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Preserving Landmarks - Creating Open Space
Proposals For Use Of The Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund
The following report was presented by the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy to the Trustees of the Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund on February 18, 2005. The Report highlights several opportunties that the Trustees have to preserve Jersey City's historic resources while also addressing Hudson County's deficit of Open Space.
INTRODUCTION
On Tuesday, November 4, 2003, the voters of Hudson County passed Referendum Question Number Four, establishing an open space and historic preservation trust fund to be funded by a property tax assessment of $1.00 for every $10,000 property values in the county. The referendum’s passage demonstrates that the citizens of Hudson County recognize the need for both open space and historic preservation, even when it means raising their own taxes to pay for them. The trust fund has raised $3.5 million in its first year.
As the most densely populated county in the nation, Hudson County and Jersey City have a dire need to acquire open space. Increasing development will lead to an even higher population density, and may lead to the acquisition of the little amount of property that remains available for use as open space. The fast pace of development in Hudson County also threatens historic preservation efforts in Hudson County. Without proper protection, developers may acquire, alter, and perhaps destroy historic landmarks.
The Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy (“the Conservancy”) has identified several areas in the City of Jersey City that can be acquired and/or renovated through either the Open Space Trust Fund or other available county and/or municipal funds. Each area would increase the amount of open Hudson County and preserve historic landmarks or sites otherwise of historical significance.
In selecting the following proposals, the Conservancy considered several criteria. First, the space in question is vacant and feasible to develop as open space. Second, the space in question is of historical significance or contains structures of historical significance. Third, the historic nature of the space is threatened either by neglect or development incompatible with its historic character. Fourth, the local community has demonstrated interest in both utilizing the area as open space and including the area’s historic significance in such use. The proposals include the following:
Development of a park and greenway on the site of the Sixth Street Pennsylvania Harsimus Stem Embankment.
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Development of a park and greenway on the site of the Bergen Arches and Erie Cut.
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Development of an urban nature preserve on the site of former Reservoir No. 3.
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Creation of a walkway tracking the path of the Morris Canal in Jersey City, including development into parkland of the largest remaining unfilled portion of the Morris Canal, located on Route 440 and Clendenny Avenue.
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Extension of Fiske-Riverview Park to include the currently vacant Holland Street, one of the few remaining cobblestone streets in Jersey City.
The above-mentioned proposals would significantly increase the amount of open space in Jersey City and Hudson County. They also would demonstrate the City and the County’s commitment to preservation of historic sites and neighborhoods. The proposals are discussed in detail below.
PROPOSAL # 1: SIXTH STREET HARSIMUS STEM EMBANKMENT GREENWAY AND PARK
BACKGROUND
The Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Stem Embankment is a former rail freightway that runs for six blocks along Sixth Street in downtown Jersey City. A massive segmented stone structure, the Embankment borders the National Historic Districts of Harsimus Cove and Hamilton Park and is itself a recognized historic site. It was entered into the State Register of Historic Places in 1999, is eligible for the National Register, and was named a Municipal Landmark in January 2003.
The Embankment is one of only a few reminders of Jersey City’s history as a railroad hub. The Embankment once served as the eastern freight terminus for the Pennsylvania Railroad, the most powerful railroad in the nation, and contributed to the growth of the Port of New York and the greater metropolitan area. Seven tracks ran on top of the structure, which descended almost to grade level at its eastern end, where it entered the Harsimus Yards on the Hudson River waterfront. Goods shipped via the Embankment were loaded onto a flotilla of boats for transport across the Hudson River, New York Harbor, and the East River. To the south, at the Pennsylvania Railroad passenger terminal - once the largest passenger terminal in the world - travelers ended their cross-country rail trips and boarded ferries for New York or destinations beyond. That terminal is long gone, but the freightway remains.
Because it was driven through residential neighborhoods, the elevated freightway greatly affected local life as well as regional economic, social, and political history. Long-time residents remember the sounds of the passing trains and children scrambling up the walls to gather coal dropped from coal cars.
Built circa 1902, the Embankment substructure was designed and its construction supervised by James J. Ferris, a self-made Irish immigrant, prominent civil engineer, and Progressive Era politician. The retaining walls are constructed of enormous sandstone and granite blocks, each weighing up to a ton. They reach a height of 27 feet at its western end near Brunswick Street. Each Embankment segment is 400 feet long (a city-block) and 100 feet wide.
The historical significance of the Embankment is complemented by its current role in Jersey City’s urban environment. A sink for rainwater in a flood-prone Downtown, the Embankment gradually releases water into overburdened city sewers. The top provides habitat for many animal species and oxygenates air compromised by local and Holland-Tunnel traffic. The site is part of a monarch flyway that stretches from Canada to Mexico.
THREATS TO THE EMBANKMENT
Portions of the Embankment have been defaced or demolished over the years. In 1996, the plate girders that connected each segment of the embankment were removed and sold for scrap. The walls of the embankment have been vandalized by graffiti and disfigured by billboards. The northern streetscape is currently overgrown and cluttered with litter.
More significantly, the Embankment’s current owner, Conrail, has given a developer an option to purchase the property, presumably for development as private housing. In addition, some political figures have suggested using the embankment as an extension of the proposed highway through the Bergen Archways and Erie Cut to allow additional automobile traffic to Jersey City’s waterfront. Either proposal would damage the Embankment's historic structure and remove it from Jersey City’s inventory of potential open space.
PRESERVATION EFFORTS
Residents of Jersey City demonstrated their commitment to preservation of the Embankment and its use as open space through the formation of the Embankment Preservation Coalition (“the EPC”). Founded in 1998, the EPC represents residents and other citizens with an interest in preservation of the Embankment and its use as open space. It is dedicated to preserving the Embankment, developing it as open space, and integrating the site into a network of local and regional pedestrian and hiking trails.
Advocacy by the EPC convinced Jersey City to withdraw a redevelopment plan that would have demolished the structure in its entirety. The EPC also nominated the Embankment to the National, State and Municipal Registers of Historic Places. Hundreds of neighborhood residents and visitors have participated in tours, lectures, tree plantings and cleanups of the Embankment, demonstrating a community commitment to preserving the Embankment as open space.
Several other local and national groups have also taken an interest in preserving the Embankment as open space. New York/New Jersey Baykeeper has pledged funds for acquisition, and the New Jersey Conservation foundation has given the EPC a grant to write an acquisition plan Neighborhood groups in downtown Jersey City and the city’s waterfront have endorsed proposals to integrate the Embankment into other trails and pathways in the neighborhood. In addition, the Embankment has attracted the interest of the East Coast Greenway Alliance (”ECGA”), a national organization dedicated to the building of the East Coast Greenway, a 2600 mile National Millenium Trail extending from Florida to Maine. The ECGA has proposed including the Embankment as a portion of the East Coast Greenway’s main route in Northern New Jersey.
PROPOSED USE
The JCLC proposes the acquisition and development of the Embankment for use as a greenway and park. The top of the Embankment would be preserved as passive open space, with public access to walking and biking trails and safeguards for habitat and the neighboring communities. The Northern Streetscape would be improved with pedestrian walkways, trees and other plants, historically appropriate lighting and amenities for pedestrians as part of a Walkway connecting to Jersey City’s waterfront.
Development of the Embankment into passive open space would, by itself, contribute significantly to increasing Jersey City’s and Hudson County’s open space. But the development of the Embankment as open space can also enhance several other open space projects in Jersey City in several regards, including:
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A centerpiece in a network of parks in the historic Hamilton Park, Harsimus Cove, and Van Vorst Park neighborhoods. Using Jersey Avenue as a main boulevard, the Embankment would be part of a string of parks with Hamilton Park to the north, and Van Vorst Park and Liberty State Park to the South.
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A connection to Jersey City’s developing waterfront. The eastern end of the Embankment would connect to the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, a pedestrian and bike trail currently being built which would, upon completion, go from the city of Bayonne to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee.
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A main route for the East Coast Greenway. The Embankment would connect with the Hackensack Meadowlands via the Bergen Arches and Erie Cut. This route has been endorsed by the ECGA, and the ECGA held its 2004 convention in Jersey City to highlight its support for this route.
PROPOSAL # 2: THE BERGEN ARCHES AND ERIE CUT GREENWAY AND PARK
BACKGROUND
The Bergen Arches and Erie Cut span five thousand feet, from Palisade Avenue on the East to Tonnelle Avenue on the West. The arches and cut were constructed between 1906 and 1910 by the renowned Erie Railroad. The expansion of passenger rail traffic at the turn of the century required the railroad to increase its capacity beyond the dual track Bergen Tunnel (constructed from 1856 to 1861) if it were to compete with its rivals, the Pennsylvania Railroad and Central New Jersey Railroad.
The construction of the arches and cut was a remarkable feat of engineering that used 250,000 pounds of dynamite to blast through 800,000 cubic yards of blue trap rock. 160,000 cubic yards of earth were excavated. Four short tunnels with widespread arched portals were blasted and chiseled out of the original Palisade bluffs and faced with concrete made from the pulverized trap rock. The arched tunnels acted as natural bridges for the cobbled city streets that intersected high above the railbeds. The open cuts were given a width of 60 feet at the base and 100 feet at the top. At certain points the depth of the pointed cliffs reaches 85 feet. The top edges of the cliffs were emblazoned with thick grass, draping flower beds and ornamental iron fencing, and adjacent city streets that looked down at the cut were beautifully landscaped at the expense of the Erie.
The Bergen Arches and Erie Cut were opened to the public on June 13th, 1910, nearly four years after construction began. For decades, the arches and cut were used to transport passengers from points as far west as Chicago to the Erie’s Pavonia Avenue terminal. The arches and cut were also used to transport freight to the waterfront. Even after the termination of passenger and freight service, the arches and cut remain as one of the most impressive monuments to railroad engineering on the eastern seaboard. They have since been encapsulated in a canopied forest of urban vegetation and wildlife, creating a unique urban forest throughout the nearly mile long cut.
THREATS TO THE BERGEN ARCHES AND ERIE CUT
Although the abandonment of the arches and cut has allowed beneficial natural development, it has also resulted in man-made abuse of the historic structure. The arches and cut have, over the past decades, accumulated significant litter and refuse from individuals who have used it as a dumping ground. Portions of the arches have been defaced by graffiti. As a result of a recent roadway “improvement” project, the archway spanning Palisade Avenue was covered over with thin concrete coating. Not surprisingly, the new coating is nowhere near the quality of the original facing and has already begun to crack and fall off.
More significantly, government officials have proposed creating a “Bergen Arches Waterfront Expressway” which would create a four lane superhighway from Tonnelle Avenue at Routes 1 & 9 to the Jersey City waterfront. The expressway proposal, originally championed by former Jersey City mayor Bret Schundler, led to a federally funded feasibility study that examined possible uses of the arches and cut as a transportation corridor. The study did not examine the value of the arches and cut as open-space or take into account the site’s historic value. Use of the arches as an expressway could lead to damage or even destruction of the archways and the cut. The proposal for road use was met by overwhelming opposition at a series of public meetings.
PRESERVATION EFFORTS
The JCLC’s tours of the Bergen Arches and Erie Cut have proven to be some of the most popular and well attended events sponsored by the JCLC. Tours regularly attract dozens of participants from both inside and outside of Jersey City. In addition, the Conservancy has been invited to give lectures on the arches and cut by both community and academic groups. In November and December, 2003, the City of Jersey City sponsored “Four Seasons in the Bergen Arches,” an art exhibit in City Hall showcasing photographs of the arches and cut by several renowned photographers.
The Bergen Arches and Erie Cut have also attracted the interest of the East Coast Greenway Alliance. As with the Embankment (see Proposal #1 above), the ECGA envisions the Bergen Arches as part of the East Coast Greenway’s Northern New Jersey Route.
PROPOSED USE
The JCLC proposes acquisition of the Arches and its development as a greenway and park. Such a park would be within walking distance of Jersey City residents in several neighborhoods, including Downtown Jersey City, Jersey City Heights, West Bergen and Journal Square. Access points from different neighborhoods also would allow the open space to be used as a commuter walkway and bikeway, as has been done on trails such as the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway in Massachusetts.
The Bergen Arches and Erie Cut could also be developed as a vital segment of the East Coast Greenway’s main route in northern New Jersey, connecting to the Sixth Street Harsimus Stem Embankment to the East and the Hackensack Meadowlands to the West. For a more detailed discussion of the East Coast Greenway, see Proposal # 1 above.
PROPOSAL # 3: RESERVOIR NO. 3 NATURE PARK
BACKGROUND
Bounded by Summit and Central Avenues, in the Heights section of Jersey City, and owned by the City of Jersey City, Reservoir # 3 is the last of three colossal stone reservoirs erected in 1851 to supply drinking water to a growing immigrant population.
Similar in design to the famous Croton Reservoir in Manhattan (demolished to make way for the New York Public Library), Reservoir # 3 features giant battered Egyptian walls, curved ledges, two pump houses, and a series of interior stone steps that resemble an ancient temple.
Massive iron pipes laid deep underground connect Reservoir # 3 to the Passaic River, whose water was deemed so pure that one could see to the deep bottom of its crystalline bed. Reservoir # 3 provided drinking water via a gravity system to Jersey City's newly-rising tenements, schools, hospitals, churches, and fire hydrants. A special pipe was laid to provide water to Liberty and Ellis Islands.
Reservoir # 3 was once landscaped with a green park nearly twenty feet above the cobbled streets; residents were able to enter its great iron gates and take a stroll around the waterbed's square perimeter. Abandoned for a larger waterworks in Boonton, NJ, Reservoir # 3 was finally emptied in the 1980's, revealing natural bluffs on the reservoir floor.
Since its abandonment, Reservoir # 3 has now emerged as an ecosystem, wetlands and wildlife sanctuary. Animal and plant life not normally suited for urban habitats have found an environment in which they can flourish.
THREATS TO RESERVOIR # 3
Over the years, Reservoir # 3 has been mentioned as a possible location for recreational, educational, residential or commercial developments. While City Officials and residents struggled to make a decision, the site suffered considerably from vandalism, neglect and partial demolition. Homeless people have taken refuge within its walls; vintage pump house machinery, including rare brass purifying and measuring apparatus, has been ripped out and sold for scrap. A few years ago, bulldozers demolished the 1850 southern wall. Since then, construction companies and others have dumped dirt and debris onto the site.
PRESERVATION EFFORTS
Local interest in Reservoir # 3 has led to the formation of the Jersey City Reservoir Preservation Alliance (JCRPA). The JCRPA is composed of several community, historic preservation, and environmental advocacy groups who want to see the Reservoir reclaimed as open space. Constituent members of the JCRPA include the following organizations: Sherman Place Block Association, Pershing Field Garden Friends, Riverview Neighborhood Association, Hackensack Riverkeeper, Embankment Preservation Coalition and Friends of Liberty State Park.
The JCLC, along with the JCRPA, has sponsored tours of Reservoir # 3, as well as volunteer clean ups of the site, all of which have been well attended.
PROPOSED USE
Nature’s stewardship over the past twenty years has given Jersey City the opportunity to develop a unique urban wetland preserve, Reservoir # 3 Natural Park. The park would be developed into three separate sections.
The Outer Perimeter. The outer perimeter of the park would be used precisely as it once was, as an elevated park and walkway with benches, landscaping, and a path around the perimeter. Park goers would be able to enjoy elevated views of both the interior of the park and the surrounding city streets.
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The Interior. The interior of the park would be left as an urban wetland preserve, allowing nature to continue to develop the ecosystem that has developed over the past two decades. The interior would include paths for passive use, and the lakes that have formed in the reservoir could be used for kayaking or canoeing. Other forms of limited active recreation would be possible, so long as they did not disrupt the interior’s delicate natural balance.
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The Pump Station. The reservoir’s former pump station would be used as an interpretive center. The interpretive center would contain displays and exhibits educating visitors about both the historical significance of the Reservoir and its current environmental significance.
PROPOSAL # 4: MORRIS CANAL WALKWAY AND PARK
BACKGROUND
The Morris Canal and Banking Company was incorporated in 1824 to "form an artificial navigation between the Passaic and Delaware Rivers" connecting the coal fields of Pennsylvania with the Port of New York. The Morris Canal, a man-made winding waterway, stretched 102 miles from the Delaware River at Easton, Pennsylvania, all the way to the Hudson River at the Jersey City waterfront.
Built between 1824 and 1836, the Morris Canal, named after New Jersey's first governor, Robert Morris, was a crude, controlled system of colossal tide locks, pumps, and inclined planes (based on technology invented by the great Robert Fulton of Jersey City). In its heyday the canal transported 900,000 tons of coal, iron ore, lumber and other goods annually.
Canal boats were pulled by roped mules through a shallow channel along paradise-like passages draped by centuries-old trees. In the urbanized sections of Jersey City, the Canal passed under 100 bridged streets, running parallel to the rising and falling ridges of the Palisades.
The Morris Canal was also an important Underground Railroad site. Thousands of runaway slaves from the South made their way to the North via the Canal, hiding for weeks under piles of heavy coal in cramped canal vessels. At the foot of the Canal's terminus, at Washington Street near the Sugar House, runaway slaves hid inside underground brick tunnels that still exist today.
The Morris Canal eventually became obsolete due to the arrival of the railroads. It was not until 1924, however, that Mayor Frank Hague, heeding to residents' complaints that the Canal had become nothing more than an open sewer, ordered the waterbed to be filled in.
The Morris Canal’s historic significance led to it being placed on the State Register of Historic Places in 1973 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
THREATS TO THE REMNANTS OF THE MORRIS CANAL
Since the Canal was filled in 1924, development in Jersey City has erased several portions of it. Prior to the Canal’s placement on the National and State Registers of historic places, public and private developers built over the remnants of the Canal without concern for historic preservation. Even with historic designation, the remaining portions of the Canal path face the threat of continued development or neglect. In many cases, it is difficult to track the path of the Canal.
In addition to the Canal path itself, several other remnants of the Canal are facing severe threats. For example, the Morris Canal Little Basin (at the foot of Washington Street in Jersey City), was recently encroached upon by the Sugar House luxury condominium complex, including a new boardwalk that reaches out into the Basin, thereby minimizing its width. The Pacific Avenue Bridge, the only surviving street bridge that hovered over the Canal, and one of the last steel truss bridges of its kind in the metropolitan area, shows signs of rusting and could one day be replaced by its railroad owners, Norfolk Southern and CSX. The Fiddler’s Elbow Bridge, a small original pipe crossing located at the border of Jersey City, is rusting and in disrepair.
PRESERVATION EFFORTS
Government officials have, perhaps belatedly, recognized the historic significance of the Canal and have taken efforts to preserve its remnants. New Jersey Transit, while constructing the Hudson Bergen Light Rail, placed signs informing passersby of the pathways along the Canal. In other areas, street pavings or other displays have been placed, highlighting the presence of the Morris Canal. The Jersey City Housing Authority, in redeveloping the Lafayette Gardens Housing Project, plans to extend Carbone street (which runs parallel to the Canal), and has announced plans to include an exhibit on the Canal in the new housing complex’s main entryway.
The Canal Society of New Jersey, a not for profit organization, has also worked statewide to preserve and highlight the remaining remnants of the Canal. Members of the Canal Society regularly conduct tours and lectures on the Canal and have helped preserve it, in several cases incorporating the remaining pathways into pedestrian and bicycle pathways.
PROPOSED USE
The current piecemeal efforts of preserving the Canal should be replaced with a coordinated preservation effort. To that end, the JCLC proposes the creation of a historic Morris Canal walkway throughout Jersey City. The walkway would track the former path of the Canal as faithfully as possible and run approximately 12 to 15 miles.
The highlight of the walkway in Jersey City would be 1000 feet of Morris Canal waterbed, off Route 440, at the western foot of Clendenny Avenue. The only remaining original waterbed at the Canal's western terminus in Jersey City, it was somehow forgotten and never filled in during the 1920's. The remnants of the original pump house still exist, surrounded by acres of flowing grass and trees. This section of the Canal should be developed into a Morris Canal Historic Park. The park would contain a kiosk with exhibits and displays highlighting the historic uses of the Canal, both as a means for transporting goods to the Hudson River and as an Underground Railroad passageway.
Creation of the walkway and park would create an urban trail accessible to the neighborhoods of the West Side, Greenville, Lafayette, and Downtown Jersey City. In addition, the trail could be part of an entire Morris Canal pathway throughout the State of New Jersey, attracting visitors from other parts of the State and beyond.
PROPOSAL # 5: FISKE-RIVERVIEW PARK EXTENSION TO HOLLAND STREET
BACKGROUND
Over a century ago nearly every street in Jersey City was paved with cobblestones. Laid out in the mid-19th century as part of an extensive civic improvement program initiated by Jersey City's founding fathers, who were influenced by the ancient cobbled streets of Europe, these skillfully crafted streets of cut stone were both beautiful and functional. Today they are gone, covered with asphalt, dug up, or partially obliterated in the name of progress. Only a few remain intact, including Audrey Zapp Drive in Liberty State Park, Provost and Morgan Streets in the Warehouse District, Manning Avenue in the Lafayette area, 17th Street west of Marin Boulevard, and Holland Street in the Heights. Holland Street, the jewel of the remaining cobblestone streets, is currently on the Municipal Register of Historic Places. The 800-foot-long street travels under the 1905 Ogden Avenue Bridge and flows down a curving cliff on the Palisades. It is currently not used by traffic, and is adjacent to Fiske-Riverview Park.
THREATS TO COBBLESTONE STREETS
The few remaining cobblestone streets in Jersey City are in danger of being paved over. In 2000, local politicians called for opening Holland Street to traffic and paving over the street. The project was halted because of vigorous community opposition. Most recently, the Jersey City Department of Public Works paved over portions of Provost Street in the Warehouse District (the City has since promised to restore the cobblestones).
With Holland Street on the Municipal Register of Historic Places, it now has some protection from destruction. Yet it faces other threats due to neglect. The secluded street has attracted drug users and has also been used for public dumping. In 2001, a burning car was left under the Ogden Avenue bridge, resulting in peeling of the stucco underside.
PRESERVATION EFFORTS
Several community groups in Jersey City Heights, including the Heights-Hope Neighborhood Association, the Palisade Avenue Coalition, and the Riverview Neighborhood Association, have taken an interest in preserving the cobblestones of Holland Street and incorporating it into a public park. These groups were instrumental in lobbying against the city’s attempt to pave over the street and open it to vehicular traffic. The same groups have also sponsored clean-ups of Holland Street as well as flower plantings.
PROPOSED USE
Holland Street should be converted into an extension of Fiske-Riverview Park, a park that has been part of Jersey City since the late 19th century. The historic cobblestones would be kept in place, the sides of the roadway landscaped, and a gate placed at the end of the street adjacent to Patterson Plank Road.
Incorporating Holland Street into Fiske-Riverview Park would provide a historic extension to a park with historic significance of its own. In addition, a well maintained Holland Street, clearly visible from Fiske-Riverview Park, would deter drug abusers and garbage dumpers from frequenting the area. Thus, the Holland Street extension would not only increase open space and preserve history, it would also increase public safety and decrease litter in the area.
CONCLUSION
The Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund creates a new opportunity for both open space acquisition and historic preservation in Hudson County. The above proposals highlighted by the Conservancy present unique opportunities, as they allow the county to achieve both goals that are the purpose of the trust fund. The Conservancy looks forward to discussing and developing these proposals with the Hudson County Open Space Advisory Board, and hopes to identify additional projects which can benefits from the trust fund’s assets.