Called "one of the most formal of Jersey City's parks," Van Vorst Park is located in the Van Vorst Historic District. It is at the southern part of the area historically known as Harsimus and the former Township of Van Vorst.  Originally landscaped by horticulturist Peter Henderson in 1851, it has been described as an example of a town square similar to Washington Square Park in lower New York City.

Van Vorst Park is surrounded on four sides by brownstone homes along Montgomery Street, York Street, Jersey Avenue, and Barrow Street.  It was renovated for $2 million in 1999 through the efforts of the Friends of the Van Vorst Park Association (FVVP) and the brownstone revival movement in Jersey City.  The park includes a wooden gazebo, viewing fountain, and playground; plantings and trees provide a small verdant oasis along the walking paths. According to Clifford S. Waldman of the FVVP, the association renovated the park according to the intended goals of its benefactor Cornelius Van Vorst: "Van Vorst wanted a passive, Victorian park at the center of a rapidly growing neighborhood that would honor the centuries the Van Vorst family owned and developed this area, and perhaps he also wanted to honor the soon to be vanished open land itself" ("Friends of the Van Vorst Park: A History" web site).

The first Cornelius Van Vorst was the founder of the area of Harsimus during Dutch colonization of the area in the 1630s and had large land holdings in Harsimus between Paulus Hook and Bergen Hill. In 1835, Cornelius Van Vorst, a descendant of the Van Vorst family, donated 1.8 acres of his property for "Van Vorst Square" for public use.  His estate on Henderson and Fourth streets was not far from the park and the historic district that now bear the family name. Development of the park did not materialize, however, as the founding of a reserved open space in the then rural-like Bergen Township was hardly unique.

After Hudson County separated from Bergen County in 1840, support grew for the low-lying Harsimus area along the Hudson River to separate from the larger municipality of Bergen Township. Just as Jersey City (east of Warren Street) had become independent in 1838, events soon led to the creation of Van Vorst Township by the New Jersey legislature on March 11, 1841. The township committee, first headed by Cornelius Van Vorst, met at the Weaver's Arms, a saloon run by William Hough on the south side of Newark Avenue near Jersey Avenue.

At the time, Van Vorst Township had only 1,057 residents living on mostly farmland, but changes due to urbanization were advancing. The first street laid in the township was placed at the corner of Grove Street and Railroad Avenue in 1845 at the cost of $12. Grove Street was paved from Newark to Pavonia avenues. The following year, the First Reformed Church, now the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, on Wayne Street was begun. A firehouse was built on Bay Street off Newark Avenue in 1847; later a room at the firehouse served as Town Hall (Grundy 35-36). The transportation services of the Morris Canal and the New Jersey Railroad at the waterfront supported the growth of industrial plants such as the Dixon Crucible Company and Colgate Company nearby.

In 1848, Cornelius Van Vorst expressed concern about the potential of commercial development around the park and opened a dispute with the township over the measurements of the park site. Van Vorst negotiated with the township commission, of which he was a member, that he would pay $1500 for grading the hilly ground on the property if the township would plant trees and construct a fence around the site.  The agreement was formalized in a contract on February 7, 1851.  A month later, Van Vorst Township was no longer a separate political unit; it joined the new municipality of Jersey City to take advantage of its "public improvements" for fire houses, schools, and fiscal progress (Grundy 36). Van Vorst Township had grown to a population of 4,725 from its founding ten years earlier.

Peter Henderson (1822-1890) was the landscaper for Van Vorst Park. He emigrated from Scotland in 1843 and is noted for beginning market gardening in the United States.  Also a florist and author, Henderson owned the Henderson Seed Co., located at 35-37 Cortlandt Street, New York City, but had greenhouses in Jersey City where he lived.

According to Patrick Shalhoub in Images of America: Jersey City, "The landscaping of the park benefited the nearby property owners as comfortable brick rowhouses and brownstone residences were soon constructed on the streets surrounding the square.  Originally designed as single-family middle-class dwellings, the three and four-story rowhouses were gradually subdivided into smaller apartments" (63).

Many of the familiar surviving brownstone and town houses which surround the park and line the nearby streets were constructed from the Civil War period to the 1890s.  The brownstone houses on Montgomery Street facing the park are in the Italianate style with bracketed cornices, stoop balustrades of cast iron or stone, and double door entrances with transoms. Many of the homes were renovated with the gentrification of the neighborhood in the 1990s.

The Van Vorst Park Historic District includes significant sites such as the Jersey City Free Public Library, Dixon Crucible Company, City Hall, and the Barrow Mansion. The historic district is bound by Christopher Columbus Drive (formerly Railroad Avenue), Grand Street, Marin Boulevard (formerly Henderson Street), and Brunswick Street.

References:

Egan. Colin. "Van Vorst Park in Jersey." Yesterday Today in New Jersey. nd:19-22.
Githens, Herbert J. Houses in Time: A Walking Tour of Architectural Styles; The Van Vorst Park Historic District, Jersey City, New Jersey. ND, np.
Grundy, J. Owen. The History of Jersey City, 1609-1976. Jersey City, NJ: Progress Printing Co., Inc. 1976.
McLean, Alexander. The History of Jersey City, N.J. Jersey City, NJ: F.T. Smiley and Co., 1895.
Shalhoub, Patrick B. Images of America: Jersey City. Dover, NH: Arcadia Publishing, 1995.
"Van Vorst Square." Daily Telegraph 6 February 1851.
Waldman, Charles S. "Friends of the Van Vorst Park: A History" http://www.fvvp.org/history.html