Making Headlines

You can see the renovations proceeding at the Congdon Mill, a 1902 silk mill that later this year will reopen with affordable housing for 62 families. Combining tax credits for historic preservation and low-income housing, along with financing from the New Jersey Housing Finance Agency, NJCDC and a private developer have worked together to bring more residents to the Historic District.

Junot Díaz

The latest success story in Paterson literature is Junot Díaz, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his bestselling novel, The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  

For more than two hundred years, writers and poets have drawn inspiration from Paterson for their works.  Two John Updike novels, Allen Ginsberg's poetry, an epic poem by William Carlos Williams, and Washington Irving's only published poem. Díaz himself writes, "The Paterson Falls are where the pulse of our state communicates itself, where the true land that we have sought to bury under the concrete detritus of our civilization can still speak to us. A natural treasure of alarming power, a place where I have repeatedly sought refuge, inspiration and a sense of my self. Despite the many attempts to shackle, to hem, to pacify, to in wit destroy the falls, they have survived, a reminder of the tenacity of wild spaces but also, in their singularity, a warning that if we do not act this splinter too will vanish and all of us, in our state, in our country--and yes--in our world will be diminished for it."

We will feature an interview with Junot Díaz in this space in the future.  For a preview of coming attractions, watch his appearance on the Colbert Report.

In November 2009, Paterson votes overwhelmingly approved a $15 million bond issue that could provide most of the necessary funding for restoring landmark Stadium next to the new National Park.  On a site planned by the Olmsted Brothers firm, Hinchliffe Stadium is a 20th century landmark in African American history.  The Stadium was the home field for NY Black Yankees and NY Cubans in baseball’s Negro Leagues, and the site of the Colored Championship of the Nation in 1933.

Once restored, we will honor at Hinchliffe the resiliency and unparalleled athletic achievement by Americans of color and immigrants.  We will celebrate the demise of segregation in baseball and the growth of a national pastime inclusive of African Americans and Latinos.  Read about Hinchliffe in this recent cover story of Preservation magazine.

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When New Jersey's new governor, Christopher Christie, enters the Governor's residence in Princeton, the first thing he and his family and guests see is an 1869 painting of the Great Falls by the artist Louis Kieffer.  The Danforth Public Library in Paterson loaned the painting to the Drumthwacket Foundation, which maintains the historic official residence of the Governor.  You can see it in the entry hall there or wait until it returns to Paterson later this year.

The Paterson Museum, last month, displayed  an important letter George Washington wrote from the Great Falls. The original letter General Washington penned in 1780 during a difficult time in the war. To celebrate Washington's Birthday on February 22, Paterson High School students viewed the letter and heard comments from Congressman Bill Pascrell, Paterson Schools Superindent Donnie Evans, and Hamilton Partnership President Leonard Zax.

For the first time in 230 years, George Washington returned to the Great Falls, where he once had his Headquarters during the Revolutionary War.  In the letter that was recently displayed at Mount Vernon, General Washington complained that his troops did not have the manufactured supplies they needed to win the war. "We have no cloathing," he wrote with the spelling of the time, and he called for “an entire new plan" and "oeconomy."  

This letter takes on special significance now that President Obama has signed legislation to create the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park. During Washington’s first term as President, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton prepared a plan to end America’s dependence on foreign nations for manufactured goods. Hamilton founded the City of Paterson to use the power of the Great Falls for new industries that would secure America's economic independence. Over the next 150 years, Paterson produced the first manufactured sailcloth for every ship in the American navy, the first Colt revolvers, the first American locomotives, the first motorized submarines, and more aircraft engines for WWII bombers than any city in the nation.

Read coverage of the event:

• The Record (230-year letter by George Washington returns to Paterson) (pdf)
• The Star Ledger (Paterson is visited by the Past) (pdf)

With new Federal funding, the 1914 hydropower plant at the Great Falls is going to increase its renewable energy output, which currently produces enough power for 11,000 homes. More details in this news report at the Great Falls with Sen. Bob Menendez. Watch the news report.

The only building built over one of the Historic District's water power raceways will also be the first building in the Great Falls Historic District to earn this certification for green building renovation. In the locomotive production boom of the early 1890s, they needed a new storage building but there was no land available adjacent to its multi-building industrial complex and Rogers built right over the raceway. You can see it in Upper Raceway Park today, and NJCDC is restoring the building to serve as a community conference center closely related to the new national park.

You can take the kid out of Paterson, but you can't take Paterson out of the kid.  Watch this space for an interview with MTV President Doug Herzog talking about Paterson.  He continues a long line of former Patersonians who achieved great success in the entertainment world but remain proud of their Paterson roots.  Jerry Zaks is a Tony Award-Winning Broadway director. Bette Midler is the daughter of parents who owned Midler's Dry Clearners on Twelfth Ave.  Bruce Vilanch, who appeared in plays for all four years at Eastside High, is a Hollywood comedy writer for many performers and shows, including the Academy Awards.  Lou Costello was a comedy star on stage and screen, frequently saying at the end of a show, "Good night to everyone in Paterson, New Jersey."  Bucky Pizzarelli is a star jazz performer.