Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards

General Category => Events & Calendar => Topic started by: Editor on May 02, 2011, 02:58:27 PM

Title: Historic Walking Tour (June 4)
Post by: Editor on May 02, 2011, 02:58:27 PM
Hackensack to hold Historical Walking Tour
 
Are you a long-time Hackensack resident with many fond memories of downtown and would like re-live some of those memories? Do you recall the Oritani, and the Fox movie theaters, or even remember which side of Main Street each could be found? Perhaps you always wondered about the age of that building you walk past daily on your way to grab a coffee.If this sounds like you then please join us for the Historical Hackensack Walking Tour.

The tour will kick-off at 1:30 PM on Saturday June 4, 2011 (rain date Sunday June 5 @ 1:30 PM) at the Courthouse Green in Hackensack, and will work its way up to the YMCA then cross the street, and end up back at the Green. The tour will be lead by Diane Some, a Hackensack business owner, who grew up in Hackensack, and has many fond memories to share along the way.

Additionally, we will discover, or even rediscover historical buildings, architecturally significant buildings, and sights where history took place right here in Hackensack.

So be sure to join us for this exciting opportunity to learn more about Hackensack's vibrant past. Please RSVP to adib@hackensack.org.
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Main Street: Virtual Historic Walking Tour (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=106029982724910345331.00048e06794387f8e6371&t=h&z=14)
Printable Version of Historic Walking Tour (http://www.hackensack.org/filestorage/64/Historic_Walking_Tour.pdf)
(Please print and bring a copy to the Tour)
Title: Re: Historic Walking Tour (June 4)
Post by: Editor on June 10, 2011, 02:52:55 PM
Walking tour highlights city’s history
Friday, June 10, 2011
BY MARK J. BONAMO
MANAGING EDITOR
Hackensack Chronicle

A casual observer of Hackensack's historic green can easily spot the Bergen County Courthouse facing it. But directly opposite the courthouse, in what is now home to a bail bondsman agency, was once the base of General George Washington, father of our country.

(http://media.northjersey.com/images/300*231/MC_Walktour1_061011_hk_tif_.jpg)
The Downtown Main Street Walking Tour looks at historic sites in Hackensack. The tour began at the Hackensack Green. Jeffrey Muller, of Grass Roots Tour Organization, introduces the program to walkers. 

(http://media.northjersey.com/images/300*231/MC_Walktour2_061011_hk_tif_.jpg)
Walkers gather near the flagpole.Walkers head to 'Washington Place.'
JOE CAMPOREALE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Washington used the home of Peter Zabriskie, which used to occupy the site, as his headquarters for several days in November 1776 as he tried to regroup the Continental Army early in the Revolutionary War. On June 4, a historic walking tour of downtown Hackensack reminded participants of its past, while pointing the way to its future as Main Street tries to redevelop.

More than 40 participants gathered at the green on a sunny Saturday afternoon before they walked down Main Street to see Hackensack's main drag with new eyes. Jeffrey Muller, a Hackensack resident who was a co-organizer of the event, explained why he worked to develop both self-guided and walking tours for Bergen County's capital.

"I love history and architecture, so that's why I volunteered to help out," said Muller, who has lived in Hackensack for four years. "People are busy in their everyday lives, and I'm not sure that people appreciate the history we have here."

Ed Moderacki of the Pascack Historical Society of Park Ridge also participated in the event. Dressed for the event in colonial knee breeches and a tricorn hart, Moderacki started off the tour with a discussion of Washington's brief stay in Hackensack, as well as Bergen County's role in the Revolutionary War.

"What happened in part here in Hackensack laid the basis for our contemporary world," said Moderacki. "What the people who stayed here and struggled here eventually did was to help write the U.S. Constitution, which governs our political system today."

Lifetime Hackensack resident Diane Some remembered bygone stores on Main Street, including Arnold Constable and DiSalvo's Fish Market, from the 1940s and 1950s.

"It was a city of wonderful specialty stores where we lived and shopped as a community," said Some, who also remembers the now-shuttered Oritani and Fox Theaters as popular Main Street destinations. "My favorite memories are of shopping up and down Main Street."

Keri Adams and Stefan Hayden of Maywood are relative newcomers to Hackensack, but are no strangers to city walking tours. Having gone on walking tours of Barcelona, Paris and San Francisco, they wanted to do the same thing in Hackensack to get the same sense of place.

"You really get to see a city this way," said Adams, who works as a librarian in Johnson Public Library. "The anecdotes are really interesting."

"It's better than reading a book sometimes," said Hayden. "Some books can be a bit dry, while listening to someone on a tour can show you why a place is interesting in a more personal way."

Albert Dib, the city historian and the executive director of the Upper Main Alliance, the organization in charge of the special improvement district, added that while the city hopes to celebrate its past, it also wants to build on its history as it redevelops Main Street in the future.

"It's important for people to reconnect with Main Street," said Dib. "Main Street is going through a transition period right now, and we have an ambitious rehabilitation plan that we're working on. On walking tours like this, you have a like-minded community of people who are reliving Main Street experiences that they've had. We are striving to recreate that sense of community and place as we go forward."

Email: bonamo@northjersey.com

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Older story:

Hackensack walking tour to get underway
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
BY MONSY ALVARADO
STAFF WRITER
The Record
HACKENSACK — People throughout Bergen County are invited to a free walking tour of the city's downtown, once a bustling business district with popular retail stores and movie theaters.

"I remember it when it was the shopping mecca of Bergen County," said Diane Some, a lifelong resident and Main Street business owner who will lead the tour. "People would come from anywhere to come to Hackensack to go shopping. This was the place to be."

The Upper Main Street Alliance, the group in charge of the special improvement district, is organizing the tour, which will be held on Saturday.

Some, who is still gathering information for the tour, said walkers will learn historical facts about the old theaters and some of the most significant buildings.

Albert Dib, the city historian and executive director of the alliance, said about 20 people have already signed up. The idea for the tour, he said, came from a man who sent him an e-mail.

"I know it's something lots of towns have done, and then I started to look into it," he said.

More than 40 buildings are included in a self-guided tour that Dib recently developed for people who are interested in doing a walk themselves. He said many of the buildings included in the self-guided tour will be discussed at the weekend event.

"Some are more historic than others, and some are more preserved than others," he said. "I think it's also going to be about memory, and what people remember about the street, not just about architecture and buildings."

Among the buildings that will be discussed are the Bergen County Courthouse and the Fox Theater, an Art Deco-style building, which was demolished in 1998. The street also was home to the Oritani Theatre, which opened in 1926 and closed in the early '80s.

The tour will kick off at 1:30, with a rain date of Sunday at same time. Participants will gather at the Courthouse Green in Hackensack, and will work their way up to the YMCA and then cross the street, and end up back at the Green. Anyone interested in participating can RSVP to Dib at adib@hackensack.org.

E-mail: alvarado@northjersey.com