JERSEY CITY POWERHOUSE TO UNDERGO FIRST PHASE OF LONG-AWAITED RESTORATION
City of Jersey City and Port Authority of NY & NJ Hold Press Conference on Thursday, June 11, 2009 to Announce Stabilization and Remediation of the National Register Site - JC Landmarks in Attendance
Above photos: A newly minted Powerhouse Stabilization billboard by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency is positioned in front of the seminal industrial monument. Local media included News 12 New Jersey, which covered the breaking Powerhouse battle in 1999, The Jersey City Independent, Jersey City Reporter, and The Jersey Journal, among others. Photo courtesy of JC Landmarks.
Above photo: The crowd included representatives from the City of Jersey City, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, and the preservation community. Ten years ago JC Landmarks went up against both entities - and now all are partners in preservation. Photo courtesy of JC Landmarks.
Above photo: Attendees, left to right, included Robert Antonicello, Executive Director, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency; John Gomez, founder and president of JC Landmarks; the Honorable Jerremiah T. Healy, Mayor of Jersey City; Susan Bass Levin, Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority; and Eugene Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation. Photo courtesy of JC Landmarks.
Above photo: Video camera stationed in front of podium and billboard. Photo courtesy of JC Landmarks.
Above photo: John Bathke of News 12 New Jersey interviews JC Landmarks founder and president John Gomez. In 1999, Mr. Bathke interviewed Gomez near this same spot when the Powerhouse was under threat. Today the preservation predicament was quite different. Photo courtesy of JC Landmarks.
Above photo: JC Landmarks founder John Gomez holds a framed City Power poster presented to his non-profit preservation advocacy organization. Gomez wrote the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Powerhouse ten years ago and launched a high profile preservation campaign. Today's event was the first real step toward restoration and adaptive re-use. Photo courtesy of JC Landmarks.
Read The Jersey City Independent Headline >
Read The Jersey Journal Headline >
Visit the Powerhouse Development Website >
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: PRE-ORDER CHANGING JERSEY CITY
New Pictorial Book by Historian Cynthia Harris and Architectural Photographer Leon Yost Set for Release
Changing Jersey City: A History in Photographs. Schiffer Publishing. Paperback, 144 pages. Available in September 2009. Authored by Cynthia Harris and Leon Yost with a foreword by JC Landmarks founder John Gomez.
From the editors:
"Lusciously illustrated with more than 350 color images, Changing Jersey City, a History in Photographs presents New Jersey’s oldest city with all her hidden quirks and secrets. Urban legends are uncovered and unique views revealed in this irresistibly compelling portrait. Sequential photographs document the ever-changing skyline while personal vignettes portray the lives of pivotal people - from pioneers to politicians - who walked its storied streets. Carefully researched, urban legends become fact - or fiction - through exhaustive reading of dusty files in the expansive New Jersey Room of the Jersey City Free Public Library. Previously unpublished vintage photographs printed from original 4 x 5 inch negatives juxtapose with modern views of the same locations to convincingly document this vibrant city’s neighborhoods reaching from Downtown to Greenville to Journal Square to the Heights. Written by the New Jersey Room’s manager, Cynthia Harris, and documentary photographer, Leon Yost, with a foreword by Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy founder, John Gomez, the book is both authoritative and entertaining, filled with hard to find facts, compelling photographs, and intriguing Jersey City stories."
Pre-order with Leon Yost at ermaleon@gmail.com, Amazon or Barnes & Noble
HEROES OF PRESERVATION FETED AT AWARDS CEREMONY - FINAL WALKING TOUR DRAWS DOZENS
Learn More About the 2009 Awardees >
View Our 2009 Awards Ceremony Photo Gallery by Ken Clare >
HISTORIC PRESERVATION CAMPAIGN TO TAKE NEW TURN
Landmarks Conservancy Calls On Public to Get Involved in Fight To Preserve Neglected Historic Church
The time has come to rally and save St. John's Episcopal Church, one of Hudson County's great architectural monuments.
The property owners of the abandoned 19th-century edifice - the Episcopal Diocese of Newark - and the Jersey City Municipal Council, which holds the site's final fate, have had over six months since last October's public meeting to finalize their structural reports.
The Council postponed its landmark designation vote at that time to permit additional studies - and more than enough time, we feel, has been allotted.
We, the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy (JCLC) and the Jersey City public, are ready for landmark designation consideration - the building and the Bergen Hill neighborhood, we feel, deserve it.
JCLC is asking our supporters to take one minute to complete and submit a CitizenSpeak preservation campaign postcard (see link below) addressed to the Jersey City Municipal Council.
The postcard, to be sent to all Council members electronically, is asking for the immediate landmark designation of St. John's. The church, although neglected and vandalized, is not beyond restoration and reuse.
Your CitizenSpeak postcard is already composed - all you need do is fill out the few required fields and then hit submit. However, if you'd like to add your own wording, a text box is provided.
If you would like to fill out or distribute actual SAVE ST. JOHN'S! postcards (pictured above) we can arrange to provide copies; contact Norrice Raymaker at norrice.raymaker@gmail.com.
PLEASE NOTE: Your CitizenSpeak submissions have been coming in - and we thank you for taking the time to do so! Please encourage others to visit JC Landmarks to do the same - this pivotal 1871 English Gothic sentinel in the historic Bergen Hill neighborhood needs them!
