“Geozinger” (username) writes:
“This is a treasure trove of pics from back in the day. I love these ‘slice of life’ candids; showing everything frozen in time and the sometimes odd juxtapositions of objects.
“For as downtrodden as the area may be described, there seems to be decent looking cars on the streets. Many of the pics show cars 3-4 years old. On the other hand, cars were usually pretty much finished after three years of daily use…”
Dan O’Flaherty writes:
“At the corner, at the right, is the Wonder Bar. Next to the Wonder Bar was a vacant lot where there were beer kegs. That’s the turn in Pig Tail Alley. Roseville Avenue School is visible further south on Roseville, to the left.”
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.”
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:
Fredrica Bey writes:
“My Aunt Ampa grew up here in an apartment. It had no hot water and no refrigerator. One day, she learned that she was eligible for Newark’s first urban renewal public housing project that had just opened. The new apartment was small. But she was very proud of it and proud to live in public housing because the space was hers. One day, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to give her an award for having the ‘best kept’ apartment in the complex. I still have the photo of Aunt Ampa with Lady Roosevelt.”
Aunt Ampa with Lady Roosevelt:
Anne Mabry writes:
“The corner meat market was another fixture in our neighborhood. This one at the corner of University Avenue and Orange Street catered to those who had a penchant for freshly processed pork. As the city’s demographics changed from Polish and Italian to Black and Muslim, the kinds of businesses changed, too.
“The corner store used to be called Engelkorn’s. They sold hams, bacon, and pork. This corner store is now Unity Brand Halal. They now sell turkey, lamb, and chicken.”
Mrs. Bachmeier writes about her memory of the 1950s:
”I lived on Burnet Street 1951, went to Burnet Street School – later moved to Orange Street around 1958. Left around 1963…
”Even today after all that time I still see Orange Street the way it used to be: It was a very busy and lived place. There used to be a diner on the corner of Burnet and Orange Streets, The Orange Bar & Grill. Jimmy’s Barber Shop. Rocco’s Pizza & Restaurant. Schickhaus meat packing. There was the candy store on the corner of Broad and Orange Streets.
“Five years ago, my husband took me down to see the area. [….] I was in shock to see what had happened. I can’t believe where I used to live is now a gated parking lot. It was sad. I guess it’s true: ’you can’t go home again.'”
The Orange Bar and Grill: (left)
Greg Calloway (pseudonym) writes:
“I started working as a public employee at the nearby building in 1970. This building on the corner was a flophouse and rooming house with shady characters sitting out front. I remember walking past, seeing empty liquor bottles in the windows, and then thinking to myself: ‘This is not a reputable neighborhood institution.’ Around the corner there used to be an even seedier dive bar named Shorty’s I believe.”
The entirety of Stirling Street, along with all its dozens of brownstones, was cleared for the parking garage and parking lot of the Essex County Courts complex. Stirling street today runs through the middle of this super block.
#33 Stirling Street on left, #25-23 on right behind tree
“I came back to Newark the last day of 1965. Home, a few days, then I found a house on Stirling street, just above downtown Newark, where the interior neighborhoods began to unfold. It was an old three story building, now long gone. I moved in and had it painted light green, with details of red and green, like the flag of a Black nationalist movement. It was to be a site for poetry readings, a theater, a place to hold discussions formal and otherwise and a general gathering site . It soon became all those things.”
1967: Restaurant on Bergen St. and 14th Ave.
1986: Kea’s Ark on Bergen St. and 14th Ave.
Today: New Humanity Baptist Church on Bergen St. and 14th Ave.
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