ironbound views

Connie Francis was born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in the Italian Down Neck, or Ironbound, neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. She is considered the most prolific and popular female rock ‘n’ roll hit-maker of the early rock era — the late 1950s to the early 1960s.

Francis made her film debut in 1960 with Where The Boys Are, and followed it with similar comedy musicals such as Follow The Boys (1963), Looking For Love (1964) and When The Boys Meet The Girls (1965). The 1963 song, “In the Summer of His Years,” written as a tribute to the assassinated John F. Kennedy, remains one of the earliest known charity records, with proceeds donated to dependents of the policemen shot during the incident.

Although she had sold 35 million records by 1967, she was pushed aside by the 60s beat boom and turned to working in nightclubs in the late 60s. She did much charity work for UNICEF and similar organizations, besides entertaining US troops in Vietnam. She also extended her repertoire, and kept her options open by recording albums in several languages, including French, Spanish and Japanese. Late 70s issues included more country music selections.

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“One of Newark’s finest old factories, the Murphy Varnish Company building in the Ironbound section, looms like an abandoned Georgian country mansion over the industrial landscape. Signs on its boarded-up exterior seem to anticipate the end of the still privately owned building: they alert firefighters to flammable materials on each floor…”

The above phrase was published by the nytimes.com in 1992, an article by Iver Peterson titled Trenton Moves to Reclaim Old Factories Left for Dead . As you can see by our blog’s header picture, the beautiful building is still there as of today’s post. Read more

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What does Newark, Mulberry St, Flemming Ave and the Morris Canal have in common?
Well I’ve heard both streets were once a canal, the northern side of Fleming ave was called the Island and people crossed it through little walking bridges. I am searching for more information. Can you help?

To start, there was once a canal in Newark. Continue Reading »

Tags: Fleming Av, Morris Canal, Mulberry St, Newark

Chinatown, Mulberry St. between Lafayette and Franklin Sts. was, until the post-War deportation of thousands of Chinese, one of the most exotic and dangerous places in Newark. Broken windows and rusted iron today in the once brightly illuminated Arcade, L. off Mulberry st., suggests little of the bazaars, jade shops, and tea houses that once attracted thousands of visitors. The present chop-suey restaurants occupy sites where gourmets once feasted on Chinese delicacies and where tong warfare and unrestrained gambling reached the point of a public menace. At one time Newark’s Chinese population exceeded that of New York, and the section supported a self-styled “Mayor” whose “edicts” city politicians heeded.

In 1922, there were 3,000 Chinese living in Newark Chinatown, located behind Newark City Hall. In 1870, James Hervey brought 68 Chinese to Belleville, NJ to work in his steam laundry, they later moved to Newark. Ref: http://www.newarkchinatown.org/history

References: New Jersey a guide to its present and past - 1939 pg 334
newarkchinatown.org

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Photo source: http://www.newarkchinatown.org/

Tags: , chinatown, chinese, Mulberry St

It is said the name Ironbound comes from all those train tacks surrounding this exotic neighborhood in Newark, NJ.

As much as that may be true, some of the tracks are no longer in existance but it is still Ironbound in a funny way because in this residential area you can find more nails on the paved road per square foot than any other place on earth!

I am the nail picker! My kids avoid walking with me on the street due to my habit of picking up nails from the road throwing them in the nearest garbage can! From my house to the local café, two blocs down, I must do this ritual about 7 to 10 times in a single trip. Perhaps nails just fall off the construction vans when they stop to pick up or drop off workers. I also think the street-cleaning trucks are worn out and totally useless. These trucks don’t clean much, they just spread dust around and when it settles the streets are dirty again! We learn to live with such annoying situations. For one thing it forced me to buy special tires when I upgraded my car so that I wouldn’t be stuck when a flat tire occurs. Annoying indeed! Okay, I’ve just described my place as one of the dirtiest on earth, the good thing is, it will be all up hill from here on… They can paint this place as an exotic neighborhood but for those living around here thirty some years like me, it is far from being paradise!

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