Jackson Hill is a neighborhood in the Bergen-Lafayette and Greenville sections of Jersey City, New Jersey. [1] It is part of the city's Ward F. [2] The neighborhood is situated on Bergen Hill (the lower end of the Hudson Palisades) which also lends its name to the Bergen Hill Historic District just north of Communipaw Avenue. [3] [4]
The district has long been the heart of the African American community in Jersey City. [5] Its name is in part inspired by Thomas and John Vreeland Jackson, brothers born in 1800 and 1803, who were freed slaves who bought land in current day Greenville in 1831 and in 1857 laid out Jackson Lane between their houses. In 1900, the former Jackson Lane became Winfield Avenue, the name it bears today. During the Civil War the Jackson property became a safe house and critical link of the Underground Railroad. [6] [7] [8]
Martin Luther King Drive was once called Jackson Avenue. [9] [5] [10] with a short block not included in a street realignment still bearing the name. [11] In 1976 it was renamed in honor of the slain civil right leader Martin Luther King, Jr., [12] who had twice spoken in the city. [13] At the time of the renaming there was discussion whether the street had originally been named for the Jackson brothers or for US President Andrew Jackson. A 1924 Jersey Journal newspaper article ascribes it to Jeremiah Jackson, a local landowner in the mid-19th century. [14] [15] Historically, the avenue was one of the city's major shopping districts. but went into decline. [5] [16] [17] [18] In 2011, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency created Jackson Hill Main Street special improvement district along the commercial corridors of MLK Drive and its northern continuation, Monticello Avenue. [19] [20]
Among the notable sites in the Jackson Hill are two listed on National Register of Historic Places, St. Patrick's Parish and Buildings and Ficken's Warehouse, both on Grand Street. [4] Sacred Heart Church and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial are other area landmarks.
The name Claremont appears in mid-19th century maps of Greenville Township, neighboring Bergen City, and Jersey City, which were consolidated by 1872. [21] [22] The area was laid out on Bergen Hill west of Bergen Point Plank Road, now Garfield Avenue. Today's Claremont Avenue created the border of what has become known as the Greenville and Bergen-Lafayette sections of the city. The Central Railroad of New Jersey maintained a station by the name south of the junction of its main and Newark branch line [23] [24] until service was discontinued in 1967. [25] [26] Claremont Bank, which later become part of the Trust Company of New Jersey, began in the area. [27] The Claremont Branch of the Jersey City Free Public Library opened in 1954, and was replaced the Cunningham Branch in 2004. [28] Claremont Terminal east of the neighbourhood is a maritime facility created from tidal flats in the Upper New York Bay opened in 1923.
Jackson Square, originally known as the Hub, is a shopping center just south of Martin Luther King Drive station of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail [29] which has been the traditional border between Bergen-Lafayette and Greenville. [12] It has since been renamed Jackson Square. It is the site of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.
Over the years MLK Drive and some adjacent residential side streets deteriorated as a result of economic disinvestment. Since 1975 the Municipal Council of Jersey City has adopted a number of resolutions and ordinances aimed at revitalizing sections of avenue. They include Jackson Avenue Renewal Plan (1975), original MLK Plan (1979), the Turnkey Redevelopment Plan (1980), and the Green Villa Plan (1983). The current MLK Redevelopment Plan was first adopted in 1993. [30]
MLK Drive is runs for 26 blocks south of Communipaw Avenue and the Hub has been the center piece of revitalisation efforts. [31] [32] Open in 2000, is one of city's most ambitious economic revitalization projects. Primarily funded by the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation, a significant investment of public capital has been the catalyst for private investment in the area. The success of the project is questionable since rentals have been erratic. [33]
Other projects along the MLK corridor have included the Cunningham Branch of the Jersey City Free Public Library, named for former and only African-American Mayor of Jersey City, Glenn Dale Cunningham, [34] and Jackson Greene, a new urbanism townhouse complex. [35] [36] [37] [38] In 2014, a new postal facility at the Hub was designated in honour of Shirley Tolentino. [39] [40]
The Hudson County Urban League is the 100th affiliate of the National Urban League operating from two locations in Hudson County, New Jersey. [41] [42] [43] The building at 236 Martin Luther King Drive in Jackson Hill neighbourhood of Jersey City was listed on New Jersey Register of Historic Places designation (ID#2863) as the First Fidelity Bank on September 19, 1995. [4] The headquarters, renovated in 2002, [44] also houses the Jersey City office of Donald Milford Payne, Jr., the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 10th congressional district since 2012. [45] Nearby is Fishers Confections, opened in 1919, a city landmark. [46]
In 2009, the city's divisions of Community Development, Tenant/Landlord Relations and Housing Code Enforcement moved satellite offices of the Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce at the Hub [47]
In 2013 Jersey City established a ‘banking development district’, at the Hub which creates incentives for banks to establish full service branches within it, including the opening of accounts with municipal funds. [48]
The Jersey City Employment & Training Program (JCETP), headed by former governor Jim McGreevey opened a new center called Matin's Place in September 2014. [49] [50] [51] Among those at the opening of the facility were Brendan Byrne, Thomas Kean, Steve Fulop, Chris Christie, Robert Menendez and Nancy Pelosi. [52]
In August 2014, the city initially approved a plan to enter an agreement with the Brandywine Corporation, which owns and manages the Hub, to build an annex to Jersey City City Hall. [53] [54] [55] A plan was approved in March 2015. [56] The city hall annex opened in April 2018. [57]
The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the police and fire departments, opened offices at the Hub in Fall 2014. [5] [33] The city in agreed with Brandywine to build an eleven-story public safety building consolidating many services. [58] [59] Ground was broken in 2020. [60] [61]
In 2016, zoning was changed to encourage a "restaurant row" around Communipaw Junction. [62]
In addition to the Hudson Bergen Light Rail station at Martin Luther King Drive the Garfield Avenue station is nearby. The line runs along the right-of-way that was originally part of the Newark and New York Branch and had a station on Jackson Avenue until 1946, when service was discontinued. Until 1947 Public Service Railway's # 7 Jackson streetcar line ran along it. [63] In 2005 the New Jersey Legislature designated the stop the "Thomas and John Jackson Station." [64]
A sculpture honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. is located at the station. A plaque installed by New Jersey Transit (NJT) in 2001, honors the Jackson's role in the 19th-century Underground Railroad. [7]
Bus service is provided by New Jersey Transit bus routes NJT 6, NJT 81 and NJT 87. [65] [66] [67] through Greenville to Merritt Street, with the NJT81 continuing to Bayonne. Northbound the NJT6 and NJT87 travel to Journal Square, with the NJT87 continuing through Jersey City Heights to Hudson Place (Hoboken). The NJT81 travels through Downtown Jersey City to Exchange Place. Service is also provided on Ocean Avenue and Bergen Avenue by NJT route 8.
New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It operates buses, light rail, and commuter rail services throughout the state, connecting to major commercial and employment centers both within the state and in its two adjacent major cities, New York City and Philadelphia. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 209,259,800.
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.
The Journal Square Transportation Center is a multi-modal transportation hub located on Magnolia Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard at Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. Owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the complex includes a ten-story tower, a retail plaza, a bus terminal, a two-level parking facility, and the Journal Square station of the PATH rail transit system. The underground station has a high ceiling and a mezzanine level connecting the platforms.
Garfield Avenue station is a station on the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) in the Claremont section of Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. Located between the grade crossing at Randolph Avenue and the bridge at Garfield Avenue, the station in a double side platform and two track structure. The station is on the West Side Avenue branch of the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail, which goes from West Side Avenue station to Tonnelle Avenue station in North Bergen. The station is accessible for handicapped people as per the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. An elevator is present to get people from Garfield Avenue to track level and the platforms are even with the train cars. The station opened to the public on April 15, 2000 as part of the original operating segment of the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail.
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.
Greenville is the southernmost section of Jersey City in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
A&C Bus Corporation was an American bus company.
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.
Bergen-Lafayette is a section of Jersey City, New Jersey.
Martin Luther King Drive station is a station of the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail in the Jackson Hill neighborhood of Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey. Located on the east side of Martin Luther King Drive near the intersection with Virginia Avenue, the station is a two side platform, two track structure on the West Side Avenue branch of the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail. Train service through Martin Luther King Drive station goes from West Side Avenue in Jersey City to the Tonnelle Avenue station in North Bergen. The station is accessible for those with disabilities as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 with ramps to the train-level platform. Martin Luther King Drive station opened on April 15, 2000 along with the rest of the West Side Avenue branch as part of the original operating segment.
Nungessers is the name of the confluence of roads that meet at the Hudson and Bergen county line at North Bergen and Fairview in northeastern New Jersey. The area is the former site of the Nungesser's Gutenberg Racetrack, a late 19th-century gaming and gambling venue. The neighborhood just south of Nungesser's is called the Racetrack Section and the municipality of Guttenberg is nearby. A White Castle, an early drive-in fast-food chain, originally built in the 1930s has long been a landmark in the neighborhood, as has adjacent North Hudson Park.
The George Washington Bridge Plaza, also known as GWB Plaza or Bridge Plaza, is the convergence of roads and highways around the site of the George Washington Bridge toll plaza in Fort Lee, New Jersey, United States. The plaza is located north of and parallel to Fort Lee's Main Street. The surrounding busy area is characterized by a mix of commercial and residential uses and an architectural variety that includes parking lots, strip malls, houses, gas stations, mid-rise office buildings and high-rise condominiums. Just to the east is Fort Lee Historic Park, Palisades Interstate Park and the bridge's western tower.
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.
The Newark and New York Branch was a railway line that ran between Downtown Newark and the Communipaw Terminal at the mouth of the North River in Jersey City, bridging the Hackensack River and Passaic River just north of their mouths at the Newark Bay in northeastern New Jersey. The Central Railroad of New Jersey operated it from its opening in 1869. Through operations ended in 1946; portions remained in use until 1967.
Bus rapid transit (BRT) in New Jersey comprises limited-stop bus service, exclusive bus lanes (XBL) and bus bypass shoulders (BBS). Under the banner Next Generation Bus NJ Transit (NJT), the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), and the metropolitan planning organizations of New Jersey (MPO) which recommend and authorize transportation projects are undertaking the creation of several additional BRT systems in the state.
Sacred Heart Church is a historic church and former Roman Catholic parish church on MLK Drive at Bayview Avenue in the Greenville section of Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. It is within the Archdiocese of Newark.
Ridgefield is a proposed station along NJ Transit's (NJT) Northern Branch Corridor Project extension of Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) in Ridgefield, New Jersey.
We are proud to have associated our Jackson Hill name with that of Jackson Avenue and the 19th century brothers Thomas and John Vreeland Jackson.