The streetscape surrounding Rutgers University has changed drastically in the past fifty years. Buildings have been torn down and new ones built, crowded city streets have given way to parking lots or remain empty plots of grass. Of the buildings that haven’t changed, a majority have been preserved as part of the James Street Commons Historic District. This district, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and the New Jersey State Register the year prior, was the first to be designated in the city of Newark. The preservation of these streets was part of a larger plan by the Gibson administration to revitalize the city following the aftermath of the Newark uprising and to create a downtown that was both visually pleasing and served to highlight Newark’s treasured landmarks such as the Newark Museum, the Newark Public Library and today what is known as Harriet Tubman Square.
The district is made up of residential, commercial and institutional buildings with a variety of architectural styles. 18 Washington Place, the Eagle Fire Insurance Company building, is neoclassical, Second Presbyterian at 15 James Street is Romanesque Revival and the St. Patrick’s Pro-Cathedral is Gothic Revival. These structures represent a history of Newark spanning many decades, from the mid 19th century to the 1930s.
Yet among these towering monuments to Newark’s art and culture are many row houses, mansions, and apartments that have been just as important to the identity of Newarkers over the years. Many of these buildings have been lost to the wrecking ball, either due to deterioration or new development. One building in particular is of great interest to us here at the Price Institute and it was the one connected to our own building: 51 Bleeker Street.
Bleeker Street, or Bleecker Street as it was misspelled on street signs into the 1950s, was already home to a few residential buildings by 1850. According to the oldest insurance map in the Newark Public Library’s collection, St Patrick’s Pro-Cathedral stood as an anchor on the corner of Nesbit St (today’s Central Ave) and Washington Street. Just one street south was Bleeker, bordered by Lock Street on the far left and intersected by Plane Street (today’s University Ave), within walking distance of the Morris Canal. The block that 51 Bleeker would eventually sit on was mostly vacant save for 6 small houses. 51 Bleeker first shows up in an 1873 map, bordering 49 Bleeker which is today occupied by the Price Institute. The building was an example of vernacular architecture, meaning it didn’t conform to a specific architectural style. The Sanborn insurance map from that year lists the owner of 51 Bleeker as Mrs. AP Bedford. 5 years later, in 1878, the house was occupied by Mrs. Catharine B. Cory. She was principal of the James Street Industrial School, a two story building that consisted of just three classrooms. S. Fannie Carter, principal of a school on Walnut Street, lived at 51 at the same time.
The house shows up on maps again and again in 1889, 1901 and 1926. By the 1930s and 40s, the street was bustling with residents moving in and out. In 1930, 49 Bleeker was occupied by Dr. Albert A. Harrington, a prominent dentist, and was still a dental office in 1949 under Dr. G.A Devlin. In 1944, the neighboring 53 Bleeker was home to a man who had constructed cabinets for the battleship Maine. Many of Bleeker Street’s residents were of Irish ancestry, with surnames such as Murphy and O’Donnell. During the 1940s, 51 Bleeker was still an apartment building, searching for renters to fill its rooms. One resident was Edward Mells, who was part of the 135th Naval Construction Battalion in Okinawa during World War 2.
The Graham family lived there as well, welcoming their baby Ruth into the world in 1944 while her father was in active service as a Private. By the 1950s, yet another family made 51 their home: the Irish Catholic McGibbons. The family consisted of Catherine (nee Connolly) and Eneas McGibbons, with their daughter Catherine.
The younger Catherine would marry John Robert Burns in 1956, who was employed at Union Imperial Laundry while she worked for the Hospital Service Plan of New Jersey. Eneas worked at L. Bamberger & Co, the city’s iconic department store at 131 Market Street, and was a member of the AFL-CIO. 51 Bleeker, like the surrounding houses on its street, served as a home for working professionals, growing families, laborers, and servicemen in the immediate post-war world.
In the 1960s, the building would be used by the Bar Foundation, which offered charitable services for those without the means to afford legal counsel and scholarships for law students. The foundation’s main headquarters was down the street, a combined research center and library at 92 Washington. 51 Bleeker would host meetings for the Essex County Bar Association, including one in 1969 to oppose the appointment of Judge Clement F. Haynsworth to the Supreme Court by President Nixon. By the 1970s, Bleeker St became part of the James Street Commons Historic District, and the city had a renewed appreciation for historic architecture in Newark’s downtown. The guidelines for the new district, published in 1977, explain that historic preservation has an active role in not only the formation of a community, but how it is maintained:
“The sense of identity and continuity that a well-preserved architectural environment gives to its residents has proven to be an effective social stabilizer…When they feel their neighborhood has a past, they begin to believe that it also has a future”.
It was these beliefs that led to the restoration of rowhouses and shops along streets such as Halsey and James. However, preservation efforts were slow to start and by 1983, the New York Times reported that out of over 400 designated properties, 40 had already been demolished. 51 Bleeker became one of the next victims.
The building at 51 Bleeker was demolished sometime between 1991 and 1996, the space remaining an empty lot until 2023 when the Price Institute began to create the healing garden that flourishes today. It is the former construction that has left the ground with high levels of metals, which is why all edible plants in the garden are grown in planters. This is true for many gardens in urban areas, which otherwise have to place down a lining and bring in new soil when a garden replaces an old tenement or apartment building.
Newark has a vibrant history, starting long before the construction of 51 Bleeker. The Munsee Lunaape lived throughout Greater Newark until being pushed out when Puritan colonists founded the city in 1666. Newark survived the American Revolution as British loyalist troops invaded across the Hudson and the city was divided again among political lines as the Civil War tore the nation apart. Once constructed, 51 Bleeker and its residents reflected much of the city’s historical traits in the early 20th century: a dedication to public education, the strength of unions, its flourishing department stores, its ethnic enclaves, and its commitment to the preservation of freedom abroad and justice at home. 51 Bleeker may be no more, but its history is part of Newark’s larger story and should not be forgotten as we move on to create a new space for the future.
Images courtesy of the Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center, Newark Public Library