ZINK’S “MERCER MAGIC” TALK: Clifford Zink will talk about his new book, “Mercer Magic: Roeblings, Kusers, The Mercer Automobile Company and America’s First Sports Car,” on Sunday, December 13, at 2 p.m. at Ellarslie, the Trenton City Museum. The cost is $5 for members of the Trenton Museum Society and $10 for non-members. Pictured above is a photograph of New Mercers lined up at the factory for road testing in 1912.

Clifford W. Zink, the foremost expert on the Roebling family and the John A. Roebling’s Sons Company, talks about his new book, Mercer Magic: Roeblings, Kusers, The Mercer Automobile Company and America’s First Sports Car, on Sunday, December 13, at 2 p.m. at Ellarslie, the Trenton City Museum, in Cadwalader Park, Trenton. The cost is $5 for members of the Trenton Museum Society and $10 for non-members.

Mercer Magic is a story of Trenton’s entrepreneurship, innovation, and national achievement in the exciting first decades of the 20th century when the new technology of automobiles was sweeping the country.

Members of the Roebling and Kuser families started the Mercer Automobile Company in 1909 to build automobiles “in a class by itself,” and that’s what they did. Mercer Automobile Company produced fine touring and sporting cars, most notably the two-seater Raceabout, which an amateur sportsman could drive around town during the week and take to the local track to race on weekends. 

The few Mercers that survive today are highly prized by private collectors and museums. A 1911 Mercer Raceabout sold at auction last year for $2.53 million. Jay Leno and other car collectors have long recognized the Mercer Raceabout as America’s first sports car, and today it is a shining example of the city’s motto “Trenton Makes The World Takes.”

The Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie is located in the middle of the Frederick Law Olmsted designed Cadwalader Park, with an entrance on Parkside Avenue, in Trenton. There is abundant free parking in front of the museum. Museum hours are Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday 1 to 4 p.m. It is closed Mondays and municipal holidays. Visit www.ellarslie.org for more information and directions.

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