Editing Elizabeth, New Jersey (section)

===Downtown / Elizabethport===
[[File:Park on Court St. in Elizabeth, NJ.jpg |thumb|School # 1 seen in the distance from the park on Court Street]]
[[File:Snyder Academy.jpg|thumb|[[Snyder Academy]]]]
Downtown / E-Port (a.k.a. The Port and Elizabethport) is the oldest neighborhood in Elizabeth. It consists of a collection of old world Elizabethan, new American colonial-style houses and apartment buildings that stretch east of 7th Street to its shores. The name is derived from its dependence on businesses catering to seagoing ventures. It was a thriving center of commerce between the 1660s through the middle of the 20th century. This area has had a great deal of improvement since 2000. Many homes have been renovated or been replaced with new, more ornate structures. Federal housing projects that stood for decades along First Street have been demolished and replaced with low to moderate income housing. The waterfront is home to new town homes and two-family homes (duplexes).

The area was once three distinct neighborhoods: Buckeye, Diamondville, and New Mexico. It was the US home of the [[Singer Manufacturing Company]], makers of Singer sewing machines, which constructed a {{convert|1400000|sqft|adj=on}} facility on a {{convert|32|acres|adj=on}} site in 1873. Shortly after it opened, the factory manufactured the majority of all sewing machines worldwide. With 6,000 employees working there in the 1870s, it employed the largest number of workers at a single facility in 1873. The company moved out of Elizabeth in 1982.<ref>Hatala, Greg. [http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2013/11/made_in_jersey_singer_sewing_m.html "Made in Jersey: Singer sewing machines had the market sewn up"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415181803/http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2013/11/made_in_jersey_singer_sewing_m.html |date=April 15, 2016 }}, ''[[The Star-Ledger]]'', November 18, 2013. Accessed September 19, 2016. "In 1873, the Singer Sewing Machine Manufacturing Co. purchased 32 acres of land in Elizabeth and established its first factory in the United States (the company also had a plant in Kilbowie, Clydebank, Scotland).... In 1982, the last 560 workers at the 1,400,000 square foot Elizabeth factory were laid off and the facility closed."</ref>

Elizabeth Marina, which was once filled with trash and debris along its walkway, was also restored. It is the site of year-round celebrations from a Hispanic festival in late spring to the lighting of a Christmas tree in winter. Living conditions in this area continue to improve year after year. Historically, there were immigrant communities centered around Christian churches. The Slavic community was centered by Sts. Peter and Paul Byzantine, the Lithuanian community attended Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic and the Polish community attended St. Adalbert [[Roman Catholic Church]] which still stands. St. Patrick Church, originally Irish, dominates the 'Port; the cornerstone for the second and current building was laid in 1887.<ref>[http://www.visithistoricalelizabethnj.org/timeline.htm Elizabeth, NJ – A Concise Historical Overview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513113117/http://visithistoricalelizabethnj.org/timeline.htm |date=May 13, 2011 }}, Visit Historical Elizabeth, NJ. Accessed September 19, 2016. "St. Patrick's Church, a Roman Catholic parish since 1858, laid the cornerstone of its present church in 1887. The imposing twin-spired structure, designed by William Shickel imitating the Cologne Cathedral, took thirteen years to complete and used Maine granite."</ref>