Seventh Avenue, formerly known as the First Ward, is a neighborhood in the city of
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
in
Essex County,
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. Settled by Italian immigrants beginning in 1870, the First Ward was once known as Newark's Little Italy.
In its heyday, Seventh Avenue had a population of 30,000, including 11,000 children, in an area of less than a square mile. The center of life in the neighborhood was
St. Lucy's Church, founded by Italian immigrants in 1891. Throughout the year, St. Lucy's and other churches sponsored processions in honor of saints that became community events. The most famous procession is the Feast of
St. Gerard.
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...
loved the restaurants of Seventh Avenue so much that he would take the
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...
to Newark to show them "real Italian food."
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
had bread from Giordano's Bakery sent to him every week until his death, no matter where in the world he was.
![Gerard Shrine Newark SE jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Gerard_Shrine_Newark_SE_jeh.jpg)
One of the nation's largest Italian newspapers, ''The Italian Tribune,'' was founded on Seventh Avenue.
Frankie Valli
Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice.
...
of the
Four Seasons and Congressman
Peter Rodino
Peter Wallace Rodino Jr. (June 7, 1909 – May 7, 2005) was an American Democratic politician. He represented parts of Newark, New Jersey and surrounding Essex and Hudson counties for twenty terms from 1949 to 1989. He was the longest-serving ...
, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee during its impeachment proceedings against
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
, were natives of the First Ward.
Beginning in 1953,
the working class and poor Italian-American Seventh Avenue neighborhood was subjected to
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
efforts. Eighth Avenue was removed, scattering its Italian-American residents to make way for the construction of the Christopher Columbus Homes housing project and Interstate 280. The area experienced one of the highest crime rates in the city during the 1970s and was affected by arson fires. The neighborhood was largely rebuilt by the erection of townhouses, although the Italian community and most of its businesses never recovered.
[Immerso (2004), pp. 140–41.] The last of the Christopher Columbus Homes was demolished in 1996.
References
{{Coord, 40, 45, 07, N, 74, 10, 23, W, format=dms, display=title, type:city_region:US-NJ
Italian-American culture in New Jersey
Neighborhoods in Newark, New Jersey
Little Italys in the United States
Populated places in Essex County, New Jersey