Why Paterson Matters

A National Park for the 21st Century

Millions of Americans who feel little or no connection with our national parks and the Founding Fathers will find much greater meaning within Paterson's authenticity and diversity. The National Park Service has recognized how important it is to reach out to these citizens.

The Paterson National Park will advance important National Park Service priorities. The National Park Service has endorsed the recommendations of the National Park System Advisory Board report, Rethinking the National Parks for the 21st Century. The Paterson National Park will further important policies, which was chaired by the distinguished historian John Hope Franklin, including its central recommendation that the Park Service should place a high priority on sites, themes, and stories not well represented in the National Park System today-particularly African American history, arts and literature, and social movements. Each of those themes finds expression in Paterson near the Great Falls.

In 1792, our first Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, announced that at the Great Falls in New Jersey he would found the City of Paterson to jumpstart his strategy to secure the new nation's economic independence and begin transforming a rural agrarian society based in slavery into a modern economy based in freedom.  At the Great Falls, then the nation's most powerful waterfall, Hamilton began implementation of his far-reaching plan to achieve the economic independence that secured America's future and launched the American dream. 

Hamilton alone among America's Founders championed the spirit of enterprise and opportunity that would transform a Third World nation into the greatest economic power ever known.  We live today in the economic world Hamilton envisioned and-starting at the Great Falls in Paterson-played a major role in creating.