Bergen Square

Last updated

Looking northeast, toward PS 11, at the longest continuously used school site in the United States Bergen Sq JC jeh.JPG
Looking northeast, toward PS 11, at the longest continuously used school site in the United States
Map of original settlement Bergen and Buyten Town map.jpg
Map of original settlement
Van Wagenen House Van Wagenen House 1933.jpg
Van Wagenen House
Front of the Old Bergen Church in 1938 Old Bergen Church 1938.jpg
Front of the Old Bergen Church in 1938

Bergen Square, at the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Academy Street in Jersey City, is in the southwestern part of the much larger Journal Square district. [1] A commercial residential area, it contains an eclectic array of architectural styles including 19th-century row houses, Art Deco retail and office buildings, and is the site of the longest continually-used school site in the United States. [2] [3] [4] Nearby are the Van Wagenen House (sometimes called the Apple Tree House) and Old Bergen Church, two structures from the colonial period. St. George & St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church founded by early Egyptian immigrants was one of the original Coptic congregations in New Jersey. [5]

Contents

History

The square and the streets around it are the site of what is considered to be the oldest municipality in the state of New Jersey which was first established in 1660 as Bergen [6] [7] in the province of New Netherland and, in 1683, became Bergen Township. Permission to settle there was granted by the Director-General of New Netherland, Petrus Stuyvesant. The Peter Stuyvesant Monument by J. Massey Rhind was dedicated on the square to commemorate the event in 1913. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] The square was surveyed and designed by Jacques Cortelyou and is the first example of what was to become known as a Philadelphia square in the United States. Though there no buildings from the period still standing, the names of streets (such as Vroom, Van Reypen, Newkirk, Tuers, Dekalb) and the grid they form still remain to mark the origins of the earlier village. In the immediate vicinity, there are cemeteries and the Old Bergen Church which were founded by the settlers and their ancestors. [13]

Pavonia, the first European settlement on the west bank of the Hudson River, was temporarily evacuated during a series of raids and retaliations between the Dutch and the Lenape, the Native Americans who lived there at the time known as Kieft's War. [14] [15] Those who survived the counterattack were ordered back to the relative safety of New Amsterdam, on the tip of Manhattan. After the treaty was signed in 1645, the communities at Pavonia and Communipaw continued to grow steadily, but were again raided in a conflict known as the Peach War in 1655.

Responding to settlers wishes to secure their holdings and wanting to re-establish control of the area, Stuyvesant negotiated a deal in 1658 with the Lenape for the larger area named Bergen, "by the great rock above Wiehacken," then taking in the sweep of land on the peninsula west of the Hudson and east of the Hackensack River extending down to the Kill Van Kull in Bayonne. [16] A stipulation for the settlement was that a garrison be built so that homesteaders, whose farms spread out around the village, could retreat there in the event of an attack. The charter for the village gave it a semi-autonomous government, and it became the seat of government for the region, which included all the European settlements radiating from the west bank of the North River.

In 1664, a negotiated surrender gave control of New Netherland to the English, who on September 22, 1668, recognized and confirmed original town charter. [17] In 1674, soon after English possession of New Netherland was formalized, the village at Bergen became part of the proprietary colony of East Jersey, and the "capital" of one of four newly established administrative districts, Bergen County, where it remained until 1710, when the government moved to Hackensack.

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the town's founding in 1910, [18] The New York Times sponsored a seven-week composition competition for Jersey City students to study and write about its history.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Stuyvesant</span> Dutch director-general of New Netherland (c.1610–1672)

Peter Stuyvesant was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was split into New York and New Jersey with lesser territory becoming parts of other colonies, and later, states. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City and his name has been given to various landmarks and points of interest throughout the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonial history of New Jersey</span>

European colonization of New Jersey started soon after the 1609 exploration of its coast and bays by Henry Hudson. Dutch and Swedish colonists settled parts of the present-day state as New Netherland and New Sweden.

Bergen Township was a township that existed in the U.S. state of New Jersey, from 1661 to 1862, first as Bergen, New Netherland, then as part Bergen County, and later as part of Hudson County. Several places still bear the name: the township of North Bergen; Bergen Square, Old Bergen Road, Bergen Avenue, Bergen Junction, Bergen Hill and Bergen Arches in Jersey City; Bergen Point in Bayonne; and Bergenline Avenue and Bergen Turnpike in North Hudson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Hill, New Jersey</span> Place in New Jersey, United States

Union Hill was a town that existed in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, from 1864 to June 1, 1925, when it merged with West Hoboken to form Union City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Hoboken, New Jersey</span> Place in New Jersey, United States

West Hoboken was a municipality that existed in Hudson County, New Jersey, from 1861 to 1925. It merged with Union Hill to form Union City on June 1, 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavonia, New Netherland</span> European settlement on the Hudson River

Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the seventeenth-century province of New Netherland in what would become the present Hudson County, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Barbadoes Neck</span>

New Barbadoes Neck is the name given in the colonial era for the peninsula in northeastern New Jersey, US between the lower Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, in what is now western Hudson County and southern Bergen County. The neck begins in the south at Kearny Point in the Newark Bay and is characterized by a ridge along the west and part of the New Jersey Meadowlands on the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Achter Kol, New Netherland</span>

Achter Kol was the name given to the region around the Newark Bay and Hackensack River in northeastern New Jersey by the first European settlers to it and was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, administered by the Dutch West India Company. At the time of their arrival, the area was inhabited by the Hackensack and Raritan groups of Lenape natives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bergen, New Netherland</span> Origin of the New Jersey settlement

Bergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties. Though it only officially existed as an independent municipality from 1661, with the founding of a village at Bergen Square, Bergen began as a factory at Communipaw circa 1615 and was first settled in 1630 as Pavonia. These early settlements were along the banks of the North River across from New Amsterdam, under whose jurisdiction they fell.

Oratam was sagamore, or sachem, of the Hackensack Indians living in northeastern New Jersey during the period of early European colonization in the 17th century. Documentation shows that he lived an unusually long life and was quite influential among indigenous and immigrant populations.

Hackensack was the exonym given by the Dutch colonists to a band of the Lenape, or Lenni-Lenape, a Native American tribe. The name is a Dutch derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack rivers. While the Lenape people occupied much of the mid-Atlantic area, Europeans referred to small groups of native people by the names associated with the places where they lived.

Communipaw is a neighborhood in Jersey City in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and the site of one of the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its name to the historic avenue which runs from its eastern end near Liberty State Park Station through the neighborhoods of Bergen-Lafayette and the West Side that then becomes the Lincoln Highway. Communipaw Junction, or simply The Junction, is an intersection where Communipaw, Summit Avenue, Garfield Avenue, and Grand Street meet, and where the toll house for the Bergen Point Plank Road was situated. Communipaw Cove at Upper New York Bay, is part of the 36-acre (150,000 m2) state nature preserve in the park and one of the few remaining tidal salt marshes in the Hudson River estuary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Reyniersz Pauw</span>

Knight Michiel Reiniersz Pauw (born 29 March 1590 – died 20th, buried 24 March 1640 at Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam was a director of the Dutch West India Company between 1621 and 1636.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harsimus</span> Populated place in Hudson County, New Jersey, US

Harsimus is a neighborhood within Downtown Jersey City, Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The neighborhood stretches from the Harsimus Stem Embankment on the north to Christopher Columbus Drive on the south between Coles Street and Grove Street or more broadly, to Marin Boulevard. It borders the neighborhoods of Hamilton Park to the north, Van Vorst Park to the south, the Village to the west, and the Powerhouse Arts District to the east. Newark Avenue has traditionally been its main street. The name is from the Lenape, used by the Hackensack Indians who inhabited the region and could be translated as Crow’s Marsh. From many years, the neighborhood was part of the "Horseshoe", a political delineation created by its position between the converging rail lines and political gerrymandering.

The English Neighborhood was the colonial-era name for the towns in eastern Bergen County, New Jersey, along the Hudson Palisades between the Hudson River and the Hackensack River, particularly around its main tributary, Overpeck Creek. The region had been part of the Dutch New Netherland colony of Bergen, whose main town was located at Bergen Square in modern Jersey City. The name refers to the geography of the region, bergen being the Dutch word for hills. Earlier attempts at settlement at Achter Col and Vriessendael had been compromised in conflicts with the precolonial population, bands of the Lenape known by their exonyms, the Hackensacks and the Tappans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Summit Avenue (Hudson Palisades)</span> Road in Hudson County, New Jersey, US

County Route 617 is 4.55-mile (7.32 km) long and follows one street, Summit Avenue along the ridge of the Hudson Palisades in Hudson County, New Jersey. Its southern end is CR 622, or Grand Street, at Communipaw Junction in the Bergen-Lafayette Section of Jersey City. Its northern end is CR 691, 32nd Street, a section of the Bergen Turnpike, in Union City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newkirk House</span> 17th century house in Jersey City, NJ

The Newkirk House, also known as the Summit House, located at 510 Summit Avenue is the oldest surviving structure in Jersey City, New Jersey. The two-story Dutch Colonial building, composed of sandstone, brick, and clapboard dates to 1690.

Abraham Isaacsen Verplanck (1606–1690), also known as Abraham Isaacse Ver Planck, was an early and prominent settler in New Netherlands. A land developer and speculator, he was the progenitor of an extensive Verplanck family in the United States. Immigrating circa 1633, he received a land grant at Paulus Hook in 1638.

The Peter Stuyvesant Monument is a memorial to Peter Stuyvesant and the establishment of settlement of Bergen, New Netherlands in 1660. It is located at Journal Square district of Jersey City, New Jersey. The statue of Stuyvesant by J. Massey Rhind was originally installed in 1913 at Bergen Square. The statue and pedestal were unceremoniously removed in 2010. In 2014, the statue was restored and placed at nearby park in anticipation that a new pedestal would be built at the original location.

References

  1. "Bergen Square with map of early village". Forgotten-NY.com. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  2. There has been a school at the northeast corner of Bergen Square since 1664. See "Walking Tour of the Bergen Square". Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2009. On the northeast corner of Bergen Square stands P.S. 11 (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School). In 1664 the first schoolhouse was built on this lot. From 1790 to 1857 the Columbia Academy stood here until it was replaced by the first of three public schools.
  3. Shalhoub, Patrick B (October 1, 1995). Images of America: Jersey City. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   0-7524-0255-2.
  4. "NEW-JERSEY.; Laying the Corner-Home of a New Academy at Bergen--History of the Old Building" (PDF). The New York Times. July 29, 1858.
  5. "Where Church Pews Replaced the Bar Stools". The New York Times. (Retrieved 08-05-2008)
  6. Van Winkle, Daniel (October 5, 2010). "History of Bergen Village" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
  7. "Jersey City Past and Present | New Jersey City University". Njcu.edu. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  8. "Legends & Landmarks: Famed sculptor of the early 20th century created historically, artistically important Jersey City statue of Peter Stuyvesant". NJ.com. February 8, 2011. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  9. "Peter Stuyvesant statue to be restored and returned to Bergen Avenue post". NJ.com. October 18, 2010. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  10. "Jersey City and Hudson County contribute toward pedestal for restored Peter Stuyvesant statue". NJ.com. July 14, 2012. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  11. "Peter Stuyvesant monument will return to Jersey City". NJ.com. July 10, 2013. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  12. "Historic pedestal dug up in Secaucus - News - NorthJersey.com". Archived from the original on April 12, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  13. Sarapin, Janice Kohl (2002). Old Burial Grounds of New Jersey. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   0-8135-2111-4.
  14. Winkler, David F. (1998). Revisiting the Attack on Pavonia. New Jersey Historical Society.
  15. Beck, Sanderson (2006). "New Netherland and Stuyvesant 1642-64".
  16. History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, p. 62, accessed March 29, 2007.
  17. "The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968", John P. Snyder, Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 145.
  18. "1660-Jersey City-1910;; Topical Heads For Mr. Van Winkle's Articles" (PDF). The New York Times. October 9, 1910.

40°43′46″N74°03′57″W / 40.72942°N 74.06594°W / 40.72942; -74.06594