The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1909-01-25
History of South Broad Street a
Winning Fight Against Handcaps

ing large and expensive modern build
ings.
Some Drawbacks.
These obstacles prevented South
Broad street from reaping benefits from
the opening of the Newark and New
York branch of the Central Railroad of
New Jersey with a Broad street pas
senger station and a freight depot in
Fair, now Lafayette, street. The late
Judge John McGregor exhibited conf
dence in the future of that section by
erecting the fine McGregor building for
his clothing business many years ago.
His son, Austen II. McGregor, runs the
business now. Later Wilkinson, Cad
dis & Co. erected their fine building for
their wholesale grocery business. But
these improvements did not build up
retail trade in South Broad street.
South of William street there were very
few stores that did much business.
When p. F.. Mulligan started a book
store and newspaper agency near Hill
street in 1868, both sides of the street
were lined with private residences south
of the Third Presbyterian Church, ex-
cept the old South Ward Hotel at
Broad II Hill streets, where the
Church of the Redeemer now is, and on
the cast side of the street were only
residences.
There are no stores below Court street
yet, the old Aaron Ward grocery store
at Court and Broad being the last one.
Ririh of "Clothiug Row.
1t was about the year 1870 that cloth
ing merchants began to locate on South
Broad street, near Market, though
Nehemiah Perry had a clothing store
for years at the southwest corner of
Broad and Market. This drifting Of
big clothiers to South Broad street
finally resulted in giving Newark the
fine Clothing House Row from Broad
street to the entrance to the Old Bury
ing Ground. Ballantine & CoIyer
opened a clothing store neal Minnehaha
Engine House in 1876, and E.. H. Colyer
carries on the business there yet. He is
the only survivor of the old clothiers in
that section. Large buildings were
erected on leased ground by George
Watson, the Stoutenburghs, Marshall
d Ball, Durham & Co. and Colyer &
Co, n they made Clothing Row" a
big success, though they had to pay
heavy ground rents to the First Church
and the taxes on land and buildings to
the city, and every few years the tax
able valuations have beer increased by
the city assessors.
When the Old Burying Ground was
at last vacated, and the bones of the
old settlers of I'VE towne on we Pas
salk' removed to Fairmount Cemetery,
through the vigorous work of Mayor
Joseph Emmett Haynes, assisted by the
late Judge Howard w. Hayes and Ed
ward Mullen, and the Newark Daily
Advertiser, now THE EVENING
STAR, and the land reverted to the
people of Newark, merchants south OF
the house of fire truck No. 1 began
to hope for a revival of trade. The
abandonment of the old City Hall and
the erection of the beautiful 50, 900, O0C
municipal building, with the opening OF
Branford place through the Old Bury
ing Ground. from Broad to Halsey
street, all benefited South Broad street
merchants and owners of real estate
for the latter increased rapidly in value
The City Hall Commission laid out a
street from William street north tc
Branford place, and sold land abutine
on the new street to merchants and
others who owned buildings fronting
on Broad street so they could extend
their buildings to the new street, u
the plan of years ago to build a mu-
nicipal and a county building on the
Old Burying Ground land had beer
carried out, there is little doubt that
big modern mercantile buildings would
now line the west side of Broad street
to William street, and perhaps further
south. But the scheme failed, as many
other plans to aid South Broad street
had failed, for many years.
About fifteen years G business in
South Broad street began to develop
some, and this made real estate in
crease in value n rents of stores
rose, but it is within twelve years that