The Westinghouse Factory in 2011.
From 1949 to 1967, government agencies and universities spent hundreds of millions of dollars on urban renewal projects in Newark. In the process, at least 10,000 historic buildings on 2,500 acres were demolished and 50,000 people were displaced, 65% of whom were Black and Hispanic. Newark undertook more urban renewal spending per capita than any of the nation’s thirty major cities. Neighborhood clearance for interstate highways and the campuses of Rutgers University, the Newark College of Engineering, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry contributed to the July 1967 uprising. Thousands of Blacks, who saw their neighborhoods, families, and businesses displaced by powerful institutions, rose up. In the resulting battles between protestors, Newark police, and national guards, 727 were injured and 26 died.
Long-term patterns of White flight, urban decay, and under investment accelerated after the 1967 unrest. From 1960 to 1990, 130,000 fled Newark, leaving abandoned neighborhoods behind them. Urban renewal started displacement, but White flight and urban decay continued it. The extent of neighborhood demolition expanded from urban renewal areas into surrounding neighborhoods, rich with hundreds of historic structures but no communities left to preserve them. In addition, Blacks from displaced “slum” clearance projects moved into neighboring White neighborhoods like Vailsburg, Weequahic, and Irvington, in turn causing White flight from those communities. Demolition continues today of the precious little architectural and historic fabric that survives of lost Newark. Most of the neighborhoods that are parking lots and empty lots today were destroyed after, not before, the 1967 unrest.
Through photos, this digital exhibit documents the impacts of urban renewal, White flight, and abandonment on Newark neighborhoods. From 1959 to 1968, Samuel Berg MD documented Newark’s built environment in 2,400 photographs of street scenes, old houses, small businesses, factories, churches, schools, and public spaces. His photos are a unique document of Newark’s rich and varied built environment before demolition. In 2018, the Newark Public Library completed the digitization and tagging of these photos. In 2022, the photo collections were georeferenced to their contemporary locations on Google street view, so as to empower the comparison of change over time.
The majority of Dr. Berg’s photos document the 2.5 square mile area of Newark bounded by Interstate 280 to the north, Bergen Street to the west, Clinton Avenue to the south, and the Passaic River / Route 21 to the east. In the period 1950 to 2020, over 90% of all homes were cleared in this area home to almost 100,000 people in the 1940s. Roseville lost to build Interstate 78 and Weequahic lost to build Interstate 280 were also documented. Only a few of his photos document other neighborhoods. See map:
For more old photos of other Newark neighborhoods, visit the Digital Collections of the Newark Public Library online or contact library staff to visit in person.
Also visit the partner project Newark Metamorphosis that presents an interactive map of 350 postcard comparisons of Newark in 1916 vs. 2016.
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