Discover Windsor

Windsor is an important example of a 19th-century rural village; at the same time, most of its original vernacular architecture has been preserved. The village’s character can be understood through its different building types and historical uses: churches, a house with distinctive roof features, a cemetery, and a former industrial site are among the tangible records of the village’s history. Those interested in historic village architecture will find several different ways to understand Windsor here.

Churches and Historic House Styles

The Windsor Methodist Episcopal Church features a vernacular Greek Revival design. A pediment tops the front façade, and stained-glass windows were added to the church in 1902. A marble plaque above the entrance bears the inscription “1839 Centerville, Enlarged 1885”. The Windsor Methodist Church dates to around 1839 and stands on the rise of Church Street. The pediment, windows, and inscription provide specific details about the architecture and history of the church building.

Another building has its own distinctive character: the Whittington-Hutchinson House dates to around 1845 and is designed in a vernacular Georgian-Greek Revival style. Two gabled dormers and four interior brick chimneys define its description. By comparison, the prominent pediment of the Methodist Episcopal Church is on its front façade. These different forms help present the church architecture and the design of the house as two distinct aspects of Windsor’s historic building stock.

The Methodist Cemetery is also part of the village’s history. The small church cemetery is unfenced and contains approximately 300 burials. Most graves are marked with simple, unadorned limestone tablets. These modest grave markers stand alongside the architectural details of the church and house as another understated part of the historic village landscape.

Former Uses and Transportation History

Windsor’s history includes more than churches and houses. A shirt factory once operated in the historic building preserved at 24 Church Street. Several dozen people, mostly women, worked there across two floors. This former industrial site adds the building’s use as a workplace to the architectural history and offers a specific sense of the different ways historic buildings in the village were used.

The Windsor Hotel is also a historic site: it dates to around 1832, and an inn had already stood on the site since 1818. These dates are part of the history of the former inn and hotel. They sit alongside the later-dated church features and the house from around 1845, distinguishing Windsor’s various historical connections.

The railroad also shaped Windsor’s transportation history. The village benefited from freight, passenger, and mail services that ran twice daily. In the broader regional context of transportation, the Camden-Amboy Railroad was chartered in 1830 and is among the earliest railroads in the United States. This broader context adds the development of early rail travel to the village’s history without conflating the regional details with the individual buildings in Windsor.

Discover more destinations: Princeton, Pennington, Hightstown, Robbinsville, Ewing, Trenton, Hamilton Township

For the main travel overview: Mercer.