The congregation of the Old Bergen Church is the longest continuing congregation to meet in New Jersey. The church was established in 1660 when settlers in the village of Bergen sought a place to worship. Founded under Dutch rule, the church originally held services in a log schoolhouse. A year later, in 1661, church members developed plans to build the First Dutch Reformed Church. Through taxes, the church was able to fund the construction of a new church building in 1680. The completed building was designed and constructed by William Day. It was octagonal in shape and made of sandstone with a sloping roof.&nbsp; The congregation of the church grew rapidly throughout the end of the seventeenth century and beginning of the eighteenth&nbsp;century. In 1773, after Dominie William Jackson became the first full-time&nbsp;pastor, a second church was constructed on the corner of&nbsp;Bergen Avenue and Vroom Street to meet the demands of the community. However, this church too would not last.&nbsp; A third church was built in 1841. This church still stands today, as it is the structure known as the Old Bergen Church. The church is located on Bergen Avenue and Highland Avenue, and it stands near the location of the previous two churches. The structure is one story and is constructed in a Greek-revival style. The builders, William H. Kirk and Company and Clark and Van Nest, designed the building with a brownstone facade, allowing them to incorporate stone from the church built in 1773 into the south wall.&nbsp;

Website

Terry Karschner. "Old Bergen Church," National Register of Historic Places. 8-14-73.

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Old Bergen Church is the home of the oldest religious congregation in New Jersey. It was founded in 1660 when the Dutch colony of New Netherland was established directly across from what is now lower Manhattan. The church was built in 1841, replacing a sandstone church constructed in 1773 (there were two churches before this one). Today, the Church is home to the Reformed Church of America and the Presbyterian Church.

Old Bergen Church

A drive past ten historical buildings, from The Heights south through Bergen to Lafayette neighborhoods of Jersey City. Buildings from the 1700s to 1920s are highlighted.

This portion of Jersey City, west of Hoboken and a narrow strip of Jersey City lowlands, is called The Heights; it became Hudson City in 1855. The area was home to a large population of German immigrants. Hudson City became part of Jersey City in 1869. The Pohlmann building was not shown on a local map drawn in 1873 when the lot - on the edge of the escarpment overlooking Hoboken and New York beyond - was still part of a local brewery, located below the escarpment. The 1874 city directory lists Daniel Pohlmann as offering lager on the corner of Ogden Avenue and Ferry Street. The following year's directory described Pohlmann's business as a hotel, restaurant, and lagerbier. Diedrich Pohlmann described his hotel in a newspaper ad in 1880, calling it a "perfect pleasure resort" with a "new and pretty dancing platform," concert hall, ballroom, billiard room, and bowling alleys; the resort was the "most delightful place for picnics, balls, concerts, and social gatherings." The hotel cost $50,000 to build and used over a million bricks for its 22-inch thick walls, set on bedrock. The hotel was next to a steam-powered elevator on Ogden Avenue in 1874, next to the trolley stop, that could transport people and carriages from The Heights down to Hoboken. For those who liked the exercise, there was a set of outdoor steps nicknamed "100 steps." The elevator upgraded to electric power in 1892. Diedrich Pohlmann died around 1887 and his widow, Minetta, carried on the family business; he supposedly asked on his deathbed that she never close the business. The establishment made the news in March 1889 when laws forbidding the sale of beer on Sundays in New Jersey were enforced by raiding Pohlmann's and arresting the widow, six waiters, and the orchestra; the patrons were allowed to leave. After paying $500 bail, Mrs. Pohlmann was quoted as saying "That's the end of it. No Grand Jury will indict anyone for selling Sunday beer." It was rumored that Mrs. Pohlmann had once served as the chief cook in the royal household of the King of Hanover (future part of Germany). As she continued in her late husband's footsteps, their music resort was said to be a favorite of wealthy Germans who could appreciate good music. There was "nothing cheap nor common to be seen about the premises; even the walls of the barroom" and other rooms were "painted in oils." Pohlmann's was the scene of merrymaking of dozens of organizations in the 1890s; one of the last picnics of the season was usually held in late September for employees of Pohlmann's. A week-long trade show attracted 32,000 visitors to Pohlmann's in 1898, featuring booths with local businesses. The Hudson City Business Men's Association repeated the industrial show in early 1899, with nightly orchestra concerts from the music stand on the pavilion. William P. Kastenhuber was the manager of Pohlmann's at the time. In 1899, the owner of Pohlmann's Pavilion, Mina Pohlmann of Westchester County, New York, leased the building to Harry Brown and Phil Heck, a tenor singer. The pair paid $10,000 for a ten-year lease on the popular resort. The previous lessees were William Mutschler and Robert Klesewetter. Pohlmann's Hall closed in 1915 and was vacant until purchased by L.O. Koven &amp; Brother in 1917. The company moved its offices from New York City to the building after renovations. The main change was the addition of a third floor in the two-story gymnasium/ hall space and the removal of the two-story arched windows that lit the space. The firm had manufactured iron stoves, boilers, and furnaces in its plant below the escarpment since the 1880s. Engineers from the nearby firm of Keuffel and Esser leased the basement of the building, which was built on bedrock, to test motion detection devices they were developing. Historical photos revealed that the building used to have the words "POHLMANN'S HALL" painted on the top story of the east wall. A three-story addition to the rear replaced the wooden dancing platform/biergarden pavillion, with a stone foundation, brick second story, and timber third story; windows afforded a view of the water beyond Hoboken. In the early years of the building's adaptive reuse into condominium residences (mid-1980s), the loft units, at 500 to nearly 2,000 square feet, rented for $700 per month and up. Don't expect to see anything close to those prices today! A recent ad for a two-bedroom unit was asking $3,600 a month, offering Manhattan views from a private deck.

The three-story building at 154 Ogden Avenue was constructed as a social hall/ beer garden/ hotel from 1874 to 1875 for Diedrich Pohlmann. Before then, the site was on the Roemmelt & Leicht Brewery property. The structure became known as Pohlmann's Hotel by 1875, with a wooden platform attached to the back of the building for dancing by 1880. By the mid-1890s, the structure was known as Pohlmann's Concert Hall. The building became the site of the L.O. Koven Boiler Company's headquarters in 1918, and some interior modifications were made.  In 1963, Pohlmann's Hall was purchased by J.L. Kessler Company, a casket manufacturer, for offices and a factory. The new owners in 1984 turned the building into condominium residences. Pohlmann's Hall was listed in the National and New Jersey Registers of Historic Places in 1985.

Pohlmann's Hall

In the 1860s, Central Avenue was the main street through Hudson City, before it became part of Jersey City. There had been firefighters in Jersey City since 1829, after the public demanded protection after several terrible fires. There was no money in the city treasury for the service and no means of creating a tax, so the city earmarked funds from a new ordinance requiring public auctioneers purchase a license. The city purchased a fire engine from New York City; the new machine cost $800, and 100 feet of hose added nearly another $90. Thirty volunteers formed the first fire company in Jersey City, Liberty Engine Company No. 1; the engine was stored at the stable of the Farmer's Hotel at 42 York Street. The fire departments of Jersey City, Hudson City, and Bergen consolidated in 1870 when all three municipalities became Jersey City. The resulting need was too large for just volunteer firefighting, so the force began paying firefighters in 1871. The paid force was uniformed and required to stay in the fire house. They were aided by a small force of semi-volunteers nicknamed "buffaloes" who did the same work as the paid force but with minimal pay. Hook and Ladder No. 3 on Central Avenue is situated opposite Pershing Park along a busy commercial corridor. The original architect was Charles H. Detwiller. The structure is heavily decorated with over twenty different kinds of brick on the exterior, in different shapes, colors, and sizes. Two bands of stone add to the detail: one of limestone and one of bluestone at grade. The land and building cost $12,000; this was $4,000 over budget. The building's footprint covers the entire lot, 94 feet along Ferry Street and 25 feet fronting Central Avenue. The front of the building's ground floor formed the truck room, with 14-foot ceilings, beneath a second floor dormitory and sitting room with an ornate fireplace. The rear of the building was originally a 30 by 25-foot, one-story horse stable. The lettering "HOOK &amp; LADDER NO. 3" is on a terra cotta panel across the front facade, over the large vehicle door flanked by narrow windows. The second floor features a large window in the center with an arched terra cotta header and an arch-topped window on each end. Two entrances into the building are on the Ferry Street side, at either end of five bays. The second floor is topped by a prominent metal cornice. The stable entrance on the one-story rear wing has been filled in with window inserts. Only minor alternations were made in the 1920s to accommodate motorized vehicles, including replacing the wood flooring of the truck room with a concrete slab; the stables were no longer necessary. The vehicle entry door was made taller before 1938. The beaded pine wainscoting was covered with pressed tin. Wooden windows were replaced with aluminum framed windows in the late twentieth century. The building was in use as a fire house until 2005. Brunelleschi Construction set up their offices in the renovated former Hook and Ladder No. 3 carriage house in 2011. Headed by Alfonso Carrino, the firm specializes in transforming older buildings into modern uses while preserving architectural details. The firm spent ten months carefully transforming the abandoned building, which suffered from roof leaks, mold, and crumbling walls and floors. The masonry walls of the fire house have been preserved, as well as porcelain tiles, beams, rafters, and an iron helix staircase. The metal slide pole from the second to first floor is preserved from the fire station days, but the floor/ceiling surrounding space is covered by metal mesh, for safety reasons and to bring light to the downstairs space. A highlight of the restoration was finding a handwritten message scrawled on brick walls behind pressed tin: "This house was erected 1896 - Fireman Bill O'Connor." The large doorway along Central Avenue now opens for the company's trucks and machinery to pass through. The upstairs have become office space for "BrunCon" (as they are known on social media); with new skylights added to existing skylights and existing windows, they rarely need to turn on lighting during the day in the office space. The firm was featured in a television show filmed for HGTV in 2011. A rear addition that used to hold the fire company's stables now contains a modern apartment, with high ceilings and hints of the former brick walls. The one bedroom/ one bath unit holds 750 square feet.

The brick building at 218 Central Avenue, on the corner of Ferry Street, was built in 1896 as a fire station for the surrounding neighborhood, Jersey City Heights, and served until 2005. It was one of 23 fire houses in the city by 1897. The Hook and Ladder No. 3 building replaced a smaller, dilapidated fire house on Webster Avenue. The Beaux Arts/Renaissance Revival style structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015, for its architecture and its place in the city's history. The City of Jersey City sold the property in 2010 to Medici Associates; AGC Holdings/Anthony Carrino became the new owner in 2018, paying $650,000. The property has been restored by and is now headquarters for a preservation-oriented company, Brunelleschi Construction, and part residential, containing a rear apartment unit. The firm was featured in shows filmed for HGTV on historic preservation in 2011.

Hook and Ladder No. 3

The first person to practice law in Jersey City was James Wilson, who opened a law office in 1812. Hudson County was formed in 1840; at that time, there were eight lawyers in Jersey City. The new county's first court was held in Lyceum Hall on Grand Street in April 1840, and continued at that location until September 1843. The next spot was the Newkirk House at the Five Corners; the new Court House on Newark Avenue at Hudson City was ready for occupancy by March 1845. The stone building was constructed of rock quarried on the site; a jail was added soon afterwards. The new courthouse was built next to the existing courthouse on land bought from fourteen landowners of residences standing on the properties. Designed by local Jersey City architect Hugh Roberts and built by Wells Brothers of New York City and John F. Gill &amp; Sons of Cleveland, the groundbreaking was in March 1906 and the cornerstone was laid in December 1906. The grand opening of the six-story building, made of light grey granite quarried in Maine, was on September 20th 1910. Triple doors facing Newark Avenue form the main entrance, reached by wide steps of granite. The top floor of the 183 by 134-foot building contains four courtrooms. Originally budgeted at slightly under $1 million, the final cost was $3.3 million. The bronze window frames and doors, marble interior columns/arches/flooring, and low copper dome were high end details. The dome interior is stained glass, surrounded by images of the signs of the zodiac. Eight columns of green Italian marble in the center of the building, from the second to fourth floors, form an interior space under the dome. Steam heat was supplied to the building from a powerhouse with a brick chimney 125 feet tall. An architectural survey of the vacant building was completed in the 1970s for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). Below the frieze above the main entrance, there originally were three inscribed stone tablets; two have been removed and replaced with small windows (as seen in one of the photos); the removed tablets read "Justice seeks no praise and bears no blame" and "To delay justice is to deny justice." A number of artists were commissioned to create artwork for the new courthouse. They created impressive painted murals that line the walls of the top floor and basement. The murals tell the story of Hudson County. One is The Coming of the English by Howard Pyle; another two depict Henry Hudson and the purchase of Jersey City, by Frank D. Millet. The courthouse was renamed in 1988 for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., a Newark native who served the state's Supreme court from 1949 to 1956 and the U.S. Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990. The courthouse rotunda was named in 2007 for Theodore Conrad, a local architect and the president of the efforts to save the building in the 1970s, under the Citizens Committee to Save the Courthouse. For a time, it was thought that the building might be turned into a cultural and social center under non-county public ownership.

It took four years to build the massive courthouse at 583 Newark Avenue for Hudson County, from 1906 to 1910. The Beaux Arts building is notable for its architectural style and interior murals and decorative marble. The Hudson County Courthouse was abandoned in 1966 and slated to be demolished to be replaced by a parking garage to serve the county Hall of Records building built next door in 1953. The courthouse was listed in the National Register in 1970. Local historic preservation efforts prevailed, and the courthouse was renovated in the 1970s and early 1980s; it reopened in 1985 to be used for trying civil cases and for county governmental offices.

Hudson County Courthouse

Named after a nearby hill, Bergen was the first planned and permanent European settlement in New Jersey. Dutch, Danish and Norwegian settlers were among the first inhabitants of the town, settling on land that was purchased from the Native Americans in 1658 by Peter Stuyvesant, who established a Dutch fort that would grow into a small town two years later.&nbsp;From the 1830s, the Pennsylvania Railroad connected the residents of Bergen to the growing urban settlements in northeast America, such as Boston and Philadelphia. Bergen was a focal point for the American Revolution. The particularly noteworthy revolutionary, Paul Revere, passed through Bergen a number of times in the years leading up to the War of Independence. The Dutch residents preferred to remain neutral, despite the Patriots making use of the town as a location to spy upon New York Harbor, and the British occupancy from 1776. By 1870, Bergen had grown from a township into a suburb of Jersey City

In 1670, an Englishman named John Berry sold a plot of land in Bergen to Samuel Edsall, a local maker of beaver hats. Shortly afterward, ownership of the land went to a Dutch immigrant, Mattheus Newkirk, who started construction of the Newkirk House in circa 1690. He lived there with his wife, Catrina Poulus Newkirk, and son, Poulus, until his death in 1705. Ownership of the house remained with the same family until 1889, and the Newkirks produced a number of key individuals in Jersey history. After 1889, it became an orphanage run by the Queen's Daughters of Jersey City and subsequently held a series of businesses until 1928, when the redevelopment of Summit Avenue caused the entire building to be moved to its present day location.&nbsp;

Built in the late 1600s by Dutch settlers, Newkirk House is Jersey City’s oldest building. It was built in the old Dutch village of Bergen, which was founded in 1660 by Tilman Van Vleck and designed by Jacques Cortelyou. Despite some alterations during its long history, the building remains relatively unchanged from its original 17th century appearance. The two-story sandstone, brick, and wood timber building offers a fine example of early Dutch colonial architecture. In 1979, the building was sold and has been home to a popular local restaurant ever since. The building is included on New Jersey’s State Register of Historic Places.

Newkirk House

Loew's Jersey Theater was one of five Leow's theatres opened in the New York City area. It opened on September 28th, 1929, just two weeks after the Loew's Paradise Theatre and Loew's Kings Theatre opened. The first performance at the Jersey Theatre was a production of "Madame X," featuring&nbsp;Ruth Chatterton and Lewis Stone. The Theatre also hosted popular performers such as Bing Crosby and Duke Ellington, but it was most famous for its screenings of new movies throughout the decades.&nbsp; The Theatre was built with a Baroque-style facade,&nbsp;featuring ornate carvings as well as an animated clock depicting St. George and the Dragon. The auditorium, designed in an Italian-Renaissance&nbsp;style, has a 50-foot proscenium. The seating capacity&nbsp;was set at 1,078. However, two additional screening rooms were added in 1975, each seating 524 people.&nbsp; The Theatre was shut down in 1986. The final movie screened before the closing was "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives." The Theatre was supposed to be demolished when a private company bought it in 1987. Luckily, preservationists came together and fought to preserve the building, winning the battle in 1993 when the city bought the Theatre. In 1995, a restoration project began, which wasn't completed until 2001. For its first event, the Theatre held a tribute for the 9/11 attacks and the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Today, the Theatre still holds screenings of classic movies.&nbsp;

Listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places in 1985, the Loew's Jersey Theater was built in 1929 and was considered one of the largest theaters of its kind; it was one of five Lowe's theaters in the New Jersey/New York area. It was built at the cost of $2 million and had 3,021 seats. Films and traveling vaudeville acts were the venue's primary shows as was common around the country before the Great Depression. The building was designed by the firm Rapp and Rapp in the Baroque/Rococo style with the facade featuring ornate carvings as well as an animated clock depicting St. George and the Dragon. The theater also featured a large Robert Morgan pipe organ (this was removed but a sister organ was later installed). The venue has been restored, and various shows and performances take place throughout the year (older films are shown as well). 

Loew's Jersey Theatre

The original part of the Van Wagenen House was one-story, one-room deep, of ashlar stone; this is in the western part of the house. The eastern section of the home was added at one time, ca. 1842, and is Greek Revival style, two-and-one-half stories; the same local ashlar stone was used in this three-bay addition, two rooms deep. The original portion of the house then became a kitchen wing. An additional room was added to the rear of the original portion of the house around 1860, and a second floor was added at the same time; the main facade facing south (toward the street now) was faced in matching stone, while the rest of the addition is brick; brownstone lintels and sills abut the main facade's windows and both entry doors. Italianate influences are seen in the latter addition's bracketed cornice. An open rear porch from the 1860s construction phase was enclosed in 1896 and modernized in the mid-twentieth century after the house became a funeral home. An early owner of the land, Lot 113 in the northwest corner of the town of Bergen, was Gerrit Gerrison, an immigrant who left Wagenen, Holland for New Amsterdam in 1660; Gerrit purchased the lot in 1688 but lived elsewhere nearby, in Communipaw. Bergen was platted in 1660 but this lot was still undeveloped in 1688. Clues to the date of the original house are its physical remnants within the 1860s modifications, the fact that it was only one story (two-story homes weren't common locally until after the Revolutionary War), and records placing a Van Wagenen in Bergen between 1710 and 1721. Dendrochronology was attempted, by dating a piece of an original wooden beam, but was not successful. The house was seen on maps as early as 1778, but may have been built by Johannis Van Wagenen I (the son of Gerrit; some of Gerrit's children adopted a new surname, meaning "from Wagenen") for his grandson, Johannis II, upon his 1749 marriage. Johannis II was the property owner from 1759 (from his grandfather's will) to 1797. The home was in an area of Bergen that remained rural until the mid-nineteenth century. The house passed down through the Van Wagenen family: to Jacob, the eldest son of Johannis II sometime after 1797; in 1839 to Hartman, a son of Jacob; and in 1877 to Hartman's son, Henry. After Henry died in 1900, the house went to his daughter, Eliza Jane Cokelet. Eliza lived in the home until her death in 1943. The roughly 250 years of family ownership ended with the sale of the house in 1947 by Eliza's grandson to Lawrence and Mary Quinn. There are unconfirmed reports that George Washington met the Marquis de Lafayette on the property during the Revolutionary War, under an apple tree. The pair are said to have dined under the tree one day, during a three-day stay in Bergen in 1780.The Van Wagenen House has been nicknamed "The Apple Tree House" due to this legend. When an apple tree in the front yard fell in 1821, wood from the tree was made into an inscribed cane presented to Lafayette during his return tour of the U.S. in 1824. The Van Wagenen House was used as Quinn's Funeral parlor from the late 1940s into the 1980s. The vacant and deteriorating house was sold by the estate of Mary Quinn in 1995 and was purchased by the City of Jersey City in 1999. When news of the impending demolition of the Van Wagenen House broke, preservation groups gathered 5,000 signatures in two weeks on a petition to halt the destruction. A writer noted in 2014 that the Revolutionary War was won in less time than it took to renovate the Van Wagenen House, which was still a work in progress fifteen years after the city's 1999 purchase from Provident Savings Bank. Over $4 million had been spent by then to save and renovate the former funeral home. Only landscaping and some exterior touches remained to be done. Since the 2017 reopening, the Van Wagenen/ Apple Tree House has been the site of poetry slam contests, local school history fairs, holiday tours, and special lectures and exhibits (pre-pandemic).

The original part of the stone house at 298 Academy Street was built circa 1750 on a lot in the town of Bergen; later additions date to the 1840s and 1860s. The Van Wagenen House property was owned by a Dutch family, the Gerritsen/ Van Wagenen family, from 1688 to 1947. The property has ties to George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, apples, and funerals. The City of Jersey City bought the endangered building in 1998 and renovated the interior while making the building more accessible. The building reopened to the public in November 2017 and houses the offices of the Jersey City Division of Cultural Affairs and Jersey City Economic Development Corporation. The Van Wagenen House was listed in the National Register in 2006 and is one of the oldest houses standing in Jersey City.

Van Wagenen House

The Fairmount Company of Jersey City purchased land at the southwest corner of Fairmount Avenue and Hudson County Boulevard (later John F. Kennedy Boulevard) in early 1909 for $18,500. The company announced plans to build an apartment style hotel at a cost of $50,000 on the site. The earlier, east building features stucco bays and geometric patterns of inlaid brick and mosaics. The bays of the second, west building are all finished in brick. The entrance to the first building, facing Kennedy Boulevard, is neoclassical revival in style, with fluted Corinthian columns and an arched doorway. Above the thrdr floor window of the entrance bay of each building is a terra cotta plaque inscribed "F" or "A" with a fruit tree motif. The hipped roofs were originally covered in green Spanish tile but are now asphalt; part of the original roof was a garden space. The single-story connection between the buildings contained the 1909 dining room. A few notable early residents of the Fairmount Hotel included John Anness, an elderly, retired businessman in the local hardware industry and former assemblyman, who died while wintering in California in 1915; Timothy Kelly, superintendent of the New York City coal company Berwin-White and a former Hoboken alderman, who died in 1914; and Mary Jackson Beach, widow of Judge Marcus L. Beach, who died in 1916. And then there was the case of Clinton S. Dow, a New York stock broker, who owed the Fairmount two months rent after moving out. Dow claimed he was promised a larger apartment when one became available in 1910, because his wife was expecting a baby. In the lawsuit brought by the Fairmount for the rent, Dow's lawyers claimed in 1912 that he had been denied a larger apartment and was told by the hotel manager, Mr. Carrington, that squawking babies are annoying. When Dow replied that he would need to move, he reportedly was told that the Fairmount would be glad to have him move. The Fairmount countered that Dow was denied a larger apartment because of his habit of playing the piano loudly after ten o'clock at night, and throwing beer bottles out of the back window. One of the witnesses, Mrs. Ella Lohmeyer, testified that she was "compelled to move because the management objected to babies." A director of the Fairmount, Leslie N. Brown, admitted an objection to babies but "could not remember any ban on beer." The result of the case, in the Second District Court, is not known. The hotel advertised in 1922 in a New York City newspaper that it offered furnished rooms to let, "attractively situated on the Heights, within 35 minutes of the heart of New York City; large, airy rooms, single or en suite, with bath; excellent table; terms moderate." In 1962 an elderly, evangelist minister named Father Devine (originally named George Baker) bought the Fairmount from the Peter Stuyvesant Corporation, who had owned it since 1954. Father Devine and his wife, Edna R. Ritchings ("Mother Divine"), ran the "Devine Fairmount" Fairmount under strict moral codes. Men and women lived on separate floors, and no drinking, gambling, or smoking was allowed. Divine's Peace Center Church held services at the Fairmount several times each week. The residents ate at communal meals, some of which were open to the public for a donation. Father Divine died in 1965 but his family retained ownership until 1986, when it was sold to Gold Coast Realty. A company named Ingerman Group bought the vacant, dilapidated building in 1994 and renovated it into separate apartments. The Fairmount became a senior living community under the Birchwood name; it is one of twenty affordable Birchwood communities owned by Ingerman in the Mid-Atlantic.

The Fairmount Apartments is an example of early twentieth century Arts and Crafts style architecture. There are two connected 4-1/2 story brick and concrete L-shaped buildings, finished in 1909 (the east building) and 1912 (west). The structure was also known as the Fairmount Hotel but people resided in the apartments. The Fairmount Apartments was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and in the New Jersey Register the prior year. The renovated Fairmount now houses residents 62 years and up in the "Birchwood at Fairmount Hotel." Its 60 apartment units, from studio to two bedrooms, rent with income limits. Read on to hear about the 1912 lawsuit about beer, babies, and ragtime piano music at the hotel.

Fairmount Apartments

In the 1850s, the Jersey City branch of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) came to be, as one of the first 30 YMCAs in the country. It was organized locally by a flour merchant named T.W. Hinchman; the mission was to promote community service, self-improvement, and mutual assistance. The original location was in rooms of what is now the Gregory Apartments, at the Gregory and Henderson streets intersection. The YMCA moved several times until relocating in 1909 to Montgomery and Greene Streets; several branch locations were opened. After raising funds for five years, a new YMCA building was built on the Bergen Avenue lot which had been purchased for $35,000. The Edward Corning Company was chosen in 1922 to construct the new YMCA, a seven-story fireproof building of brick and limestone. The project was estimated to cost $500,000 and aimed to serve "young men in need." The cornerstone was laid on June 26th 1923. A last fundraising push added another $350,000 to the $500,000 that had already had been donated, to finish the building. A grand opening was part of a four-day gala in October 1924. The plans for the impressive building were published in the journal American Architecture. The detailing on the main (Bergen avenue) side makes the building appear larger than it is, with belt courses of limestone, and brick and limestone pilasters. The first story is faced in ashlar limestone. Windows on the second story alternate between limestone pediments that are pointed or round, in an Italian Renaissance style. A medallion in the center of the third story belt course holds a flagpole. A parapet reads "Young Men's Christian Association." The front portion of the building is the part that remains standing, and contained the dormitory rooms on floors three to seven, meeting spaces, and offices. The basement held a kitchen, bowling alley, and a cafeteria. The rear, stuccoed portion (demolished recently) held a swimming pool, multi-story gymnasium, and fitness rooms that were open to the public. Dorm rooms typically held a twin bed, small writing desk, chest of drawers, and an easy chair. The average age of the male residents in the 1920s was 24 years, with an average stay of 9.5 months. The main entrance was modernized in the mid-1950s with aluminum framed glass doors atop granite steps; the original featured Corinthian columns and bronze doors. The lobby and parts of the main and second floors were altered in the 1950s as well, with dropped ceilings (hiding the exposed beams and fancy plaster medallions), drywall, and linoleum floors or carpeting. The roof, used for sunbathing, received an outdoor shower in the mid-1950s renovations. Coed and family programs were introduced to the YMCA in the 1950s. Original terrazzo tile, wood paneling, and brick/ terra cotta fireplaces were still present in parts of the building in the late 1990s, when the property was documented for a National Register nomination. The Community Builders Inc (TCB) is one of the country's top nonprofit housing organizations, with properties in 14 states and the District of Columbia. They acquired the financially-troubled Jersey City YMCA building in 1996 and renovated it by 1999 into 131 affordable housing units - 59 single rooms and 72 studio apartments - for the homeless. The building, renamed Bergenview, was the largest "supportive housing" project in New Jersey. The 1999 agreement with the City of Jersey City to provide Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding for rehabilitation of the building by TCB required the structure to contain units affordable to those of low and moderate incomes for a period of at least 30 years. The building's condition has deteriorated over the last two decades, and the property was sold to be renovated once again. The new owners in 2020, Bergenview Urban Renewal LLC (established in 2018), will assume the 1999 mortgage and affordable housing agreements with Jersey City agreed to by the prior owners, New Hope Urban Renewal. The Leviticus Fund granted a $1.45 million redevelopment fund for the first phase of the renovation. The boiler was to be removed from beneath the gymnasium adjacent to the housing units and a new boiler was to be installed in the cellar of the apartment building. The gymnasium and racquetball courts portion of the YMCA property, previously run by the Jersey City Department of Recreation and open to the public, was to become part of a new 10-story adjacent building. Fairview Heights, with 92 mixed-income residences.

The brick and stone building at 654 Bergen Avenue was built in 1923 - 1924 to house the Jersey City Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The architect of the six-story, Classical Revival style building was John F. Jackson. The Jersey City YMCA building was listed in the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places in 1999, four years after it last served as the YMCA. Now containing 131 units of affordable housing, the building is known as Bergenview and was owned until recently by New Hope Housing. The Bergenview Head Start program shares the space, as well as meeting space for community groups. Plans are underway for the rehabilitation of the apartments by the firm Bergenview Urban Renewal, the new owners, into 111 studio units of affordable housing plus one manager's unit.

Jersey City YMCA

John H. Ficken emigrated from his native Germany to New York City in 1857; he moved across the bay to Jersey City six years later at age 22. Ficken worked as a Pullman ticket agent at the Erie Railroad Station. In 1880 he and George H. Bunnell partnered as undertakers in the firm Ficken &amp; Bunnell (on Henderson St. and Communipaw Ave.); Ficken had been an undertaker since 1873. Ficken and Bunnell parted ways, and Ficken was a livery stable owner by the early 1890s. One evening in 1893, Ficken was sweeping dirt (likely combined with horse droppings) from the street in front of his stables on Arlington Avenue and placed the dirt pile in front of a house owned by George J. Taylor at Arlington and Communipaw Avenues. Taylor was not pleased and began shoveling the dirt "back where it came from." Ficken objected and warned Taylor to stop of he would horsewhip him. When Taylor did not stop, Ficken horsewhipped Taylor "in a very energetic manner"; Ficken was held for trial at the local criminal court under $500 bond. Ficken was building a new, three-story brick building on Harmon Street by April 1894; the local newspaper estimated the building's cost to be $4,600. The 1896 Sanborn map shows the John H. Ficken Livery &amp; Boarding Stable complex of three brick buildings, on the north side of Harmon St./west side of Arlington Ave., with no buildings at the future location of this entry (on the south side of Harmon St./west side of Arlington Ave.). The new building appears to have been the three-story building at 60-62 Harmon Street, to the rear of Ficken's two-story brick building (58 Harmon St.); the two-story building was attached to the rear of Ficken's building that fronted Arlington Avenue (413-415 Arlington). The complex has been demolished, and stood on the north side of Harmon Street, across the street from the building in this entry (this entry is on the south side of Harmon street, at 411 Arlington Avenue, in the older street address numbering system). In May 1897, Ficken petitioned the Jersey City Board of Street and Water Commissioners for permission to pave one half the width of the carriageway of Harmon Street from Arlington Avenue to the rear of his property, at his own expense. A public auction was held in January 1906 at John H. Ficken's combination warehouse and stable at Arlington Avenue and Harmon Street; items seized from a raid of a gambling establishment in Hoboken, New Jersey were up for auction. A number of items were bought by Mr. Ficken, including a silver-plated ice water cooler for which he paid $9.50. Ficken bought the vacant lot across Harmon street in 1906; ground was broken in the summer of 1910 for the new building along Arlington, Grand, and Harmon. Ficken and his family lived at the complex on the north side of Harmon in 1910, while he was having the building built on the the south side of Harmon; a1910 ad for Ficken's storage warehouses guarantees to keep stored items safe and mentions that the proprietor lives on the premises (see image attached). The 1910 census lists the family's address as 413 Arlington. John H., Sr. was the 69-year-old proprietor of a storage house; his third wife, Lena (age 53) was a New York native. The couple had been married for 36 years and had four children. Two of the Ficken children lived with their parents: Grace (25) and John H., Jr. (30). John H. Jr. worked as a foreman in the storage house and lived with his wife of two years, Essie. John Sr. and Lena's address was 415 Arlington in the 1918 city directory, and John Jr. resided at 44 Harmon. John Sr. is reported to have died in 1917; in 1925, his widow still lived at 415 Arlington, and Jonn Jr. was not listed in the city directory. The building remained in the family's ownership for decades, leasing out the ground floor to the postal service until 1960; the post office first agreed to lease space in the future building in 1909. The son-in-law of John St. and Lena Ficken, Edwin Geils, then used the building for storage once again, up to 1975. The dilapidated, abandoned building went into foreclosure and became the property of Jersey City, The building was owned by Arlington Associates by 1983, with the aim to create housing. The current incarnation of the three-story building, the Arlington Arms Apartments, contains 35 rental units in the renovated spaces. The residences are reserved for those who qualify for low-income subsidized housing.

The building at 750 Grand Street (formerly 411 Arlington Ave.) was built in 1910 for John H. Ficken, a German immigrant who became a successful local businessman. The skylighted building was designed to serve as an extra warehouse for Ficken on the third floor, above offices on the second floor and a post office for the growing community on the ground level. Ficken needed room to expand his warehouse storage business, on the opposite (north) side of Harmon St.; and the Post Office had outgrown its building across the street. The five-sided, Second Renaissance/Neoclassical style structure is wedged into the block formed by the intersections of Harmon and Grand Streets with Arlington Avenue (Rt. 613), with the postal entrance on the short side of the building facing Arlington. After serving as the Bergen Station Post Office for five decades, the abandoned building was converted into residential units and is now the Arlington Arms Apartments. Ficken's Warehouse was added to the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places in 1984.

Jersey City West Historical Driving Tour

Old Bergen Church

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information