Newark is a city of astonishing architecture and history. As a teacher at Newark’s celebrated Arts High, I’ve had the opportunity over the past few years to bring a lot of the Brick City’s past into my classroom, because as I’ve told my students over and over again, Newark’s history is American history. The voices, doings and institutions of the past are visible all around, though some structures are more noticeable than others. Every building has a story to tell, regardless of what shape it’s in. And the older the building – at least in my opinion – the moreinteresting the story. Here is one story I have shared and discussed with my students about what is no longer a “building” but merely a façade, a front of a structure that was once at the social and religious heart of Newark. That façade is the architectural masterpiece that is the Old South Park Presbyterian Church, located on the intersection of Broad and Chestnut Streets, in one of the city’s most stately brownstone sections, Lincoln Park.
My students are all familiar with it, as is anyone who travels on Newark’s great and vibrant artery of Broad Street. It sits today like an anchored old battleship, though Greco-Roman in style. Its tall ionic columns rise majestically from the street to form a pompous entrance to what was one of the city’s most important religious hubs.
When the church was constructed in the 1850’s, it dominated the neighborhood, and was immediately considered a structure of pride. Its impressive façade guided the visitor into a neoclassical interior that resembled a church more of London than of New Jersey. In its halls Newark’s most prominent citizens worshipped, networked, organized and listened to some of America’s foremost preachers, congressmen and presidents. A recently elected Abraham Lincoln spoke there in 1861 while en route to a troubled Washington, D.C. No doubt he must have pleaded to the Church’s congregants that The Union must continue. Many of Newark’s mayors have lain in state for a teary final departure into whatever afterlife awaits city politicians.
Churches in Newark, I always tell my students, have always been major political players in the city’s history. South Park Presbyterian was no exception. In the winter of 1896, thousands gathered in the church to hear one preacher after another thunder against the state’s newly legalized horse races. The emotion must have been running at an extremely high level; one preacher even told the 3000+ in attendance that legalized gambling was presenting the city with its greatest challenge since the Revolution. Whether or not the Divine was listening is a subject for another day, but it should be noted that the church was hit directly by a bolt of lightening just a few years later.
As the city’s fortunes declined in the 1970’s, the structure fell into disrepair. Caring for it was a huge responsibility. The building in the 1980’s was transformed into a center to help the homeless. In 1992 most of it was destroyed by a nighttime fire, leaving only the impressive façade.
My students tend get gloomy when we get to this part of the story. Decline, mysterious overnight fires, ruins…these were the hallmarks of Newark’s reputation in the recent past. But, I remind them, so is renewal. In a fitting tribute to the importance of the edifice, local civic organizations are now in the process of restoring the front to its former glory. Behind the façade we may see an amphitheater or cultural center in the near future. Newark is again a city on the rise, honoring its past while pushing towards a promising future. But progress and improvement take time, I always remind my talented and ambitious students…and hard work…and people. “People,” I tell them, “like you.”
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