brick road – Newark Changing

N side Warren St looking W from SE corner Summit St on July 24, 1960

By Myles Zhang July 1969 April 2026 Demolished Buildings, Featured Memories, Newark College of Engineering, University Heights

Tom C writes:
”As an engineering student at NJIT from 1981 to ’86 I was able to still see some of the beautiful old Newark intact. My parents – who were both natives from the 1920s to late ’50s – spoke sadly about the aftermath of the riots and downfall of the huge hi-rise low-income ’housing projects.’

“Thanks for bringing back some good memories – Newark Museum and the Ballantine House are true gems. Behind NJIT there was a restaurant called the Italian Kitchen. The building dated to the late 1880s, and it was run by an elderly couple who had been there since the 1950s. No menu, just what they wanted to make. Torn down in 1986.”

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N side Nelson Place looking NE from SW corner Howard on July 2, 1961

By Myles Zhang July 1969 April 2026 Demolished Buildings, Featured Memories, University Heights

Frank Bray writes:
“Wow, so many great pics of a bygone time! Parts of Newark look like the older parts of Toronto, but much of Toronto has been gentrified, and those old houses renovated. Newark demolished everything.”

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Essex St looking N from James St on June 10, 1960

By Myles Zhang June 1969 April 2026 Downtown, Featured Memories, James Street, James Street Commons, Street Scenes of Partial Demolition

Anne Mabry writes:
“This little wood-frame house was tucked between the Rutgers-Newark graduate dormitory (to the left) and the Rutgers parking lot (to the right) when we moved to James Street in 1991. We never learned who lived there except it was abandoned and owned by Rutgers. Possums lived in the basement. You can guess what happened next. Another ‘demolition by neglect.’ The tiny footprint the little green house occupied was swallowed up by the parking lot. Not a trace remains except for a piece of the decorative roof cornice that we saved and sits on our back porch.”

The Little Green House on Essex Street:

: The Little Green House on Essex Street

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

By Myles Zhang April 1969 April 2026 Clinton Hill, Demolished Buildings, Featured Memories, Interstate 78

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.”