Journal Square is a business district, residential area, and transportation hub in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Jersey Journal ''The Jersey Journal'' is a daily newspaper, published from Monday through Saturday, covering news and events throughout Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Journal'' is a sister paper to ''The Star-Ledger'' of Newark, ''The Times'' of Trenton and ...

'' whose headquarters were located there from 1911 to 2013. The "square" itself is at the intersection of Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Avenue. The broader area extends to and includes

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 ...

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 ...

India Square India Square, also known as "Little India (location), Little India," is a commercial and restaurant district in the Journal Square and Marion Section neighborhoods of Jersey City, New Jersey, Jersey City, New Jersey. The area is home to the highest ...

, the Five Corners and parts of the Marion Section. Many local, state, and federal agencies serving

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 ...

maintain offices in the district.

History

Prior to its development as a commercial district Journal Square was the site of many farmhouses and manors belonging to descendants of the original settlers of

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 ...

, the first chartered municipality in the state settled in 1660 and located just south at

. In conjunction with the 1912 opening of the

Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit system in the northeastern New Jersey cities of Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, as well as Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is operated as a wholly owned subsid ...

Summit Avenue station many of those properties were demolished to make way for modern buildings, including the still standing

Labor Bank Building 26 Journal Square is a high-rise in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It was originally known as the Labor Bank Building. It was completed in 1928 and has 15 floors. As of 2009, it was the 23rd tallest building in the city. ...

and the

Public Service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

building. The Newkirk House and

Van Wagenen House The Van Wagenen House, also known as Apple Tree House, is located near Bergen Square in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 16, 2006. History The ho ...

remain, while the still-intact Sip Manor was moved to

Westfield, New Jersey Westfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 30,316,Hudson Boulevard Hudson Park and Boulevard is a Greenway (landscape), greenway and boulevard in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York City, being built as part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project. It lies between 10th Avenue (Man ...

which itself had been widened in 1908. The newspaper built new headquarters and the new square was named in its honor. Blvd Bridge west arch jeh

The bridge carrying the boulevard was designed by consulting engineer

Abraham Burton Cohen Abraham Burton Cohen (March 9, 1882 – February 11, 1956) was an American civil engineer notable for his role in designing innovative and record-breaking concrete bridges such as the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's Tunkhannock Viaduct ...

and completed in 1926. For most of the twentieth century Journal Square was the cultural entertainment center of

,Eric M. Friedman, ''Journal Square and the Old Loew's Theatre: Grassroots Resistance in a City Center'', Canon Magazine, 2009
/ref> home to the movies palaces built in the 1920s: The State (1922, and since demolished), the Stanley Theater (1928),Stanely Theater
/ref> and the

Loew's Jersey Theater The Loew's Jersey Theatre is a theater in Jersey City, New Jersey. Opened in 1929, it was one of the five Loew's Wonder Theatres, a series of flagship Loew's movie palaces in the New York City area. It was designed by the architectural firm of Rapp ...

(1929).Loew's Jersey
/ref> Karen Angel of ''

The New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in t ...

'' described Journal Square from the 1920s to the 1960s as a "crown jewel, a glowing commercial, entertainment and transportation hub of the city."Angel, Karen. "Journal Squared: A Jersey City neighborhood's housing multiplies." ''

''. Friday November 13, 2009
1
Retrieved on November 13, 2009. The "

Jersey Bounce "Jersey Bounce" is a song written by Tiny Bradshaw, Eddie Johnson, and Bobby Plater with lyrics by Buddy Feyne who used the pseudonym Robert B. Wright. Background It hit No. 1 for four weeks in 1942 as an instrumental recorded by Benny Goodman ...

", a hit song in the 1940s mentions Journal Square in its lyrics as the place where it got started. Two days before Election Day in 1960

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 ...

made his last campaign speech before returning to New England at Journal Square. Hudson Boulevard was named Kennedy Boulevard soon after his assassination. The Tube Bar, so-called for the

Hudson Tubes Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit system in the northeastern New Jersey cities of Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, as well as Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is operated as a wholly owned su ...

(as the fore-runner of the PATH system was called) was made famous by Louis "Red" Deutsch getting prank calls there. The

Journal Square Transportation Center The Journal Square Transportation Center is a multi-modal transportation hub located on Magnolia Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard at Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. Owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and ...

, opened between 1973 and 1975, includes the Journal Square PATH and bus station. and is headquarters of the

PATH A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail. Path or PATH may also refer to: Physical paths of different types * Bicycle path * Bridle path, used by people on horseback * Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle * Desire p ...

. It is built on an elevated bridge structure above the Bergen Hill Cut, an 1834 railroad

cut Cut may refer to: Common uses * The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force ** A type of wound ** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past ** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment ** Cut (ea ...

once used by

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

main line and

Jersey City Branch The Pennsylvania Railroad Station was the intermodal passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) vast holdings on the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey. By the 1920s the station was called Exchange Pla ...

and now by the

rapid transit system and an occasional freight train. In front of the station is a statue of

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

who in 1946 crossed the

baseball color line The color line, also known as the color barrier, in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor Leagues until 1947 (with a few notable exceptions in the 19th century before the li ...

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 a ...

. A statue of Christopher Columbus, the work of Jersey City native Archimedes Giacomontonio, has been located on the square since 1950. The

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

and the

Loew's Loews Cineplex Entertainment, also known as Loews Incorporated, is an American theater chain operating in North America. From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM). The company was originally cal ...

have both been restored, the first now an Assembly Hall of

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...

, the latter used as a moviehouse and for other cultural events. The campus of

Hudson County Community College Hudson County Community College (HCCC) is a public community college in Hudson County, New Jersey. Locations The school's main campus is located in Jersey City, with several institutions tapered throughout Journal Square and nearby Bergen Squa ...

is a collection of buildings throughout the district around the square. A few blocks to the south near

, are

Saint Peter's University Saint Peter's University is a private Jesuit university in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded as Saint Peter's College in 1872 by the Society of Jesus. The university offers over 60 undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 2,600 un ...

Hudson Catholic Regional High School Hudson Catholic Regional High School is a regional four-year co-educational University-preparatory Catholic high school in Jersey City, in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The school was established in 1964 by the Roman Catholic Archd ...

, and the

Jersey City Armory The Jersey City Armory is located at 678 Montgomery Street near McGinley Square in Jersey City, New Jersey. In addition to being a military training and mustering facility of the New Jersey National Guard (New Jersey National Guard 2/113 Infantry ...

. A concentration of

Overseas Filipino An overseas Filipino ( fil, Pilipino sa ibayong-dagat) is a person of full or partial Filipino origin—i.e., people who trace back their ancestry to the Philippines but living or residing outside the country. This term generally applies to b ...

and

Indian American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

-operated shops can be found along Newark Avenue and near

to the north. Northeast of Journal Square is Five Corners, the ''

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

'' of

. The

Hudson County Courthouse The Hudson County Courthouse or Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Courthouse is located in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The six-story structure was originally built between 1906 and 1910 at a cost of $3,328,016.56. It is ...

, located at 583 Newark Avenue , and the adjacent Hudson County Administration Building, at 595 Newark Avenue, are home to the county's courts and a number of county agencies and departments. The Five Corners Branch of the Jersey City Public Library is sited on the intersection itself, while

William L. Dickinson High School William L. Dickinson High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school located in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as part of the Jersey City Public Sch ...

is located nearby at 2 Palisade Avenue.

Highrise development

Journal Square Jersey City November 2021 004

Many of the buildings in Journal Square include housing stock (such as

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

s, pre-war apartment buildings, and Frame houses),

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...

s, bodegas, and downscale franchises, that Jerremiah Healy,

Mayor of Jersey City The Mayor of the City of Jersey City is the head of the executive branch of the government of Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. The mayor has the duty to enforce the municipal charter and ordinances; prepare the annual budget; appoint depu ...

, has been referred to as "ugly old eyesores." The redevelopment of Journal Square has attracted the interest of urban planners, architects, sociologists, and others, many who view its historical, current, and future use as an important indicator of the contemporary understanding of how cities function. A proposed development by

Kushner Real Estate Group Kushner Real Estate Group, also known as the KRE Group is an American real estate development company based in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The company has developed, owns, and manages properties throughout New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, i ...

and National Real Estate Advisors,

Journal Squared Journal Squared, or J2, is a 3-tower retail and residential complex under construction at Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey Upon completion, the complex will consist of buildings of 54, 60, and 70 stories, among the tallest buildings in ...

, is planned as a 2.3 million square foot, 3-tower residential complex. The first phase, a 53-story tower, opened in early 2017. It sits directly adjacent to the Journal Square PATH station as a continuation of the dense transit-oriented development that has arisen further to the east in Jersey City. The towers were designed by Hollwich Kushner and Handel Architects. As of 2008 there were proposals to build a complex called

1 Journal Square 1 Journal Square is a skyscraper complex at Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey proposed by the Kushner Companies. The initial version consisted of two towers with roughly 3,000 residential units and 160,000 square feet of commercial space, ...

which would combine rental housing, multi-story retail, and parking. Plans for the

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

call for 68-story and 50-story residential towers above a 7-story retail and parking base with a rooftop terrace. While the site has been cleared, construction has not begun. Deadlines to begin construction by 2011 were not met by the developer, Mult-Employer Property Trust In October 2011, MEPT purchased Newport Tower on the Hudson waterfront for $377 million, a record price for an office real estate transaction in the state. A further extension to 2013 requested by MEPTA was not granted by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency. Jersey City is one of nine municipalities in New Jersey designated as eligible for Urban Transit Hub Tax Credits by the state's Economic Development Authority. Developers who invest a minimum of $50 million within of a train station are eligible for pro-rated

tax credit A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "disc ...

. In 2012, the city adopted a

variance In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expectation of the squared deviation of a random variable from its population mean or sample mean. Variance is a measure of dispersion, meaning it is a measure of how far a set of numbers ...

for a development proposal to build a 42-story residential tower and adjacent garage on the south and east sides of the Newkirk House. A 13-story residential building is proposed for a parking platform adjacent to and overlooking the PATH tracks originally developed in 1984. In December 2012 the ''

Jersey Journal ''The Jersey Journal'' is a daily newspaper, published from Monday through Saturday, covering news and events throughout Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Journal'' is a sister paper to ''The Star-Ledger'' of Newark, ''The Times'' of Trenton and ...

'' sold its building and relocated to Harmon Plaza in nearby

Secaucus Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,National Register of Historic Places listings in Hudson County, New Jersey The following properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Hudson County, New Jersey This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Hudson Count ...

New Jersey Transit Bus Operations NJ Transit Bus Operations is the bus division of NJ Transit, providing bus service throughout New Jersey along with service along one light rail line, with many routes going to New York City and Philadelphia. In , the bus system had a ridershi ...

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 ...

References

External links

The New Journal Square website

Summit Avenue Station photo

Summit Avenue Station (1912)

station opening

JSQ Journal Square Hudson Tube StationJersey City Redevelopment Plan submitted to City Council
{{NYC surface transit Neighborhoods in Jersey City, New Jersey Streets in Hudson County, New Jersey Transportation in Jersey City, New Jersey Squares in Jersey City, New Jersey 1923 establishments in New Jersey Road junctions in the United States