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Hamilton
Park is at the center of the Hamilton Park Historic District in
downtown Jersey City. Over the years it
has maintained its bordering tree-lined streets with rows of Victorian
brownstones from the post-Civil War era; Hamilton
Square Condominiums, the former Saint Francis Hospital complex, faces
the park's east side. The 5.4-acre "residential square" park
is not far from the entrance to the Holland Tunnel to the north and the
Newport Mall to the east.
The park is named after
Alexander Hamilton. He was the aide-de-camp of General George Washington
during the Revolutionary War and later the nation's first secretary of
the treasury under President Washington. Hamilton, the head of the Federalist
Party, lost his life in a duel with Aaron Burr, the first vice president
under Thomas Jefferson. The duel was fought on the Palisades at nearby
Weehawken, NJ, on July 11, 1804. It was John B. Coles, a Federalist
from New York, who initiated the plan for a public park in Jersey City
to be named for Hamilton.
A flour merchant,
Coles served in the New York senate (1799-1802) and was one of the thirty-five
investors in the Associates
of the Jersey Company. In 1804, he purchased the northern half of Harsimus
Island where he laid out the city's first blocks of what became downtown
Jersey City. Development of the
area progressed slowly, and so the park project languished. In 1827, Coles
laid out plans for a park on a map in the northern center of the Harsimus
area, but he died shortly thereafter. In the meantime, a large section
of Harsimus separated from Bergen Township and was incorporated as Van
Vorst Township in 1841. It was a year after Hudson County became separate
from Bergen County, and three years after Jersey City became an independent
municipality.
In 1848, the heirs of John Coles laid claim to the park property
for their personal use. Their interest in the property may have been from
positive indicators about the economic development in the vicinity of
the park location. The Coles family heirs held that the Township of Van
Vorst had neither the deed to the property nor verification of acceptance
of the park property from Coles. The township, advised by legal counsel to show
some possession of the property, planted four trees and built a wooden
fence around the site.
When the
Coles family heirs continued to press for control, the township's attorney
brought the case to court and secured the public testimony of two elderly
associates of John B. Coles (Grundy 35). They corroborated that back in
1804 Coles wished for the development of a park for public use.
The testimony thereby resolved the dispute, and the park was conveyed
to the township. However, by the
time of the decision, the Van Vorst Township was no longer a separate
political unit; it joined the new municipality of Jersey City in March
of 1851. The park remains not only as a memorial to Alexander
Hamilton but also as a reminder of the legacy of John B. Coles to Jersey
City.
Today the
park has a large gazebo, basketball court, children's playground, and
tennis court.
The boundaries
of the Hamilton Park Historic District are Sixth Street, Bay Street, Manila
Avenue (formerly Grove Street), and Coles Street. The
district includes McNair Academic High School and Cordero Elementary School.
Saint Francis Hospital had a presence on the park from 1864 when the Society
of the Sisters of St. Francis purchased a house on East Hamilton Square.
They laid the cornerstone for a hospital building in 1870. Preservation
of the park and its environs is the mission of the Hamilton Park Neighborhood
Association founded in 1975.
References:
"Laying of the Corner-Stone of a Roman Catholic Hospital in Jersey
City." New York Times 5 September 1870.
McLean, Alexander. The History of
Jersey City, N.J. Jersey City, NJ: F.T. Smiley and Co., 1895.
Grundy, J. Owen. The
History of Jersey City, 1609-1976. Jersey City, NJ: Progress Printing
Co., Inc. 1976.
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