Journal Square - History

History

Prior to its development as a commercial district Journal Square was the site of many farmhouses and manors belonging to descendants of the original settlers of Bergen, the first chartered municipality in the state settled in 1660 and located just south at Bergen Square. In conjunction with the 1912 opening of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Summit Avenue station many were demolished to make way for modern buildings, including the still standing Labor Bank Building and the Public Service building. The Newkirk House and Van Wagenen House remain, while the still-intact Sip Manor was moved to Westfield, New Jersey. The square was created in 1923 when the city condemned and demolished the offices of the Jersey Journal, thus creating a broad intersection with Hudson Boulevard which itself had been widened in 1908. The newspaper built new headquarters and the new square was named in its honor.

The bridge carrying the boulevard was designed by consulting engineer Abraham Burton Cohen and completed in 1926. For most of the twentieth century Journal Square was the cultural entertainment center of Hudson County, home to the movies palaces built in the 1920s: The State (1922, and since demolished), the Stanley Theater (1928), and the Loew's Jersey Theater (1929). Karen Angel of The New York Daily News described Journal Square from the 1920s to the 1960s as "crown jewel, a glowing commercial, entertainment and transportation hub of the city." The "Jersey Bounce", a hit song in the 1940s mentions Journal Square in its lyrics as the place where it got started. Two days before Election Day in 1960 John F. Kennedy made his last campaign speech before returning to New England at Journal Square. Hudson Boulevard was named Kennedy Boulevard soon after his assassination. The Tube Bar, so-called for the Hudson Tubes (as the fore-runner of the PATH system was called) was made famous by Louis "Red" Deutsch getting prank calls there.