 |  | |
 |
|  |
 |  | |
| | |
|
| |
| | |
|
|
Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
Workers and shoppers travel to and from the outer residential districts mainly by bus. Most of the busses are orange-yellow vehicles with the redtriangle insignia of Public Service. The main streets of the city are continually crowded with busses, since downtown Newark is the terminal not only for local transport but alsb for a multitude of suburban bus lines. On several lines trackless trolleys have replaced streetcars and gasoline-run
busses.
This endless stream of bus, trolley and automobile traffic away from the Broad and Market intersection divides into approximately 10 branches, each headed for a more or less residential district. These loosely defined population areas have developed as Newark has slowly crept up and out from the banks of the Passaic River. Some are almost as old as the Four Corners; others date back only 30 years or less. Two or three are highly nationalized; most are as much a population melange as the city itself. A few wear the marks of wealth and beauty; the rest exhibit in row upon row the standard or substandard American home.
The old Forest Hill and Woodside sections in the north of the city still have the best homes, occupied largely by the group of citizenry that has the strongest historical feeling for Newark. Here the large frame and brick houses, comfortably spaced and attractively landscaped, reflect the character of their occupants. Alongside Victorian houses, early and late, have risen many apartment houses that tend to modernize the section, and sectional feeling is disappearing.
To the west is the contrasting Silver Lake area, with comparatively modern bungalows and six- and eight-family houses built within the last quarter of a century to house that section of the Italian population which first became economically able to move from the downtown slum area.
An apartment house belt follows the outer fringe of the business section. It is most heavily developed in the south along Clinton Avenue and the adjoining streets. Newark has not the number of apartment houses that might be expected for a city of its size, but the proportion of fairly modern buildings is evidence of new construction since the early [920's. Brick is the prevailing material; often excess ornamentation reveals the preferences of the builders. Many of the buildings, however, are sober brick structures around an inner court; most are only six or eight stories high.
The Weequahic section, on the southwestern boundary of the city, developed when a zoning ordinance that had forbidden apartment construction lapsed in 1925. This district has some of the most attractive newer homes in the city.
Southeast of the Pennsylvania Railroad main line, and limited on two other sides by the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Pennsylvania freight line, is the Ironbound district, a triangular section of lowland solidly built with workers' frame houses, and blackened by the city's most important industrial plants. Because the shape of the land resembles the neck of a bottle it is also called Down Neck.
Once a most desirable residential section, it is now a strange mixture of century-old Newark families and European immigrants. The street names of Rome, Paris, Amsterdam and London attest World War changes from old German names rather than the rich variety of nationalities. Berlin Street was left unscathed because its two unfinished blocks had not been recorded on the books of the municipal bureau of streets.
The Ironbound district is even more a separate part of the city than its steel-railed boundaries would indicate. Scores of small independent retail shops serve a population which seldom visits the other portions of Newark. A lower middle-income area rather than a slum, Down Neck was chosen
the site of the Chellis-Austin apartments, built in 1931 by the Prudential Insurance Company as an experiment in medium-cost housing for residents of moderate income. Few Newarkers from other sections see the district frequently except from the Pulaski Skyway along its eastern edge; many
know only by hearsay of its existence.
A general monotony in housing, characterized by browns and grays, shows in that part of the Hill section to the west of the Four Corners. The bulk of the city's Negro population is concentrated here between Avon Avenue and South Orange Avenue, extending east almost to Broad Street. Their homes constitute the city's gravest housing problem, for they are mostly dilapidated tenements in roughly paved streets. In this section the poorly paid workmen buy three slices of bread for a penny, six cigarettes for a nickel and two soft drinks for six cents.
The remainder of the Hill section consists of Clinton Hill, composed mainly of one-family homes with an occasional apartment house; and a large area of tenements, partly occupied by a German colony.
In the northwestern part of the city are the Roseville and Vailsburg sections, which present old Newark with a suburban facing. Perhaps more than any other district, Roseville has a community sense, emphasized by homelike frame dwellings, strips of lawn and quiet streets. In Vailsburg, lying near Maplewood and Irvington, the prevalent housing unit is the two-family structure, set close to the curb and fronted with an iron rail.
|
|
|
Return To |
|
|
