Marion is a

section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.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 Delawa ...

, United States.

History

The Marion Section was laid out in the 1870s and was developed in the early 20th century. The name is speculated to have come from either the old Marion Hotel or the founders of a watch company located near the city line. Marion Junction, an important

rail junction A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge), provided by ''points'' ( ...

in the 19th century is nearby. Originally concentrated with families of Italian ancestry, Marion was planned as a blue- collar residential community to work at

Lorillard Tobacco Company Lorillard Tobacco Company was an American tobacco company that marketed cigarettes under the brand names Newport, Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, True, Satin, and Max. The company had two operating segments: cigarettes and electronic cigarettes. Th ...

American Can Company The American Can Company was a manufacturer of tin cans. It was a member of the Tin Can Trust, that controlled a "large percentage of business in the United States in tin cans, containers, and packages of tin." American Can Company ranked 97th amon ...

, or nearby

railroad yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

Description

Marion Section Jersey City Broadway side street

To the west of

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 ...

and north of Holy Name Cemetery on the West Side, the Marion's two distinct neighborhoods are separated by PATH train tracks. It borders other districts of Riverbend, Croxton and the West Side, and is sometimes considered to include the area along the

Hackensack Riverfront The West Side of Jersey City is an area made up of several diverse neighborhoods on either side of West Side Avenue, one of the city's main shopping streets. Parallel and west of Kennedy Boulevard, West Side Avenue carries two county route design ...

, Tonnele Circle, and neighborhood overlapping India Square. Marion is mostly a low-rise residential district that is home to several new housing developments, light manufacturing, restaurants, LaPointe Park and the Marion Branch Public Library. Broadway, U.S. Route 1/9, Sip Avenue and West Side Avenue are the main streets running through the neighborhood. The 1940 Marion Gardens housing project creates the western residential border for the section. Marion, Jersey City bridge over PATH

Although the PATH train runs through the district, there is no PATH station there. Former mayor,

Jerramiah Healy Jerramiah T. Healy (born December 16, 1950) is a New Jersey-based politician who served as the 48th mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey serving from 2004 to 2013. He ran for the unexpired term of the late Glenn D. Cunningham and was elected in Novem ...

had requested that a PATH stop be built at Broadway and West Side Avenue, supplanting the nearest station at

. There are a growing number of condos and other housing units being built in the Marion neighborhood and city officials feel a stop on the PATH system will be necessary to unclog the city streets and lessen the commute for residents. Officials feel a station would help to bolster development in the neighborhood, which has fewer cultural attractions than many Jersey City neighborhoods and is without a school. The city entered into an agreement in 2018 that the agency would conduct a

feasibility study A feasibility study is an assessment of the practicality of a project or system. A feasibility study aims to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing business or proposed venture, opportunities and threats pr ...

. The area north of the tracks near the foot of on Newark Avenue and east of Marion Junction is surrounded by manufacturing and warehouse buildings, a few of which have received

New Jersey Register of Historic Places The New Jersey Register of Historic Places is the official list of historic resources of local, state, and national interest in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The program is administered by the New Jersey's state historic preservation office with ...

designation. Some have been converted to residences or other uses, notably that of the

. The Middle East Center for the Arts (MECA) is an exhibition space at

Mana Contemporary Mana Contemporary is a cultural center in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States with affiliated centers in Chicago and Miami. History and Founder Opened in May 2011, the center was founded by moving company mogul Moishe Mana. Shai Baitel ...

also housed in a former manufacturing building and that is an extension of the fine arts transportation department of Moishe's Moving Systems. The 1,000,000 (one million)-square foot building is also home to dance companies of

Shen Wei Shen Wei () is a Chinese-American choreographer, painter, and director who resides in Chinese Americans in New York City, New York City. Widely recognized for his defining vision of an intercultural and interdisciplinary mode of movement-based p ...

and

Karole Armitage Karole Armitage (born March 3, 1954) is an American dancer and choreographer currently based in New York City. She is artistic director of Armitage Gone! Dance, a contemporary dance company that performs several times annually in New York City as ...

. The Marion Greenway Park has received funding and eventually will connect to the

Hackensack RiverWalk Hackensack RiverWalk, also known as the Hackensack River Greenway, a is partially constructed greenway along the Newark Bay and Hackensack River in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The linear park, which closely follows the contour o ...

with a 1,300-linear foot extension to

Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for seven miles (11 km) from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, ...

and the

East Coast Greenway The East Coast Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle route between Maine and Florida along the East Coast of the United States. In 2020, the Greenway received over 50 million visits. The nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance was created in 1991. ...

. The reclaimed

brownfield In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land pre ...

will be transformed to a 32-acre waterfront park including two soccer fields, a drill/practice area, a lawn/fairgrounds, and a mile long jogging/walking path. Portions were once part of the

PJP Landfill The United States Environmental Protection Agency added the PJP Landfill site in Marion Section of Jersey City, New Jersey to the Superfund National Priorities List on September 1, 1983, because hazardous chemicals were found in the soil and ground ...

. Little Bombay is a neighborhood in the Journal Square and Marion neighborhoods.Kiniry, Laura. "Moon Handbooks New Jersey", Avalon Travel Publishing, 2006. pg. 34 It is home to the one of the highest concentrations of Asian Indians in the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...

and one of at least 24

enclaves An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

characterized as a ''Little India'' which have emerged within the

New York City Metropolitan Area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan are ...

. Little Bombay is centered by India Square, a two-block stretch of Newark Avenue home to over 13,000 people of Indian origin. As of the 2010 Census, the area had a population of over 27,000, with the majority being of Indian descent."City Attracts People From Around the Globe"
. Accessed July 26, 2006. As of the 2010 Census, over 27,000 Asian Indians accounted for 10.9% of Jersey City's population, Jersey City as a whole has Indian-Americans representing more than 10% of the total population, which is the highest proportion found in any major American city.

References

External links

Marion Library

Marion Gardens
*{{cite web , title=Covert/Larch Historic District , publisher=New Jersey Department of Transportation , url=http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/commuter/roads/rt1_9t/covert.shtm , access-date=2012-11-11 Asian-American culture in New Jersey Streets in Hudson County, New Jersey Neighborhoods in Jersey City, New Jersey Indian-American culture Little Indias Ethnic enclaves in New Jersey Ethnic enclaves in the United States Culture of Jersey City, New Jersey Tourist attractions in Jersey City, New Jersey Indian-American culture in New Jersey

History

Description

See also

References

External links