Lincoln Park (Jersey City)

Lincoln Park
West Side Park (1905–1930)
Lincoln Park Lake
Map
TypeUrban park
LocationJersey City, New Jersey
Coordinates40°43′29″N 74°04′51″W / 40.724640°N 74.080939°W / 40.724640; -74.080939
Area273.4 acres (110.6 ha)
Created1905 (1905)
Operated byHudson County, New Jersey

Lincoln Park is an urban park in Jersey City, New Jersey with an area of 273.4 acres (110.6 ha). Part of the Hudson County Park System, it opened in 1905 and was originally known as West Side Park. The park was designed by Daniel W. Langton and Charles N. Lowrie,[1][2] both founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The park consists of two distinct sections: Lincoln Park East, 150.4 acres (60.9 ha), and Lincoln Park West, 123 acres (50 ha).[3] The sections are named for their positions relative to U.S. Route 1/9 Truck, which passes between them, and are connected by foot and vehicular bridges over the highway. The Lincoln Park Nature Walk is part of wetlands restoration project adjacent to the Hackensack River. The Hackensack RiverWalk is a partially completed greenway along the banks of the river running the length of the Hudson County shoreline. The East Coast Greenway also traverses the park.[4]

  1. ^ "Lincoln Park". Jersey City: Past and Present. New Jersey City University. Archived from the original on February 4, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  2. ^ "Lincoln Park". The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved October 6, 2011. Inscription: Hudson County's great public work of the 1890s was Hudson (now Kennedy) Boulevard, a 20-mile landscaped roadway running through the county. Construction caused the demolition or relocation of many buildings and was completed in 1895. The road marked the Bergen section as the most desirable in Jersey City. Elaborate homes faced the boulevard and side streets. Beginning in 1905 Hudson County's Park Commission began to turn Glendale Woods and the surrounding area, an unsightly swamp, into the 208-acre West Side Park. Under landscape architects Charles Lowrie and Daniel Langton, terraces, ponds, athletic fields, statues, fountains, and flower gardens were built. To create a mall and view of the Orange Mountains a block of buildings were moved from Belmont Avenue. Some were placed on new foundations on Communipaw Avenue. The 1930 statue of Lincoln was sponsored by the Lincoln Association of Jersey City (1865), the oldest group of its kind in the nation. The park contains a lake, a classic fountain (restored in 2016), pavilions, and memorials to Jersey City's Union Civil War veterans and firemen. Nearby are prime residential streets of Gifford and Bentley Avenues, the 1925 Temple Beth-El and the 1909 Saint Aloysius Church, a 900 seat French Renaissance edifice. Its 150 foot bell tower has been a landmark for generations.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference HCPMP was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ New Bike Path Connects Jersey By Daniel Reyes/The Jersey Journal, 25 June 2012