Lincoln Park (Jersey City) Explained

Lincoln Park
Alt Name:West Side Park (1905–1930)
Type:Urban park
Location:Jersey City, New Jersey
Area:273.4acres
Operator:Hudson County, New Jersey

Lincoln Park is an urban park in Jersey City, New Jersey with an area of 273.4acres. Part of the Hudson County Park System, it opened in 1905 and was originally known as West Side Park. The park was designed by Daniel W. Langton and Charles N. Lowrie,[1] [2] both founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The park consists of two distinct sections: Lincoln Park East, 150.4acres, and Lincoln Park West, 123acres. The sections are named for their positions relative to U.S. Route 1/9 Truck, which passes between them, and are connected by foot and vehicular bridges over the highway. The Lincoln Park Nature Walk is part of wetlands restoration project adjacent to the Hackensack River. The Hackensack RiverWalk is a partially completed greenway along the banks of the river running the length of the Hudson County shoreline. The East Coast Greenway also traverses the park.[3]

History

Lincoln Park was the first park in the Hudson County parks system. The Hudson County Parks Commission was created in 1903, and began work on the park in 1904. The park was built primarily on undeveloped swamp and the privately owned Glendale Woods.[4] By 1925, 85acres of land had been reclaimed from the Hackensack River in the western portion of the park.[5] The park was expanded again in 1938 with the acquisition of additional properties along the Hackensack River.[6] The Lincoln Park Nature Walk is part of 31acres wetlands restoration project on a former landfill site adjacent to the Hackensack River unveiled in July 2011. It is hoped that the nearly $10.6 million development will enhance bird and fish populations.[7] A section of the East Coast Greenway crosses through the park,[8] which is site of one of five kiosks in the state for the project

A ballpark within the grounds was the home of the Jersey City Skeeters of the Eastern League from 1902 through 1905.

Facilities

Athletics and recreation

Lincoln Park East contains many sports fields and recreational facilities. There are 21 outdoor tennis courts, seven baseball fields, a cricket pitch, three children's playgrounds, the Charlie Mays running track, five basketball courts, two football fields, two soccer fields, and four handball/paddleball courts.[9] This section of the park also contains a 3acres lake available for fishing.[10] The lake has also been used for model yacht racing.[11] In 2009, a suspected virus resulted in a large number of carp dying in the lake.[12]

Lincoln Park West features wetlands with hiking trails and Joseph J. Jaroschak Field, the facility for the baseball, softball, and men's and women's soccer teams of Saint Peter's University. The field was opened and dedicated in 1990 by Mary Lou Jaroschak, and named after her late husband.[13]

In 2011, construction began on a nine-hole public golf course in Lincoln Park West, the first public course in Hudson County.[14] Skyway Golf Course, named after the Pulaski Skyway, opened in May 2015 after environmental restoration, grading, and landscaping.[15] [16] Previously, the golf course was the location of a batting cages and a driving range.

New York Road Runners hosts a weekly 2.7-mile Open Run. [17]

Structures and buildings

Lincoln Park East has four gazebos, several maintenance buildings, and the Park Administration Building.[9] The Administration Building houses offices as well as the Hank Gallo Community Room.

Casino in the Park

Just south of the Lincoln Park Lake is Casino in the Park, a catering facility owned by the county and leased to a private operator. The original structure was built as a clubhouse for the tennis courts, but was underutilized due to the distance between them.[1] It was used as a summer museum by the Jersey City Public Library before being leased to Ray Dillman, manager of the El Morocco nightclub in New York City, as a restaurant.

The restaurant is regularly used for meetings and events. Many well known people have attended private and public events at the venue. In 1963, Frank Sinatra attended his parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration at Casino in the Park alongside his daughter and Rat Pack "Clan".[18] [19] In 1991, the Hudson County Democratic Organization was addressed by then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.[20] It was also the location of weekly meetings of the Rotary Club of Jersey City.[21]

The city leases the building to a private enterprise.[22]

The original building was demolished in April 2020 and a replacement called "The View at Lincoln Park" is set to be completed in September 2022.[23] [24] [25]

Former facilities

Stadium Name:West Side Park
Skeeter Park
Built:1902
Demolished:after 1934
Surface:Grass
Tenants:Jersey City Skeeters
Seating Capacity:8,500

Skeeters Park was a baseball field with bleachers and a grandstand with a seating capacity of 8,500 people, built in 1902.[26] It was home to the Jersey City Skeeters, a minor league baseball team.

A nine-hole golf course was built on 140acres of the western portion of the park in 1925.[5] The park also had a concrete swimming pool 40by near the athletic fields.[5]

Art

The primary piece of public art in the park is Lincoln the Mystic, a statue by James Earle Fraser commissioned in 1929[27] by the Lincoln Association of Jersey City.[28] The sculpture was dedicated on June 14, 1930.[29] 4,000 people attended the unveiling and the crowd was addressed by New Jersey Governor Morgan F. Larson.[30]

The park is also home to the world's largest concrete monument, the 365-ton Lincoln Park Fountain designed by Pierre J. Cheron at the center of the park's traffic circle.[31] The fountain is 53feet tall, and contains 27 frog-shaped spouts and 150 lights.[32] The fountain was rededicated on June 16, 2016, after a $7.2 million restoration.[33] [34]

The park also contains several monuments and memorials:

In popular culture

Lincoln park is also featured in the HBO miniseries The Plot Against America where actor Johnathon Tuturo can be seen riding a horse by the fountain circle

Notes and References

  1. Web site: . Jersey City: Past and Present . Lincoln Park . January 11, 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100204045735/http://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/L_Pages/Lincoln_Park.htm . February 4, 2010 . mdy-all .
  2. Web site: Lincoln Park . The Historical Marker Database . 2011-10-06 . Inscription: Hudson County's great public work of the 1890s was Hudson (now Kennedy) Boulevard, a 20-mile landscaped roadway running through the county. Construction caused the demolition or relocation of many buildings and was completed in 1895. The road marked the Bergen section as the most desirable in Jersey City. Elaborate homes faced the boulevard and side streets. Beginning in 1905 Hudson County's Park Commission began to turn Glendale Woods and the surrounding area, an unsightly swamp, into the 208-acre West Side Park. Under landscape architects Charles Lowrie and Daniel Langton, terraces, ponds, athletic fields, statues, fountains, and flower gardens were built. To create a mall and view of the Orange Mountains a block of buildings were moved from Belmont Avenue. Some were placed on new foundations on Communipaw Avenue. The 1930 statue of Lincoln was sponsored by the Lincoln Association of Jersey City (1865), the oldest group of its kind in the nation. The park contains a lake, a classic fountain (restored in 2016), pavilions, and memorials to Jersey City's Union Civil War veterans and firemen. Nearby are prime residential streets of Gifford and Bentley Avenues, the 1925 Temple Beth-El and the 1909 Saint Aloysius Church, a 900 seat French Renaissance edifice. Its 150 foot bell tower has been a landmark for generations..
  3. http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2012/06/new_bike_path_connects_jersey.html New Bike Path Connects Jersey
  4. Book: Shaloub, Patrick B. . Jersey City . 90 . 1995 . Arcadia Publishing . 9780752402550 .
  5. News: Golfers to Have $1,000,000 Course. The New York Times. June 22, 1925.
  6. News: The New York Times . January 8, 1938 . 28 . Land Deals Extend Jersey City Park; Hudson Commission Buys Nine Parcels on River Front and Communipaw Avenue.
  7. Web site: Whiten . Jon . Restored Wetlands Area in Lincoln Park Now Open to the Public . Jersey City Independent . Jul 19, 2011 . 2011-07-21 .
  8. Web site: Welcome to the East Coast Greenway in New Jersey . East Coast Greenway . 2011-07-05 .
  9. Web site: Hudson County Park Master Plan. T&M Associates. May 11, 2011. 2–18. November 1998. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110725183021/http://njedl.rutgers.edu/ftp/PDFs/992.pdf. July 25, 2011. mdy-all.
  10. Web site: Places to Fish - Ponds, Lakes and Rservoirs. www.state.nj.us. New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife. May 11, 2011.
  11. News: MODEL YACHTS COMPETE; Millpond Club of Jersey Wins Regatta in Jersey City. The New York Times. May 31, 1937. 32.
  12. News: Takahash. Paul. Viruses may be killing Lincoln Park carp. May 11, 2011. The Jersey Journal. July 31, 2009.
  13. Web site: Joseph J. Jaroschak Field. Saint Peter's University. March 25, 2024.
  14. News: Wilshe. Brett. Hudson County freeholders approve building county's first public golf course adjacent to Lincoln Park in Jersey City. The Jersey Journal. December 11, 2010.
  15. Web site: Fore! Hudson County golf course to open next month in Jersey City. May 2015. NJ.com. October 1, 2017.
  16. Web site: Tee time: Hudson County's first public golf course set to open Monday. June 2015. NJ.com. October 1, 2017.
  17. Web site: Lincoln Park=NYRR. 2023-08-23. Staff. NYRR. 2023-08-23.
  18. News: Sinatra Attends As Parents Note Golden Wedding. Hartford Courant. Feb 10, 1963. 8B.
  19. Web site: Journal. John Gomez/For The Jersey. 2019-04-29. Hold that wrecking ball! Historian issues plea to save N.J. landmark Legends & Landmarks. 2022-02-20. nj. en.
  20. News: Mighty HCDO has fallen: No dinner, just breakfast. May 18, 2011. The Jersey Journal. October 3, 2009.
  21. Web site: The Rotary Club of Jersey City, New Jersey USA. www.jc-rotary.org. May 19, 2011.
  22. Web site: Owners of two Downtown Jersey City restaurants want to run new Casino in the Park. April 23, 2019.
  23. Web site: Here's a look at the venue replacing Jersey City's iconic Casino in the Park. October 3, 2019.
  24. Web site: Ulloa. Daniel. 2021-02-03. Jersey City Planning Board approves new design to replace historic Casino in the Park. 2022-02-20. Hudson County View. en-US.
  25. Web site: Staff. Jersey City Times. 2021-05-18. County Breaks Ground on "The View at Lincoln Park". 2022-02-20. Jersey City Times. en-US.
  26. Web site: Weiss. Bill. Wright. Marshall. Jersey City Skeeters. 100 Best Minor League Baseball Teams. MLB.com. June 9, 2011.
  27. News: . January 24, 1999 . James . George . For 134 Years, Jersey City Puts Politics Aside and Honors Lincoln . January 11, 2010.
  28. Web site: Karnoutsos . Carmela . Patrick Shalhoub . Abraham Lincoln Association of Jersey City . Jersey City Past and Present . New Jersey City University . 2009 . November 9, 2011.
  29. News: New Lincoln Monument Is Unveiled Today . The Jersey Journal . June 14, 1930.
  30. News: Jersey City Unveils Monument of Lincoln. The New York Times. June 15, 1930.
  31. Book: Scheller. William G.. Scheller. Kay. New Jersey:A Guide to Unique Places. 2006. Globe Pequot. 978-0-7627-4055-0. 28.
  32. News: The Cement Age. May 1912. An Artistic Concrete Fountain. Collins. A.B.. 257.
  33. Web site: Jersey City's Lincoln Park Fountain is lit in rededication ceremony. Nicholas Zeitlinger. June 18, 2016. NJ.com. December 27, 2017.
  34. Web site: Hudson County sues architect behind historic Lincoln Park Fountain renovation. June 21, 2021.
  35. News: War Memorial Legacy Upheld. May 10, 2011. The New York Times. November 4, 1922.
  36. Web site: Farrier Memorial . The Historical Marker Database . 2011-10-06.
  37. News: Mestanza. Jean-Pierre. 100 in Lincoln Park welcome new memorial to Great Irish Famine. May 10, 2011. The Jersey Journal. May 9, 2011.
  38. Web site: The Sopranos location guide - Golf course (Pilot). Ugoku. www.sopranos-locations.com. en. 2020-03-04.

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