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25-671: Harsimus (also known as Harsimus Cove ) is a neighborhood within Downtown Jersey City , Hudson County , in the U.S. state of New Jersey . The neighborhood stretches from the Harsimus Stem Embankment (the Sixth Street Embankment) on the north to Christopher Columbus Drive on the south between Coles Street and Grove Street or more broadly, to Marin Boulevard . It borders the neighborhoods of Hamilton Park to

50-569: A horseshoe and creating a new nickname. The community consisted of Catholic immigrants, many of them Irish, who worked on the railroad. Infuxes of Ellis Island immigrants swelled the population. A vestige of the Slavic character of the area remains at the Ukrainian National Home. To diminish the Democratic power base, Republican power brokers redrew the voting district to consist solely of

75-500: A patroon charter provision that he set up a plantation with fifty permanent settlers, the Dutch West India Company sold a part to his superintendent, who had built a homestead in 1634 and was the first of many Van Vorsts to play important roles in the development of the city. A family homestead built in 1647 was demolished in 1967. Conflict with Native Americans compromised the settlement 1643, which continued to grow after

100-428: A border mid-river. Harsimus grew with shipping along shoreline and residences farther inland. The short-lived Van Vorst Township later merged with its neighbor. Much of the housing stock from the maritime era is still intact. Many of the streets in the gridiron laid at the time have been renamed over the years. Moving away from the river they were originally called Hudson, River, Kelso, and Barnum. Provost and others to

125-614: Is renovated it will maintain its shell that so many locals are used to seeing. A Trump Plaza is currently being constructed on the property to the south of the Powerhouse. In January 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration gave navigational clearance for the construction of a 900-foot (270 m) residential and commercial tower planned by the Chinese Overseas America Corporation, which would succeed

150-491: The Harsimus Cove Station nearby the landmark Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse . Grove Pointe, a residential complex at 100 and 102 Christopher Columbus Drive, the "30-story tiered brick-and-stone structure with abundant glass" was designed by DeWitt Tishman Architects and built by Kushner Real Estate Group . Downtown Jersey City Downtown is an area of Jersey City , New Jersey , which includes

175-741: The Hudson River at Harsimus Cove , and to its warehouse and distribution facility (now Harborside Financial Center ). The line was part of the railroad's holdings on the waterfront, which included the Exchange Place passenger terminal and the Greenville Yard . The Embankment is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places , is eligible for the National Register , and is a Jersey City municipal landmark. In July 2005, Conrail sold

200-468: The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), and another for its Jersey City Branch along Railroad Avenue (now Columbus Drive) to Exchange Place . The embankments and elevated lines separated adjoining neighborhoods. A small slip was created and still is called Harsimus Cove. Huge stockyards dominated the waterfront between the train terminals. Harsimus' isolation was codified with gerrymandering , forming

225-544: The 1645 treaty ending Kieft's War . Again in 1655, the area was attacked in a conflict called the Peach War . In 1660, it came under the jurisdiction of Bergen, New Netherland the main village of which was located at Bergen Square . Once the area was ceded to the British after the surrender of Fort Amsterdam , New York claimed ownership to the high waterline along the west bank of the Hudson River and that any pier built there

250-502: The 1970s were abandoned, leading to a decline in population and economic activity. Urban renewal projects brought slum clearance of tenements along Grove Street as well as the removal of the PRR elevated rail right of way. Middle, low income, and senior housing projects were developed. A section of Grove Street was renamed Manila Avenue in recognition of the city's resident Overseas Filipinos . Henderson Street became Marin Boulevard for

275-535: The Goldman Sachs Tower as the tallest skyscraper in New Jersey. 40°43′41″N 74°04′39″W  /  40.7281°N 74.0776°W  / 40.7281; -74.0776 Harsimus Stem Embankment This elevated stone structure was once owned and operated by Conrail and carried seven tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad 's Passaic and Harsimus Line to its freight yards and carfloat operations on

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300-517: The Historic Downtown and the Waterfront. Historic Downtown was an area of mostly low-rise buildings to the west of the waterfront, but by the 2000s a number of high-rise buildings had been constructed. The area includes the neighborhoods of Van Vorst Park and Hamilton Park, which are square parks surrounded by brownstones. The Grove Street neighborhood has also seen considerable development and

325-637: The Horseshoe so that they may protect other seats from Democratic threat. In the 1910s the Horseshoe power base produced the infamous Mayor Frank Hague who dominated the Hudson County political machine and influenced city, county, state, and federal politics for most of the first half of the 20th century. In 1941 a large fire struck the Horseshoe waterfront. In the late 1950s, container shipping in Port Newark supplanted railroad ports along waterfront, which by

350-556: The converging rail lines and political gerrymandering . Harsimus is a derivative of a Lenape phrase possibly meaning Crow's Marsh . Variant spellings of the term include: Aharsimus , Ahasimus , Hasymes , Haassemus, Hahassemes, Hasimus, Horseemes , Hasseme , Horsimus . In current Lenape, ahas means "crow". In 1629, the Dutchman Michael Reyniersz Pauw obtained a patent for all the land in what would become Hudson County , naming it Pavonia . Unable to fulfill

375-612: The development of Newport , centered around the Port Authority Trans Hudson (PATH) Newport Station in the 1980s. To the south, the PRR abattoir were also acquired. Development plans did not include extending the 19th century urban grid to the waterfront, but the construction of large parking decks at the former and strip mall at the latter. The first segment of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail opened in 2002, including

400-576: The first governor of Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marín to reflect the influx of Puerto Rican and Filipino residents. Railroad Avenue is now Columbus Drive, acknowledging the still large Italian population. The renewal did not affect the 19th century blocks which were not demolished. A historic preservation movement and real estate reinvestment led to Harsimus's designation as a Historic District in 1987. Convenience to mass transit and relatively affordable rents attracted an artistic community, some of whom converted buildings to live/work spaces. Zoning in

425-542: The form of "WALDO" (or Work and Live District Overlay) were unsuccessful in preserving and stimulating the creation of an arts district within the area where large warehouses still remained, and have given way the Powerhouse Arts District and the construction of residential highrises . East of the neighborhood, the LeFrak Organization obtained title to most of the disused Erie-Lackawanna land and began

450-506: The highest of any city in the United States. WALDO (Work And Live District Overlay) is an area that is being redeveloped from its days as a warehouse center into an artist community. It is already home to several galleries and restaurants, and the development of artist housing, more galleries, a museum, and stores is being planned. The former Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse is the building that anchors this neighborhood and when it

475-450: The land where the embankment is located is opposed. That same year, a $ 1 million grant request from the City of Jersey City to purchase the embankment was denied. The developer's proposals to sell portions of the land to the city were rejected in 2011. The case was brought to an appeals court, which found that the case against the developer could proceed. In January 2012 it was announced that

500-453: The neighborhood is rich with stores and restaurants. Redevelopment of the Jersey City waterfront has made the city one of the largest centers of banking and finance in the United States and has led to the district and city being nicknamed Wall Street West . By the early 2020s, the construction of numerous residential skyscrapers along the waterfront made median rental rates in Jersey City

525-654: The north, Van Vorst Park to the south, the Village to the west, and the Powerhouse Arts District to the east. Newark Avenue has traditionally been its main street . The name is from the Lenape , used by the Hackensack Indians who inhabited the region and could be translated as Crow's Marsh . From many years, the neighborhood was part of the " Horseshoe ", a political delineation created by its position between

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550-565: The property to a collection of real estate developer LLCs. In January 2006, Jersey City requested a ruling from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to determine the legality of the sale and whether Conrail had followed the proper abandonment procedure. The matter was resolved in September 2010, when a federal court ruled that the sale to the developer was legal and that the city had not previously exercised its first option to buy

575-517: The right-of-way from Conrail. The decision meant the Embankment was not under the jurisdiction of STB and the City's pending eminent domain litigation in Hudson County's Superior Court could proceed. In 2010, a local citizens' movement lobbied local governments, chiefly Hudson County and the City of Jersey City, to acquire the land and convert the embankment to a public park. The developer who owns

600-535: The west have stayed the same. Harsimus was transformed by the development of the railroad industry. By 1870 much of the estuary flood zone was land-filled for the development of railyards , extending a quarter mile from Henderson Street . Three elevated right of ways were built: one from the Bergen Arches to the Erie Railroad Pavonia Terminal , the Harsimus Stem Embankment at 6th Street for

625-403: Was under its jurisdiction, thus stifling development which would compete with the burgeoning New York City . Paulus Hook was the first to urbanize, and The City of Jersey was incorporated in various forms in 1820, 1829, and again in 1838. John Coles, a merchant from New York, was among the first to expand into Harsimus. The Supreme Court settled the matter of jurisdiction in the 1830s, creating

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