Editing Jersey City, New Jersey (section)

===19th century===
In 1804, [[Alexander Hamilton]], now a private citizen, was focused on increasing manufacturing in the greater New York City area. To that end, he helped to create the "Associates of the Jersey Company" which would lay the groundwork for modern Jersey City through private development. While envisioning the future of Jersey City, Hamilton said: "One day, a great city shall rise on the western banks of the Hudson River."<ref name="Great City">{{cite web|url=https://jerseydigs.com/history-of-jersey-city-part-1/|title=Jersey City’s Journey Through History: Railroads, Rivalries, and Resilience|website=jerseydigs.com|date=January 20, 2025|access-date=February 5, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nj.com/hudson/2016/07/group_honors_founding_father_of_new_jersey_at_jers.html|title=Group honors Alexander Hamilton as 'founding father of N.J.' at Jersey City ceremony|publisher=The Jersey Journal|date=July 8, 2016|access-date=February 5, 2025}}</ref> The consortium of 35 investors behind the company were predominantly [[Federalism|Federalists]] who, like Hamilton, had been swept out of power in the election of 1800 by [[Thomas Jefferson]] and other [[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republicans]]. Large tracts of land in [[Paulus Hook]] were purchased by the company with the titles owned by Anthony Dey, who was from a prominent old Dutch family, and his two cousins, Colonel [[Richard Varick]], the former mayor of New York City (1789–1801), and [[Jacob Radcliff]], a Justice of the [[New York Supreme Court]] who would later become mayor of New York City (twice) from 1810 to 1811 and again from 1815 to 1818. They laid out the city squares and streets that still characterize the neighborhood, giving them names also seen in [[Lower Manhattan]] or after war heroes (Grove, Varick, Mercer, Wayne, Monmouth and Montgomery among them).<ref>{{cite web|title=Associates of the Jersey Company, 1804 Jersey City's Founding Fathers|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/jerseycitypastandpresent/associatesofthejerseycompany|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602035903/https://njcu.libguides.com/jerseycitypastandpresent/associatesofthejerseycompany|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 2, 2019|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref> John B. Coles, a former [[New York State Senate|New York State senator]] (1799–1802), purchased the area north of Paulus Hook known as [[Harsimus]] and laid out a grid plan centered around a park. Following Hamilton's death, Coles proposed naming the park in his honor as "[[Hamilton Park, Jersey City|Hamilton Park]]".<ref name="Hamilton Park">{{cite web|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/hamilton|title=Hamilton Park|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=February 6, 2025}}</ref>

Despite Hamilton's untimely death in July 1804, the Association carried on with the New Jersey Legislature approving Hamilton's charter of incorporation on November 10, 1804. However, the enterprise was mired in a legal boundary dispute between New York City and the state of [[New Jersey]] over who owned the waterfront. This along with the associated press coverage discouraged investors who wanted lots on the waterfront for commercial purposes. The unresolved dispute would continue until the Treaty of 1834 where New York City formally ceded control of the Jersey City waterfront to New Jersey. Over that time though, the Jersey Company opened the city's first medical facility, known as the "[[pest house]]", in 1808<ref name="Medical Center">{{cite web|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/medicalcenter|title=Jersey City Medical Center / The Beacon Apartments|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=February 10, 2025}}</ref> and applied to the [[New Jersey Legislature]] to incorporate the "Town of Jersey" in 1819. The legislature enacted "An Act to incorporate the City of Jersey, in the County of Bergen" on January 28, 1820. Under the provision, five freeholders (including Varick, Dey, and Radcliff) were to be chosen as "the Board of Selectmen of Jersey City", thereby establishing the first governing body of the emerging municipality. The city was reincorporated on January 23, 1829, and again on February 22, 1838, at which time it became completely independent of Bergen and was given its present name. On February 22, 1840, Jersey City became part of the newly created [[Hudson County]] which separated from Bergen County and annexed the former [[Essex County, New Jersey|Essex County]] land of [[West Hudson, New Jersey|New Barbadoes Neck]].<ref name=Story>Snyder, John P. [https://nj.gov/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf ''The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968''], Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. pp. 146–147. Accessed May 29, 2024.</ref>

[[File:1847 Lower Manhattan map (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|1847 map of Paulus Hook and the Jersey City Ferry's route. Note the historic name of Pavonia.]]
In 1812, [[Robert Fulton]] began [[Steamboat|steam ferry]] service via "The Jersey" between Paulus Hook and Manhattan, eight years after building a [[shipyard]] at Greene and Morgan Streets.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sailthehudson.com/JCmain.htm|title=History Events of Jersey City|website=sailthehudson.com|access-date=February 17, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Over and Back: The History of Ferryboats in New York Harbor |last=Cudahy |first=Brian J. |year=1990 |publisher=Fordham University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-8232-1245-9 |pages=20–24, 360, 362 }}</ref> In 1834, the [[New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company]] opened the city's first rail line from Jersey City Ferry to Newark. From 1834 to 1836, the [[Morris Canal]] was extended from Newark to Jersey City and [[New York Harbor]] linking the Delaware River with the Hudson River. This extension connected Jersey City to [[Pennsylvania]]'s [[Lehigh Valley]] and New Jersey's interior providing a steady and easy supply of [[coal]] and [[anthracite pig iron]] for the growing iron industry and other developing industries adopting steam power in Jersey City and the region.

In 1839, [[Provident Bank of New Jersey|Provident Savings Institution]] was charted by the state as the first [[mutual savings bank]] in New Jersey and the first bank in Jersey City and Hudson County. Co-founded by the city's first mayor, [[Dudley S. Gregory]] (1838–1840), in the wake of the [[Panic of 1837]], there was a general mistrust of banks by the public. In response, the bank's charter established it as a "mutual savings bank" to assist the city's immigrant poor. In 1891, the bank headquarters became the temporary home of the first branch of the [[Jersey City Free Public Library]] until the Main Library branch opened in 1901.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/provident|title=The Provident Savings Institution of Jersey City|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=February 13, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nj.com/hudson/2014/02/provident_banks_175th_anniversary_continues_its_legacy_as_jersey_citys_hometown_bank.html#incart_river|title=Provident Bank's 175th anniversary continues its legacy as Jersey City's hometown bank|publisher=The Jersey Journal|date=February 5, 2014|access-date=February 13, 2025}}</ref>

On April 12, 1841, the New Jersey Legislature incorporated [[Van Vorst Township, New Jersey|Van Vorst Township]] from portions of Bergen. Land was donated by the Van Vorst family for a town square style park that became [[Van Vorst Park]]. The township was later annexed by Jersey City on March 18, 1851.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/vanvorsttownship|title=Van Vorst Township (1841-1851)|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=February 6, 2025}}</ref> From 1854 to 1874, the kitchen step of the Van Vorst Mansion, home of former mayor [[Cornelius Van Vorst]] (1860–1862), was known to be the slab of marble that was originally the base of the statue of [[George III of the United Kingdom|King George III]] that was toppled by the [[Sons of Liberty]] at [[Bowling Green (New York City)|Bowling Green]] in Lower Manhattan in 1776.<ref>{{cite news | title = The Statue That Was Made Into Bullets | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = 1901-07-21 | page = SM6 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1901/07/21/119079124.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/vanvorst3|title=Van Vorst Mansion (Wayne St.)|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=February 7, 2025}}</ref> Van Vorst also constructed the neighboring [[Barrow Mansion]] where his sister Eliza lived.

By mid century, Jersey City's rapidly urbanizing population began to encounter significant challenges gaining access to freshwater. In 1850, Jersey City Water Works engineer William S. Whitwell, proposed a three-reservoir complex in the [[The Heights, Jersey City|Jersey City Heights]] (then part of [[North Bergen, New Jersey|North Bergen]]) connected to a pumping station near the [[Passaic River]] in [[Belleville, New Jersey|Belleville]] by a massive underground [[Aqueduct (water supply)|aqueduct]] to deliver freshwater to the city. Reservoir No. 1 was built between 1851 and 1854 and [[Jersey City Reservoir No. 3|Reservoir No. 3]] was built between 1871 and 1874 under the direction of engineer John Culver. Reservoir No. 2 was never constructed and later became [[Pershing Field]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/reservoir3|title=Jersey City Water Works (Reservoir 3)|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=February 9, 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Panorama of Jersey City. (With details) (NYPL Hades-1090707-psnypl prn 1006) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|350px|Panorama of Jersey City in 1854]]
During the 19th century, former slaves reached Jersey City on one of the four main routes of the [[Underground Railroad]] that all converged in the city. On [[Bergen Hill, Jersey City|Bergen Hill]], the Hilton-Holden House, named after noted [[abolitionist]] and [[astronomer]] David Le Cain Holden, was a "[[safe house|station]]" for fugitive slaves to stop over and seek refuge and is one of the last remaining in the city.<ref>Zinsli, Christopher. [http://hudsonreporter.com/view/full_story/2404933/article-Jersey-City-s-Underground-Railroad-history-Thousands-of-former-slaves-sought-freedom-by-passing-through-Jersey-City "Jersey City's Underground Railroad history: Thousands of former slaves sought freedom by passing through Jersey City"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402152637/http://hudsonreporter.com/view/full_story/2404933/article-Jersey-City-s-Underground-Railroad-history-Thousands-of-former-slaves-sought-freedom-by-passing-through-Jersey-City |date=April 2, 2015}}, ''[[The Hudson Reporter]]'', March 23, 2007. Accessed April 1, 2015. "New Jersey alone had as many as four main routes, all of which converged in Jersey City.... As the last stop in New Jersey before fugitive slaves reached New York, Jersey City played an integral role – by some estimates, more than 60,000 escaped slaves traveled through Jersey City."</ref> Slaves would then be hidden in wagons en route to the Jersey City waterfront and Morris Canal Basin where abolitionists would hire ferry and coal boats to transport former slaves up to [[Canada]] or [[New England]] to freedom.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hobokengirl.com/jersey-city-history-underground-railroad/|title=Jersey City: The Last Stop on The Underground Railroad|website=hobokengirl.com|date=June 28, 2022|access-date=February 3, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/hilton|title=Hilton Holden House|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=February 3, 2025}}</ref>

In 1868, the Jersey City Board of Alderman took over the pest house and renamed it "[[Jersey City Medical Center|Jersey City Charity Hospital]]" and operated it as a public medical facility, the first in the city and state, where physicians provided free medical care to city residents. In 1885, the hospital expanded to a new 200-bed facility on Bergen Hill to remove the hospital from the increasing industrial development at Paulus Hook.<ref name="Medical Center"/>

====Consolidation of Jersey City====
Soon after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the idea arose of uniting all of the towns of Hudson County east of the Hackensack River into one municipality. In 1868, a bill for submitting the question of consolidation of all of Hudson County to the voters was presented to the Board of Chosen Freeholders (now known as the [[Board of County Commissioners (New Jersey)|Board of County Commissioners]]). The bill was approved by the state legislature on April 2, 1869, with a special election to be held on October 5, 1869. An element of the bill provide that only contiguous towns could be consolidated. While a majority of the voters across the county approved the merger, the only municipalities that had approved the consolidation plan and that adjoined Jersey City were [[Hudson City, New Jersey|Hudson City]] and [[Bergen City, New Jersey|Bergen City]].<ref name="Merger">Winfield, Charles Hardenburg. [https://archive.org/details/historycountyhu00winfgoog/page/n305 <!-- pg=289 --> "History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time"], p. 289. Kennard & Hay Stationery M'fg and Print. Co., 1874. Accessed December 21, 2011.</ref> The consolidation began on March 17, 1870, taking effect on May 3, 1870.<ref>Staff. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1870/04/25/80226366.pdf "The New Government of Jersey City – The Subordinate Offices"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 25, 1870. Accessed December 21, 2011. "The new City Government of Jersey City goes into operation on the first Tuesday in May."</ref> Three years later the present outline of Jersey City was completed when [[Greenville, Jersey City|Greenville]] agreed to merge into the Greater Jersey City.<ref name="Story" /><ref>''Municipal Incorporations of the State of New Jersey (according to Counties)'' prepared by the Division of Local Government, Department of the Treasury (New Jersey); December 1, 1958, p. 78 – Extinct List.</ref>

Following consolidation, the city's first university, [[Saint Peter's University|Saint Peter's College]], was charted in 1872 and classes began on September 2, 1878, in Paulus Hook. Decades later, it would adopt the [[Saint Peter's Peacocks|peacock]] as its mascot in partial reference to the original settling of the Jersey City area as "Pavonia", ''land of the peacock''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.saintpeters.edu/mission-and-history/|title=Mission and History|website=saintpeters.edu|access-date=February 17, 2025}}</ref>

On October 28, 1886, the [[Statue of Liberty]] was dedicated by [[Grover Cleveland|President Grover Cleveland]] just off the city's shores at [[Liberty Island|Bedloe's Island]] in New York Harbor. The statue would welcome millions of immigrants as they arrived by [[Passenger ship|ship]] at [[Ellis Island]] (opened in 1892) in the coming decades.

By the late 1880s, three passenger railroad terminals opened in Jersey City along the [[North River (Hudson River)|Hudson River]] ([[Pavonia Terminal]],<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1887/12/04/102976849.pdf "A Handsome Building: The Erie Railway's New Station at Jersey City."], ''[[The New York Times]]'', December 4, 1887. Accessed November 14, 2016.</ref> [[Exchange Place (PRR station)|Exchange Place]] and [[Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal|Communipaw]]) making Jersey City a terminus for the nation's rail network.<ref name="CRRNJ">[http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/liberty_state_park/liberty_crrnj.html Liberty State Park: CRRNJ], [[New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection]]. Accessed August 30, 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Port of New York. A History of the Rail and Terminal System from the Beginnings to Pennsylvania Station (Volume 1) |last=Condit |first=Carl |year=1980 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0-226-11460-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/portofnewyork0000cond/page/46 46–52,152–168] |url=https://archive.org/details/portofnewyork0000cond/page/46}}</ref><ref name="Great City"/> Tens of millions, roughly two-thirds, of [[Immigration to the United States|immigrants]] that were processed at Ellis Island entered the United States through Communipaw Terminal to then settle in Jersey City and its neighboring municipalities or make their way westward.<ref name="CRRNJ" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/centralrailroad|title=Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=February 9, 2025}}</ref> The railroads transformed the geography of the city by building several [[List of bridges, tunnels, and cuts in Hudson County, New Jersey#Bergen Hill-Hudson Palisades|tunnels and cuts]], such as the [[Bergen Arches]], through the city and filling in the coves at Harsimus and Communipaw for the construction of several large freight rail yards along the waterfront.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/06/12/102040699.pdf "Finish Erie Tunnel in Jersey Heights"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', June 13, 1910. Accessed July 18, 2017.</ref><ref name="jclandmarks">[http://www.jclandmarks.org/history-bergenarches.shtml The Bergen Arches of the Erie Railroad] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081230150759/http://www.jclandmarks.org/history-bergenarches.shtml |date=December 30, 2008}}, Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy. Accessed April 1, 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/08/08/79042686.pdf | work=The New York Times | title=New-Jersey | date=August 8, 1873}}</ref>

Jersey City became an important port, railroad and manufacturing city during the 19th and 20th centuries. Much like New York City, Jersey City has always been a destination for new immigrants to the United States. [[Germans|German]], [[Russians|Russian]], [[Poles (people)|Polish]], [[Scottish people|Scottish]], [[Irish ethnicity|Irish]] and [[Italians|Italian]] immigrants settled in local [[tenements]] and found work at the local docks, railroads and adjacent companies such as [[American Can Company|American Can]], [[Colgate-Palmolive|Colgate]], [[Chloro]], [[Lorillard Tobacco Company|Lorillard Tobacoo]] and [[Dixon Ticonderoga]].<ref name="Remaking"/> During this time, concern grew for the social issues of the city's immigrant poor. [[Cornelia Foster Bradford]] founded [[Whittier House (Jersey City, New Jersey)|Whittier House]] in Paulus Hook in 1894 as the first "[[Settlement movement|settlement house]]" in New Jersey. Whittier House led to several social reforms and city "firsts" such as free kindergarten, a dental clinic, a visiting nurse service, a milk and medical dispensary, diet kitchen for mothers and babies and a playground. Mary Buell Sayles, a settlement resident, wrote ''The Housing Conditions of Jersey City'' in 1902 about the lives of immigrants in and around Paulus Hook. In response, mayor [[Mark M. Fagan]] (1902–1907) created the Municipal Sanitary League and opened the city's first public bath house on Coles Street in 1904. That same year, the first "State Tenement House Commission" was formed and the New Jersey Legislature passed the "Tenement House Act".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://njcu.libguides.com/whittier|title=Whittier House|website=njcu.libguides.com|access-date=February 10, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://streettotheleft.weebly.com/coles-street-bathhouse.html|title=Coles Street Bathhouse|website=streettotheleft.weebly.com|access-date=February 10, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bgchc.org/mission-history|title=Our History|website=Boys and Girls Club of Hudson County|access-date=February 10, 2025}}</ref>