Halsey Street is a north-south street in Downtown Newark, New Jersey, which runs between and parallel to Broad Street and Washington Street. Halsey Street passes through the four of city's historic districts: James Street Commons at the north, the abutting Military Park and Four Corners and, after a two block break, Lincoln Park at the south.
Halsey Street lies within the original settlement of Newark which was laid out soon after its founding in 1666: the land was part of the plots distributed among the first settlers. It became a street during the early part of the 19th century during a period of great expansion. It is named for the William Halsey (1770–1843), who served as first Mayor of Newark (1836–1837) after reincorporation as a city. [1]
During the city's Gilded Age, a boom period at the turn of the 20th century in the Roaring Twenties, many low-rise homes were replaced by new commercial buildings, including several department stores, such as Hahne and Company, Kresge-Newark, Bamberger's, S. Klein and Orbachs. [2] [3] [4]
Halsey and its side streets have long been the one of city's corridors for shopping, dining, and entertainment. [5] Since the 2000s, the street has undergone a revival as new projects have generated renewed residential, cultural and commercial activities, including a restaurant row. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] The city's 2008 Living Downtown master plan helped kickstart development in the 2000s [11] and was part of a greater Newark trend in pursuing a vibrant downtown. [12] [13] [14] [15] In 2023 the city introduced incentives to stimulate rental of storefronts along Halsey and adjacent streets. As of the 2020s, it is home to a growing number of small independent retail, dining, arts, and nightlife establishments. [16]
North of Market Street to Harriet Tubman Square numerous row-houses from the earlier era are still found on Halsey and neighboring streets. 31 Central is home to an artists' collective and the LGBTQ Center. There are plans to replace it with a new residential and retail building. [17] [18] The stretch between Central and New Street has sited street festivals since 2010. [19] [20] [21] [22] Rutgers-Newark, whose campus begins in the neighborhood and lies to the west in University Heights, opened its Honors Living/Learning Center, with an interior public plaza, at Halsey between New and Linden Streets in 2022. [23] [24]
Ground was broken on the renovation of the Hahnes building in 2015, for adaptive reuse as educational, residential, and retail spaces. A six-story addition was built on the Halsey Street side, featuring close to 100 apartments and an underground parking garage. [25] [26] [27]
Rutgers opened a new arts and cultural center on three floors of the Halsey Street annex in 2017. [28] Called "Express Newark," it includes an 'arts incubator,' media center, design consortium, print shop, portrait studio, and lecture hall, as well as exhibition and performance spaces. [29] The center is home to the annual AAPI Jazz Fest. The project also includes a Whole Foods, [30] Barnes & Noble, [31] Petco, CitiMD Urgent Care, [32] and a restaurant by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson called Marcus B & P. [33] In 2024, Samuelsson opened Vibe BBQ at the location. [34]
Halston Flats, a restored former industrial building at Raymond Boulevard converted to apartments with retail/restaurants on the ground floor, opened in 2017. [35] The Kresge building, now home to Newark Public Schools, was once a stop on the Cedar Street Subway, part of Newark's extensive streetcar system. [36] [37] The S.Klein buildings was demolished to make way for a new tower that is part of Prudential Headquarters complex, which has been based in the district since the company's founding in the 19th century. The Bambergers building, now called 165 Halsey Street, has become an internet exchange point housing numerous computer systems including DE-CIX New York and Lexent Metro Connect. The New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission is in the Gibraltar Building on Halsey.
The area south of Market Street, dubbed SoMa by developers, includes the Teachers Village [38] [39] neighbourhood. This area is undergoing development following a revitalization master plan design and work completed in 2018 by Newark native Richard Meier [40] which in turn has stimulated other building and renovation projects. [41] [42] [43] It is home to Hobby's, a landmark delicatessen luncheonette, [44] [45] and new restaurants, shops, and a planned Eataly-style food marketplace. [46] For much of the 20th century, the neighborhood was an entertainment district, including cinemas [47] and the venues The Key Club and Sparky J's. [48] [49] The Newark Female Charitable Society is a group of historic buildings on Halsey at Hill Street. [50]
Halsey stops for two blocks, the street grid having been broken during a period of urban renewal along Nevada Street. [51] [52] It then continues into the Lincoln Park neighborhood, former home of the radio station WNSW and of the art gallery City Without Walls. [53] This stretch of the street is more residential. Since the new millennium, many new multi-family apartment buildings have been constructed, including a project built using shipping containers [54] [55] and other housing developments that are "fully affordable". [56] [57] [58] [59] New two-family homes have been built on adjacent streets. [60] Plans have been announced for the development of the Facade, an outdoor performance space, on the grounds of the South Park Calvary United Presbyterian Church. [61] At its southern end is the Catedral Evangelica Reformada. [50]
An alleyway that sits in the middle of Lincoln Park’s “Little Five Points” (a convergence of Lincoln Park Place, Crawford Street, South Halsey Street, Bleeker Street, and Washington Street) was converted in 2021 to an open-air art area.
In June 2020, a stretch of the street was painted with All Black Lives Matter. [62] [63]
In the fall of 2023, the city launched the Newark Retail Reactivation Initiative. To stimulate rental of empty storefronts the program makes monetary grants to qualifying businesses along Halsey Street corridor within the zone bordered by Broad Street to the east, Washington Street to the west, Washington Place to the north and William Street to the south. [64] [65] [66]
Downtown Newark is the central business district of Newark in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
Newark has long been the largest city in New Jersey. Founded in 1666, it greatly expanded during the Industrial Revolution, becoming the commercial and cultural hub of the region. Its population grew with various waves of migration in the mid 19th century, peaking in 1950. It suffered greatly during the era of urban decline and suburbanization in the late 20th century. Since the millennium it has benefited from interest and re-investment in America's cities, recording population growth in the 2010 and 2020 censuses.
Rutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Newark. Rutgers, founded in 1766 in New Brunswick, is the eighth oldest college in the United States and a member of the Association of American Universities. In 1945, the state legislature voted to make Rutgers University, then a private liberal arts college, into the state university and the following year merged the school with the former University of Newark (1936–1946), which became the Rutgers–Newark campus. Rutgers also incorporated the College of South Jersey and South Jersey Law School, in Camden, as a constituent campus of the university and renamed it Rutgers–Camden in 1950.
Prudential Center is a multipurpose indoor arena in the central business district of Newark, New Jersey, United States. Opened in 2007, it is the home of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball team. By 2023, it was among the top five concert venues worldwide by earnings. The arena is owned by Josh Harris and David Blitzer and operated through Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
Bamberger's was a department store chain with branches primarily in New Jersey and other locations in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. The chain was headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.
Hahne & Company, commonly known as Hahne's, was a department store chain based in Newark, New Jersey. The chain had stores located throughout the central and northern areas of New Jersey.
Military Park is a 6-acre (24,000 m2) city park in Downtown Newark in Newark, New Jersey. Along with Lincoln Park and Washington Park, it makes up the three downtown parks in Newark that were laid out in the colonial era. It is a nearly triangular park located between Park Place, Rector Street and Broad Street.
South Park Calvary United Presbyterian Church is a historic church built in 1853 and located at 1035 Broad Street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Newark in Essex County, New Jersey. Only the facade remains, following a 1992 fire. Also known as the South Park Presbyterian Church, it was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1936. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1972, for its significance in architecture.
The old Essex County Jail is located in the University Heights section of Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The jail is Essex County's oldest public building and a national landmark of value for its architectural and social history. The complex consists of about 20 structures of various size, age, and function ranging in date from the 1830s to 1930s. Collectively, they represent the evolution of American prison history over 100 years. For the quality of its architecture, its social history, and its links to the 1967 Newark Riots, this jail was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 3, 1991. The site has been abandoned since 1971 and remains property of the City of Newark.
One Theater Square is a mixed-use building in Newark, New Jersey. It is located across from Military Park and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which inspired its name. Completed in 2018, it includes the first newly-constructed high rise apartment building to be built in the city in more than fifty years. It was designed by BLT Architects.
The Four Corners Historic District is the intersection of Broad and Market Streets in Newark, New Jersey. It is the site of the city's earliest settlement and the heart of Downtown Newark that at one time was considered the busiest intersection in the United States. The area that radiates twenty-two square blocks from the crossroads is a state and federal historic district.
Weequahic is a neighborhood in the city of Newark in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Part of the South Ward, it is separated from Clinton Hill by Hawthorne Avenue on the north, and bordered by the township of Irvington on the west, Newark Liberty International Airport and Dayton on the east, and Hillside Township and the city of Elizabeth on the south. There are many well maintained homes and streets. Part of the Weequahic neighborhood has been designated a historic district; major streets are Lyons Avenue, Bergen Street, and Chancellor Avenue. Newark Beth Israel Medical Center is a major long-time institution in the neighborhood.
50 Rector Park is an apartment building in Newark, New Jersey, the first market rate residential high-rise to be newly built in the city since 1962. Originally called One Riverview and later 1 Rector Street, there was a groundbreaking in 2013, but construction did not begin at the site until the spring of 2017. It was topped out in April 2018 and opened June 2019.
Mulberry Commons is an urban square and public park in Newark, New Jersey that opened in 2019. The Mulberry Commons Pedestrian Bridge broke ground in 2023.
Newark Riverfront Park is a park and promenade being developed in phases along the Passaic River in Newark, New Jersey, United States. It is part of the Essex County Park System. The park, expected to be 3 miles (4.8 km) long and encompass 30.5 acres (12.3 ha), is being created from brownfield and greyfield sites along the river, which itself is a Superfund site due to decades of pollution. It will follow the river between the Ironbound section along Raymond Boulevard and Downtown Newark along McCarter Highway. Announced in 1999, a groundbreaking took place in 2008, and the first phase of the park opened in 2012. It was the first time residents of the largest city in New Jersey have ever had public access to the river. Other segments of the park have subsequently opened, while others are being developed. The East Coast Greenway uses paths and roads along the park.
Teachers Village is a neighborhood centered around Halsey Street in Newark, New Jersey. It is located in Downtown Newark in southwest quadrant of the Four Corners Historic District, south of Market Street (SoMa) in the Central Ward between the Prudential Center and Springfield/Belmont.
The Seth Boyden Terrace, named after Seth Boyden, was a former public housing complex in the South Ward of Newark, New Jersey.
The Halo is a three-tower residential skyscraper complex under construction in Newark, New Jersey, which will include some of tallest buildings in the city. It is located on Washington Street west of Four Corners in Downtown Newark, situated between Teacher's Village and the Essex County Government Complex. The project was designed by INOA Architecture, which has also conceived other projects in Newark. The first of the three towers was topped off in 2024, becoming the 2nd tallest building in the city.
