Editing Perth Amboy, New Jersey (section)

===Industrialization and immigration===
[[File:PSM V40 D330 Three kilns at the perth amboy terra cotta company.jpg|thumb|Three kilns at the [[Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Company]]]]
By the middle of the 19th century, immigration and industrialization transformed Perth Amboy. Factories such as [[A. Hall and Sons Terra Cotta]], Guggenheim and Sons and the Copper Works Smelting Company fueled a thriving downtown and employed many area residents. Growth was further stimulated by becoming the tidewater terminal for the [[Lehigh Valley Railroad]] and a coal shipping point.<ref>[http://soundunderwatersurvey.com/wrecks/bouquet-2/the-path-of-the-black-diamond/ The Path of the Black Diamond; A history of one company’s undertaking to distribute Anthracite coal within New England. The Lehigh Valley Railroad & Bee Line Transportation Company], Sound Underwater Survey. Accessed December 18, 2019. "This competing action by the L&S necessitated a quick response by the LV, and resulted in the building of its extension eastward across New Jersey and the building of a salt water terminal by 1876. The line was built by acquiring the charters of two, as yet unbuilt railroads in New Jersey, and melding them into a single charter for a line titled Easton & Amboy Railroad (E&A). The eastern terminal was established at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, a salt water port at the confluence of the Arthur Kill and the Raritan River."</ref> Perth Amboy developed tightly-knit and insular ethnic neighborhoods such as Budapest, Dublin, and Chickentown.<ref>Wang, Paul W.; and Massopust, Katherine A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=c2Zmt4p9lQ4C&pg=PA19 ''Perth Amboy''], p. 19. [[Arcadia Publishing]], 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-7385-6241-4}}. Accessed September 22, 2016.</ref> Immigrants from [[Denmark]], [[Poland]], [[Hungary]], [[Czechoslovakia]], [[Italy]], [[Russia]], and [[Austria]] quickly dominated the factory jobs.<ref name=WPA />

In 1903, the [[Perth Amboy Public Library]], one of the first [[List of Carnegie libraries in New Jersey|Carnegie libraries]] in the state, made possible through grants from [[Andrew Carnegie]] and donations by local philanthropists, opened to the public.<ref name=LibraryMission/><ref name=NYT1901>Staff. [https://www.nytimes.com/1901/03/14/archives/library-for-perth-amboy-mr-carnegie-given-20000-the-city-secures-a.html "Library for Perth Amboy; Mr. Carnegie Given $20,000 -- The City Secures a Site"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', March 14, 1901. Accessed September 8, 2018.</ref><ref name=CN2015/>

In 1914, Perth Amboy hosted a [[minor league baseball]] team called the [[Perth Amboy Pacers]], who played as members of the [[Class D (baseball)|Class D]] level [[Atlantic League (1914)|Atlantic League]]. The Atlantic League folded after one season.<ref>[https://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/team.cgi?id=4e1972b2 1914 Perth Amboy Pacers], [[Baseball-Reference.com]]. Accessed April 9, 2015.</ref>

In late August 1923, an estimated 6,000 persons rioted, breaking through police lines after the [[Ku Klux Klan]] attempted to organize a meeting in the city.<ref>Staff. [https://www.nytimes.com/1923/08/31/archives/perth-amboy-mob-in-antiklan-riot-scores-are-beaten-crowd-of-6000.html "Perth Amboy Mob In Anti-Klan Riot. Scores Are Beaten. Crowd of 6,000 Drive Ku Kluxers From Hall, Pummeling and Stoning Them. Police Tear Gas Futile. Fire Department Attempts to Halt Assault, but Rioters Cut Every Line of Hose."], ''[[The New York Times]]'', August 31, 1923. Accessed September 8, 2018. "In the wildest disorder incident to Ku Klux Klan activities yet known in the East, a mob of 6,000 persons in Perth Amboy, N.J., last night overcame the combined police and fire departments of the town and broke up a meeting of 'Invisible Empire' subjects."</ref><ref>[https://stanleyrogouski.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/the-battle-of-perth-amboy-1923/ "The Battle of Perth Amboy (1923)"], Stanley W. Rogouski, October 8, 2014. Accessed April 9, 2015.</ref>

The city was a resort town in the 19th century and early 20th century, located on the northern edge of the [[Raritan Bayshore]]. Since the early 1990s Perth Amboy has seen redevelopment. Small businesses have started to open up, helped by the city's designation as an [[Urban Enterprise Zone]]. The waterfront has also seen a rebirth. The marina has been extended, and there are new promenades, parks, and housing overlooking the bay.

The chapter "More Alarms at Night" in humorist [[James Thurber]]'s biography ''[[My Life and Hard Times]]'' involves Perth Amboy. One night during his adolescence in Ohio, young Thurber is unable to go to sleep because he cannot remember the name of this New Jersey community. He wakens his father, demanding that he start naming towns in New Jersey. When the startled father names several towns with single-word names, Thurber replies that the name he is seeking is "two words, like helter skelter". This convinces his father that Thurber has become dangerously insane. Thurber also wrote the story later made into the film ''[[The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947 film)|The Secret Life of Walter Mitty]]'', about an "inconsequential guy from Perth Amboy, New Jersey".<ref name=Mitty>Staff. [https://variety.com/1946/film/reviews/the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty-1200414953/ "Review: 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'"], ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', December 31, 1946. Accessed April 9, 2015. "Thurber's whole conception of Mitty was an inconsequential fellow from Perth Amboy, NJ, to whom nothing – but nothing – ever happened and who, as a result, lived a 'secret life' via his excursions into daydreaming."</ref> Perth Amboy's water pumping station is located in [[Old Bridge Township, New Jersey|Old Bridge Township]].<ref>Haydon, Tom. [https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/old_bridge_seeks_to_pump_own_w.html "Old Bridge seeks to pump own water from reservoir in effort to reduce costs"], NJ Advance Media for [[NJ.com]], December 12, 2010. Accessed September 22, 2016. "Middlesex Water Company takes water from the large reservoir that Perth Amboy built on property the city purchased in Old Bridge in the 1920s. The city turned over operation of the reservoir, known as the Runyon Watershed, to the water company more than 10 years ago."</ref>