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History of
Liberty State Park
The
Statue of Liberty and
Ellis
Island Photos
On the New York Harbor, less than 2,000 feet from the Statue of Liberty,
Liberty State Park has served a vital role in the development of New Jersey's
metropolitan region and the history of the nation.
 During the 19th and early 20th centuries the area that is now Liberty State
Park was a major waterfront industrial area with an extensive freight and
passenger transportation network. This network became the lifeline of New York
City and the harbor area. The heart of this transportation network was the
Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal (CRRNJ), located in the northern
portion of the park. The CRRNJ Terminal stands with the Statue of Liberty and
Ellis Island to unfold one of this nation's most dramatic stories: the
immigration of northern, southern, and eastern Europeans into the United
States. After being greeted by the Statue of Liberty and processed at Ellis
Island, these immigrants purchased tickets and boarded trains, at the CRRNJ
Terminal, that took them to their new homes throughout the United States. The
Terminal served these immigrants as the gateway to the realization of their
hopes and dreams of a new life in America.
Today, Liberty State Park continues to serve a vital role in the New York
Harbor area. As the railroads and industry declined, the land was abandoned
and became a desolate dump site. With the development of Liberty State Park
came a renaissance of the waterfront. Land with decaying buildings, overgrown
tracks and piles of debris was transformed into a modern urban state park. The
park was formerly opened on Flag Day, June 14, 1976, as New Jersey's
bicentennial gift to the nation. Most of this 1,122 acre park is open space
with approximately 300 acres developed for public recreation.
The Creation of Liberty State Park
In
1957, Morris Pesin left his Jersey City home to take his wife Ethel and children
to visit the Statue of Liberty. After spending two and a half hours in heavy
tunnel traffic and waiting on a long line for the Battery Park ferry, they
finally arrived at the Statue. Looking west, two things struck Pesin. One was
that the Statue was so much closer to Jersey City than to NYC, and the other was
that his hometown's derelict waterfront of decaying piers and junk strewn
abandoned railroad yards formed a shameful backdrop for Ms. Liberty.
Morris Pesin conceived the ideas of a family park replacing the desolate
landscape and of building a causeway from the Jersey side to Ms. Liberty. About
a year later, on June 13th, 1958, Pesin kicked off the crusade for LSP by an 8
minute canoe ride with a Jersey Journal reporter from the neglected waterfront
to Ms. Liberty. At a J.C. Council meeting a few days later and at dozens of
speeches in the coming years, he proclaimed, "We have here at our doorstep,
America's greatest shrine - the Statue of Liberty - and we have failed to
realize its potential". Morris, Ted Conrad, and other activists spent 18 years
spearheading the park's creation.
From the 1970's to the present, the public has played a
decisive role through public hearings in advocating for an open space park and
against commercialization. There were plenty of ups and downs in the struggle to
establish LSP, but the role through public hearings in advocating for an open
space park and against commercialization. There were plenty of ups and downs in
the struggle to establish LSP, but the role through public hearings in
advocating for an open space park and against commercialization. There were
plenty of ups and downs in the struggle to establish LSP, but the idea of a
beautiful urban park was too powerful and its supporters too passionate. In
1962, The Statue of Liberty Causeway and Park Association, Inc. was founded to
get government and public support. Its members included religious, civic, and
business leaders who worked hard to spread the word about the park.
In
June, 1962, an Association trustee, historian, and nationally known
architectural model builder, Theodore Conrad, took his effective model of a
tree-filled people's park on the first of his many trips with Morris to Trenton
to win park support.
By the
late 1960's, The Hudson County Citizens Committee started to play a park
advocacy role. Its leaders included Morris Pesin, Ted Conrad, city historian
Owen Grundy, and Audrey Zapp.
There were two concrete milestones in
pre-park history. One was President Johnson declaring in May, 1965 that Ellis
island was part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and his tying the
immigrant shrine's renovation into the creation of a waterfront park. The other
was the Aug. 1965 Jersey City deeding of 156 acres to the state, the first
parcel of LSP.
The
next few years saw slow progress, as state officials didn't approve sufficient
funds to acquire land from the railroads. The passage of the 1972 Green Acres
Bond Act and the strong interest of Richard Sullivan, the first commissioner of
the new NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection, brought $3 million for land
purchase.
The die was cast once and for all for what
was destined to become our nation's foremost urban state park.
The
dream came true on Flag Day, June 14, 1976. With Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts
raising 50 state flags lining the park entrance, the park opened - just in time
for America's Bicentennial Summer.
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