Hundreds gather to celebrate Great Falls' new status

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
BY MEREDITH MANDELL
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
PATERSON — After all the reporters, dignitaries and crowds disbanded, Jan Thomas stood alone at the edge of Overlook Park.“All my life I’ve been waiting for this,” said the 54-year-old carpenter, a lifelong resident who as a child spent many afternoons swimming in the river near the Great Falls.

CHRIS PEDOTA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Great Falls of Paterson have been given historic park status by the federal government.

As a young man, he worked in a dye house, where the smell of formaldehyde saturated his clothes and the steam was so thick you could not see your hand in front of your face, he said.

Like many of his fellow workers, he’d come to the Great Falls to admire its beauty. It was a respite from the hardships of factory life.

“They weren’t educated people,” he said of his colleagues. “But they were people with life experience. People with common sense.”

That was the theme Thursday as hundreds of people celebrated the Great Falls’ designation as a national historical park. It was the common man who labored to build Paterson into Alexander Hamilton’s dream of an industrial powerhouse, a modern American city. And the designation was a tribute to the workers.

As rain drizzled, about 300 people, including activists, members of the City Council and Board of Education, and city workers, gathered under white tents set up for the special ceremony.

Notable Alexander Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow spoke. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, and U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, both D-N.J., gathered with Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres to praise the teamwork of the many players involved in what once seemed an impossible task, they said.

On March 30, President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Act, designating 35 acres of land surrounding the falls as the Great Falls National Historical Park. The 77-foot waterfalls powered textile mills that gave Paterson its nickname, the Silk City.

The falls district also is home to the first Colt firearms factory, which now lies in ruins, and the site of a factory that once was the nation’s leading supplier of locomotives.

Pascrell, whom many credited during the ceremony with getting the legislation passed, said the Great Falls represents the history of the people of Paterson.

“We don’t forget where we came from,” Pascrell told the crowd. “These are our roots. This is our Plymouth Rock.”

Lautenberg, who like Pascrell is a Paterson native, recalled how his father worked in the city’s sweatshops and died at age 43.

His uncle and grandfather, also factory workers, died at young ages as well — 43 and 52, respectively. Lautenberg said that as a child, his father would bring him to the falls, where he and other city dwellers — among them Russian, Polish, German and Jewish immigrants — would spend the afternoon.

“This was a city of hopes and dreams, and a belief that in America you could succeed,” Lautenberg said.

After the event, Torres and the members of Congress met with state environmental officials, U.S. park rangers and others to discuss plans for the park. Among the issues: the status of buildings and facilities, including what agencies would control the buildings in the district; matters of security, management structure and activities planned; and the park operating budget.

Funding for the park, which is not provided in the legislation, might come from future appropriations.

Officials hope the projects associated with the designation will bring hundreds of new jobs to the city.

In addition, environmental studies and remediation of the possible industrial pollutants below the soil must be completed.

Already spikes are in the ground, marking the area where the city expects to start construction on an amphitheater and a new park, named for Great Falls activist Mary Ellen Kramer.

There still is a question as to whether the dilapidated Hinchliffe Stadium would be included in the park site, said Brian LoPinto, an activist with the group Friends of Hinchliffe Stadium.

“You can’t have an eyesore right next to what is supposed to be a beautiful place,” he said.

Leonard Zax, a lawyer and preservationist, said officials also were discussing the possibility of creating a museum near the power plant at the base of the falls to teach people about sustainable energy.

The plant creates enough energy now to power 11,000 homes in Paterson. But upgrades are necessary if the city wants to power more homes. A spokesman for Pascrell said that no stimulus package money had been designated for the upgrades.

“Normally, if you have new development, it consumes energy. In this case it is producing more energy than it is consuming,” Zax said.