Tag: row of houses

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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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E side Searing St looking N from NW corner Summit Place on July 24, 1960

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Anthony DiPalma​ writes:
​”I was actually born and lived my first years on the West Side of that same street: at 23 Searing Street. It is unfortunately not in the photo – except for a small portion of the garage.​ I would give anything to see a picture of that building or of that side of the street before it was torn down​.”

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S side James St looking W from opposite #18 is now a parking lot on July 21, 1960

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Tony Russo (pseudonym) writes:
“That car in the foreground looks just like the car I owned. When they built those monstrous skyscrapers in the 1970s, the work crews were all Italians. They were mafia. They hired vandals and homeless to go in these homes and set them on fire, in order to justify demolition. Everybody lost. Nobody won. Nobody won because the parking lot and skyscraper they built in place of these homes is now empty and has so few tenants. You could say that the bad blood came around. The animals. They tore up our beautiful neighborhood for this.”

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S side James St looking W from NE corner Plane on July 21, 1960

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Bill Chappel writes:
“The mailbox in this image was right in the path of turning traffic. When cars sped through the intersection and bumped onto the sidewalk, they kept on hitting this mailbox. At my suggestion, the post master moved the mailbox to the other side of the street and better protected it behind a traffic pole. Zero accidents since then. That same mailbox is now decades old.

“These old photos show that Newark streets now have thousands more of those unsightly telecom wires dangling from the poles. In many streets, the buildings are all gone. But the telephone wires and poles are the last things left. I suppose someone will come along one day and say those are the only historic things left of our city.”

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S side Mercer St looking W from Mercer Court on July 2, 1960

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​Allan Lacki writes:
“My dad grew up in Newark, NJ during the 1920s and 1930s. When I was a kid in the ’60s, he used to drive us through the old neighborhoods where he used to live.

“They were used-up by then. Unlike the brownstone sections of Manhattan and Brooklyn, the houses were made of wood and could not be restored because they had been neglected for so many years. And they were mixed in with gritty factories, garages, and other industrial establishments that detracted from whatever visual appeal the streets may have had. After the 1967 riots, the flight to the suburbs accelerated, leaving the city destitute for so many years.”

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S side Baldwin looking W from NE corner West St on June 29, 1960

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Anthony Vanacore writes:
“My girlfriend’s great great grandfather Edward F Ganning moved to 100 West Street with his family from the 1890s to 1920s when he died. He raised his youngest son there, and his other kids also resided there in their young adulthood. This is the first photo I’ve seen of the area as it is now redeveloped.”

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Theresa Randolph’s childhood home at 167 Pennsylvania Avenue was demolished to create a parking lot for garbage trucks.

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East side Pennsylvania looking northeast from southwest corner of Vanderpool on May 18, 1961:

Theresa Randolph writes:

In 1934, my parents paid $1,500* to buy that house at 167A Pennsylvania Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. I was born five years later in 1939. We were the first black family in the neighborhood. Neighbors on one side of us were Italian. Neighbors on the other side were Polish and Irish. Most people in the neighborhood were white immigrants from Europe.

Now the tavern on the corner at 171 Pennsylvania Avenue was named Stern’s Bar and & Grill. It was owned by a Jewish man. My dad and other blacks soon learned that this store owner refused to sell to black customers. You could enter and sit down, but he would just refused to serve you. We learned to avoid Stern’s tavern and to bring our business elsewhere. That wasn’t much of a problem back in those days because we had a choice of many other taverns and corner stores in the neighborhood. We could walk everywhere, and all the businesses that we needed were within walking distance of our home.

*$1,500 in 1939 is equal to $15,000 adjusted for inflation in 2025.

167A Pennsylvania Avenue:

Stern’s Tavern is now closed. Theresa Randolph’s house was demolished and transformed into what is now a parking lot for City of Newark garbage trucks.

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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.”