The Fabulous Ruins of Newark

[krapug1]

I was organizing my Photo Shop account, and cam across some photos I stored of 2 empty department store buildings in downtown Newark.

The first was a branch of S.Klein, this location closed in 1976 [[as the entire company was being closed in stages). The building has not been used since, and today remains as shown.

The second is from the Halsey Street side of the former Hahne & Company flagship, once Newark's most upscale store. The building was gutted about 15 years ago for a redevelopment that has yet to occur. The Broad Street exterior was cleaned up and new windows installed on the upper floors, but the Halsey Street side was not touched, and the former display windows [[not shown here)
have become street artists canvases. Hahne's closed in 1987.

[Blarf]

Cool and all, but why Newark?

[krapug1]

Cool and all, but why Newark?

Newark is often referred to as "Little Detroit", and part of this stems from the fact that both cities suffered from the Summer Riots of 1967. They were about 1 week apart from each other.

also in the case of both cities the downtown areas were spared major damage during the riots, but instead bled a slow death after the riots as businesses and retail stores started to leave as soon as their leases were up.

Despite it's proximity to NYC, downtown Newark, and Newark as a whole has probaly as many ruins as Detroit.

Downtown Newark also has scores of mid-rise office buildings that are "capped", meaning the 1st and sometimes 2nd floors have tenants, with the upper floors sealed off.

Ken