Greenville, Jersey City | |
|---|---|
 Greenville is located between the Newark Bay and Upper New York Bay | |
  Greenville, Jersey City Greenville in Hudson County in New Jersey | |
| Coordinates: 40°42′01″N74°05′40″W / 40.70028°N 74.09444°W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  New Jersey |
| County | Hudson |
| City | Jersey City |
| Elevation | 62 ft (19 m) |
| Area code | 201 |
| GNIS feature ID | 876803 [1] |
Greenville is the southernmost section of Jersey City in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. [2] [3] [4] [5]
In its broadest definition, Greenville encompasses the area south of the West Side Branch of Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and north of the city line with Bayonne, between the Upper New York Bay and the Newark Bay, and corresponds to the postal area ZIP Code 07305.
The central core of Greenville (between Garfield Avenue and West Side Avenue) is primarily residential, consisting mostly of one- and two-family homes and lowrise apartment buildings. Principal thoroughfares include MLK Drive, Old Bergen Road and Danforth Avenue.
East of New Jersey Turnpike Newark Bay Extension (Interstate 78) lie the Greenville Yard, an intermodal facility, [6] Port Jersey, Port Liberté, (a gated residential community), and the Caven Point Section of Liberty State Park. Slightly further inland and parallel to the route of the Turnpike was the route of the Morris Canal until it was abandoned in the 1920s. A small (filled-in) portion of the canal still exists in Country Village, [7] a neighborhood near Droyer's Point and the West Side. The Claremont Section straddles Greenville and Bergen-Lafayette.[ citation needed ]
Greenville parks include Bayside Park, off Garfield Avenue, Audubon Park, a city square along John F. Kennedy Avenue, Fulton Avenue Park along Martin Luther King Drive, McGovern Park, Columbia Park, and Mercer Park, just north of Interstate 78. Cochrane Athletic Field is located near the Hudson Waterfront. [8] In May 2020, construction started on Mary McLeod Bethune Park. [9]
The Afro-American Historical and Cultural Society Museum is located at the Greenville Branch of the Jersey City Free Public Library, [10] Greenville Hospital, Henry Snyder High School, and New Jersey City University all located on the district's main thoroughfare, Kennedy Boulevard. Greenville Hospital closed in 2008, [11] was renovated, and is now part of Barnabas Health which operates Jersey City Medical Center. [12] Greenville is also home to historic Bayview – New York Bay Cemetery, which includes a Commonwealth war grave, of a World War I seaman and 1800s opera singer, Lillian Nordica.
What became Greenville was the territory of the Hackensack and Raritan Indians at the time of European contact in the 17th century. They called the area on Bergen Neck Minkakwa (alternatively spelled Minelque and Minackqua) meaning "a place of good crossing". This is likely so because it was the most convenient pass between the two bays on either side of the neck. Interpreted as "place where the coves meet", in this case where they are closest to each, it describes a spot advantageous for portage. [13] The area was first settled by New Netherlanders in 1647. [14] The Caven Point settlement on the west shore of the Upper New York Bay between Pamrapo and Communipaw was part of Pavonia, which, upon receiving its municipal charter in 1661 was renamed Bergen. The name Caven is an anglicisation of the Dutch word Kewan, [15] which in turn was a "Batavianized" [16] derivative of an Algonquian word meaning "peninsula". [17]
During the British and early American colonial era the area was part of Bergen Township. The 19th century Jersey City and Bergen Point Plank Road (today's Garfield Avenue) ran through Greenville (from Paulus Hook to Bergen Point). Greenville became part of the newly formed Hudson County in 1840. The town grew as a fashionable suburb of New York City. [18] Greenville Township was incorporated as a township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 14, 1863, from portions of Bergen Town. [19] It was absorbed into Jersey City on February 4, 1873, ending its life as an independent municipality. [19] [20] Armbruster's Greenville Schuetzen Park on Hudson Boulevard opened in the 1870s. [21]
Greenville was settled by many working-class Irish Catholic families, as well as other ethnic groups. The area's demographics changed dramatically starting in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, with the decline of factories and the collapse of the independent railroad lines. The neighborhood east of Kennedy Boulevard was later settled by African Americans, while that west of Kennedy Boulevard is more diverse with a sizable Filipino population. Greenville also has a sizable Hispanic and Egyptian population, and many of the older Irish residents still remain in the neighborhood.[ citation needed ]
In 2005, Jersey City enacted a curfew for business owners on some of Greenville, including Martin Luther King Drive and Ocean Avenue. [22] On the West Side of Greenville, New Jersey City University unveiled plans for a $350 million expansion into the West Side neighborhood surrounding the university, including a performance art building with two theaters, retail stores, a restaurant, and student housing. [23]
During the 2010s Greenville underwent a revitalization, with the return of long-term residents and businesses. [24] [25] The section around Jackson Hill has seen considerable local and federal infrastructure spending.
The area is considered, relative to Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, to be an affordable part of the New York City region. A number of Ultra-Orthodox Jews and young Jewish and Hispanic families have purchased homes and built a growing community in Greenville. [26] [27] Since the mid-2010s Jersey City has experienced a rise in Hasidic Orthodox Jews, who are moving to Greenville from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, attracted by the relatively low housing price. While the relationship between the local African American community and the Orthodox Jewish community is good, there have been complaints that Jewish buyers solicited them to sell their houses, prompting the city council to pass a no-knock ordinance that barred investors from going door-to-door. [26] [28] A kosher market in the community was the site of a shootout in the 2019 Jersey City shooting. [29] [30] [31] [32]
Increasing gentrification continues to make Greenville more multicultural. [33]
The Richard Street and Danforth Avenue stations of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail are located on the district's east side east of Garfield Avenue, while West Side Branch Hudson-Bergen Light Rail stations (including the MLK Station) are on its northern perimeter, which overlaps Bergen-Lafayette. Several New Jersey Transit bus routes serve this area. The Greenville Bus Garage on Old Bergen Road is one of the largest in Hudson, housing more than 120 buses for several New Jersey Transit Routes.
Hudson County is the smallest and most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in the New York metropolitan area, the county seat is Jersey City, which is the county's largest city in terms of both population and area. The county is part of the North Jersey region of the state.
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. It is the county seat of Hudson County, and is the county's most populous city and its largest. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 292,449, an increase of 44,852 (+18.1%) from the 2010 census count of 247,597, in turn an increase of 7,542 (+3.1%) from the 240,055 enumerated at the 2000 census. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 286,670 in 2022, ranking the city the 74th-most-populous in the country.
The Hudson–Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) is a light rail system in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Owned by New Jersey Transit (NJT) and operated by the 21st Century Rail Corporation, it connects the communities of Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City, at the city line with West New York, and North Bergen.
West Side Avenue station is a station on the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) in the West Side neighborhood in Jersey City, New Jersey. Located on the east side of West Side Avenue, the station is the terminal of the West Side Avenue branch of the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail, with service to Tonnelle Avenue station in North Bergen. The station consists of a single island platform and a pair of tracks that end at the station. The station contains a pedestrian bridge over West Side Avenue to a small parking lot and bus stop on the west side of the street. The station is accessible to people with disabilities, with an elevator in the pedestrian overpass and train-level platforms. West Side Avenue station opened on April 15, 2000 as part of the original operating segment of the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail.
Bayfront is an urban redevelopment project in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, where they emerge on Bergen Neck, which in turn is the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet.
Droyer's Point is a section of Jersey City, New Jersey, at Newark Bay that was the site of the Jersey City Airport and later of Roosevelt Stadium, both of which were demolished. It has become a residential and commercial district.
Curries Woods is a neighborhood in the southern part of Greenville in Jersey City, New Jersey bordering Bayonne. It was named after James Curie, who was on the town Committee for Greenville when it was its own Township in the 19th century. The area remained rural until the later part of the century when the Central Railroad of New Jersey built a line connecting ferries to Elizabeth, New Jersey and New York City. Currie's Woods still remained untouched through the late part of the century and it was valued for its woods, rocky shore and dunes on Newark Bay. A lot of the land was eventually lost, but a tract was set aside in the early part of the 20th century. A small cemetery, the Old Greenville Cemetery, was nearby. This park lost much of its land to the city's largest Housing Authority project in 1959, except a small tract in Bayonne, Mercer Park.
Bergen-Lafayette is a section of Jersey City, New Jersey.
The West Side of Jersey City is an area made up of several diverse neighborhoods on either side of West Side Avenue, one of the city's main shopping streets. Parallel and west of Kennedy Boulevard, West Side Avenue carries two county route designations.
Schuetzen Park is a privately owned park in North Bergen, New Jersey, United States, that has existed since 1872 and is located on the ridge of the Hudson Palisades at Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Turnpike just north of the Marginal Highway. Its southern and western perimeters are shared with the Fritz Reuter Altenheim, a retirement community named for the German author, Fritz Reuter, and Columbia Park, a large shopping center. The German-American Volksfest has taken place there annually since its construction.
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.
Route 185 is a short one-block-long state highway in Jersey City in the U.S. state of New Jersey, between Route 440 and Linden Avenue. Route 185 is a 0.65-mile (1.05 km) freeway in the Greenville neighborhood of Jersey City. It is parallel to Interstate 78 on the eastern side. On Route 440, signs pointing the way to Route 185 imply that the highway runs directly to Liberty State Park. In reality, the freeway ends at Linden Avenue, and travelers must journey one city block west to Caven Point Road, which continues north to Liberty State Park. At Route 185's junction with Route 440, the thru lanes of the Route 440 freeway northbound actually continue north as Route 185, and traffic wishing to continue on Route 440 must actually exit the freeway. Route 185 opened on February 25, 1988, at only 23% of its proposed routing.
The Jersey City and Bergen Point Plank Road was a road originally built in the 19th century in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States which ran between Paulus Hook and Bergen Point. The company that built the road received a charter on March 6, 1850 to improve one that had been built in the 18th century. It has subsequently become Grand Street and Garfield Avenue in Jersey City and Broadway in Bayonne. Plank roads were built during the 19th century, often by private companies as turnpike roads, in this case with a tollgate at Communipaw Junction. As the name suggests, wooden boards were laid on a roadbed in order to prevent horse-drawn carriages and wagons from sinking into softer ground on the portions of the road.
Bergen Hill is the name given to the emergence of the Hudson Palisades along the Bergen Neck peninsula in Hudson County, New Jersey and the inland neighborhood of Jersey City, New Jersey, where they rise from the coastal plain at the Upper New York Bay. The name is taken from the original 17th-century New Netherland settlement of Bergen, which in Dutch means hills.
The Bergen Section of Jersey City, New Jersey is the neighborhood on either side of Kennedy Boulevard between Saint Peter's College/ McGinley Square and Communipaw Avenue in the Bergen-Lafayette section of the city. The name Bergen, used throughout Hudson County, is taken from the original Bergen, New Netherland settlement at Bergen Square.
Jackson Hill is a neighborhood in the Bergen-Lafayette and Greenville sections of Jersey City, New Jersey. It is part of the city's Ward F. The neighborhood is situated on Bergen Hill which also lends its name to the Bergen Hill Historic District just north of Communipaw Avenue.
| Bergen-Lafayette |  | |
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| Greenville | ||
| The Heights | ||
| Journal Square | ||
| Meadowlands | ||
| Upper New York Bay | ||
| West Side | ||
| Historical | ||
Municipalities and communities of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States | ||
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| Townships | ||
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