Tag: bare trees

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W side Johnson Ave looking SW from #284 on December 9, 1961

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Jane Davis​ writes:
​”The beautiful ​Weequahic section I lived in was murdered by politicians and the real estate industry as their answer to the Black migration. (My parents came to Newark from Georgia in the late 1940s.) My family’s home — 141 Watson Ave. — was the last house torn down on that street to make way for the highway. Such a travesty. ​[….] It’s amazing how the Newark that was — and thus how/why it was dismantled — nowadays is unknown to… most people. And Blacks often get blamed for driving the city into the ground–for the historically ignorant, the myth/slander/libel of ‘there goes the neighborhood’ really took hold. In any case, Newark still means so much to me and is most certainly my ‘home.’​

​”In any case, I just wanted to say that the part of the website that has ‘before and after’ photos showing what had been in contrast to the emptiness of the highway is SO amazingly meaningful and essential — at last, I can SEE the houses, stores, etc., that made up my home but that have been erased for decades now. So, though there is much more to say about Newark, I just want to say a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart​.”

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E side Bergen looking NE from SW corner Jeffery Place on December 3, 1961

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Charmelle Vickers writes:
“My family lived at 34 Conklin Avenue in Weequahic. In Newark. Mary Alice and Clifford Hubbard lost their home when city planners forced through Interstate 78. That highway displaced thousands of people. After losing their home on Conklin Avenue, my family moved south to a part of Weequahic that was not yet destroyed. Their old wooden home was beautiful. I remember it. Thank you.”

Note: No known photo survives of 34 Conklin Avenue. The above image shows a similar-looking home on the next street over.

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Hundreds of graves at Old First Cemetery dating to the 17th century were desecrated for what is now Newark’s hockey arena.

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Map of Downtown Newark in 1873 vs. 2016

January 1959
Old First Cemetery looking NW from far rear

July 1961
Park lot graveyard Old First Ch. looking NW from Central Railroad Depot

March 1962
Park lot rear Old First church, formerly graveyard

The same location today
The cemetery is now beneath the playing field of the Hockey Arena

The same location today

The same location today
A change in urban form and urban scale

Old First Cemetery looking SW from Central RR Depot

Old First Cemetery showing a mound at SW corner

Old First Cemetery showing steps to be excavated, a mound at SW corner

Old First Cemetery looking NW from Central RR Depot

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E side Hillside looking NE from #315 on April 21, 1962

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​Rochelle Pleasant writes:
“I was so glad I came across your website with pics of areas near my childhood home. I walked Watson Ave, Peshine Ave, and other streets described. I wondered if you have a photo of Conklin Ave. in your photos you took? Conklin Ave was one block from Seymour Ave to Osborne Terrace sandwiched between Yates and Nye Avenues. There was a synagogue on the corner of Conklin Ave and Osborne Terrace.

“A lovely community with a variety of races with children that played with one another. Some of us who lived there still communicate with one another. Sadly, our street was demolished and our family moved in 1968 due to the building of Highway 78. Our families fought for 10 years against the decision. It still pains me to think of having to move and our home no longer in existence, but, the good memories while living there warm my spirit. If you have any pics or know of organization or agency that may have pics, please let me know. Thank you for creating this site so people won’t forget these communities long displaced. This is history that needs to be shared to a larger audience.​”

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E side Hillside looking SE from SW corner Hawthorne on April 21, 1962

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Veronica Battle writes:
“Thank you for the old pictures from Newark Changing 1950s to today. I grew up in Newark. Mainly in the Clinton Hill & Weequahic Sections. I remember when they were demolishing some parts of these areas. Did you take any photos of the areas of Wainwright, Leslie, Hobson, Dewey, Bragraw, Schley Fabyan and surounding streets. These streets, homes and people were displaced because of I-78. They didn’t completely finish I-78 until the early 1980s.”

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N side Watson looking NW from SE corner Peshine on April 21, 1962

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Jane Davis writes:
“The second house in the 1962 photo labeled ‘N side Watson looking NW from SE corner Peshine’ is the house I grew up in!!!!! My father made those brick steps to replace the wooden ones that were there. I have not seen this house in many decades – the last house torn down on Watson Ave for the highway.”

The brick steps that Jane Davis’s father built:

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W side Hunterdon looking SW from NE corner Lawton on April 21, 1962

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Jane Davis writes:
“I must have been age eight or nine. I walked down the stairs of our family home at 161 Watson Avenue late at night. And I remember overhearing my parents arguing in whispered tones talking about what to do. They had just received the government notice, evicting them from their home to build the highway. They argued: ‘Should we sell right away and get away? Or should we stay and fight to get a fair price for the value of our home?’ In the end, we left. I remember their conversation all these decades later.”

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Looking NE at E side Wallace St (stable – 34-36-38-set back)

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Haarith Alston-Taalib writes:

“Yes, at the corner in this photo is where my family lived until June of 1968. We lived in the apartment just above the sign for John M. Riccio’s grocery store; I have a photo of me at that intersection. I also have a photo of my brother Richard and I on Easter standing at that wall next to the door by the car under the billboard. That fence before the garage was our backyard. The garage was where Mr. Riccio’s food supply was stored. Next to our house, on the right, was a house where Nuns lived (it has that gate around it). I’m going to send the photo of me. We moved from there the year after the riots in Newark.”

Haarith Alston-Taalib’s home was the second-floor window on the left. He writes:
“One of those cars near the corner was my dad’s car in 1967-68.”

Photo of the identical location in June 2012, now the campus of UMDNJ:

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Looking SE at E side Newton St from 12th Ave (old lab of Newark Memorial Hospital in center)

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Haarith Alston-Taalib writes:
“I remember that red brick building; it was covered with vines. After the hospital closed, the kids would climb the tall mansion gate on the Newton Street side of the hospital and try to go inside the old buildings; we were never successful.”