The West End is the former name of the only neighborhood in
Historic Downtown Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.[New Jersey Turnpike
The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not consi ...]
's
Newark Bay Extension.
History
The area of the West End once was divided by a creek (or stream) known as Bergen Creek, Harsimus Creek or Mill Creek. To the east of the creek (approximately where the railroad runs between Grand Street and Wayne Street), was Harsimus Island, corrupted from "''Ashki'muis''",
Lenape
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
for "sea maize"
In 1760, Jacob Prior constructed a
tidewater
Tidewater may refer to:
* Tidewater (region), a geographic area of southeast Virginia, southern Maryland, and northeast North Carolina.
** Tidewater accent, an accent of American English associated with the Tidewater region of Virginia
* Tidewater ...
mill at Mill Creek, a tidal creek running through the marshlands separating Harsimus Island from the rest of
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 Kull, ...
. The creek emptied into Communipaw Bay (at the south, to the north it emptied into the Hudson River at the Hoboken border) at Mill Creek Point (formerly called Jan de Lacher's Hoeck or John the Laugher's Hook, after Jan Evertsen Bout, one of the first two European settlers in the area), where a dam was built to allow water to enter the creek at
high tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables can ...
, without losing it at low tide. Mill Creek Point was located near where Pine Street and the railroad tracks are today in Jersey City.
In 1837, the creek was filled, in order to construct railroad tracks and the following year, Prior's Mill was
razed. Decades later, in 1880, the house on the property was razed.
Prior's Mill
/ref> A nearby street named Mill Road remembers Prior's Mill, though there is no sign of the creek today. The mill's former location today is just north of Wayne Street, between Ristaino Circle and the railroad overpass.
Street etymologies
*Amity Street - its name means friendly relations
*Bishop Street
*Bright Street
*Chopin Court - named after DE Chopin President of the Steam Railroad Men's Protective Union of New Jersey
*Colden Street - named for Cadwallader D. Colden, a Jersey City resident and President of the Morris Canal Company
*Cornelison Avenue/ CR-619 - for John M. Cornelison, director of the Hudson and Bergen Plankroad Company
*Factory Street - named for the factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...
located along the nearby rail lines
*Fairmount Avenue - refers to Mount Pleasant, which is part of 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
...
*Fremont Street
*Florence Street
* Grand Street/ CR-622 - named so for the size of this early road which replaced the old Plank Road across the wetlands
*Ivy Place - named for Hedera helix
''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...
* Johnston Avenue/ CR-614 - named after John T. Johnston, who was the president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey
* Merseles Street- named after Jacob M. Merseles who founded the Bergen Plank Road company. One of his descendants, Theodore F. Merseles, was president of Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...
and Johns-Manville
Johns Manville is an American company based in Denver, Colorado, that manufactures insulation, roofing materials and engineered products. For much of the 20th century, the then-titled Johns-Manville Corporation was the global leader in the ma ...
*Montgomery Street - named after James Montgomery, Jr., director of the Hudson and Bergen Plankroad Company
*New Loop - named for the shape the road made when this development was built
*Prior Street - small street named for John Prior, who had a mill just north of this location
*Ristaino Drive - named for John Ristaino, a candle and furniture-maker, champion speed-skater and Korean War Vet who grew up in Jersey City
*State Street - originally the name replaced King Street to the non-royalist State Street in many cities in the northeast United States
*Wayne Street - most likely named for a Revolutionary War general, Anthony Wayne
Anthony Wayne (January 1, 1745 – December 15, 1796) was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his mil ...
*Westervelt - named after the famous Westervelt family of Bergen County and Jacob Aaron Westervelt
Jacob Aaron Westervelt (January 20, 1800 – February 21, 1879) was a renowned and prolific shipbuilder who constructed 247 vessels''Ships and Shipping of Old New York (1915)'' by the Bank of the Manhattan Company, page 48. of all descriptio ...
, a shipbuilder
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...
and mayor of New York City.
References
{{coord, 40.7332, -74.0935, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NJ, display=title
Neighborhoods in Jersey City, New Jersey