Female Collegiate Institute

Friendship Lodge No. 22, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, founded the Odd Fellows Female Collegiate Institute here in 1852. During the Civil War, Federal troops occupied the building, a two-story brick structure, and used it as a hospital. An accidental fire destroyed it. After the war, the Odd Fellows lodge filed a claim for the damage. The school was not rebuilt. Although Trenton survived military attacks and occupation by both sides during the war, like many towns it recovered slowly from the conflict. Julius Freed, a German-Jewish merchant who moved to Trenton after the war and constructed this house in the institute site, helped the town recover.