2019-04-28 - EverWanderWhy Hudson County Historic Tour II
A forecast of light rain scared most of the registered walkers away from my Hudson County History Tour II on April 28, 2019. Five walkers including my parents joined me at the start. Brian was the only one who was with me on the Part I Walk the previous day. We begun the day talking about some of the sites we ended the previous day with. Check out my post about Part I to learn about the Robinson Statue, Stanley Theatre, the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, the Columbus Statue, the 9/11 Memorial, the Purple Heart Memorial, the Peter Stuyvesant Monument, and the Apple Tree House.
Our first major new site was the 150+ year old 63+ acre Holy Name Cemetery and Mausoleum whose permanent residents include the former Jersey City Mayor (1917-1947) Francis “Frank” Hague, former state Senator Thomas Cowan, Justice Marie Garibaldi, who was the first woman appointed to the New Jersey Supreme Court, Frank Sinatra’s grandparents, Robert Hopkins, a crew member in charge of life boat #13 of the ill-fated Titanic, four other Titanic survivors with ties to Hudson County, and many Hudson County veterans from as far back as the Spanish American and Civil Wars.
Our first major new site was the 150+ year old 63+ acre Holy Name Cemetery and Mausoleum whose permanent residents include the former Jersey City Mayor (1917-1947) Francis “Frank” Hague, former state Senator Thomas Cowan, Justice Marie Garibaldi, who was the first woman appointed to the New Jersey Supreme Court, Frank Sinatra’s grandparents, Robert Hopkins, a crew member in charge of life boat #13 of the ill-fated Titanic, four other Titanic survivors with ties to Hudson County, and many Hudson County veterans from as far back as the Spanish American and Civil Wars.
Our journey next brought us to St. Aloysius Catholic Church. As the population passed the 200,000 mark in the 1890's in Jersey City, the new electric trolley allowed workers to move farther from their jobs. The west side of the city opened up and a need for a new church to serve the Catholics arose. The cornerstone for the first parish building was laid on October 17, 1897. St. Aloysius School opened in 1898. In 1905, as Hudson County was drawing up plans for West Side Park, the parish commissioned the architect Charles Edward to design a granite French Renaissance style church and bell tower. Accommodating nearly one thousand persons, the new house of worship and assembly was dedicated on February 9, 1908. The rapidly growing congregation numbered 4900 in 1912. During the 1950's standing room only was routine at Sunday masses. However, the move from the cities to the suburbs in the postwar years eventually affected St. Aloysius as the number of parishioners declined.
The portico is ltalian in style, an almost exact duplicate of the Church of Santa Maria della Grazie in Rome. The bell tower is also ltalianate resembling closely the Campanile of St. Zeno in Verona and the Campanile of St. Mark's in Venice. The overall style of the Church tends toward French Gothic with escutchions, swags, and flaming pots which are French in character. The main stonework is a rough cut pink granite. All of the mouldings, and the fluted columns over the entrace above the portico are in terra cotta. The portico is built of Indiana limestone. The Church is surmounted by three crosses, two of which are in wrought iron filigree.
My parents left us to return home as our small group entered Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park is an urban county park in with an area of 273.4 acres that opened in 1905 as West Side Park. The park was designed by Daniel W. Langton and Charles N. Lowrie, both founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The park consists of two distinct sections: Lincoln Park East, 150.4 acres , and Lincoln Park West, 123 acres. The sections are divided by U.S. Route 1/9 Truck and connected by foot and vehicular bridges. We enjoyed the monuments to the Irish Famine, the Revolutionary War, and to volunteer firemen. Circling counter-clockwise around Lincoln Park East we saw a collegiate track-and-field meet as we stopped to use the restroom nearby.
The portico is ltalian in style, an almost exact duplicate of the Church of Santa Maria della Grazie in Rome. The bell tower is also ltalianate resembling closely the Campanile of St. Zeno in Verona and the Campanile of St. Mark's in Venice. The overall style of the Church tends toward French Gothic with escutchions, swags, and flaming pots which are French in character. The main stonework is a rough cut pink granite. All of the mouldings, and the fluted columns over the entrace above the portico are in terra cotta. The portico is built of Indiana limestone. The Church is surmounted by three crosses, two of which are in wrought iron filigree.
My parents left us to return home as our small group entered Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park is an urban county park in with an area of 273.4 acres that opened in 1905 as West Side Park. The park was designed by Daniel W. Langton and Charles N. Lowrie, both founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The park consists of two distinct sections: Lincoln Park East, 150.4 acres , and Lincoln Park West, 123 acres. The sections are divided by U.S. Route 1/9 Truck and connected by foot and vehicular bridges. We enjoyed the monuments to the Irish Famine, the Revolutionary War, and to volunteer firemen. Circling counter-clockwise around Lincoln Park East we saw a collegiate track-and-field meet as we stopped to use the restroom nearby.
A bridge carried us to Lincoln Park West where we explored the wild estuary on the nature walk. Light rain had forced the birds to land so we saw plenty flying low to the ground. The Lincoln Park Nature Walk is part of wetlands restoration project adjacent to the Hackensack River. We also walked around the wooded area where the East Coast Greenway enters the park. We stopped for a lunch break at a nearby McDonald's after returning to Lincoln Park East. And we saw Lincoln the Mystic Statue before finally exiting the park.
The next section of the walk was between Lincoln Park and Liberty State Park passing through beautiful homes on Bergen Hill. We passed by the closed Saint John's Episcopal Church, the Fielder Family Home at 108 Summit Avenue, the Van Horne House at 62 Summit Avenue, and the Wakeman Home at 41 Summit Avenue. Two of the mansions had descriptive signs in front.
We passed by some amazing murals, the splendid but empty Lafayette Park, and the 6-story abandoned warehouse at 125 Monitor Street before finally nearing the Liberty State Park entrance. One walker left us at the light rail station right before entering the park.
I made Brian choose between two paths and he picked the one less traveled by. We stopped at the grand Liberty Science Center, an interactive science museum and learning center which first opened in 1993 as New Jersey's first major state science museum. In December 2017, the Science Center opened the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, a 400-seat facility with a dome 100 feet (30 m) in diameter and an 89-foot (27 m) diameter screen, named for the benefactor who contributed $5 million towards the cost of construction. Larger than New York City's Hayden Planetarium, at its opening it was the largest such planetarium in the Western Hemisphere and the world's fourth largest.
A long road walk followed as we circled counterclockwise around the park, with the nature preserve to our left. We walked through warehouses and business buildings before finally getting to footpaths again near the exclusive Liberty National Golf Course. We followed along the river passing by the sunken ship before reaching Flag Plaza for a restroom break.
A long road walk followed as we circled counterclockwise around the park, with the nature preserve to our left. We walked through warehouses and business buildings before finally getting to footpaths again near the exclusive Liberty National Golf Course. We followed along the river passing by the sunken ship before reaching Flag Plaza for a restroom break.
We sat facing the Liberation Monument and the Statue of Liberty in the distance. Liberation is a bronze Holocaust memorial created by the sculptor Nathan Rapoport. Officially dedicated on May 30, 1985, the monument portrays an American soldier, carrying the body of a Holocaust survivor out of a Nazi concentration camp.
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York, in the United States. The copper statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. The Statue of Liberty is a figure of Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess. She holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed in Roman numerals with "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" (July 4, 1776), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. A broken chain lies at her feet as she walks forward. The statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, started a drive for donations to build the pedestal and attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar. The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland. The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.
We were also sitting at the approximate location of the Black Tom explosion which occurred on Black Tom Island on July 30, 1916. It was an act of sabotage by German agents to destroy U.S.-made munitions that were to be supplied to the Allies in World War I. This incident, which happened prior to U.S. entry into World War I, is also notable for causing damage to the Statue of Liberty. The explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter scale and was felt as far away as Philadelphia. Windows were broken as far as 25 miles (40 km) away, including thousands in Lower Manhattan. Some window panes in Times Square were shattered. The stained glass windows in St. Patrick's Church were destroyed. The outer wall of Jersey City's City Hall was cracked and the Brooklyn Bridge was shaken. People as far away as Maryland were awakened by what they thought was an earthquake.
Continuing north along the Hudson River we passed by Ellis Island on our way to the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal. Ellis Island is a museum and former immigration inspection station in New York Harbor, within the states of New York and New Jersey. It was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. Before being used as an inspection station, Ellis Island used to be the site of Fort Gibson and later a naval magazine. The island was greatly expanded by land reclamation between 1892 and 1934, and now has a land area of 27.5 acres. The original island and contiguous areas, comprising 3.3 acres, is part of New York, but all the reclaimed land is part of New Jersey. When it was an active immigrant inspection station, Ellis Island contained facilities for processing immigrants and for medical quarantines. The entire island was made part of Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965 and the original main building has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal also known as Communipaw Terminal and Jersey City Terminal, was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was also serviced by CNJ-operated Reading Railroad trains, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad during various periods in its 78 years of operation. The terminal was built in 1889, replacing an earlier one that had been in use since 1864. The terminal was one of five passenger railroad terminals that lined the Hudson Waterfront during the 19th and 20th centuries, the others being Weehawken, Hoboken, Pavonia and Exchange Place, with Hoboken being the only station that is still in use. It operated until April 30, 1967. The headhouse was renovated and incorporated into Liberty State Park.
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York, in the United States. The copper statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. The Statue of Liberty is a figure of Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess. She holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed in Roman numerals with "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" (July 4, 1776), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. A broken chain lies at her feet as she walks forward. The statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, started a drive for donations to build the pedestal and attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar. The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland. The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.
We were also sitting at the approximate location of the Black Tom explosion which occurred on Black Tom Island on July 30, 1916. It was an act of sabotage by German agents to destroy U.S.-made munitions that were to be supplied to the Allies in World War I. This incident, which happened prior to U.S. entry into World War I, is also notable for causing damage to the Statue of Liberty. The explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter scale and was felt as far away as Philadelphia. Windows were broken as far as 25 miles (40 km) away, including thousands in Lower Manhattan. Some window panes in Times Square were shattered. The stained glass windows in St. Patrick's Church were destroyed. The outer wall of Jersey City's City Hall was cracked and the Brooklyn Bridge was shaken. People as far away as Maryland were awakened by what they thought was an earthquake.
Continuing north along the Hudson River we passed by Ellis Island on our way to the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal. Ellis Island is a museum and former immigration inspection station in New York Harbor, within the states of New York and New Jersey. It was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. Before being used as an inspection station, Ellis Island used to be the site of Fort Gibson and later a naval magazine. The island was greatly expanded by land reclamation between 1892 and 1934, and now has a land area of 27.5 acres. The original island and contiguous areas, comprising 3.3 acres, is part of New York, but all the reclaimed land is part of New Jersey. When it was an active immigrant inspection station, Ellis Island contained facilities for processing immigrants and for medical quarantines. The entire island was made part of Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965 and the original main building has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal also known as Communipaw Terminal and Jersey City Terminal, was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was also serviced by CNJ-operated Reading Railroad trains, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad during various periods in its 78 years of operation. The terminal was built in 1889, replacing an earlier one that had been in use since 1864. The terminal was one of five passenger railroad terminals that lined the Hudson Waterfront during the 19th and 20th centuries, the others being Weehawken, Hoboken, Pavonia and Exchange Place, with Hoboken being the only station that is still in use. It operated until April 30, 1967. The headhouse was renovated and incorporated into Liberty State Park.
Exiting the terminal, we looked through the walls of the Empty Sky Memorial at Ground Zero and the Empire State Building in the distance. These Twin walls transect a gently sloped mound anchored by a granite path with the length of each wall exactly equal to one side of the former World Trade Center Towers and the height of the wall reflects the proportion of the former buildings if they were lying on their side. The seven hundred and forty nine (749) victims’ names from the State of New Jersey face one another on the interior elevations of the twin brushed stainless steel walls within easy reach. The low, grassy berm surrounding the walls softly rises to ten feet and then gradually returns to the level of the promenade creating an amphitheatre-like incline that faces Lower Manhattan. Clusters of weeping cherry trees atop the berm unify the landscape and reinforce the magnificent panoramic views of Lower Manhattan and the harbor.
Hugging the side of the the Morris Canal Basin, we made our way through the Liberty Landing Marina and crossed the Ethel Pesin Memorial Bridge out of the park.
Hugging the side of the the Morris Canal Basin, we made our way through the Liberty Landing Marina and crossed the Ethel Pesin Memorial Bridge out of the park.
The last two main stops of the walk were in the Van Vorst Historic District around the Van Vorst Park. The Ward-Heppenheimer Mansion at the corner of Jersey Avenue and Montgomery was designed by architect Frederick Clarke Withers and built in 1884 for its original owner John Ward. Its stepped gables and prominent chimneys mark its Flemish Revival style. In 1893 it was purchased by “General” William Christian Heppenheimer, who had a lengthy New Jersey political career: He was elected to the New Jersey Assembly, representing the Fourth District in 1887 and 1889, and became speaker of the New Jersey Assembly in 1890. During the 1890s he served consecutively as Comptroller of the Treasury of the State of New Jersey, President of the Board of Finance of Jersey City, and City Treasurer. In 1928 Governor A. Harry Moore appointed him as a member of the Port of New York Authority, later Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which he served to 1933. Jersey City Past and Present Heppenheimer played host to political and sports figures in the mansion such as 4-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan and boxing champ Jack Dempsey.
The Dr. William Barrow Mansion at 83 Wayne Street was one of two similar homes constructed by Cornelius Van Vorst, a founder of the Township of Van Vorst and mayor of Jersey City from 1860 to 1862. The Van Vorsts were a prominent family who trace their North American roots to the third superintendent of the patroonship Pavonia, whose bowery was located at nearby Harsimus. The family lends its name to the nearby Van Vorst Park which was part of the township. Cornelius Van Vorst's sister Eliza was married to Dr. William Barrow. Built between 1835–1837 and also known as the Ionic House, the wooden Greek Revival structure has five Ionic columns gracing a two-story portico. The columns divide the building into four equal bays, effecting an offset center hall. As the columns are evenly spaced, the front door is not in the center, but set off to the right The interior of late Federal-early Greek Revival style with some Victorian décor features a ballroom, carved Italian marble fireplaces and twelve-foot ceilings. The mansion stood alongside the Van Vorst Mansion, separated only by a lawn, and near the Van Vorst family farmhouse. In 1874 Van Vorst sold his home to Dr. Benjamin Edge and it was later demolished in the 1920s. The Y.M.C.A. bought the Barrow Mansion in the 1890s, adding a rifle range and gymasium. St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church purchased the residence in 1897 and used it as a parish house. The pistol range was converted to a two-lane bowling alley in the basement. The following year St. Matthew's Church was built on the lawn between the Barrow and Van Vorst mansions. The church flourished until the 1920s and the former mansion and parish house became a lively and popular social center.
We walked onto Christopher Columbus Drive and turned east towards the Hudson River once more. One walker left us at the Grove Street Path Train Station and so once more for the second day in a row, it was down to Brian and I.
The Dr. William Barrow Mansion at 83 Wayne Street was one of two similar homes constructed by Cornelius Van Vorst, a founder of the Township of Van Vorst and mayor of Jersey City from 1860 to 1862. The Van Vorsts were a prominent family who trace their North American roots to the third superintendent of the patroonship Pavonia, whose bowery was located at nearby Harsimus. The family lends its name to the nearby Van Vorst Park which was part of the township. Cornelius Van Vorst's sister Eliza was married to Dr. William Barrow. Built between 1835–1837 and also known as the Ionic House, the wooden Greek Revival structure has five Ionic columns gracing a two-story portico. The columns divide the building into four equal bays, effecting an offset center hall. As the columns are evenly spaced, the front door is not in the center, but set off to the right The interior of late Federal-early Greek Revival style with some Victorian décor features a ballroom, carved Italian marble fireplaces and twelve-foot ceilings. The mansion stood alongside the Van Vorst Mansion, separated only by a lawn, and near the Van Vorst family farmhouse. In 1874 Van Vorst sold his home to Dr. Benjamin Edge and it was later demolished in the 1920s. The Y.M.C.A. bought the Barrow Mansion in the 1890s, adding a rifle range and gymasium. St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church purchased the residence in 1897 and used it as a parish house. The pistol range was converted to a two-lane bowling alley in the basement. The following year St. Matthew's Church was built on the lawn between the Barrow and Van Vorst mansions. The church flourished until the 1920s and the former mansion and parish house became a lively and popular social center.
We walked onto Christopher Columbus Drive and turned east towards the Hudson River once more. One walker left us at the Grove Street Path Train Station and so once more for the second day in a row, it was down to Brian and I.
Brian and I walked the three miles north through the Exchange Place and Newport neighborhoods before finally reaching the Hoboken NJ Transit Train Terminal. Along the way, we passed by the closed power plant and the Holland Tunnel Ventilation Towers. Finally, I said goodbye to Brian as we separated, each on our own train headed home.
The overall walk was about 17 miles and took 7.5 hours. I had a great time and wish more people joined us. It barely rained more than a few drops and the walk was amazing. Join my Meetup for more walks: https://www.meetup.com/EverWanderWhy/