A Jewel of a Belated 100th for Hamilton

By Elaine Van Develde

Eyes darted around the meeting room and people were all smiles when Red Bank Mayor Pat Menna announced at last week's council meeting that there was someone with "a very special 100th birthday in the audience."

He inadvertently fibbed a little. It was a something, not really a someone, even though a someone, rather a family, was tied to it. That something was Hamilton Jewelers.

The three-generation business, which has had a store in Red Bank for 10 years now, since November of 2003, turned 100 last year. And, it being Hamilton's 10th anniversary on Broad Street, the governing body thought the jeweler should be recognized with a proclamation.

"It's an extreme success story of what a family can do," Menna said.

The business was founded in Trenton in 1912. Irving Siegel actually bought the store at 122 South Broad Street "for "$15,750 in notes payable to the former owners," according to the Hamilton website. At the time, Irving worked in the store with his wife, Alice, and sold things as simple as lighters and as intricate as fine diamonds, it added.

Since then, it has stayed in the Siegel family, thriving through the three generations.

There are now three stores: the one in Red Bank, another Princeton and one out of state in Palm Beach, FL.