Preservation
My Fordham Conversation: Part 1
Recently, Robin Shannon invited me to join her on Fordham Conversations, a weekly program on WFUV (90.7 FM). We chatted about Jersey City, artists, regional history, gentrification, and my book, Left Bank of the Hudson.
A Few Days in Savannah
Knowing our shared passion for “old things,” trusted friends long have suggested that my wife and I visit Savannah, Georgia. During this past Thanksgiving weekend, we finally followed their advice. We were not disappointed. Instead of flying, we traveled to the Hostess City of the South on the Amtrak Silver Meteor line. The train ride…
Bromo Seltzer & Baltimore
Earlier this month, I visited an old friend in Baltimore ostensibly to lend him a hand with his cozy 1850s rowhouse. In between projects, he introduced me to a few (of the many) high points of Charm City. Knowing our shared passion for architectural, industrial, and local history, my friend prominently included a tour of…
Faded Grandeur Down the Shore
To celebrate our wedding anniversary earlier this month, my wife and I enjoyed a short stay at Asbury Park, New Jersey. The weekend was wet and dreary. Perfect beach weather for us. Seriously.
Spotted in Jersey City: Evidence of 111 1st Street
While waiting for the light rail at Exchange Place in Jersey City earlier this month, I looked down at the platform decorated with a map commissioned by New Jersey Transit. Notable historic dates and places in Jersey City and Hudson County dotted the public art piece. Suddenly, I saw a very familiar name: Lorillard Tobacco…
A Night at a Movie Palace: Loew’s Jersey Theatre
Last weekend, my wife and I enjoyed the 1954 classic On the Waterfront in 35 mm film on the big screen. (The movie was shot in Hoboken, New Jersey.) While the film was riveting, the true attraction was the movie theater itself. The Loew’s Jersey Theatre stands across the street from the Journal Square PATH…
Snapshot: Durham’s Tobacco Warehouses
Last month, Regulator Bookshop invited me to Durham, North Carolina to present my new (and first) book, Left Bank of the Hudson: Jersey City and the Artists of 111 1st Street, to readers in the Research Triangle. Before my reading, I walked through downtown Durham and its warehouse district to get a feel for the…
Lyndhurst: An American Masterpiece
For our tenth anniversary, my wife and I spent the day in the country, or what city dwellers would have considered to be the country near the turn of the last century (i.e. the Progressive Era). We planned a day trip to the Hudson River to visit Lyndhurst, a Gothic Revival masterpiece. A quaint and…
A Sense of Rootedness: Reflections on History and Preservation
In his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si, Pope Francis commented upon the “need to protect those common areas, visual landmarks, and urban landscapes which increase our sense of belonging, of rootedness, of “feeling at home” within a city.” By preserving such spaces and visiting them, we as individuals and as a people might feel a connection…
Ruins Among Us: (Post) Industrial Space
A few weeks ago, my friend and I spent a Sunday morning documenting a gargantuan industrial property situated on the borderlands between Essex and Hudson Counties, New Jersey. We snapped hundreds of photographs, jotted down notes, and exchanged innumerable observations. Recently, we transformed our creative material into an article submitted to a very niche and…