USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume II > Part 3
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HISTORY OF NEWARK
But even before the Clinton street quarters were leased, the Council was looking about for a permanent home for the infant city government. A committee was appointed on April 18, 1836, to see if "the property known as the museum on Market street can be purchased, and to report whether it is expedient to purchase the same for the use of the city."
On April 23 it was decided to buy the museum property, for $5,000. It was the old Market House property, on the south side of Market street a little east of the present Nutria street. A council chamber was fitted up in it and the first meeting held in it on April 7, 1837. This was the home of the city government until February 10, 1838, when the building was destroyed by fire, an account of it being given in the Daily Advertiser, on February 12, in part as follows :
"On Saturday afternoon the public building occupied by the city council, in Market street, (formerly known as the museum), was destroyed by fire, which appeared to break out in the third story, occupied by Mr. Joseph Burr as a paint shop. The wind was high, and the fire department were so nearly paralyzed BY WANT OF WATER that a great portion of the city appeared to be in immi- nent danger. Fortunately the course of the fire was confined to that and one other building on the opposite side of the street- Mr. William Johnson's currying shop, corner of Market street and Cammack's alley, having taken fire from the cinders, was nearly destroyed. 5
"The City building, a plain three-story edifice, was insured by the Council ** *
* for $2,000, which will probably cover the loss. The Common Council room was also used by the Central Presbyterian church, Rev. Mr. Hoover, and the basement story for various city purposes. All the moveables were saved, except in Mr. Burr's shop, who loses about $150. The basement story was chiefly occupied by the Fire Department, and was known as 'Fire- men's Hall.' "
There were two fire companies stationed in the building, Hose Company No. 1, and Engine Company No. 5.
CITY HALL AND COURT HOUSE.
The Common Council held a special meeting in David D. Chand- ler's hotel, on the west side of Broad street about opposite Mechanic
'Cammack's Alley was the present Library Court.
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street, but its next regular meeting was held in the unfinished Council Chamber in the Essex County Court House and City Hall, on February 16, 1838, which brings us to Newark's third City Hall. The city fathers began negotiations while occupying its first quar- ters in Clinton street, with the Essex County Freeholders, with a view to erecting a building that could be used by both governments. The freeholders made the first approach in this matter, on May 12, 1836. On July 5 of the same year it was formally decided to unite with the county authorities in the building venture. It was agreed that, in the language of the joint committee of aldermen and free- holders, that the site, at Springfield avenue and Market street, should be "conveyed to the City of Newark, and the County of Essex would receive from the city a title for such part as they might occupy or have occasion for, either by lease renewable forever, or by deed, upon condition in either mode of conveyance, that in case the County of Essex should change the place of holding the courts of the County of Essex, out of the city of Newark, then the Lot should revert to the City, and all the interest of the County in and to the same; excepting their portion of the building thus erected thereon, which the City of Newark shall be obliged to take at an appraisal of its then value, to be made by persons mutually chosen and agreed upon between the parties, or by commissioners to be appointed by the Chancellor of the State."
Beside the Court House and City Hall, it was at the same time decided to provide a prison and workhouse, the present County Jail, was to be erected, the city to have the use of such part of it as was needed. "On Wednesday last," said the Daily Advertiser, on July 11, 1836, "the committee reported to the Common Council that an offer had been accepted from Mr. John Haviland, the architect, to erect the City Hall and Court House for the sum of $71,000. The proportion to be paid by the city, upon the principles of union here- tofore reported, is $29,000. The estimates and offer of the architect for erecting the City and County prison, amounts to $30,000. One- fifth of this building it is proposed to appropriate to the use of the city upon the payment of $6,000. It being understood that the city
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is at liberty to dissolve this connection at pleasure, and to have the amount repaid if she shall elect so to do."
The corner stone of the new City Hall and Court House was laid on August 24, 1836, an account of the ceremonies, given in the Daily Advertiser, being in part as follows:
"The ceremonies of laying the corner stone of this edifice took place yesterday. The Municipal authorities of the City, and Chosen Freeholders of the County, with the Chief Justice and other judicial officers of the State and County, the Chief Architect (Mr. Haviland), and his corps of laborers, &c., &c., formed a procession at the Com- mon Council chamber at 3 o'clock, and proceeded to the site under the direction of Sheriff Robinson.
"After the Sheriff reached the place, the title of the ground was presented to his Honor the Mayor of the City, Wm. H. Halsey, Esq., by the donors, and by him transferred to the Freeholders of the County. Statements were then made by Mr. J. W. Condit and Dr. Wm. Pierson, of the proceedings of the County and City in rela- tion to the joint erection of the building-with an exhibition of the plans, and the contract made with the architect. Previous to the laying of the corner stone, the Hon. Stephen D. Day, director of the Board of Freeholders, made an address. * Mr. Halsey [the Mayor] then proceeded with some highly interesting reminiscences
of the history of the Court House of Essex. *
* After also briefly recapitulating the terms of union between City and County, the speaker remarked: 'that by this union the interest of the county has become more particularly identified with the interest of the City. A natural union, like that of a parent with a child, united to build in connection, a dwelling for the mutual accommodation- an union, the effect of which will be economy, a saving to both parties-an union, the effect of which will be a magnificent building, creditable to the State, the County, and the City-central in its situation, convenient in its construction, and of materials durable as time.' * "
It took sixteen months to complete the building, and it was formally dedicated on January 2, 1838. The city government was administered from this building for ten years, when it was found the county would need all the space it afforded. On September 1, 1848, Common Council took possession of quarters on the third floor of Library Hall in Market street, north side, east of Halsey street, at an annual rental of $100. These quarters were far from satisfactory. In 1852 an arrangement was made with the Morris
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Canal and Banking Company for the use of the space over the canal from Broad to Mulberry street, with a view to increasing the space for the Centre Market and in order to erect a market building. This structure, the present (1913) building, (with the exception of a massive brick tower which was removed in the early sixties), was erected in 1853 and the first months of 1854. In the tower was fixed the first fire alarm bell. When the tower was declared unsafe in the sixties, the bell was removed to a frame tower erected between Market, Arlington (then Catherine), Augusta and Nicholson streets. About ten years later the bell was taken down and removed to a new iron tower on Halsey street a little south of the canal. The iron tower was taken down in 1897, the electric fire alarm signal service having made the use of the bell unnecessary. At times, early in the last quarter of the last century, alarms were also rung from "strikers;" at the Haymarket, in Summer avenue; from the Second Presbyterian Church tower; from T. P. Howell's leather factory near the County Jail, and from other spots about the city.
CITY OFFICES IN CENTRE MARKET.
The second floor of the new market building was given up to the City Council, committee rooms, etc., with the police station and the city prison at the east end of the building. The first meeting of the Council in these new quarters was held on the evening of May 31, 1854. "The new Common Council Chamber," says a newspaper account of the time, "was brilliantly lighted by gas from two large chandeliers, and brackets at the sides of the room, the furniture, upholstery and general appointments of which presented an attractive and graceful appearance. The seats were filled with persons of both sexes, and within the bar were seated the members of Common Council, and other city officers, and invited guests, including the Common Council of Jersey City. * * The building is now completed except the Tower, and when that is finished, a bell weighing 6,000 pounds :1: * will be placed in it, and watchmen stationed in it to strike the alarm in case of fire. When the avenues of approach to it are completed, it is confidently
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WHEN CENTRE MARKET HAD A TOWER
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believed that Newark will possess one of the most airy, accessible and convenient markets in the country. The eastern end of it is also well adapted for the Watch Department."
After the dedication ceremonies the city officials and invited guests attended a dinner in Military Hall, on the north side of Mulberry street, a little distance west of Beaver street. The Centre Market building cost $58,766.95. Extra strips of ground had to be purchased, in addition to the surface over the canal, at a cost of $33,788.58, bringing the total cost to a little less than $90,000.
Agitation for a market building adequate to the needs of the community began as early as 1833. Complaints were constantly made in the newspapers of the din of the cart-hawkers, and of the swarms of flies about butchers' wagons that were likely to breed pestilence. In those days market folk had booths at the apex of Military Park on Saturday afternoons and evenings and long lines of market wagons would range along the park edges in the street. All traces of this custom did not vanish until toward the last decade of the last century.
CITY HALL AT BROAD AND WILLIAM STREETS.
By the opening of the Civil War it was felt that the city stood in sore need of a building devoted entirely to the purposes of city government. In the early summer of 1863, the Common Council adopted this resolution, which was vetoed by Mayor Bigelow, but passed over his veto: "Resolved, That the McGregor House property on the corner of William and Broad streets be purchased for public offices, at the price of $400 per foot on Broad street, and one hundred feet in depth, and $100 per foot on William street for the balance of said property, and the lot on Market street lately bought by the city to be taken in part payment at the price paid by the city." The amount paid by the city for this property was $31,000.
The MacGregor house was the City Hotel. It stood on the site of the old Eagle Tavern. The City Hotel building was erected in 1835 and '36 by a company incorporated under the name of "The President, Directors and Company of the Mechanics Hall Associa- tion of Newark." It was to have a capital of $75,000, in shares of
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BROAD STREET, LOOKING NORTH FROM MARKET, 1854
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BROAD STREET, LOOKING SOUTH FROM MARKET, 1854
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OLD ESSEX COUNTY COURT HOUSE When it was also Newark's City Hall
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$100 each. The venture was not successful, and it became a hotel, part of it being used as a tenement for a time. It was a favorite place for fairs and balls. The New Jersey Battalion was entertained there when it marched through Newark on its way to New York to take transport for the Mexican War. Louis Kossuth delivered an address from its balcony in 1852, as more fully described in one of the chapters upon the Germans in Newark. The next year Presi- dent of the United States Franklin Pierce delivered a speech from its front steps, while on his way to open the World's Fair in New York. For many years it was known as Stuart's Hotel.
The alterations made by the city in 1863 and '64, together with the erection of a police station and prison at the western end of the property, cost a little over $58,000, making the total cost, with land and original building, $89,048.10. The new City Hall and council chamber were opened on the evening of September 21, 1864. The building was altered and improved in 1889, the balcony across the front on the third story being converted into additional room, and a fourth story added. It was used in that form until the present edifice, (Newark's seventh City Hall, if the several different quarters be included), was ready for occupancy, on December 20, 1906.
PRESENT CITY HALL OPENED, 1906.
The present City Hall cost: $595,416.17 ; building, $1,501,739.94; total, $2,097,156.11. The work was carried out by a City Hall Com- mission, which began its work in September, 1899. The following city properties were transferred to the commission by the Common Council, and sold for $1,126,193.50:
Old Burying Ground, Halsey and Broad streets; a parcel on Grove street; old City Hall and police station; southeast corner of Market and Halsey streets; old Armory and Second Precinct Police Station, Orange and Plane streets and Lackawanna avenue; Poor House Farm, Belleville; old Water Board property, 128 and 130 Halsey street; Newsboys' Lodging House, 144 Market street; Fire Department Headquarters, Academy and Halsey streets.
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The edifice was begun in the last term of Mayor James M. Sey- mour, and finished in the second and last term of Mayor Henry M. Doremus. The commission was originally composed of Judge Andrew Kirkpatrick, Gottfried Krueger and James E. Howell. Upon the death of Judge Kirkpatrick, he was succeeded by Thomas Cressey. The architects were John H. and Wilson C. Ely, with Mowbray & Uffinger of New York as associates. James M. Sey- mour, Jr., was consulting engineer, and the contract for general construction was awarded to E. M. Waldron & Co. James T. Neary was the commission's first clerk, and he was succeeded by Clarence E. Tobin. At the opening exercises, on December 20, 1906, addresses were made by Chairman James E. Howell of the commission, by Mayor Doremus, by the Mayor-elect, Jacob Haussling, and by William Pennington, chairman of the Common Council public build- ings committee.
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FROM "NIGHT WATCH" TO POLICE DEPARTMENT.
It was more than twenty years after the establishment of the city government that the police department of to-day was organized. During all that period the city got along as best it could with a crude and inadequate "watch system." In 1834 the township appropriated $1,000 to defray the cost of the Night Watch for the following year. The constables looked after the town's decorum during the day, besides discharging their duties as court officers. The first Night Watch under city government was provided for in an ordinance passed May 24, 1836, which provided that the watchmen should light and extinguish the street lamps as well as patrol their districts, which were known as "Watch and Lamp" districts. The duties of the Watch, as set forth in this ordinance, were: "Faithfully to patrol the streets in said districts, and watch said City ; and apprehend and detain until daylight all offenders against the peace, and all suspicious persons whom they might find walking or lurking about the streets and alleys at late or unreasonable hours of the night; * * [and creators] of any riots, rants, unlaw- ful assemblies, outcries, noises, or other alarm or disturbances
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whatsoever, * * and in the morning bring such offenders before any Justice of the Peace resident in said city, in order that they might be dealt with according to law."
Each Watch district had its captain, who assigned to his men their stations and rounds, the captains being required to visit each fixed station at least once a night. Twenty-four watchmen were at first provided, exclusive of the Watch captains. This was alter- nately reduced and restored for a long period of years. In 1838 it was actually proposed in Common Council to do away with the Lamp and Watch service for a time, but this idea did not prevail. By 1840 is was found necessary to authorize the Captain of the Watch to employ extra constables to meet any emergency, and ten special constables were sworn in for such duty. In 1841-'42, the Lamp and Watch department expenses reached $3,200 a year. Each constable or watchman had to give bonds in $3,000. This was a little later reduced to $2,250, then to $2,000, and in 1844 to $1,500.
In 1844 provision was made for a city marshal, at a salary of $50 a year. He and the constables were to be the "ministerial offi- cers of the special police courts of the city." David Ball was elected city marshal, but declined to serve. Joshua Fitzgerald was the first to serve in this office. Police protection was thus in the hands of the Watch, the constables and the marshal. In 1850 the marshal's salary was raised to $150. The watchmen were also given a little more money, and were paid $1 a night from April to October, and $1.25 for the remainder of the civic year. In 1851 the old watch house quarters in Centre Market were declared to be inadequate, and the city leased the first floor and front half of the basement of a house at 82 Market street for watch purposes. A year later seven additional marshals were appointed, one for each ward, selected from the constables, who did duty on Sundays from April until November. They were assigned to day duty by the city marshal, and went off duty when the Night Watch took up its tour.
In that year a monthly report of arrests from the city marshal (who was a sort of chief of police) was first required by the police committee of Common Council. The men were that year provided
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OLD CITY HALL Just before it was demolished
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MARKET STREET, LOOKING WEST FROM BROAD, 1854
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MARKET STREET, LOOKING EAST FROM BROAD, 1854
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with star shields, purchased for $1, at their own expense. Big leather helmets, like the old-time firemen's hats, were worn by the Watch at that time, which gave the men the unpleasant nickname of "leatherheads." In the summer of 1854 the watchmen protested against wearing them in the hot weather. It was then decided to dispense with them, taking up with leather caps. They were also then given star shields with the words "City Watch" engraved on the face. The Watch had been permitted to carry clubs as early as 1846. In 1855 the first uniforms for the guardians of the public peace were provided for.
The developments of this important part of city government are given considerable space here, partly because, when presented in chronological order they serve to acquaint the reader with the general growth of the city. In 1857 Mayor Moses Bigelow clearly saw that the system for police surveillance was being rapidly out- grown. In his annual message he wrote this illuminating paragraph: -
MAYOR BIGELOW SPEAKS OUT.
"The present organization of the police [evidently the con- stables and marshals], and of the Watch department, I think very defective. The peace and tranquility of the city and the security and protection of the property of citizens require an active and energetic performance of the duties of each department. The service rendered under the present organization is altogether inadequate to the expense incurred. I would recommend that it be made a subject of your inquiry whether it would not be more economical and whether the energy and efficiency of each would not be pro- moted by reorganizing the police and watch departments and putting them under one head." While both departments were directed and controlled by the Mayor and the Common Council, each had its Council committee.
The Mayor's searching criticism was the direct cause for the establishment of the Newark Police Department. The committees on Watch and Police evolved a new plan and the department was in operation in April, 1857. It was, as described by Mayor Bigelow
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in his annual message, January 5, 1858, under one head, the chief of police, with subordinate officers. The chief's salary was $900. The one and only captain received $700, the two lieutenants $600 each and the doorman $1 a day. Policemen were given $500 a year. There were twelve policemen for day duty, in two detachments, six hours each; twenty-six policemen for night duty, from April to October, from 8 p. m. to 4 a. m. There were fifty-two policemen for night duty, from October to April, in two detachments, from 7 p. m. until 1 a. m., and from 1 a. m. to 6 a. m. The total annual cost was figured at $25,500. The Mayor was made the head of the police department. A Board of Police Commissioners was established on March 1, 1870. This lasted for only a year, the control being returned to the Mayor and Common Council, who relinquished it on February 4, 1886, when the present commission was formed. The first commission, under the 1886 establishment, was as follows: President, William A. Ripley, three years; Henry Dilly, one year; Charles Marsh, two years; Edward E. Starrs, four years. (See Appendix F for list of Chiefs of Police.)
As the city grew, vice and crime increased, as is unfortunately always the case. In the late sixties the city fathers were much concerned over the large number of juveniles showing tendencies toward crime. In 1870 "The Reform School of the City of Newark" was established. The name was changed in 1874 to the "Newark City Home."
THE BOARD OF HEALTH.
For many years after the adoption of the city charter, the Mayor and Common Council constituted the Board of Health, with a committee of aldermen, called the Committee on Public Health, as executive. In the seventies this committee had charge of the Dispensary, in Centre Market building; one district physician, the Almshouse physician and the office of the health inspector. As late as 1885 the health inspector's "office" was a desk in the corridor of the second floor of the Market building. In 1879 there were eight district physicians. In that year the five volunteer physicians connected with the Dispensary wrote no less than 35,562 prescrip-
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tions, which shows that the poor were a large factor in the city, then with a population of about 125,000. The Board of Health was organized in 1884. Dr. William Titus was the first health inspector, serving about six months, when he was succeeded by Dr. David L. Wallace. About five years later Dr. Titus returned for another brief term of less than a year, whereupon Dr. Wallace was returned to the office and served until 1892, when he was succeeded by Dr. Charles F. Lehlbach. Three years later Dr. Lehlbach was succeeded by David D. Chandler, the present (1913) incumbent, and who has been connected with the department since its organization.
The first Board of Health was composed of the following: Dr. H. C. H. Herold, president (as he is at present, 1913) ; Mayor Joseph E. Haynes; Dr. Frederick B. Mandeville, health physician; Alder- men Richard Deiffenbach, Martin B. Provost and C. Edgar Sutphen ; Dr. Charles M. Zeh, Hon. William A. Righter and Samuel S. Sargent ; John H. Fairchild, superintendent of sanitary force; David D. Chandler, clerk to health inspector; C. Phillips Bassett, consulting engineer. There were eight sanitary inspectors, two meat inspec- tors, one milk inspector, a city apothecary, J. Frank Cramer, and eight district physicians, as follows: First District, Dr. W. R. Bruyere ; Second, Dr. C. A. Dougherty ; Third, Dr. E. P. Iliff ; Fourth. Dr. J. R. McDermott; Fifth, Dr. Henry A. Kornemann; Sixth, Dr. J. C. Duffy; Seventh, Dr. Vincent Nager; Eighth, Dr. Edward Everitt.
EARLY COMPLAINTS OF RIVER POLLUTION.
In the health inspector's first annual report we find evidence that the pollution of the Passaic was in that year, 1885, becoming a menace, in the following paragraph: "Our general water supply is taken from the Passaic river above Belleville. * Thus * we are obliged to accept the fact that two-thirds of the pollution is due to the sewage of Newark and points below the intake, while one-third is due to the sewage of Paterson and points above the intake. At times the water is discolored, and as regards taste it is changeable, at times no taste being perceptible, while at others we will get a woody, then a vegetable, and then an earthy taste. Taking
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