lambertville’s first newspaper was printed.

Known as “The Telegraph,” the newspaper was owned by John R. Swallow. Swallow sold the paper to G.C. Large and W.B. Hughes.

They shortly sold to Clark Pierson who changed the name of the paper to “The Delaware Valley Diarist.” In 1853 Pierson sold and the paper again changed names, this time to “The Peoples’ Beacon.”

Clark repurchased the paper in 1858 and shortened the name to “The Beacon.”

In 1869 Phineas K. Hazen purchased the paper and changed the name to “The Lambertville Beacon,” thereby initiating the long reign of the Hazen family.

The 1873 Atlas of Hunterdon County shows the Beacon Office on the SW corner of Bridge and South Union Street (currently the parking lot of the Wells Fargo Bank). Mastheads of the Lambertville Beacon newspaper indicate that they last published an edition at 6 South Union Street (aka SW corner of Bridge and South Union) on April 29,1898 and The Lambertville Beacon’s first edition published at 14 Bridge St. was on December 30, 1898.

The publication remained a Hazen family-owned business until 1989, when Joseph N. Hazen, then publisher and editor, sold it to the Packet Media Group.

He stayed with the larger company until shortly before his death in 1998, as a managing editor and then staff photographer. His obituary said that the Beacon had been a Hazen-owned business through four generations.

The Packet Media Group ceased publication of the Beacon Newspaper in February 2015.

Today this building, built c. 1830, is home to Green Street, a shop that offers resale labels at lower than retail prices.