Courtesy of the University of California, The Bancroft Library 

At the time of the 1915 World’s Fair it had only been a year since the State of New Jersey had acquired the Old Barracks from the Old Barracks Association, a group of dedicated women who were responsible for saving the south wing of the building. The State of New Jersey was in the process of acquiring historical buildings to form Mahlon Stacy Park, which would encompass the property around the Old Barracks. In order to secure the deed for the building the State promised to purchase the detached north wing of the original building and restore the Old Barracks to its previous form.

The south wing of the original building, purchased by the Old Barracks Association in 1902. 
– From the Collection of the Old Barracks Association, 1989.003.0003

The north wing of the Old Barracks. The wings were separated at the end of the 18th century to extend Front Street up to the newly-built Capitol Building. It was split into several residences and businesses. The building to the far right was the original Officers’ House and was used throughout the years for a variety of purposes, including the Mayor’s Residence,
​a school, and for a short time, a brothel. 
– ​From the Collection of the Old Barracks Association, 1989.004.0017

Circa 1915. Taken from the newly-dug foundation of the Masonic Temple, this photograph shows the Old Barracks midway through its first restoration. 
– From the Collection of the Old Barracks Association, 2014.006.0001

While the Trenton Barracks would not be fully restored until 1917, almost three thousand miles away in San Francisco, CA the state of New Jersey spent $200,000 (the equivalent of $5.1 million today) to build a full-size replica of the Old Barracks at the 1915 World’s Fair in just a year.

​The replica was designed in an H-shape, with wings off the rear of the building, while the original was U-shaped. They also chose to use white stucco rather than stone, considered to give the overall building a more “domestic” look.
​From the archives of the Old Barracks Association

Replica of the Old Barracks at the 1915 World’s Fair.
It was built without the addition of the Officer’s Quarters.
Courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

The facsimile contained many unique features, including a gentleman’s smoking room, a room dedicated to Princeton University, and a President’s suite which boasted a private drawing and dining room on the ground floor and four more rooms upstairs. This suite was kept empty for President Woodrow Wilson, former Governor of New Jersey, who was supposed to be the State’s honored guest but was unable to attend due to the outbreak of World War I only a few months earlier.

Visitor Frank Morton Todd, reflecting years later, claimed:

Nothing could have been more American in spirit and association than the New Jersey building…the educational value of the New Jersey participation was large, for the reproduction of a building with such vital historical associations made history more vivid and the Revolution, with its great and devoted personalities, more real to thousands of Americans, young and old, to whom the history of their country too much tends to become a mere something in a book. This was a picture of the past, showing its great fruits in the present, and for it every other part of the Exposition had a feeling of gratitude to the State that presented it.