{"id":6632,"date":"2017-05-19T07:41:10","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T11:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6632"},"modified":"2017-07-25T07:32:04","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T11:32:04","slug":"road-trip-paterson-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6632","title":{"rendered":"Road Trip: Paterson, New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Paterson

photo: Tony Fischer, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

Inspired by the recent charming Jim Jarmusch film Paterson<\/a> about a city bus driver\/poet played by Adam Driver, we drove up there one recent Sunday to take in the sights and cultural offerings.<\/p>\n

Paterson\u2019s Great Falls, which drop some two million gallons of Passaic River water a day are about a tenth the height of our sentimental favorite Niagara, but nonetheless quite lovely. If all goes as planned, the area around the falls, now a National Historical Park<\/a>, will become a full-fledged national park with expanding historical attractions over the next few years.<\/p>\n

Alexander Hamilton founded the city. When shown the falls the first time, he was asked what he thought of them. He didn\u2019t say, \u201clovely,\u201d or \u201cnice view,\u201d he said \u201cpower.\u201d (In recognition of the city\u2019s founder, the score to the musical Hamilton<\/em> plays in the visitor center.) And he was so right.<\/p>\n

As in Niagara, a portion of the river\u2019s flow is diverted to power a hydroelectric plant. The power generated by \u00a0the falls brought Paterson to prominence as the first planned industrial settlement in the nation and enabled development of its textile, locomotive production, paper, machine tool, and other industries. Many of those brick factories still stand, prime loft-conversion properties. The National Park Service offers guided tours of the falls area, and our good-humored, lively guide (who coincidentally grew up in Paterson) was a gem.<\/p>\n

Eventually I hope the Park Service offers tours of Hinchliffe Stadium<\/a>, home of the Negro Baseball League\u2019s New York Black Yankees, among other teams. The stadium has been preserved as part of the park.<\/p>\n

\"Lambert

photo (cropped): Ken Lund, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

The local museums were of considerably less interest, though we enjoyed a trip to Lambert Castle<\/a> in the Garret Mountain Reservation, home of the Passaic County Historical Society. This little castle was built in the late 1800s by a prominent Paterson silk mill owner and once displayed the owner\u2019s extensive art collection. The house itself was interesting, and has fantastic views of the New York City skyline, but we\u2019d timed our visit to hear a concert by an extraordinary Ukranian pianist, Sophia Agranovich<\/a>. Hearing her challenging selections played in the castle\u2019s music room, while seated in the three-story atrium where the sound could swell, was a memorable experience.<\/p>\n

Finally, we partook of Paterson\u2019s well known multicultural scene, with dinner at a fantastic Middle Eastern restaurant (reportedly the best in the state), Al-Basha<\/a>, 1076 Main Street. Order the Mazzah appetizer platter!<\/p>\n

To Read While Strolling:<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired by the recent charming Jim Jarmusch film Paterson about a city bus driver\/poet played by Adam Driver, we drove up there one recent Sunday to take in the sights and cultural offerings. Paterson\u2019s Great Falls, which drop some two … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Road Trip: Paterson, New Jersey","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[266,35,104,78],"tags":[73,1029,99],"class_list":["post-6632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-real-life","category-the-morgue","category-travel","tag-nature","tag-paterson-nj","tag-urban-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1IY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6632"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6643,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6632\/revisions\/6643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}