Taken at Thomas Edison Natl. Historic Park – W Orange, NJ
Taken at Newark Museum – Newark, NJ
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What a fun thing to do on a gorgeous April Saturday. A walking tour of downtown Newark, NJ with Have You Met Newark tours. Newark is where I was born and grew up and it’s exciting to see what’s going on there. Here are some pictures of our tour.
Pictured below is the Prudential Center arena (The Rock) and the NJ Performing Arts Center (NJPAC)
The Old First Presbyterian Church was established in 1666 by the founders of Newark, NJ. My 10 times great-grandfather was one of the founders of Newark and he, along with some of my other ancestors were buried there.
The City Hall, and Broad and Market streets, known as the 4 corners.
The Prudential buildings. The Prudential came to Newark in the late 1800’s, the original building was demolished in 1956 to make way for Prudential Plaza which opened in 1960. A few blocks away in July 2016 the Prudential Tower opened.
Prudential Plaza Prudential Tower
Right in downtown Newark are three lovely parks. Lincoln Park, Military Park and here is Washington Park. The Newark museum and library are located on one side of the park.
Newark always had lots of department stores. Pictured here are Bamberger’s (which became Macy’s).. and Kresge (which is the K in K-Mart ), there was also Orbach’s and S. Klein all within a two block radius.
But the department store that was always a bit above the others, literally and figuratively was Hahne & Co. Hahne’s closed its doors in 1987 and sat empty for 30 years, it has been totally renovated and is gorgeous. In addition to retail space the new renovation includes 160 apartments. Note the original Hahne & Co sign.
I’m a big fan of Newark, not just because I was born and raised there but because it’s a terrific place to visit. Learn about what Newark is planning for the future, like this beautiful new park. 
But also learn about Newark’s place in our history. A fun way to do that is with a group from Have You Met Newark.
Branch Brook Park is located in my hometown of Newark, NJ. Branch Brook Park was created in 1895 making it the first county park in the nation. It has the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in the world… more than Washington, DC and more than Japan. The cherry trees were a gift donated in 1927 by Caroline Bamberger Fuld. BBP is 360 acres and has almost 5000 cherry trees. The Cherry Blossom Festival runs for two weeks April 7 – 15, 2018.
Some of the cherry trees are along Second River which forms the border between Newark and Belleville.
I was born on Saturday, February 14… Valentine’s Day. Family story has it that my mother refused to have me on Friday the 13th. Whether true or not I don’t know but I have always liked being a Valentine.
I was born in Newark, NJ where my dad was a police officer. From the age of 6 months I spent all my summers on Martha’s Vineyard where my mother grew up. What a lucky kid I was.
Out and about for a walk with my Easter bunny in my new Easter outfit.
I was an only child but never a lonely child.
Every year my mother would plan a party for my birthday and every year I’d be sick and it would have to be canceled. At long last around the age of 9 or 10 I finally had my first birthday party.
I believe that was the first and last birthday party I had until my 50th many, many years later…
The group picture is my daughter Deb with dog Jilly, daughter Patty, granddaughter Tiffany and me… we recreated it for Patty’s 50th a few years ago with Deb holding dog Chappy this time. We’ve definitely all changed a bit I’d say.
And so that’s how birthdays go. One year after another like clock work they roll around and give us pause to think about the past ones and the ones still to come.
I can pretty much be summed up in this word search Patty made for me.
In the words of Carly Simon…”one number older, another year younger, blow out the candles, happy birthday” 🙂
The prompt: Share with us an image, or two, or three, (or more!) of where you live. For bonus points, tell us what it is about the photo(s) that you love. I can’t wait to go on a fantastic virtual tour of the world, courtesy of photo challenge participants. Away we go!
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Rather than share where I live now I want to share where I was born and raised and lived until I got married.
My home town… Newark, New Jersey
Above is the Essex County courthouse. In the forefront is a statue of Abraham Lincoln called the Seated Lincoln sculpted by Gutzon Borglum who was the creator of the Mount Rushmore sculpture of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Surprising to many who don’t know much about the city of Newark, it has some beautiful parks in it. Washington Park, Lincoln Park and the newly revitalized Military Park. Here sits another of Gutzon Borglum’s works, one of his most compelling : Wars of America. He created this magnificent sculpture over the course of six years, completing it in 1926. It memorializes all the major conflicts in which Americans participated up to and including the First World War.
Thus ends a short tour of two of the beautiful sculptures you can find in Newark, New Jersey 🙂
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My dad was a police officer in Newark, NJ. For many of his years on the force he worked in the Emergency Squad division. During the long hours between calls the guys would keep themselves busy in various ways like cooking. Near the Christmas holidays they always came up with a special project, like candle making for instance.
In 1956 they made Santas. I still have ours. Santa stands about 3 and 1/2 feet tall and is made from press board. After the outline was drawn the guys cut out the Santas and my dad set to work drawing the features, clothing and bag of toys. At that point our Santa came home and my mother and I painted him. I’m not sure how many coats of paint we used but Santa was spread out on our kitchen table for about a week before he was completely dry. I don’t know what kind of paint we used either but here it is 61 years later and he’s not chipped or faded. This was the only time I ever remember the three of us doing a family project together.
I love everything about this Santa, even the buttons being on the wrong side… but the thing I love the most is that he looks like my dad… a self portrait so to speak.
Below is my daughter Patty age 2 and 1/2 in 1966…
… and then her daughter (my granddaughter) Tiffany age 2 and 1/2 in 1991.
Here’s to Christmas memories ❤
This week we are to share a photo of something that says “heritage” to us. My daughter Deb and I have been deep into genealogy and tracing our roots. On my father’s side our family, the Freeman’s go back to the original founding fathers of Newark, New Jersey. My 8th times great grandfather (not sure of the number), Stephen Freeman, along with Robert Treat and a host of other men from Milford and Branford, CT founded the city of Newark in 1666. I am the last of our particular Freeman line to be born in Newark as was my father, my grandfather etc.
There are two monuments to the founders of Newark in the city. One is in Fairmont Cemetery where many of my family are buried. That’s Robert Treat on the top.
The other monument, which had fallen into disrepair was restored and put in its new location last year for the 350th anniversary of the founding of Newark. This monument has the founders names on it… there’s my 8times great grandfather, Stephen Freeman.
