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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
PATERSON (84 alt., 138,513 pop.) is one of the few American cities that have turned out almost exactly as they were planned. Alexander Hamilton envisaged a great industrial city at the Great Falls of the Passaic, and at the site he chose has developed the third largest city of the State and the manufacturing and commercial center for 500,000 people in northern New Jersey.
Built mainly on higher ground lying within the hairpin curve of Passaic River eighteen miles from its mouth at Newark Bay, Paterson is shadowed on the southeast by the rocky slope of Garret Mountain. The tightly built business center is separated from the chief residential area by the Erie Railroad tracks, elevated on an embankment and a series of bridges.
Above the rock-walled chasm of Passaic Falls the river's original beauty has been largely preserved in a well-landscaped park; downstream, at the
opposite end of the city, another fine park stretches to the bank. Between
the two parks the stony channel is hemmed by brick-walled factories or cull frame houses, and spanned by a number of bridges. Too shallow for navigation, the river serves only as a source for power at the Falls.
The general appearance of the city bespeaks its industrial history. The greatest obstacle to order and symmetry is the random location within its 8.36 square miles of ubiquitous mill buildings. They are usually three- and four-story structures of dusty brick with rows of high windows running the length of each floor. Scores of manufacturers may occupy partitioned shops in a single building. Most of the mills are built flush with the sidewalk; the monotonous clatter of the looms echoes up and down the street. Tall water towers usually stand next to the buildings.
The millworkers' home often is a ramshackle tenement, or else a plain two-family house of frame construction. Crowded in the river section, sometimes braced against the old stone walls of the channel itself, or standing in lonely clusters on the outskirts of the city, these buildings generally lack the brightness of paint and flowers and grassplots. The impression is one of faded grays, browns and mustard yellows. Paterson's real color, usually missed by the visitor, is in the gay fabrics woven on the looms.
Artisans, small merchants, and others of the middle-income group have fairly modern homes, but the best residential area is the Eastside. Here are lawns and shrubbery in abundance and trim rows of maples on every street. The houses range from small and neatly designed structures of brick or frame to pretentious stucco dwellings in the Spanish style, equipped with tennis courts, and three-car garages. Some of these homes rest upon high ground overlooking the broad curve of Passaic River and offering a distant view of Manhattan's skyscrapers.
Lying between the Eastside and the shopping district is a section of modern apartment houses, churches and older houses, some with turrets and stone towers reminiscent of the period when a man demonstrated architecturally that his house was his castle.
The business life of the city is concentrated chiefly on three thoroughfares: Main Street, Broadway, between Main and Paterson Streets, and the section of Market Street that lies between the Erie Railroad Station and Main. An unusual number of banks of varying late Victorian architecture dominate the downtown district. Two up-to-date department stores, the one modern hotel, the leading motion picture house, and a miscellany of smaller shops and restaurants give the feeling of a shopping area. Northeast of Market Street is Broadway, a conglomeration of drygoods stores, open-air markets, and bargain centers which serve the majority of the industrial population.
Paterson residents are known as walkers. Taxicab drivers earn little, despite the attraction of exceedingly low rates. It is a common saying that to walk twice around the City Hall is to meet half of your friends. Local news and gossip often travel faster by word of mouth than by publication in the local newspapers.
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