Bergen-Lafayette is a section of

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. As its name implies, Bergen-Lafayette is made of different neighborhoods. It lies west-southwest of

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

and

Liberty State Park Liberty State Park (LSP) is a park in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey, Jersey City opposite Liberty Island and Ellis Island. The park opened in 1976 to coincide with United States Bicentenn ...

. Its less-defined other borders overlap those of Greenville at Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to the south,

Lincoln Park/West Bergen Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

to the west, and Montgomery Street at

McGinley Square McGinley Square is in Jersey City, New Jersey, located near the middle of the city, south of Journal Square. The square itself is at the intersection of two of the city's major thoroughfares, Montgomery Street (which runs from Downtown at Ex ...

to the north. The name Bergen, used throughout

Hudson County Hudson County is the most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in ...

, is taken from the original

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the East Coast of the United States, east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territor ...

settlement at

Bergen Square Bergen Square, at the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Academy Street in Jersey City, is in the southwestern part of the much larger Journal Square district. A commercial residential area, it contains an eclectic array of architectural styl ...

. The district can correspond to the former Bergen City, which existed from 1855 to 1870 and was originally incorporated as a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

by an Act of the

New Jersey Legislature The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the ...

on March 24, 1855, from portions of Bergen Township. In 1862, it did a reverse takeover, absorbing the remaining portions Bergen Township. On April 14, 1863, portions of the town were taken to form Greenville Township. Bergen was reincorporated as a city on March 11, 1868. On May 2, 1870, both Bergen City and Hudson City elected to merge with

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Avenue are a major north-south thoroughfares in the city running south from

Journal Square Journal Square is a business district, residential area, and transportation hub in Jersey City, New Jersey, which takes its name from the newspaper ''Jersey Journal'' whose headquarters were located there from 1911 to 2013. The "square" itself is ...

along the ridge of the diminishing

Hudson Palisades The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs st ...

A variety of architectural styles can be found along these streets and their sidestreets including 19th-century

rowhouse In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

s, Victorian mansions, and pre-war and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

apartment buildings, and the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

former

Jersey City YMCA The Jersey City YMCA, is located in Bergen Section of Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The YMCA building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 12, 1999. The building is an example of an early tw ...

. Monticello Avenue is a shopping district lined with many turn-of-the-century buildings with storefronts being brought back into use. The Fairmount Apartments and Temple Beth-El are a prominent landmark on Kennedy Boulevard. ''

Lincoln the Mystic ''Lincoln the Mystic'', also known as the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, is a bronze statue by James Earle Fraser. It is located at Lincoln Park in Hudson County, New Jersey, near the beginning of the Lincoln Highway. A full size bronze replica stand ...

'', a statue of a seated

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

by James Earle Fraser, is situated at its Boulevard entrance. As its name suggests West Bergen overlaps this neighborhood. The city is now defining this area with maps and other promotions to encourage use of the name

Beacon

In 2005 the former

Jersey City Medical Center The Jersey City Medical Center is a hospital in Jersey City, New Jersey. The hospital has had different facilities in the city. It is currently located on a 15-acre campus at Grand Street and Jersey Avenue overlooking New York Harbor and Lib ...

was renovated and restored as The Beacon, with approximately 1,200 new residences. The site is located at the northwest corner of the district atop

Bergen Hill Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, where they emerge on Bergen Neck, which in turn is the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet. Rail ...

east of

The Junction, Bergen Hill, and Jackson Hill

Communipaw Junction Communipaw is a neighborhood in Jersey City in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It is located west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and the site of one of the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its na ...

, or simply, The Junction, is where Communipaw, Summit Avenue and Garfield Avenue, and Grand Street meet. The

Bergen Hill Historic District Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

is centered on Summit Avenue as it ascends from the Junction.

, or The Hill, refers to the emergence of the

New Jersey Palisades The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs s ...

. The district is not on

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, but has a state designation. a prominent landmark being St John's Church. Lincoln High School is on Crescent Avenue. Ficken's Warehouse is on Grand Street, which as it ascends from the Junction to the

St. Patrick's Parish and Buildings St. Patrick's Parish and Buildings is a historic church on Bergen Point Plank Road, Grand Street, Ocean and Bramhall Avenues in Jersey City, New Jersey, Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It was bui ...

at Bramhall Ave. (). While not in the city historic district, this complex received its federal historic status in September 1980 and anchors the surrounding streets, some of which are lined with well-preserved or restored 18th-century row houses in Jackson Hill. MLK Drive has long been a commercial street for the southern part of the district. The neighborhood sometimes called Claremont lies south of Arlington Park, where before discontinuation of service the

Central Railroad of New Jersey The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...

maintained

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

Communipaw-Lafayette

Lafayette Park gives its name to the lower, or eastern, portion of the district closest to

Downtown Jersey City Downtown is an area of Jersey City, New Jersey, which includes the Historic Downtown and the Waterfront. Historic Downtown Historic Downtown was an area of mostly low-rise buildings to the west of the waterfront, but by the 2000s a number of h ...

. It is likely named for the

Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revoluti ...

, who was stationed in Bergen in 1799, and later re-visited in 1824 A city square similar to

Van Vorst Park Van Vorst Park is a neighborhood in the Historic Downtown of Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, centered on a park sharing the same name. The neighborhood is located west of Paulus Hook and Marin Boulevard, north of Grand Street, east of t ...

and Hamilton Park the buildings surrounding it were constructed in different periods. Before land-filling in the early twentieth century this area was located on the

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

. The Hackensack Indian village of

Communipaw Communipaw is a neighborhood in Jersey City in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It is located west of Liberty State Park Liberty State Park (LSP) is a park in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City ...

and the 16th century

plantation of

Jan Everts Bout Jan Evertsz Bout (March 1601 or 1602, Barneveld, Gelderland – 1671 Gowanus), was an early and prominent Dutch settler in the 17th century colonial province of New Netherland. In 1634 one of the first ''" bouweries"'', or homesteads, in the c ...

, site of the Pavonia

Massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

, were located here.

Whitlock Cordage Whitlock Cordage is a former industrial complex that has been renovated for residential and commercial use. It is located along the banks of the since-filled Morris Canal in the Lafayette Section of Jersey City, New Jersey. The older buildings ...

is an intact complex of industrial buildings built in the Lafayette section along the banks of the

Morris Canal The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a common carrier anthracite coal canal across northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals at Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Jers ...

. The Housing Trust of America purchased the property to preserve the structures as affordable housing. Parts of the neighborhood are part of the Communipaw-Lafayette Historic District.NJ State Register of Historic Places in Hudson County

Berry Lane Park Berry Lane Park is a park created on a of former brownfield site in the Communipaw-Lafayette Section of Jersey City, New Jersey. Construction of the park, which cost $38 million, began in 2012 and the park officially opened in June 2016. ...

, which upon completion will be the largest municipal park in Jersey City, is under construction along Garfield Avenue.

Transportation

The

, Garfield Avenue, and

Martin Luther King Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

stations of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail are on the periphery of the section. New Jersey Transit bus routes 6, 43, 81, 87 to

, Exchange Place, and

Hoboken Terminal Hoboken Terminal is a commuter-oriented intermodal passenger station in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, it is served by nine NJ Transit (NJT) commuter rail lines, one Metr ...

serve the area locally, as does the independent Bergen Avenue bus.

References

{{Jersey City Neighborhoods Neighborhoods in Jersey City, New Jersey

Beacon

The Junction, Bergen Hill, and Jackson Hill

Communipaw-Lafayette

Transportation

See also

References