Newark Landmarks proudly sponsors the exhibit about this jail’s history and reuses. The exhibit makes a case for why we should preserve the jail. The pressing question is how to do so in physical, educational, and financial terms. How can the site’s history be brought forward and to what end? How much of the existing structures can be feasibly preserved? Might it become a historical park?
Since its closure, the jail’s future has preoccupied Newark Landmarks. We believe the site carries a social history relevant to the experience of Newark residents. It introduces visitors to issues of social justice through the penal system, the design of humane prisons, Newark’s history of civil resistance in the 1960s, and the history of the Morris Canal, which it abuts. The site is also a focal point in the continuing construction of Science Park – the surrounding neighborhood of research and business incubator buildings. The large adjacent land parcel to the east presents an opportunity for future development served by two stops on the Newark Light Rail. All of these are the subject of ongoing site study through the summer and fall of 2019 with a grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust administered through NJIT’s College of Architecture and Design. We are grateful to the Columbia studio and our Executive Director Zemin Zhang and Myles Zhang to start the ball rolling again through this exhibit.
This project would not have been possible without the generous support of the following designers, donors, and designers at Newark Landmarks, New Jersey City University, Columbia University, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
– Anthony Schuman
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation
Historic Preservation Studio II, Spring 2018
Mariana Avila Flynn (curatorial assistant)
Valentine Angelucci (teaching assistant)
Ryan Luke Johns
Printing and installation of panels by Visual Print Solutions