The Heights, Jersey City

Coordinates: 40°44′51″N 74°03′02″W / 40.747376°N 74.050575°W / 40.747376; -74.050575
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Riverview-Fiske Park and the Heights
The former Public Service Building at Palisade Avenue and Ferry Street
Reservoir #3 adjacent to Pershing Field
Pershing Field Park entrance
Second Reformed Church, Summit Avenue

The Heights or Jersey City Heights is a neighborhood in Jersey City, New Jersey, located atop the New Jersey Palisades, along the west side of the Hudson River. It is bound by Paterson Plank Road on the north, Highway 139 on the south, Hoboken on the east, and the Hackensack River on the west.[1][2] and Penhorn Creek on the west.[2] Its postal area ZIP Codes are 07307, and portions of 07306.[2]

Neighborhoods and thoroughfares[edit]

Central Avenue is one of Jersey City's 13 different neighborhood shopping districts.[3] with more than 240 businesses serving the area.[4] Pershing Field (named for General John J Pershing) is a memorial park in the center of the district that was built on a military training ground. It offers a green space, baseball fields, a swimming pool and ice-skating rink. The adjacent Jersey City Reservoir No. 3 has been preserved as a state designated wetland and park. Many stately Victorian and Edwardian homes distinguish the Heights, particularly along Summit Avenue and Sherman Place.[5]

Transportation[edit]

An elevator at Congress Street and Paterson Plank Road descends to the 9th Street-Congress Street station of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.[5] Mountain Ave[6] and New York Ave are among the streets that run through the area.[7]

History[edit]

The Heights was part of the colony of Pavonia, New Netherland, the superintendent of which was the American patriarch of the Van Vorst family. A Van Vorst House built in 1742 by the family (now on Palisade Avenue) is considered to be the oldest building in Hudson County. Summit Avenue, slightly to the west follows an Hackensack Indian trail that became the main road from the villages of Communipaw and Bergen and eventually connected to the Paterson and Hackensack Plank Roads.[8][9]

E.R.V Wright was the first Mayor of Hudson City.[10]

Filming at the Pathé American studio in Jersey City Heights (1912)

In the early 20th century, before Hollywood, the American motion picture industry was mainly based in New Jersey towns along the Hudson River.[11] Chief among them was Fort Lee, which was the nation's first motion picture capital,[12][13] with other early film studios headquartered in neighboring towns such as Jersey City.[11] Among those was a branch of the French company Pathé, the largest film equipment and production company in the world, whose American factory and studio facility was in established in the Heights in 1910, in a building that still overlooks Paterson Plank Road. Pathé also established the subsidiary Eclectic Film Company, as a distributor for both its American and European product. Although the Jersey City plant produced moderately popular comedies, dramas, and newsreels largely directed at the US market, Perils of Pauline was the first American-made Pathé effort to achieve worldwide success under the Eclectic banner.[14][15][16]

Education[edit]

Jersey City Public Schools operates public schools in the Heights.[17]

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark operates area Catholic Schools. St. Anne School was located in Jersey City Heights, and opened in 1904.[18] Its enrollment declined by 33 in 2011 and increased by 22 in 2012. James Carroll, a member of the Jersey City Police Department and a member of the school board, Carroll stated that the 2011 decline was due to parents being afraid that the school would close.[19] In 2011 the archdiocese considered closing the school, but a fundraising generated sufficient money to keep it open.[18] It closed in 2012.[19] That year the building housed the K-8 grades of the Hoboken Charter School on a temporary basis as the regular K-8 building of the charter school was badly damaged by a fire.[20]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

General references[edit]

Hudson County New Jersey Street Map. Hagstrom Map Company, Inc. 2008. ISBN 978-0-88097-763-0.

Inline citations[edit]

  1. ^ Gittleman, Nicole (January 10, 2023). "A Historical Walking Tour of Jersey City Heights". The Hoboken Girl. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "About the Heights". Central Avenue Special Improvement Management Corporation. Archived from the original on December 4, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  3. ^ "Jersey City Shopping Districts". 2007. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  4. ^ "The Heights Section of Jersey City". Central Avenue Special Improvement District. Archived from the original on December 31, 2019. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  5. ^ a b Olszewski, Anthony. "The Heights Section of Jersey City". GET NJ. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  6. ^ "Hudson County 7311 straight line diagram" (PDF). New Jersey Department of Transportation. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 17, 2012. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
  7. ^ "Hudson County 6671 straight line diagram" (PDF). New Jersey Department of Transportation. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
  8. ^ Olszewski, Anthony (2002). "From Before the Revolutionary War! Jersey City's Oldest House". City of Jersey City. Archived from the original on May 2, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  9. ^ "2012 Jersey City Historic Preservation Month". The Jersey Journal. April 30, 2012. Archived from the original on August 11, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  10. ^ "NEW-JERSEY.; The City of Hudson". The New York Times. April 19, 1885. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Kannapell, Andrea (October 4, 1998). "Getting the Big Picture; The Film Industry Started Here and Left. Now It's Back, and the State Says the Sequel Is Huge". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 19, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  12. ^ Amith, Dennis (January 1, 2011). "Before Hollywood There Was Fort Lee, N.J.: Early Movie Making in New Jersey (a J!-ENT DVD Review)". J!-ENT. Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  13. ^ Rose, Lisa (April 29, 2012). "100 years ago, Fort Lee was the first town to bask in movie magic". NJ.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2018. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  14. ^ Koszarski, Richard (2004), Fort Lee: The Film Town, Rome, Italy: John Libbey Publishing - CIC srl, ISBN 0-86196-653-8
  15. ^ "Studios and Films". Fort Lee Film Commission. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  16. ^ Fort Lee Film Commission (2006), Fort Lee Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 0-7385-4501-5
  17. ^ "Search for Public School Districts: District Detail for Jersey City Public Schools". National Center for Education Statistics. 2020. Archived from the original on May 15, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  18. ^ a b Zeitlinger, Ron (May 22, 2011). "Once doomed, St. Anne's School in Jersey City gets new life". The Jersey Journal. Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2023 – via NJ.com.
  19. ^ a b Conte, Michaelangelo (February 17, 2012). "Newark Archdiocese to close St. Anne's School in Jersey City, Mater Dei Academy in Kearny". The Jersey Journal. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  20. ^ Thorbourne, Ken (January 18, 2012). "Fire-devastated Hoboken Charter School to reopen in Jersey City Heights". The Jersey Journal. Archived from the original on June 24, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2020 – via NJ.com.

External links[edit]

40°44′51″N 74°03′02″W / 40.747376°N 74.050575°W / 40.747376; -74.050575