 |  | |
 |
|  |
 |  | |
| | |
|
| |
| | |
|
|
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
NEW BRUNSWICK (125 alt., 34,555 pop.), situated on the south bank of Raritan River, combines the attributes of a manufacturing center, a
college town, a market place and a county seat. It is far enough from other cities to live independently, even though the Pennsylvania Railroad designates it as the southwestern boundary of the New York commuting area. A visitor in 1778 described New Brunswick as a "dismal town, but
pleasantly situated." The riverside site is almost as pleasant as ever, but industrial development has converted the green shore into an area of brickwalled factories and old frame tenements.
The original green of the Colonial village is suggested by the treeshaded square around which the municipal and Middlesex County buildings are grouped, and by the campuses of Rutgers University and its two
affiliated schools: the New Jersey College for Women and the New Jersey State College of Agriculture. Half circling the city, these institutions
occupy much of the high ground along Raritan River, which forms the
northern and eastern boundaries of New Brunswick.
George Street, the main thoroughfare, is lined with modern shops. Glass-fronted first stories are topped with beauty parlors and offices of lawyers and dentists. Above the low skyline of two- and three-story brick
and frame buildings rise the eight-story, white stone building of the First
National Bank; the nine-story, red brick Hotel Woodrow Wilson; and the
delicate white spire of the chapel at the New Jersey College for Women.
The automotive confusion at the business center, George and Albany Streets, brings together the main elements which constitute New Brunswick. Cars from the surrounding area outnumber local vehicles three to one, especially on Saturday nights when parking space is almost invisible. Out-of-town shoppers must thread their way through crowds of girls from New Jersey College for Women, young men from Rutgers, and a polyglot industrial population, emptying its pay envelopes. Albany Street lunchrooms, famous for hot dogs and hamburgers, serve the throng, while the students seek food and drink in a black and chromium cafe, cannily decorated with football murals. Many shoppers make a last stop for weekend supplies at the open fruit and vegetable stands in the Little Hungary section at the western end of Albany Street.
An embankment supporting the main line tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad divides the city. The shabby yellow brick station has long been a favorite subject of complaint in letters to the New Brunswick Home News, but the arched stone bridge across the Raritan ranks as one of the finest of its kind in the State.
The city is known as a manufacturing center for surgical supplies and pharmaceuticals. The needle trades are gaining in importance, and the manufacture of cigars and cigar boxes absorbs another part of the 15,000 local workers. The foreign-born, comprising 27 percent of the population, are largely employed in New Brunswick's factories. Germans, Poles, Hungarians and Italians are the most numerous nationalities, in the order given.
|
|
|
Return To |
|
|
