From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Journal Square is a business district,
residential area, and transportation hub in Jersey City, New Jersey, which takes
its name from the newspaper Jersey Journal
whose headquarters are located there.[1] The
"square" itself is at the intersection of Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Avenues. The
broader area extends to and includes Bergen Square, McGinley Square, India Square, the Five Corners and
parts of the Marion Section.[2] Many
local, state, and federal agencies serving Hudson County
maintain offices in the district.
History
Prior to its development as a commercial district Journal Square
was the site of many farmhouses and mansions belonging to
descendents of the original settlers of Bergen, the first chartered
municipality in the state settled in 1660 and located just south at
Bergen Square.
In conjunction with the 1912 opening of the Hudson
and Manhattan Railroad Summit Avenue station many were
demolished to make way for modern buildings, including the still
standing Labor Bank Building and the Public Service building. The
square was created in 1923 when the city condemned and demolished
the offices of the Jersey Journal, thus creating a broad
intersection with Hudson
Boulevard which itself had been widened in 1908. The
newspaper built new headquarters and the new square was named in
its honor.[3]
The bridge carrying the boulevard was designed by consulting
engineer Abraham Burton Cohen and completed
in 1926.[4] For
most of the twentieth Journal Square was the cultural entertainment
center of Hudson County,[5]
home to the movies palaces built in the 1920s: The State
(1922),[6] the Stanley Theater
(1928),[7] and the
Loew's Jersey Theater (1929).[8] Karen
Angel of The New York
Daily News described Journal Square from the 1920s to the
1960s as "crown jewel, a glowing commercial, entertainment and
transportation hub of the city."[9]
The Jersey
Bounce, a hit song in the 1940s mention the Journal Square in
its lyrics as the place where it got started.[10] Two
days before Election Day in 1960 JFK made his last campaign speech before
returning to New England at Journal Square.[11].Hudson
Boulevard was named Kennedy Boulevard soon
after his assassination. The Tube Bar, so-called for the Hudson
Tubes (as the fore-runner of the PATH system was called) was
made famous by Louis "Red" Deutsch
getting prank calls there.[12]
Today
The Journal Square Transportation Center,
opened between 1973-1975[13]
includes the Journal
Square PATH and bus station.[14] and
is headquarters of the Port Authority
Trans-Hudson. It is attributed to have contributed to the
decline of the district by moving the train-bus interchange, and thus pedestrians,
away from other commercial activities around the square.[9]
It is built on an elevated bridge structure above the Bergen Hill Cut, an
1834 railroad cut once used by Pennsylvania Railroad main line
and Jersey
City Branch and now by the PATH rapid transit system
and an occasional freight train. In front of the station is a
statue of Jackie
Robinson who in 1946 crossed the baseball color line at Roosevelt
Stadium.[15] A
statue of Christopher Columbus the work of
Jersey City native Archimedes Giacomontonio has been located on the
square since 1950.[16] The
Hudson County Community
College campus is a collection of buildings throughout the
district around the square.[17]Saint
Peter's College has its main campus a few blocks to the south,
as does Hudson Catholic
Regional High School near McGinley Square.
Northeast of Journal Square near Five Corners is the county seat of Hudson County. The Hudson County Courthouse, is
at Newark and Baldwin Avenues.40°43′53″N 74°3′29″W / 40.73139°N
74.05806°W / 40.73139; -74.05806 (Hudson County
Courthouse). The Hudson
County Administration Building, at 595 Newark Avenue, is home to
many county agencies and departments. It is home to the Five
Corners Branch of the Jersey City Public Library is sited on the
intersection itself. The Jersey City
High School at 2 Palisade Avenue. A concentration of shops
operated two of the city's ethnic groups, Overseas Filipino and Indian
American,[18], can
be found along Newark Avenue.Many of the buildings
in Journal Square include housing stock (such as brownstones, pre war
apartment buildings, frame houses), convenience stores, bodegas, downscale franchises, that Jerremiah
Healy, mayor of Jersey City, has referred to as "ugly old
eyesores."[9]
Future
The redevelopment of Journal Square has attracted the interest
of urban planners, architects, sociologists, and others, many who
view its historical, current, and future use as an important
indicator of the contemporary understanding of how cities
function.[5][19][20] [21] As of
2009 there are proposals to build a complex called 1 Journal
Square which would combine rental housing, multi-story retail
and parking. Plans for the mixed-use development consist of 68
story and 50 story residential towers above a 7-story retail and
parking base with a rooftop terrace.[22][23]
See also
References
- ^
"Jersey Journal, 30 Journal
Square". New Jersey City
University. http://www.njcu.edu/Programs/jchistory/Pages/J_Pages/Jersey_Journal.htm. Retrieved
2007-08-26.
- ^
Hudson County New Jersey Street
Map. Hagstrom Map Company, Inc. 2008. ISBN
0-8809-7763-9.
- ^ Grundy, J. Owen (1975). ""I am the law.."".
The History of Jersey City (1609 - 1976). Jersey City:
Walter E. Knight. p. 53.
- ^
Cohen, A. Burton. “Hudson County Boulevard Bridge Plaza.” Purdue
Engineering Review 21, No. 4 (May 1926): 3-6, 22.
- ^ a
b
Eric M. Friedman, Journal
Square and the Old Loew's Theatre: Grassroots Resistance in a City
Center, Canon Magazine, 2009
- ^
State Theater
- ^
Stanely Theater
- ^
Loew's Jersey
- ^ a
b
c
Angel, Karen. "Journal Squared: A Jersey City neighborhood's
housing multiplies." The New York
Daily News. Friday November 13, 2009. 1. Retrieved on November
13, 2009.
- ^
Jersey Bounce. (2009, May 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Retrieved 03:57, November 9, 2009, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jersey_Bounce&oldid=293339886
- ^
1960:Kennedy at Journal
Square
- ^
Weird NJ Vol. 2 Tube Bar
Interview Accessed May 12, 2009.
- ^
JSQ Trans Ctr history
- ^
Port Authority JSQ Trans
Ctr
- ^
Roosevelt Stadium
- ^
Columbus Statue
- ^
Hudson County Community College official web
site
- ^
can be found along Newark Avenue"India Square", accessed
November 7, 2009
- ^
JC Museum: (Re)Centering: New
Visions for Journal Square
- ^
JSQ Redevelopment
Plans
- ^
http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/vtc/tod/.../JerseyCity.html
- ^
NJ.com Accessed May 12,
2009.
- ^
JSRC New JSQ
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