City Gardens

City Gardens was a nightclub located at 1701 Calhoun Street in Trenton, New Jersey.

The Nalbone family of Trenton and Lawrence, New Jersey, owned the building several years before it became the legendary rock club known as City Gardens. The "City Gardens" moniker was first used strictly as a blues club in early 1979. Before its life as a blues club, it was an after-hours club called Chocolate City. The dates for Chocolate City are probably 1976 to 1978, and the club name stems from a 1975 song by Parliament-Funkadelic of the same name. (Ironically, that same band would perform at City Gardens with P-Funk leader George Clinton nearly two decades later.) Kurtis Blow had performed at Chocolate City before his release "The Breaks", which is recognized as the first rap song to be certified as a gold record. The building has also been written up in local newspaper accounts as a Bible warehouse, and also known for many years in the 60's as a car dealership called US 1 Motors. As of 2011, the Nalbones still own the building and the building and property has been listed as for sale in local newspapers and Craig's list for a number of years. There was an amazing large neon sign on top of the building that read US 1 MOTORS that when lit in its hey day could be seen for miles. The sign had to be dismantled due to decay and pieces of the structure falling on patrons as they entered through the original door of City Gardens, which was the back door of the small room.