Holland Street is the only remaining cobblestone street in The Heights, and one of only five in Jersey City. It is located right next to Riverview-Fisk Park. The old stone staircase, at left, which used to make Holland Street accessible to pedestrians, is not in use anymore.
Ogden Avenue crosses over the stone-paved Holland Street by way of this old granite bridge, built in 1905, above.
Nowadays, Holland Street is only accessible from Palisades Avenue, visible in the far background, above. Below, a hundred and five years later, the bridge is still going strong.
As is evident from the picture below, the street is closed to traffic and is usually empty of pedestrians.
As far as I can tell, Holland Street was probably an important carriage lane in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
I can’t imagine how labor intensive it must have been to construct a cobblestone street!
A hundred years ago, Holland Street connected directly to Paterson Plank Road, which in turn connected to the city of Hoboken and ultimately the Hudson River ferries.
Now it just ends abruptly with concrete barriers and a Smirnoff Vodka billboard, above.
Another way to get down to Paterson Plank Road used to be by taking this long stone staircase, above. Today, however, the old staircase is barely visible, below.
Unfortunately, after years of neglect, the stone staircase is in terrible shape.
It is also littered with trash and debris, and even a discarded pair of men’s underwear. I don’t see it being fixed anytime soon.
Holland Street is the only remaining cobblestone street in The Heights, and one of only five in Jersey City. It is located right next to Riverview-Fisk Park. The old stone staircase, at left, which used to make Holland Street accessible to pedestrians, is not in use anymore.
Ogden Avenue crosses over the stone-paved Holland Street by way of this old granite bridge, built in 1905, above. 
Nowadays, Holland Street is only accessible from Palisades Avenue, visible in the far background, above. Below, a hundred and five years later, the bridge is still going strong.
As is evident from the picture below, the street is closed to traffic and is usually empty of pedestrians.
As far as I can tell, Holland Street was probably an important carriage lane in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
I can’t imagine how labor intensive it must have been to construct a cobblestone street! 
A hundred years ago, Holland Street connected directly to Paterson Plank Road, which in turn connected to the city of Hoboken and ultimately the Hudson River ferries.
Now it just ends abruptly with concrete barriers and a Smirnoff Vodka billboard, above.
Another way to get down to Paterson Plank Road used to be by taking this long stone staircase, above. Today, however, the old staircase is barely visible, below.
Unfortunately, after years of neglect, the stone staircase is in terrible shape.
It is also littered with trash and debris, and even a discarded pair of men’s underwear. I don’t see it being fixed anytime soon.
What a shame. Let's clean it up! WOuld be lovely to use!
ReplyDeleteIndeed it's a shame. It'd be interesting to see if a pedestrian bridge to the other side of "the Plank" could be linked into the stairs.
ReplyDeleteI used to live at 508 palisade Ave. Back in 1964-74. Best years of my life. I remember playing at the park with my friends
ReplyDeleteWe used to use those Stairs playing on the hill.
Days gone by. What a shame
I used to live at 508 Palisade Avenue used to hang in the park anybody who remembers me they used to call me butchie please get in touch I like to talk about all the times back then I used to live there from 64 to 74 best days of my teenage years.
ReplyDeleteI remember Playing Wiffle ball with My friends on Ogden Ave above Holland street and having to then squeeze though the fence to access the stairs to retrieve foul balls along Holland St. Eventually they welded bars in-between so we had then then climb over it. this was around 76/77. I'm guessing the stairs were fenced off sometime earlier. Does anyone know why they were fenced off???
ReplyDelete