Harsimus Cove Historic District | |
 Aerial view of Harsimus Cove | |
    | |
| Location | Roughly bounded by Grove, Bay & First Sts., Jersey Avenue, Second, & Coles Sts., Jersey City, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°43′24″N74°2′41″W / 40.72333°N 74.04472°W /40.72333; -74.04472 |
| Area | 60 acres (24 ha) |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Greek Revival, Late Victorian, Beaux Arts |
| NRHP reference No. | 87002118[1] |
| NJRHP No. | 1509[2] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 9, 1987 |
| Designated NJRHP | October 15, 1987 |
Harsimus (also known asHarsimus Cove) is a neighborhood withinDowntownJersey City,Hudson County, in theU.S. state ofNew Jersey. The neighborhood stretches from theHarsimus Stem Embankment (the Sixth Street Embankment) on the north to Christopher Columbus Drive on the south between Coles Street andGrove Street[3] or more broadly, toMarin Boulevard. It borders the neighborhoods ofHamilton Park to the north,Van Vorst Park to the south,the Village to the west, andthe Powerhouse Arts District to the east.Newark Avenue has traditionally been itsmain street.[4] The name is from theLenape, used by theHackensack Indians who inhabited the region and could be translated asCrow's Marsh.[5] From many years, the neighborhood was part of the "Horseshoe", a political delineation created by its position between the converging rail lines and politicalgerrymandering.[6]
Harsimus is a derivative of aLenape phrase possibly meaningCrow's Marsh. Variant spellings of the term include:Aharsimus,[7]Ahasimus,[8][9]Hasymes,[10]Haassemus, Hahassemes, Hasimus, Horseemes,Hasseme,[11]Horsimus.[12] In current Lenape,ahas means "crow".[13]
In 1629, the DutchmanMichael Reyniersz Pauw obtained a patent for all the land in what would becomeHudson County, naming itPavonia. Unable to fulfill apatroon charter provision that he set up a plantation with fifty permanent settlers, theDutch West India Company sold a part to his superintendent, who had built a homestead in 1634 and was the first of manyVan Vorsts to play important roles in the development of the city. A family homestead built in 1647 was demolished in 1967.[14] Conflict with Native Americans compromised the settlement 1643, which continued to grow after the 1645 treaty endingKieft's War. Again in 1655, the area was attacked in a conflict called thePeach War. In 1660, it came under the jurisdiction ofBergen, New Netherland the main village of which was located atBergen Square.[15]
_(14756945346).jpg)
Once the area was ceded to the British after the surrender ofFort Amsterdam,New York claimed ownership to the high waterline along the west bank of theHudson River and that any pier built there was under its jurisdiction, thus stifling development which would compete with the burgeoningNew York City.Paulus Hook was the first to urbanize, and TheCity of Jersey was incorporated in various forms in 1820, 1829, and again in 1838.[16] John Coles, a merchant from New York, was among the first to expand into Harsimus.[17] The Supreme Court settled the matter of jurisdiction in the 1830s, creating a border mid-river. Harsimus grew with shipping along shoreline and residences farther inland.[18] The short-livedVan Vorst Township later merged with its neighbor. Much of the housing stock from the maritime era is still intact. Many of the streets in thegridiron laid at the time have been renamed over the years. Moving away from the river they were originally called Hudson, River, Kelso, and Barnum. Provost and others to the west have stayed the same.[19]
Harsimus was transformed by the development of the railroad industry.[20] By 1870 much of theestuary flood zone was land-filled for the development ofrailyards, extending a quarter mile fromHenderson Street. Three elevated right of ways were built: one from theBergen Arches to theErie RailroadPavonia Terminal,[21][22] theHarsimus Stem Embankment[23][24] at 6th Street for thePennsylvania Railroad (PRR), and another for itsJersey City Branch along Railroad Avenue (now Columbus Drive) toExchange Place. The embankments and elevated lines separated adjoining neighborhoods. A small slip was created and still is called Harsimus Cove. Huge stockyards dominated the waterfront between the train terminals.[25]
Harsimus' isolation was codified withgerrymandering, forming ahorseshoe and creating a new nickname. The community consisted ofCatholic immigrants, many of them Irish, who worked on the railroad. Infuxes ofEllis Island immigrants swelled the population. A vestige of theSlavic character of the area remains at the Ukrainian National Home. To diminish the Democratic power base, Republican power brokers redrew the voting district to consist solely of the Horseshoe so that they may protect other seats from Democratic threat. In the 1910s the Horseshoe power base produced the infamous MayorFrank Hague who dominated theHudson County political machine and influenced city, county, state, and federal politics for most of the first half of the 20th century. In 1941 a large fire struck the Horseshoe waterfront.[26]
In the late 1950s,container shipping inPort Newark supplanted railroad ports along waterfront, which by the 1970s were abandoned, leading to a decline in population and economic activity.Urban renewal projects broughtslum clearance of tenements alongGrove Street as well as the removal of the PRR elevated rail right of way. Middle, low income, and senior housing projects were developed. A section ofGrove Street was renamedManila Avenue in recognition of the city's residentOverseas Filipinos. Henderson Street becameMarin Boulevard for the first governor ofPuerto RicoLuis Muñoz Marín to reflect the influx ofPuerto Rican andFilipino residents. Railroad Avenue is now Columbus Drive, acknowledging the still largeItalian population.
The renewal did not affect the 19th century blocks which were not demolished. A historic preservation movement and real estate reinvestment led to Harsimus's designation as aHistoric District in 1987.[27] Convenience to mass transit and relatively affordable rents attracted an artistic community, some of whom converted buildings to live/work spaces. Zoning in the form of "WALDO" (or Work and Live District Overlay) were unsuccessful in preserving and stimulating the creation of an arts district within the area where large warehouses still remained, and have given way thePowerhouse Arts District and the construction of residentialhighrises.
East of the neighborhood, theLeFrak Organization obtained title to most of the disusedErie-Lackawanna land and began the development ofNewport, centered around thePort Authority Trans Hudson (PATH)Newport Station in the 1980s.[28] To the south, thePRR abattoir were also acquired.[29] Development plans did not include extending the 19th century urban grid to the waterfront, but the construction of largeparking decks at the former andstrip mall at the latter. The first segment of theHudson-Bergen Light Rail opened in 2002, including theHarsimus Cove Station nearby the landmarkHudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse.
Grove Pointe, a residential complex at 100 and 102 Christopher Columbus Drive, the "30-story tiered brick-and-stone structure with abundant glass" was designed byDeWitt Tishman Architects[30] and built byKushner Real Estate Group.[31]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| Bergen-Lafayette |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown | ||
| Greenville | ||
| The Heights | ||
| Journal Square | ||
| Meadowlands | ||
| Upper New York Bay | ||
| West Side | ||
| Historical | ||
| Topics | |
|---|---|
| Lists by state |
|
| Lists by insular areas | |
| Lists by associated state | |
| Other areas | |
| Lists of specific structure types | |
| Related | |
