Notes:
Newark, nicknamed The Brick City, is the largest city in New Jersey, United States, and the county seat of urban Essex County. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city had a total population of 273,546, making it the largest municipality in New Jersey. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2004 population estimate is 280,451, an increase of 2.5% from 2000.
It is located approximately five miles (8.04 km) west of Manhattan and two miles north of Staten Island. Its location near the Atlantic Ocean on Newark Bay has helped make its port facility, Port Newark, the major container shipping port for New York Harbor. Together with Elizabeth, it is the home of Newark Liberty International Airport, which was the first major airport to serve the New York metropolitan area.
Newark was originally formed as a township on October 31, 1693, based on the Newark Tract, which was first purchased on July 11, 1667. Newark was granted a Royal Charter on April 27, 1713, and was incorporated as one of New Jersey's initial 104 townships by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798. During its time as a township, portions were taken to form Springfield Township (April 14, 1794), Caldwell Township (February 16, 1798, now known as Fairfield Township), Orange Township (November 27, 1806), Bloomfield Township (March 23, 1812) and Clinton Township (April 14, 1834, remainder reabsorbed by Newark on March 5, 1902). Newark was reincorporated as a city on April 11, 1836, replacing Newark Township, based on the results of a referendum passed on March 18, 1836. The previously independent Vailsburg borough was annexed by Newark on January 1, 1905.
History
Newark was founded in 1666 by Connecticut Puritans led by Robert Treat, making it the third-oldest major city in the United States, after Boston and New York, though it is not the third-oldest settlement. Newark is the city's second name; previously, it was called Milford, named for Milford, Connecticut, from which many settlers had migrated. The name comes from Newark-on-Trent, a town in England whence some of the original settlers hailed.
Colonial era
Newark was a relatively large town in the colonial era, known for its good beer, ciders, and tanned leather goods. In religion, it stayed loyal to old Puritan ways longer than the communities of New England, and was very receptive to the Great Awakening. When the seminaries at Yale and Harvard showed disdain for Great Awakening evangelicalism, several Newark ministers led by Aaron Burr (father of Vice President Aaron Burr) founded the College of New Jersey in neighboring Elizabeth.
Industrial era to World War II
Newark's rapid growth began in the early 1800s, much of it due to a Massachusetts transplant named Seth Boyden. Boyden came to Newark in 1815, and immediately began a torrent of improvements to leather manufacture, culminating in the process for making patent leather. Boyden's genius would eventually allow Newark to manufacture almost 90% of the nation's leather by 1870, bringing in $8.6 million to the city in that year alone. In 1824, Boyden, bored with leather, found a way to produce malleable iron. Newark also prospered by the construction of the Morris Canal in 1831. The canal connected Newark with the New Jersey hinterland, at that time a major iron and farm area. Railroads also arrived in 1834 and 1835. A flourishing shipping business resulted, and Newark became the area's industrial center. By 1826, Newark's population stood at 8,017, ten times the 1776 number.
The middle 19th century saw continued growth and diversification of Newark's industrial base. The first commercially successful plastic — Celluloid — was produced in a factory on Mechanic Street by John Wesley Hyatt. Hyatt's Celluloid found its way into Newark-made carriages, billiard balls, and dentures. Edward Weston perfected in Newark a process for zinc electroplating, as well as a superior arc lamp. Newark's Military Park had the first public electric lamps anywhere in the United States. Before moving to Menlo Park, Thomas Edison himself made Newark home in the early 1870s. He invented the stock ticker in the Brick City. In the late 19th century, its industry was further developed, especially through the efforts of such men as Seth Boyden and J. W. Hyatt. Irish and German migrants moved to the city; the Germans established their own newspapers, which other ethnic groups have emulated. However, tensions existed between the "native stock" and the newer groups.
In the middle 19th century, Newark added insurance to its repertoire of businesses; Mutual Benefit was founded in the city in 1845 and Prudential in 1873. Prudential, or "the Pru" as generations of Newarkers knew it, was founded by another transplanted New Englander, John Fairfield Dryden, who found a niche catering to the middle and lower classes. Today, Newark sells more insurance than any city except Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1880, Newark's population stood at 136,508; in 1890 at 181,830; in 1900 at 246,070; and in 1910 at 347,000, a jump of 200,000 in three decades. As Newark's population approached a half million in the 1920s, the city's potential seemed limitleess. It was said in 1927: "Great is Newark's vitality. It is the red blood in its veins – this basic strength that is going to carry it over whatever hurdles it may encounter, enable it to recover from whatever losses it may suffer and battle its way to still higher achievement industrially and financially, making it eventually perhaps the greatest industrial center in the world".
Newark was bustling in the early to mid-20th century. Market and Broad Streets served as a center of retail commerce for the region anchored by four flourishing department stores like Hahne & Company, L. Bamberger and Company, L.S. Plaut and Company, and Kresge's (later known as Kmart). "Broad Street today is the Mecca of visitors as it has been through all its long history," Newark merchants boasted, "they come in hundreds of thousands now when once they came in hundreds."
In 1922, Newark had 63 live theaters, 46 movie theaters, and an active nightlife. Dutch Schultz was killed in 1935 at the local Palace Bar. Billie Holiday frequently stayed at the Coleman Hotel. By some measures, the intersection of Market and Broad Streets — known as the "Four Corners" — was the busiest intersection in the United States, in terms of cars using it. In 1915, Public Service counted over 280,000 pedestrian crossings in one thirteen-hour period. Eleven years later, on Octoober 26, 1926, a State Motor Vehicle Department check at the Four Corners counted 2,644 trolleys, 4,098 buses, 2657 taxis, 3474 commercial vehicles, and 23,571 automobiles. Traffic in Newark was so heavy that the city converted the old bed of the Morris Canal into the Newark City Subway, making Newark one of the few cities in the country to have an underground system. New skyscrapers were being built every year, the two tallest being the 40-story Art Deco National Newark Building and the Lefcourt-Newark Building. In 1948, just after World War II, Newark hit its peak population of just under 450,000. The population also grew as immigrants from South and Eastern Europe settled here. Newark witnessed distinctive neighborhoods including a large Jewish community concentrated along Prince Street.
According to legend, the Texas-born artist Robert Rauschenberg accidentally left his bus in Newark and spent a week there before he realized it wasn't New York City.
Post-World War II era
Problems existed underneath the industrial hum. In 1930, a city commissioner had told a local booster club, the Optimists:
Newark is not like the city of old. The old, quiet residential community is a thing of the past, and in its place has come a city teeming with activity. With the change has come something unfortunate—the large number of outstanding citizeno live within the community's boundaries has dwindled. Many of them have moved to the suburbs and their home interests are there.
Most New Jerseyans attributed Newark's demise to post-World War II phenomena—the 1967 riots; the construction of the New Jersey Turnpike, Interstate 280 and Interstate 78; decentralization of manufacturing; the G.I. Bill; and the general pro-suburban fiscal order—but Newark's relative decline actually began long before that. The city budget fell from $58 million in 1938 to only $45 million in 1944, despite the wartime boom and an increase in the tax rate from $4.61 to $5.30. Even in 1944, before anyone predicted the rise of the Sun Belt or the G.I. Bill, planners saw problems on Newark's horizon.
Some attribute Newark's downfall to its propensity for building large housing projects. However, Newark's housing was always a matter of concern. The 1944 city-commissioned study showed that 31% of all Newark dwelling units were below standards of health, and only 17% of Newark's units were owner-occupied. Vast sections of Newark consisted of wooden tenements, and at least 5,000 units failed to meet any thresholds of being a decent place to live. Bad housing predated government intervention in the housing market.
One theory postulated by Kenneth T. Jackson and others is that Newark, having a situation where a poor center was surrounded by middle-class outlying areas, only did well when it was able to annex middle-class suburbs. When municipal annexation broke down, urban problems developed since the middle-class edge was now divorced from the poor center. In 1900, Newark's mayor had confidently thought out loud, "East Orange, Vailsburg, Harrison, Kearny, and Belleville would be desirable acquisitions. By an exercise of discretion we can enlarge the city from decade to decade without unnecessarily taxing the property within our limits, which has already paid the cost of public improvements." Only Vailsburg would ever be added.
Although numerous problems predated World War II, Newark was hamstrung by a number of trends in the post-WWII era. The Federal Housing Administration redlined virtually all of Newark, preferring to back up mortgages in the white suburbs. Manufacacturers set up in lower wage environments and could receive larger tax deductions for building an entirely new factory in outlying areas than for rehabilitating an old factory in a city. Billed as transportation improvements, Interstate 280, ththe New Jersey Turnpike, and Interstate 78 harmed Newark as well. They directly hurt the city by tearing the fabric of the neighborhoods they went though, and indirectly hurt the city because the new infrastructure allowed middle-class workers to live in the suburbs and commute into the city.
Despite its problems, Newark did try to remain vital in the postwar era. Prudential and Mutual Benefit were successfully enticed to stay and build new offices. Rutgers University-Newark and Seton Hall University expanded their Newark presences, with the former building a brand-new campus on a 23 acre (9 hectare) urban renewal site. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey made Port Newark the first container port in the nation and turned swamps in the south of the city into Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the ten busiest airports in the United States.
Even though it was not the sole cause of Newark's tragedy, the city made some serious mistakes with public housing and urban renewal. Across several administrations, the city leaders of Newark saw the federal government's offer to pay for 100% of the costs of housing projects as a blessing. While other cities were skeptical about putting so many poor and socially dysfunctional individuals together and thus were cautious in building housing projects, Newark avidly pursued federal dollars. Eventually, Newark would have a higher percentage of its residents in public housing than any other American city.
The largely Italian American First Ward was one of the hardest hit by urban renewal. A 46-acre (19 hectare) housing tract, labeled a slum because it was so dense, was torn down for multi-story Le Corbusier-style high rises, to be known as the ChChristopher Columbus Homes. The tract had contained 8th Avenue, the commercial heart of the neighborhood. Fifteen small-scale blocks were reduced to three "superblocks." The Columbus Homes, never in harmony with the rest of the neighborhood, were abandoned in the 1970s, and were eventually torn down in 1994.
As pesticides and mechanization reduced the need for cheap labor in the South, five million blacks migrated to northern cities between 1940 and the 1970s. From 1950 to 1960, while Newark saw its overall population drop from 438,000 to 408,000, it gained 65,000 non-whites. By 1966, Newark had a black majority, a faster turnover than most other northern cities had experienced. Evaluating the riots of 1967, Newark educator Nathan Wright, Jr. said, "No typical American city has as yet experienced such a precipitous change from a white to a black majority." The misfortune of the Great Migration and Puerto Rican immigration was that Southern blacks and Puerto Ricans were moving to Newark to be industrial workers just as the industrial jobs were drying up. Newark blacks left poverty in the South to find poverty in the North.
During the 1950s alone, Newark's white population decreased from 363,000 to 266,000. From 1960 to 1967, its white population fell a further 46,000. Though white flight changed the racial composition of Newark residents, it did not change the raccial composition of political and economic power in the city. In 1967, out of a police force of 1,400, only 150 members were black, mostly in subordinate positions. The predominantly white nature of the police force, coupled with its penchant fofor brutality, led it to be seen as an occupying force rather than a protective entity. Since Newark's blacks lived in neighborhoods that had been white only two decades earlier, nearly all of their apartments and stores were white-owned as well. Mayor Addonizio offered, without consulting any residents of the neighborhood to be affected, to condemn and raze for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) 150 acres (61 hectares) of a densely populated black neighborhood in the central ward. UMDNJ had wanted to settle in suburban Madison.
1967 riots
The poverty and lack of political power contributed to a growing radicalization of Newark's black population. On July 12, 1967, a black taxi driver named John Smith was arrested and brutally beaten by police for illegally passing a double-parked police car and then resisting arrest. A crowd gathered outside the police station where he was detained. Due to miscommunication, the crowd believed Smith had died in custody while in reality he had been transported to hospital via a back entrance to the station. This sparked scuffles between blacks and police in the Fourth Ward, although the damage toll was only $2,500. Subsequent to television news broadcasts on July 13 however, new and larger riots took place. Twenty-six people were killed, 1,500 wounded, 1,600 arrested, and $10 million in property was destroyed. More than a thousand businesses were torched or looted, including 167 groceries (most of which would never reopen). Newark's reputation suffered dramatically. It was said, "wherever American cities are going, Newark will get there first."
Post-riots
Newark saw a continued decline in the 1970s and 1980s. Whites continued to move out of the city. Middle class blacks followed suit, and certain pockets of the city developed as domains of poverty and social isolation. Whenever the media of New York needed to find some example of urban despair, they traveled to Newark.
In American Pastoral, a novel by Newark-born author Philip Roth, the protagonist Swede Levov says:
Newark used to be the city where they manufactured everything, now it's the car theft capital of the world ... there was a factory where somebody was making something on every side street. Now there's a liquor store on every street — a liqu,izza stand, and a seedy storefront church. Everything else is in ruins or boarded up.
In January 1975, an article in Harper's Magazine ranked the fifty largest American cities in twenty-four categories, ranging from park space to crime. Newark was one of the five worst in nineteen out of twenty-four categories, and the very worst in nine. According to the article, only 70% of Newarkers owned a telephone. The city ranked second worst, St. Louis, was much farther from Newark than the cities in the top five were from each other. The article concluded:
The city of Newark stands without serious challenge as the worst city of all. It ranked among the worst cities in no fewer than nineteen of twenty-four categories, and it was dead last in nine of them... Newark is a city that desperately nn the 2006 survey, Newark was ranked as the 13th most dangerous city in the United States overall, out of 371 cities included nationwide in the 13th annual Morgan Quitno survey.
Newark did have several achievements in the two and a half decades after the riots. In 1968, the New Community Corporation was founded and was one of the most successful community building organizations in the nation. In 1987, the NCC would own and manage 2,265 low-income housing units.
Newark's downtown also saw growth in the post-riot decades. Less than two weeks after the riots, Prudential announced plans to underwrite a $24 million office complex near Penn Station, dubbed "Gateway." Today, Gateway houses thousands of white-collar workers, though few live in Newark. The buildings themselves were not designed with consideration for pedestrians. In the mid-1980s, plans were developed to build the 121-story Grant USA Tower, with 100 stories of offices topped by a 21-story hotel and atrium, which would have been the world's tallest structure, but the developer went bankrupt before it could be built.
Before the riots, there had been an issue over whether the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey would be built in the suburbs or Newark. The riots and Newark's undeniable desperation made definite that the medical school would be in Newark. However, instead of being built on 167 acres (676,000 m²), the medical school would be built on just 60, part of which was already city owned. Students at the medical school soon started the "Student Family Health Clinic" to provide free health care for the underserved population, along with other community service projects.
In politics, Kenneth A. Gibson was elected as one of the first African-American mayors in the nation in 1970. The 1970s were a time of battles between Gibson and the shrinking white population.
Gibson admitted that "Newark may be the most decayed and financially crippled city in the nation." The higher taxes may have been necessary to pay for services like schools and sanitation, but they did nothing for Newark's economic base; the CEO of Ballantine's Brewery even asserted that Newark's $1 million annual tax bill was the cause of the company's bankruptcy.
Newark's Renaissance
Downtown
The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which opened in the downtown area in 1997 at a cost of $180 million, is seen by many as the first step in the city's road to revival. It has brought some 1.6 million people to Newark who otherwise might never have visited. NJPAC is known for its acoustics and has seen, on its stages, a diverse group of artists including Itzhak Perlman, Sarah Brightman, Sting, 'N Sync, Lauryn Hill, the Vienna Boys' Choir, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Since then, the city has built a baseball stadium for the Newark Bears, the city's minor league team (the Riverfront Stadium), a rail connection to its airport (AirTrain Newark), and numerous commercial developments in the downtown area. The city is currently constructing the Prudential Center for the New Jersey Devils, which is expected to be completed by August 2007. The Passaic Waterfront downtown is also being refurbished to provide citizens with access to the river. The Newark Public Library is also in the planning stage of a major renovation and expansion.
Much of the city's revitalization efforts have been focused in the downtown area, however adjoining neighborhoods have, in recent years, begun to see some signs of development. Nevertheless, the "Renaissance" has been unevenly felt across the city and some districts continue to have below-average household incomes and higher-than-average rates of poverty.
Since 2000, Newark has actually gained population, its first increase since the 1940s. In 2004, its crime rate decreased 56%, though murders remain high for a city of its size.
A few of Newark's nicknames are related to the attempts to revitalize its downtown. In the 1950s a term New Newark was given to the city after the former-mayor Leo Carlin made efforts to convince major corporations in the city to remain in Newarrk. In the 1960s Newark was nicknamed Gateway City after the redeveloped Gateway Center area downtown, which shares its name with the tourism region of which Newark is a part. It has more recently been deemed Renaissance City by the media and the public in an attempt to gain recognition for its revitilization efforts.
Lincoln Park/The Coast
The Lincoln Park/Coast neighborhood is the second district of Newark that is seeing large-scale development efforts. The area once referred to as The Coast and referred to as Lincoln Park today, was deemed the Lincoln Park/Coast Cultural Districict by the city and future additions include the development of a Museum of African American Music, an Arts Park, new housing, stores, a restaurant, a nightclub, a music studio and a dance studio. This area is already home to the Theater Cafe ane and the City Without Walls gallery and Symphony Hall, as well as other important cultural sites. Symphony Hall is likely to see renovations in the near future. After much of the development in the Downtown/Arts district and the ongoing need for a link between Newark Penn Station and Broad Street Station, the first link of the light rail was built. With the development anchored around the museum in the Coast and the need for a second link to Newark Airport, this neighborhood has already become a candidate area for a future light rail system with a stop for Lincoln Park/Symphony Hall.
Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there are 273,546 people, recent census projections show that the population has increased to around 280,000. The population density was 11,400/mile² (4,400/km²), or 21,000/mile² (8,100 km²) once airport, railroad, and seaport lands are excluded, the second-highest in the nation of any city with over 250,000 residents (after New York City).
The racial makeup of the city was 26.52% White or Euro-American, 53.46% Black or African American, 0.37% Native American, 1.19% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 14.05% from other races, and 4.36% from two or more races. 29.47% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There is a significant Portuguese-speaking community, made up by Brazilian and Portuguese ethnicities, concentrated mainly at the Ironbound district.
There were 91,382 households out of which 35.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.0% were married couples living together, 29.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.2% were non-families. 26.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.85 and the average family size was 3.43.
In the city the population was spread out with 27.9% under the age of 18, 12.1% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 18.7% from 45 to 64, and 9.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.2 males. For every 100 females of age 18 and over, there were 91.1 males.
Poverty and disinvestment
Poverty remains a consistent problem in Newark, despite its revitalization in recent years. The 1967 riots resulted in a significant population loss — attributed to white flight — which continued from the 1970s through to the 1990s. The city lost over 100,000 residents between 1960 and 1990.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,913, and the median income for a family was $30,781. Males had a median income of $29,748 versus $25,734 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,009. 28.4% of the population and 25.5% of families were below the poverty line. 36.6% of those under the age of 18 and 24.1% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. In 2003, the city's unemployment rate was 12%.
City/Town : Latitude: 40.735201, Longitude: -74.184938Matches 1 to 2 of 2
Last Name, Given Name(s)  |
Birth  |
Person ID | Tree | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Campbell, William | 30 Oct 1923 | I673139 | savenije |
| 2 | Schmon, Theresia Anna Lilian Maria | 01 Aug 1933 | I685417 | savenije |
Matches 1 to 2 of 2
| Family |
Marriage |
Family ID | Tree | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hofmannsthal / Astor | 21 Jan 1933 | F289831 | savenije |
| 2 | Moebius / Bloembergen | 08 Sep 1933 | F49320 | savenije |
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