Greenville is the southernmost section of Jersey City in

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 ...

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 ...

, United States.

Geography

In its broadest definition, Greenville encompasses the area south of the West Side Branch of Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and north of the city line with Bayonne, between 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 ...

and the Newark Bay, and corresponds to the postal area zip code 07305. The central core of Greenville (between Garfield Avenue and West Side Avenue) is primarily residential, consisting mostly of one- and two-family homes and lowrise apartment buildings. Principal thoroughfares include MLK Drive, Old Bergen Road and

Danforth Avenue Danforth Avenue (informally also known as the Danforth) and Danforth Road are two historically-related arterial streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Danforth ''Avenue'' is an east-west street that begins in Old Toronto at the Prince Edward ...

. East of New Jersey Turnpike Newark Bay Extension (

Interstate 78 Interstate 78 (I-78) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Northeastern United States, running from I-81 northeast of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, through Allentown to western and northern New Jersey and terminating at the Holland T ...

) lie the

Greenville Yard Greenville Yard is a freight rail yard in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey adjacent and north of Port Jersey. Originally developed in 1904 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was la ...

, an intermodal facility,

Port Jersey Port Jersey, officially the Port Jersey Port Authority Marine Terminal and referred to as the Port Jersey Marine Terminal, is an intermodal freight transport facility that includes a container terminal located on the Upper New York Bay in the ...

, Port Liberté, (a gated residential community), and the Caven Point Section 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 opposite Liberty Island and Ellis Island. The park opened in 1976 to coincide with bicentennial celebrations and is operated a ...

. Slightly further inland and parallel to the route of the Turnpike was the route 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 ...

until it was abandoned in the 1920s. A small (filled-in) portion of the canal still exists in Country Village, a neighborhood near Droyer's Point and the West Side. The Claremont Section straddles Greenville and Bergen-Lafayette. Greenville parks include Bayside Park, off Garfield Avenue, Audubon Park, a city square along

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

Avenue, Fulton Avenue Park along

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 ...

Drive, McGovern Park, Columbia Park, and Mercer Park, just north of

. Cochrane Athletic Field is located near the

Hudson Waterfront The Hudson Waterfront is an urban area of northeastern New Jersey along the lower reaches of the Hudson River, the Upper New York Bay and the Kill van Kull. Though the term can specifically mean the shoreline, it is often used to mean the contigu ...

. In May 2020, construction started on Mary McLeod Bethune Park. The Afro-American Historical and Cultural Society Museum is located at the Greenville Branch of the Jersey City Public Library, Greenville Hospital, Henry Snyder High School, and

New Jersey City University New Jersey City University (NJCU) is a public university in Jersey City, New Jersey. Originally chartered in 1927, and known as Jersey City State College for 40 years of its history, New Jersey City University consists of the School of Business, ...

all located on the district's main thoroughfare, Kennedy Boulevard. Greenville Hospital closed in 2008, was renovated, and is now part of

Barnabas Health RWJBarnabas Health is a network of independent healthcare providers in New Jersey, based out of West Orange. Members include academic centers, acute care facilities, and research hospitals. The goals of the network include collaboration on edu ...

which operates

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 Libe ...

. Greenville is also home to historic Bayview – New York Bay Cemetery, which includes a Commonwealth war grave, of a

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

seaman and 1800s opera singer, Lillian Nordica.

History

Minkakwa, Kewan, and Pamrapo

What became Greenville was the territory of the Hackensack and Raritan

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

s at the time of European contact in the 17th century. They called the area on

Bergen Neck Bergen Neck is the peninsula between the Upper New York Bay and the Newark Bay in the Hudson County, New Jersey municipalities of Bayonne and Jersey City. Its southernmost tip, Bergen Point, is separated from Staten Island by the Kill van Kul ...

'' Minkakwa'' (alternatively spelled ''Minelque'' and ''Minackqua'') meaning "a place of good crossing". This is likely so because it was the most convenient pass between the two bays on either side of the neck. Interpreted as "place where the coves meet", in this case where they are closest to each, it describes a spot advantageous for portage. The area was first settled by

New Netherlander New Netherlanders were residents of New Netherland, the seventeenth-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the northeastern coast of North America, centered on the Hudson River and New York Bay, and in the Del ...

s in 1647. The Caven Point settlement on the west shore of the

between Pamrapo and

Communipaw 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 nam ...

was part of Pavonia, which, upon receiving its municipal charter in 1661 was renamed

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 o ...

. The name ''Caven'' is an anglicisation of the Dutch word ''Kewan'', which in turn was a " Batavianized" derivative of an Algonquian word meaning "peninsula".

Bergen, Greenville, Jersey

During the British and early American colonial era the area was part of Bergen Township. The 19th century Jersey City and Bergen Point Plank Road (today's Garfield Avenue) ran through Greenville (from

Paulus Hook Paulus Hook is a community on the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Bergen Point Bergen Point is a point of land that lends its name to the adjacent neighborhood in Bayonne in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The point is located on the north side of Kill van Kull at Newark Bay. It is the section of the city clos ...

). Greenville became part of the newly formed Hudson County in 1840. The town grew as a fashionable suburb of New York City. Greenville Township was incorporated as a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 14, 1863, from portions of Bergen Town."The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968", John P. Snyder, Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 146. It was absorbed into Jersey City on February 4, 1873, ending its life as an independent municipality. Armbruster's Greenville Schuetzen Park on Hudson Boulevard opened in the 1870s.

20th century

Greenville was settled by many working-class Irish Catholic families, as well as other ethnic groups. The area's demographics changed dramatically starting in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, with the decline of factories and the collapse of the independent railroad lines. The neighborhood east of Kennedy Boulevard was later settled by African Americans, while that west of Kennedy Boulevard is more diverse with a sizable

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

population. Greenville also has a sizable Hispanic and

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

population, and many of the older Irish residents still remain in the neighborhood.

21st century

In 2005, Jersey City enacted a curfew for business owners on some of Greenville, including Martin Luther King Drive and Ocean Avenue. On the West Side of Greenville,

unveiled plans for a $350 million expansion into the West Side neighborhood surrounding the university, including a performance art building with two theaters, retail stores, a restaurant, and student housing. During the 2010s Greenville underwent a revitalization, with the return of long-term residents and businesses. The section around Jackson Hill has seen considerable local and federal infrastructure spending. The area is considered, relative to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, to be an affordable part of the New York City region. A number of Ultra-Orthodox Jews and young Jewish and Hispanic families have purchased homes and built a growing community in Greenville. Since the mid-2010s Jersey City has experienced a rise in Hasidic Orthodox Jews, who are moving to Greenville from

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 United ...

, attracted by the relatively low housing price. While the relationship between the local

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

community and the Orthodox Jewish community is good, there have been complaints that Jewish buyers solicited them to sell their houses, prompting the city council to pass a no-knock ordinance that barred investors from going door-to-door. A kosher market in the community was the site of a

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

in the 2019 Jersey City shooting. Increasing

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...

continues to make Greenville more

multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

Public transportation

The

Richard Street Richard Allen Street (October 5, 1942 – February 27, 2013) was an American soul and R&B singer, most notable as a member of Motown vocal group The Temptations from 1971 to 1993. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Street was the first memb ...

and

stations of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail are located on the district's east side east of Garfield Avenue, while West Side Branch Hudson-Bergen Light Rail stations (including the MLK Station) are on its northern perimeter, which overlaps Bergen-Lafayette. There is bus service along its north south-streets avenues: Ocean Avenue, Old Bergen Road, Kennedy Boulevard, and West Side Avenue operated by New Jersey Transit buses to

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 ...

, Exchange Place, and Bayonne, the Red & Tan buses 99s and 4. The Greenville Bus Garage on Old Bergen Road is one of the largest in Hudson, housing more than 120 buses for Routes: 6, 80, 81, 87, 120, 126.

Notable residents

* George McAneny (1869-1953), Manhattan Borough President and

New York City Comptroller The Office of Comptroller of New York City, a position established in 1801, is the chief financial officer and chief auditor of the city agencies and their performance and spending. The comptroller also reviews all city contracts, handles the s ...

Links to articles related to Greenville

Black Tom explosion The Black Tom explosion was an act of sabotage by agents of the German Empire, to destroy U.S.-made munitions that were to be supplied to the Allies of World War I, Allies in World War I. The explosions, which occurred on July 30, 1916, in New Y ...

* Canal Crossing * Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel * Hackensack RiverWalk *

Hudson River Waterfront Walkway The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, also known as the Hudson River Walkway, is a promenade along the Hudson Waterfront in New Jersey. The ongoing and incomplete project located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and th ...

* Greenville and Hudson Railway *

Liberty National Golf Club Liberty National is a country club in Jersey City, New Jersey adjacent to Liberty State Park on the Upper New York Bay. Its clubhouse, guest villas, teaching center, and "Cafe 12" halfway house were designed by Lindsay Newman Architecture and Desig ...

List of neighborhoods in Jersey City, New Jersey * Bergen-Lafayette **Beacon **Bergen Hill **Communipaw **The Junction ** Jackson HIll * The Heights **Chelsea ** Sparrow Hill **Washington Village, around Palisade Avenue ** Western Slope * Historic Downtown ** Grove Street ** Hamilton Park ** Hars ...

* New Jersey Route 185 * Red & Tan in Hudson County *

Roosevelt Stadium Roosevelt Stadium was a baseball stadium at Droyer's Point in Jersey City, New Jersey. It opened in April 1937 and hosted high-minor league baseball, 15 major league baseball games, plus championship boxing matches, top-name musical acts, an ...

* Route 440

References

External links

Garfield+Danforth

Bayonne Master Plan in relation to adjacent communities

{{Hudson County, New Jersey 1863 establishments in New Jersey 1873 disestablishments in the United States Former municipalities in Hudson County, New Jersey Former townships in New Jersey Neighborhoods in Jersey City, New Jersey Populated places established in 1863 New Netherland