| Author | Message | ||
     Copperfield Citizen Username: Copperfield Post Number: 25 Registered: 1-2004 |
Just finished reading Phillip Roth's "Human Stain" - great book for many reasons, but was fascinated by the history of East Orange that he laid out in it. Roth is a Newark native, so I assume it's true and fairly accurate. Anyway, he mentions that part of East Orange was once very wealthy and old-money WASPy and that the main street there was called the "Fifth Avenue of the Oranges." Tried a little web searching and (through the randomness of Google) found a NYC Society Pages from 1930 on the web, which had many families living in East Orange listed in it (one of the largest representations from NJ, along with Orange, SO, Short Hills and Montclair, as well as Newark) Was curious if anyone knew anything about this section of East Orange- what became of it, if it still exists, etc. Thanks. | ||
| Joan Citizen Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 2612 Registered: 5-2001 |
The Newark riots happened among other things. Check out the local history thread on this topic for some additional background. | ||
| bets Citizen Username: Bets Post Number: 555 Registered: 6-2001  |
Route 280 was built, effectively dividing the city in half. Then the Newark riots happened, and the end was near. | ||
| jem Citizen Username: Jem Post Number: 940 Registered: 5-2001  |
There are the remains of what must have been spectacularly beautiful apartment buildings on Harrison just past the intersection with Central Avenue. They're now decrepit hulks - boarded-up, broken-windowed, trash strewn. I wonder if they can be salvaged. | ||
| Nohero Citizen Username: Nohero Post Number: 3077 Registered: 10-1999  |
A postcard on Ebay:  In addition to Route 280 going east to west, East Orange also has the Parkway running through it North to South, which doesn't help, either. | ||
| Copperfield Citizen Username: Copperfield Post Number: 26 Registered: 1-2004 |
Thanks for all the info. And the photo. Question: Do any of those big old houses, as in the photo, still exist? Are they kept up or have they gotten run down? Thanks. PS: Roth mentions the negative effects of the town being divided up by the highways. (One of the characters grew up there in the 30s and his sister still lives there, hence the history) | ||
| Joan Citizen Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 2615 Registered: 5-2001 |
Copperfield: Do you live around here? If so, you might want to take a drive around East Orange and see for yourself. | ||
| bobk Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 5019 Registered: 5-2001 |
Take a look at WWW.gsmls.com. A number of East Orange mansions are listed, usually as rooming houses or possible group homes. The same fate almost befell MW and SO as far as highways were concerned. The original route for I-78 was to run where Boyden Avenue is. Mayor Grassmere led the opposition according to what I have read. | ||
| steven Citizen Username: Steven Post Number: 29 Registered: 6-2001 |
As it happens, I work with the guy who wrote the book on East Orange. Link here. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0738504572/qid=1079963512/sr=1-9/r ef=sr_1_9/104-9800893-5512717?v=glance&s=books Great pictures of the old town with many more of the great old mansions. Some are still there, but quite a few were lost when the highway went in. | ||
| mtierney Citizen Username: Mtierney Post Number: 519 Registered: 3-2001 |
When I worked in EO pre 1967 riots, those wonderful apartment buildings off Central Avenue were filled with many "dowager ladies" who downsized to apartment living from their elegant homes in Orange, Maplewood and South Orange. The never-married, career women of the day also retired to this location.There were wonderful stores, shops and restaurants for "the ladies who lunch". Extended living right at their door step!' The area also was home to many insurance company offices and law firms. | ||
| Copperfield Citizen Username: Copperfield Post Number: 27 Registered: 1-2004 |
Thanks for all the new info. I'll have to take a drive over to Harrison Street one weekend. | ||
| trapper Citizen Username: Trapper Post Number: 50 Registered: 8-2002 |
The Gargen State Parkway is the main culprit. East Orange had may grand estates where the GSP now is. The decision at the time was: It's better to move the 30 large estates (and their residents) than hundreds of the proletariates. As they say, there goes the neighborhood. | ||
| C Bataille Citizen Username: Nakaille Post Number: 1694 Registered: 5-2001 |
Back in the early 80's my sweetie and I lived on Harrison in East Orange for several years in one of those lovely old apartment buildings. We had 3 large rooms with high ceilings, several walk-in closets, a pantry, beautiful hardwood floors, large windows that let in lots of light and both a tiled shower stall and a separate claw-foot tub in the bathroom. It was an elevator building with a marble foyer and a parking garage. When my uncle came to visit us he said, "this is the building that Great Aunt Kay lived in" (decades before.) Then I learned that a few of my rather elderly neighbors remembered Aunt Kay (who was probably a bit of an eccentric even back in the day.) In the 80's there were rumors of a coming gentrification. Then several buildings in our neighborhood burned down. More rumors, this time of landlords hiring thugs to set fires in order to get insurance money. We decided to move out before the fires ended up at our doorstep. Also, person-to-person crime seemed to be on the rise. I drive past the old block occasionally and I have had clients who lived there. The past 20 years has not been good for the area. Lots of drug dealing, little building maintenance, etc. But, East Orange is finally doing what it set out to do when we lived there. They are beginning to revitalize the area just the other side of 280 from my old neighborhood. The city is selling off decayed and/or abandoned properties. New schools are finally being built. I wish them well. | ||
| Jmaxlaw Citizen Username: Jmaxlaw Post Number: 3 Registered: 3-2004 |
While the highways were certainly bad for EO... I think it was the loss of the corporations and law firms which really helped send it on its downward spiral. I would not blame the Newark riots. While the riots cleared out the South and West Wards-- or what was left of the middle class-- the "ilk" of those who lived in the old EO mansions had already left by the late 50's and 1960's. In Newark, for example, by 1941 85 percent of the Newark Chamber of Commerce lived outside the city. In 1916, they all lived in the city. | ||
| Joe Meola Citizen Username: Maplewoodexile Post Number: 3 Registered: 12-2004 |
I wish someone would write a really accurate history of the 60s/70s of the entire Essex/Union county area. So much of what happened at the time was the result of banks and real estate agencies "red lining" certain areas, property owners setting fire to their own properties, the migration of black Americans from the South at precisely the wrong economic moment, and, of course, an unhealthy dose of racism. Sigh... As for East Orange specifically, the Parkway was built in the 1940s or 50s, and while having an adverse affect, did not have the impact that the very wide I-280 did. Its building post-dated the riots, though the plans for it had been ciculating from the late 1950s, and had led to depressd property values all-around (who wants to buy property that might get bulldozed?) And incidentally, some of the luxury apartment buildings in the area of Munn and Harrison, while having fallen on hard times, still cater to a black middle-class population. I have a friend from East Orange who used to life-guard at one of those building's private swimming pools as recently as 1995! Trivia Note: East Orange is mentioned in an I Love Lucy episode (in which Lucy leaves Ricky, and, distraught, later relates to the gang that she "walked through the Lincoln Tunnel" and caused a traffic jam that stretched to "East Orange New Jersey"). | ||
| Psychomom Citizen Username: Psychomom Post Number: 28 Registered: 5-2005 |
My parents were married in 1952. At that time they had a little apartment on Park Ave. They were the envy of their friends because they were in East Orange! I was born and lived there for 5 years. I went to Ashland School Kindergarten...but the neighborhood was already starting to change and my parents bought a house in Maplewood and we moved. | ||
| Dennis J O'Neill Citizen Username: Plungy Post Number: 45 Registered: 6-2005 |
E.O was upscale, with great stores, bakeries and restaurants. It was also kind of on the bohemian side too. Dylan lived there for a while. Lots of artists. | ||
| Veritas Ultimo Citizen Username: Veritas_ultimo Post Number: 62 Registered: 12-2005 |
The owners of the Frank H. Taylor realty group, which owned a lot of property in East Orange and managed a lot of apartments, always held the same position as BETS that the construction of the GS Parkway and Route 280 killed the City. I believe its end was hastened by an exclusive WASP attitude. I know that persons of Italian origin were denied the right to rent apartments in East Orange until the mid-sixties. When the dowagers died and the WASPS fled quickly, there was a glut of housing and rental and sales prices fell dramatically. Even my relatives (who were of he wrong religion and ethnic group) were suddenly able to get apartments. Most importantly, the city lost continuity of citizenry and government which is the lifeforce of any successful municipality. Even though it is closer to New York on the Mid-Town Direct, it still has a long way to go. |
