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Neighborhood Guides > Jersey City > History
History
Jersey City at night, from the Towers of America; ISO Building at center, Newport Tower at left.
The land comprising what is now known as Jersey City was wilderness inhabited by the Lenni Lenape Native Americans in 1609 when Henry Hudson, seeking an alternate route to East Asia and failing in that mission, anchored his small vessel in Sandy Hook. After spending nine days surveying the area and meeting its inhabitants, he returned to Holland. The Dutch organized the United New Netherlands Company to manage this new territory and named it New Netherlands. In June of 1623, New Netherlands became a Dutch province. Soon after, Michael Reyniersz Pauw, Lord of Achtienhoven, a burgemeester of Amsterdam and a director of the West India Company, received a grant as patroon on the condition that he would plant a colony in New Netherlands of not fewer than fifty persons, within four years. He chose the west bank of the Hudson River and purchased the land from the Indians. This land grant is dated November 22, 1630 and is the earliest known conveyance for what are now Hoboken and Jersey City. However, Michael Pauw neglected to settle on his lands and was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633.[2].
The first settlement was at Communipaw, an area adjacent to present-day Liberty State Park. A house was built here in 1633 for Jan Evertsen Bout, superintendent of the colony, which was then called Pavonia (the Latinized form of Pauw's name)[3]. Shortly after, another house was built at Harsimus Cove (near the present-day corner of Fourth Street and Marín Boulevard). This second house became the home of Cornelius Van Vorst, who succeeded Bout as superintendent. These were the first two houses in Jersey City. Relations with the Lenni Lenape deteriorated, and war parties virtually destroyed the settlement of Pavonia in 1643 and again in 1655.
Panorama from Liberty Island, with views of Manhattan and Jersey City.
Scattered communities of farmsteads characterized the Dutch settlements in what would become Jersey City: Pavonia, Communipaw, Harsimus, Paulus Hook and to the north, Bergen Township, later the town of Hudson, and incorporated into Jersey City in 1870. The first Jersey City village settlement was Bergen Township, established on what is now Bergen Square in 1660. The oldest surviving house in Jersey City is the stone Van Vorst house of 1742.
During the American Revolutionary War the town was in the hands of the British who controlled New York, until Paulus Hook was captured by Major Light Horse Harry Lee on August 19, 1779.
During the 19th century, Jersey City played an integral role in the Underground Railroad. Four routes through New Jersey converged in Jersey City.
Incorporation and merger
Jersey City was incorporated as The City of Jersey on January 20, 1820, and reincorporated under its present name in 1838.
By 1870, Jersey City’s population and economy had grown so large that the neighboring towns of Hudson City, New Jersey and Bergen, New Jersey voted to merge into the larger city. The residents of Greenville, independent since 1863, voted to merge into Jersey City in 1873, resulting in the current boundaries.
A family at Atlantic Avenue in Jersey City in 1895
Jersey City was a dock and manufacturing town for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Much like New York City, Jersey City has always been a landing pad for new immigrants to the United States. In its heyday before World War II, German, Irish, and Italian immigrants found work at Colgate, Chloro, or Dixon Ticonderoga. However, the largest employers at the time were the railroads, whose national networks dead-ended on the Hudson River. The most significant railroad for Jersey City was the Pennsylvania Railroad Company whose eastern terminus was in the Downtown area until 1911, when the company built the first tunnel under the river to Penn Station, New York. Before that time, Pennsy rail passengers transferred in Jersey City to ferries headed to Manhattan or to trolleys that fanned out through Hudson County and beyond. The last streetcar was decommissioned in 1949 and today the only passenger heavy rail traveling through Jersey City is New Jersey Transit, which terminates in Hoboken.
Frank Hague
From 1917 to 1947, Jersey City was ruled by Mayor Frank Hague. The Jersey City History Web Site states that "His name is synonymous with the early twentieth century urban American blend of political favoritism and social welfare known as bossism." "Hanky-Panky," as he was known then, ruled the city with an iron fist while, at the same time, molding governors, United States senators, and judges to his whims. He was known to be loud and vulgar, and would often dismiss his enemies as "reds" or "commies." Citizens of Jersey City dared not speak out against him for fear of being harassed by Hague's police or being ostracized or publicly embarrassed in some way. Remarkably, Hague lived like a millionaire, despite having an average annual salary of $8,000. He was able to maintain a fourteen-room duplex apartment in Jersey City, a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, and a palatial summer home in Deal, New Jersey, and he traveled to Europe yearly in the royal suites of the best liners.
The immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks as seen from across the Hudson River in Jersey City. Many people were evacuated by ferry to Jersey City in the wake of the attacks. Never Forget.
The city developed a reputation for corruption, even after Hague left office. By the 1970s, it was caught up in a wave of urban decline that saw many of its wealthy residents fleeing to the suburbs, and led to an influx of working class citizens scarred by rising crime, civil unrest, political corruption, and economic hardship. From 1950 to 1980, Jersey City lost 75,000 residents, and from 1975 to 1982, it lost 5,000 jobs, or 9% of its workforce. [5] The city experienced a surge of violent crime during this period. New immigrants sought refuge in Jersey City because of its low housing costs, despite the decline in many of its neighborhoods due to decay, abandonment, or neglect.
Renaissance
Many formerly abandoned buildings are being renovated, and the light rail line from North Bergen through Hoboken extends through eastern Jersey City, with branches to the western reaches of the city and south to Bayonne. As the waterfront continues to grow, Jersey City's downtown neighborhoods are experiencing rapid gentrification as professionals working in Manhattan are beginning to move in. Many of Jersey City's neighborhoods, including the downtown area, Jersey City Heights, and West Bergen, have an impressive stock of historic houses in the Victorian style.
Also, many financial corporations including Goldman Sachs, Chase Manhattan Bank, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and the investment firm Charles Schwab have relocated from New York City to Jersey City or expanded their offices in Jersey City since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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