The Heights, Jersey City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jersey City neighborhoods |
| Downtown |
| -Newport |
| -Exchange Place |
| -Paulus Hook |
| -WALDO |
| The Heights |
| -Croxton |
| -Western Slope |
| Journal Square |
| -Marion |
| -India Square |
| -Five Corners |
| West Side |
| -Lincoln Park/West Bergen |
| Greenville |
| -Port Liberté |
| Bergen/Lafayette |
The Heights or Jersey City Heights is a neighborhood atop the New Jersey Palisades overlooking Hoboken to the east and the Meadowlands to the west. Central Avenue is its primary commercial strip, with residential districts flanking the street on both sides. The Heights, though part of Jersey City, is often viewed as a separate city by residents in other neighborhoods.
The area comprising the Heights was once an independent municipality, known as Hudson City. It was incorporated as a town in 1852, and later into a city in 1855. The Town Hall, erected on Oakland Avenue, still stands today. Hudson City, along with the Town of Bergen and the Township of Greenville, merged with Jersey City in 1873.
The Heights area is comprised mostly of two- and three-family houses, and remains traditionally middle-class. Six blocks to the east, and parallel to Central Avenue, are Palisade and Ogden Avenues, both of which offer breathtaking views of the Manhattan skyline. Many stately Victorian and Edwardian homes contribute to the attractiveness of the Heights, particularly along Summit Avenue and Sherman Place. The Palisade, a condominium on Palisade Avenue at Fleet Street, is one of the few Art Deco buildings in the city. Pershing Field is a park in the center of this district, offering green space, baseball fields, a swimming pool and ice skating rink. Two lakes (former reservoirs) lie within the park; one may be redeveloped as a ball field or housing. Parts of this neighborhood are experiencing gentrification, largely due to the relative affordability of housing and the variety of transportation options, including the recently installed "light rail elevator" at Congress Street that connects to the 9th Street-Congress Street station of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. The Western Slope area of the Heights is on the side that faces away from Manhattan and overlooks the marshes of the Meadowlands.
