Trenton, New Jersey Second High School

There are many challenges along the road of getting Mr. Allen his deserved recognition. One of them has been a bias that he was simply a regional school specialist. This lumps him in with a crowd of effective yet unimaginative designers of the late 1800s. To offset this bias, I present the Second High School from Trenton,  New Jersey. This is one of at least three east coast commissions Mr. Allen designed and, perhaps, his most notable. 

After quite a bit of wrangling about contractors and materials, Allen did not serve as general contractor for this project as he usually did. Still, his fee ended up being nearly $4800. The equivalent of nearly $150,000 in 2020 money. 

The detail above on the frieze in the auditorium speaks to the scope and detail of the project. 

Sadly, the building was razed in the 1960s due to growing enrollment and demand for a more modern building.