Bergen Square
Encyclopedia
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
, is in the southwestern part of the much larger Journal Square
Journal Square
Journal Square is a business district, residential area, and transportation hub in Jersey City, New Jersey, which takes its name from the newspaper Jersey Journal whose headquarters are located there. The "square" itself is at the intersection of Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Avenues...
district. A commercial residential area, it contains an eclectic array of architectural styles including 19th-century row houses, Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
retail and office buildings, and is the site of the longest continually-used school site in the United States.
Nearby are the Van Wagenen House
Van Wagenen House
The Van Wagenen House, also known as Apple Tree House is located near Bergen Square in Jersey City, New Jersey. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 16, 2006.-History:...
(sometimes called the Apple Tree House) and Old Bergen Church
Old Bergen Church
The Old Bergen Church is located in Jersey City, New Jersey and is the oldest continuous congregation in New Jersey dating back to 1660. The congregation embraces a combination of Reformed Church in America and Presbyterianism....
, two structures from the colonial period. St. George & St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church
St. George & St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church (Jersey City, New Jersey)
St George & St Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church is the second Coptic Orthodox church that was established in Jersey City, New Jersey...
founded by early Egyptian immigrants was one of the original congregation in New Jersey.
History
The square and the streets around it are the site of what is considered to the oldest municipality in the state of New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
which was first established in 1660 as Bergen
Bergen, New Netherland
Bergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties...
in the province of New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
and, in 1683, became Bergen Township. Permission to settle there was granted by the Director-General of New Netherland
Director-General of New Netherland
This is a list of Directors, appointed by the Dutch West India Company, of the 17th century Dutch province of New Netherland in North America...
, Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant , served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York...
, a statue of whom sits on the square to commemorate the event. The square was surveyed and designed by Jacques Cortelyou
Jacques Cortelyou
Jacques Cortelyou was an influential early citizen of New Amsterdam who was Surveyor General of the early Dutch colony...
and is the first example of what was to become known as a Philadelphia square in the United States. Though there no buildings from the period still standing, the names of streets (such as Vroom, Vanreypen, Newkirk, Tuers, Dekalb) and the grid they form still remain to mark the origins of the earlier village. In the immediate vicinity, there are cemeteries and the Old Bergen Church
Old Bergen Church
The Old Bergen Church is located in Jersey City, New Jersey and is the oldest continuous congregation in New Jersey dating back to 1660. The congregation embraces a combination of Reformed Church in America and Presbyterianism....
which were founded by the settlers and their ancestors.
Pavonia
Pavonia, New Netherland
Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland in what would become today's Hudson County, New Jersey.-Hudson and the Hackensack:...
, the first European settlement on the west bank of the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
was temporarily evacuated during a series of raids and retaliations between the Dutch and the Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
, the Native Americans who lived there at the time known as Kieft's War
Kieft's War
Kieft's War, also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between settlers of the nascent colony of New Netherland and the native Lenape population in what would later become the New York metropolitan area of the United States...
. Those who survived the counter attack were ordered back to the relative safety of New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
, on the tip of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. After the treaty was signed in 1645, the communities at Pavonia
Pavonia
Pavonia may refer to:biota:*Pavonia , a moth genus*Pavonia pavonia, "emperor moth", a moth species*Pavonia , a plant genus in the family Malvaceaeplaces:...
and Communipaw
Communipaw
Communipaw is a section of Jersey City, New Jersey west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and site of one the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its name to the historic avenue which runs from its eastern end near LSP Station through the neighborhoods of...
continued to grow steadily, but were again raided in a conflict sometimes called the Peach Tree War
Peach Tree War
The Peach Tree War, also known as the "Peach War," is the name given to a large scale attack on the New Netherland colony of Pavonia, across from New Amsterdam, and surrounding settlements along the North River by the Susquehannock Nation and allied Native Americans on September 15,...
in 1655.
Responding to settlers wishes to secure their holdings and wanting to re-establish control of the area, Stuyvesant negotiated a deal in 1658 with the Lenape for the larger area named Bergen, "by the great rock above Wiehacken
Weehawken, New Jersey
Weehawken is a township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 12,554.-Geography:Weehawken is part of the New York metropolitan area...
," then taking in the sweep of land on the peninsula west of the Hudson and east of the Hackensack River
Hackensack River
The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside New York City just west of the lower Hudson River,...
extending down to the Kill Van Kull
Kill Van Kull
The Kill Van Kull is a tidal strait between Staten Island, New York and Bayonne, New Jersey in the United States. Approximately long and wide, it connects Newark Bay with Upper New York Bay. The Robbins Reef Light marks the eastern end of the Kill, Bergen Point its western end...
in Bayonne
Bayonne, New Jersey
Bayonne is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is a peninsula that is situated between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east...
. A stipulation for the settlement was that a garrison be built so that homesteaders, whose farms spread out around the village, could retreat there in the event of an attack. The charter for the village gave it a semi-autonomous government, and it became the seat of government for the region, which included all the European settlements radiating from the west bank of the North River.
In 1664, a negotiated surrender gave control of New Netherland to the English, who on September 22, 1668, recognized and confirmed original town charter. In 1674, soon after British possession of New Netherland was formalized, the village at Bergen became part of the proprietary colony
Proprietary colony
A proprietary colony was a colony in which one or more individuals, usually land owners, remaining subject to their parent state's sanctions, retained rights that are today regarded as the privilege of the state, and in all cases eventually became so....
of East Jersey
East Jersey
The Province of East Jersey and the Province of West Jersey were two distinct, separately governed parts of the Province of New Jersey that existed as separate provinces for 28 years, between 1674 and 1702. East Jersey's capital was located at Perth Amboy...
, and the "capital" of one four newly established administrative districts, Bergen County
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...
, where it remained until 1710, when the government moved to Hackensack
Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....
.
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the town's founding in 1910, the New York Times sponsored a seven week composition competition for Jersey City students to study and write about its history.
See also
- Jane TeursJane TeursJannetje Van Reypen Tuers was American Revolutionary War Patriot and had a role in confirming information about a British conspiracy with Benedict Arnold to take over West Point....
- Achter ColAchter Col, New NetherlandAchter Kol was the name given to the region around the Newark Bay and Hackensack River in northeastern New Jersey by the first European settlers to it and was part of the seventeenth century province of New Netherland, originally administered by the Dutch West India Company...
- Bergen
- Constable Hook
- Old Bergen ChurchOld Bergen ChurchThe Old Bergen Church is located in Jersey City, New Jersey and is the oldest continuous congregation in New Jersey dating back to 1660. The congregation embraces a combination of Reformed Church in America and Presbyterianism....
- PatroonPatroonIn the United States, a patroon was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America...
- Paulus Hook
- Van Wagenen HouseVan Wagenen HouseThe Van Wagenen House, also known as Apple Tree House is located near Bergen Square in Jersey City, New Jersey. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 16, 2006.-History:...
- New Netherland settlementsNew Netherland settlementsNew Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on northeastern coast of North America. The claimed territory were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to southern Cape Cod. Settled areas are now part of...
- Gravesend, BrooklynGravesend, BrooklynGravesend is a neighborhood in the south-central section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA.The derivation of the name is unclear. Some speculate that it was named after the English seaport of Gravesend, Kent. An alternative explanation suggests that it was named by Willem Kieft for the...
External links
- Stuyvesant statue controversy
- http://www.jerseycityindependent.com/2011/08/15/peter-stuyvesant-statue-heads-to-the-beacon-for-restoration-on-its-way-back-to-bergen-square