Edited by June Avignone
It was a corporate experiment, an experiment that would later be known as Paterson, New Jersey.
Published by Arcadia Publishers, the new book Downtown Paterson takes us on a journey from the beginnings of the proverbial Silk City through its radical labor past and days of pre-mall grandeur with a thriving Main Street with elegant stores, vaudeville houses, and movie theaters. Downtown Paterson ends with a probing look at the city's present day people and places.
Home of the Great Falls, Paterson has the distinction of being the first planned industrial center of the United States. The land of the Lenape and a few Dutch settlers would be forever changed when politicians and wealthy investors founded Paterson as a corporation, as opposed to chartering it as a city, in 1792.
At a crucial turning point in our young, agrarian-based nation, the struggles and triumphs of individuals from diverse ethnic groups would be set into historic motion.
Share in a sampling of the abundant photographs and revealing text of Downtown Paterson. The story of the Silk City is filled with a particular brand of pathos worthy of our further examination if we are to consider the current struggles and quality-of-life realities of Paterson and many other cities in America.
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Click on book to buy "Downtown Paterson."
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Photo by Tom Ufer, Saint Michael's R.C. Church, Cianci Street
© 1999 June
Avignone
Last modified December 12, 1999
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