Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park ⓘ

Paterson, New Jersey, holds a unique place in history. It was here, in the nation's first planned industrial city, that the Industrial Revolution got a foothold. Centered around the Great Falls of the Passaic River, Paterson was founded as a bold experiment, pioneering systems of business and mechanization. It was here that manufactories which enabled the young United States to become a global economic power were established and promoted. In the process, Paterson experienced all the economic highs and lows that can befall an industrial center. Paterson's continued story, one of industry, innovation, and immigration, is a key part of America's - an ongoing experiment driven most importantly by persistance and resilience in the face of adversity.

The area which makes up Paterson was first inhabited by the Lenape, who called the "Lenapehoking" home for over 18,000 years. Starting in the 17th century, Dutch settlers moved into the region - fourteen Dutch families established themselves here, later dividing their 100-acre plots of land into smaller farm units. The Dutch were followed by the English, who wrested control of the New Netherlands colony from them in 1674. Over 100 years later, in 1792, the area would undergo a transformation, one started by a private state-sponsored corporation led by Alexander Hamilton . During the American Revolutionary War, Alexander Hamilton was keenly aware of the industrial causes of the conflict. As an English holding, the American colonies were reliant upon Britain for most manufactured goods, whose production they enabled through the extraction of North America's natural resources. Prohibited by law from establishing industry, issues of supply, demand, trade, and tariffs were fundimental to the grievences of the colonies and the conflict's cause. After the war, Hamilton began promoting his views on the economic needs of the new nation, serving as the first Secretary of the Treasury from 1789 - 1795. Concerned by the lack of manufacturing in the United States, he believed that a strong industrial system was the best way to help the new nation gain financial independence and become a world presence.

Towards that goal, Hamilton co-founded the "Society for Establishing Usefull Manufactures" (S.U.M.) in 1791. This manufacturing society would be operated by private interests with governmental support. The charter for the S.U.M. called for the society to both manufacture goods and trade in them. It was this entity which, in May of 1792, purchased 700 acres of land above and below the Great Falls, establishing the City of Paterson. The site was chosen for its plentiful water, located on a large change in elevation, as well as ample stocks of timber and stone. Located between New York and Philadelphia, it offered easy access to consumer markets, sources of financial capital, and large populations and immigration ports to supply a workforce. The community was named for New Jersey Governor William Paterson; an ardent supporter of Hamilton's plans, he signed the S.U.M.'s charter in November of 1791. With this, Paterson became the first planned industrial city in the nation - an experiment to test if business, industry, and innovation would allow the nation to thrive and survive both in times of peace and war.

The S.U.M. was not an immediate success - Paterson's early years saw significant financial and personnel difficulties. Over-speculation on the part of S.U.M.'s directors and financial panics plagued the enterprise. Planning was also difficult; Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a French military and civil engineer who famously laid out the street grid of Washington, D.C., was notably tempermental. After he abandoned the project, the S.U.M. secured a replacement in Peter Colt, of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1793. Despite these problems, the first cotton mill was built shortly after the land was purchased; the water power network was still unfinished, so this "Bull Mill" was operated by ox-power. The first "raceway" was built in early 1794, an artificial channel drawing water from above the falls and directing it to useful locations. A second cotton mill opened later that year. Initially quiet, the town boomed during the War of 1812 before suffering setbacks after the war, as foreign textiles became more easily obtained.

More raceways and "tailraces" provided expanded access to waterpower, allowing additional mills to be built. Completed as a three-tiered system, they took advantage of the change in elevation above and below the falls, allowing water from one factory to be reused by another. Waterwheels, and later turbines, initially powered these factories directly via a system of gears, shafts, and belts. Later, they turned generators to produce a more flexible power source: electricity. As other industries were built along this system, the S.U.M. transitioned from direct manufacturing to selling water power, real estate, and eventually generating electricity .

As the years progressed, manufacturing in Paterson became more diversified. In addition to cotton and wool textiles, Paterson produced the first continuous rolls of paper in the nation, building materials and machinery, and locomotives and firearms. Paterson's rope, hemp, and sailcloth supplied both the Navy and Coast Guard, as well as record-breaking racing ships and merchant vessels. This diversification was key to Paterson's success, even as industries were affected by changing levels of supply and demand. The city required a massive workforce, and employment opportunities attracted workers from around the world. Immigrants from England, Ireland , France, Russia, Poland, and Germany were among the first to make Paterson their home. Each group brought their language and culture, with enclaves in the city supporting vibrant communities. Many of these immigrants opened stores and businesses, while others founded new industries, such as breweries and bakeries.

The height of Paterson's industrial strength came in the 1890s. While there had been silk mills in the city since the mid-1800s, by the end of the 19th century the explosive growth and density of silk manufacturers earned Paterson the nickname "Silk City". Nearly half of all silk in the United States was processed in this single city of less than nine square miles, shipped to and from it by high-priority express freight trains. The engines hauling those trains were built in sprawling manufactories often directly adjacent to the textile mills. From 1832 until 1923, Paterson was a center of global railroad manufacturing, as the Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works (formerly Rogers, Ketchum, and Grosvernor), the Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works, the Grant Locomotive Works, and the American Locomotive Company produced thousands of engines, rotary snowplows, and equipment shipped worldwide. Paterson's engines were present at the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, helped dig the Panama Canal, and tied the globe together in a network enabling faster, cheaper shipping of bulk goods and people - allowing Paterson and the nation to thrive as part of a global economy.

The record profits generated by the mills were not shared equitably, however. As mill owners and company shareholders enjoyed record-breaking profits by the mid-19th century, the workers laboring in the factories often struggled with poverty, and issues of wages, hours, and safety were a source of social conflict between workers, business owners, and civic leaders. Paterson has long been a center of labor activism, and was the site of one first strikes in the nation in 1835. Over 2,000 workers, largely children, struck for reduction in their thirteen hour, six-day work week - this two-month "Baby Strike," although broken, resulted in a slight shortening in hours.

In 1913, Paterson was the labor movement's focal point as declining wages, poor working conditions, and long hours pushed workers to their limit. The final straw was the introduction of a "multi-loom" system at the Doherty Silk Company's neighboring Clifton plant; new technology enabled mill operators to assign workers to larger numbers of automated machines per person. For six months, 20,000 workers sustained a general strike, with heavy support from the International Workers of the World and a massive pageant at Madison Square Garden. However, the strike ended in defeat for all involved. None of the strikers demands were met, and many were blacklisted from the industry. Mill owners, frightened, held back on plant improvements, and several companies removed their operations from Paterson as economic pressure encouraged a shift towards the south and west, closer to raw material supplies and looser local labor laws. One striker, Vincenzo Madonna, was killed by a scab worker, and bystander Valentino Modestino was shot by a private detective while holding his child on his porch. Although it failed, the 1913 Silk Strike focused national attention on the plight of mill workers, and laborers in Paterson would play a continued role in the struggle for improved working conditions nationwide. Paterson's silk industry would limp on, but never at their 1890s height.

As with many other Northeastern industrial cities, Paterson's fortunes continued on an uneven course through the twentieth century. The Great Depression hit the city hard, as did the manufacturing slump that came after World War II. During periods of conflict, however, industries survived and thrived through military contracts and defense manufacturing, adapting peacetime products to support war efforts. Locomotive and machine works made cannons and trench engines, while textile plants produced uniforms, parachutes, and powder charge cases. Cable companies produced flexible undersea pipelines, and weather balloon factories built radio rescue kits. Newer Paterson industries, such as Wright Aeronautical (later Curtiss-Wright), mirrored Alexander Hamilton's vision for production both in peace and war. Factories which built the engines Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindberg, Douglas Corrigan, and Richard Byrd used for pioneering acts of aviation churned out vast numbers of fighter planes, bombers, and tank engines.

World War II demonstrated the greatest example of this, as the entire city's focus turned toward the war effort. Curtiss-Wright alone employed over 50,000 Patersonians, producing 77,554 aircraft engines - over half of the company's national wartime total. The city was a model of homefront mobilization; Paterson's firefighters were nationally trained civil defense instructors, anti-aircraft batteries protected the region from atop Garret Mountain, civic institutions held massive bond and fundraising drives, and countless men and women served in the armed forces as soldiers, sailors, pilots, medical personnel, engineers, and administrative staff. In recognition of this, Paterson is New Jersey's American WWII Heritage City . Post-World War II many factories shuttered their doors, even as more workers arrived; Paterson's 20th century influx saw large numbers of black Americans during the Great Migration and immigrants from across South and Central America. The promise of a better life and economic opportunity still drew people to the city, even as its own fortunes began to suffer. Ultimately, Paterson fell victim to economic uncertainties affecting other industrial centers - companies moved south, west, and eventually overseas in pursuit of cost-cutting, accelerated as cutting-edge facilities competed with Paterson's massive, aging plants. By the 1960s, Paterson's fortunes waned, with only a few mills still operating. In 1945 the S.U.M., the society that started it all, sold its charter and all remaining property to the City of Paterson. After 153 years, the S.U.M. had not realized its original dream of becoming a manufacturer and trader of goods. It succeeded, however, in establishing a center where countless came to seek their fortunes in the power provided by the Passaic River and the Great Falls.

At the same time industries stagnated, recognition of their history increased. This was spurred by revitalization efforts, some of which threatened the city's historic and natural resources. Interstate 80's construction across Paterson in 1971 cut through neighborhoods, railroads, and the remains of the 1828 Morris Canal - other earlier plans called for demolition of much of the downtown core for urban renewal, threatening the falls, the raceway, and scores of homes and businesses. A grass-roots group, spearheaded by Mary Ellen Kramer, wife of then-Mayor Lawrence "Pat" Kramer, began working towards re-vitalization balanced with preservation. Their efforts led to the Great Falls/S.U.M. areas to be placed on the Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Places, the surveying and preservation of historic buildings, and attracted attention from federal entities such as the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service. Throughout the 1970s, the area gained more national recognition. In May of 1976 the falls and nearby Garret Mountain formally became National Natural Landmarks - in June of that same year President Gerald Ford established the Historic District as a National Landmark, and in 1977 the power and raceway system were named a National Civil and Mechanical Engineering Landmark. These milestones supported plans to create a national park around the Great Falls to protect their natural wonder and encompass the surrounding district with the stories of mills and factories, pioneering technology, and the changing faces of the city's workers and residents. Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park was authorized on March 30th, 2009 by President Barack Obama and was signed into formal establishment as the 397th National Park Service unit on November 7th, 2011.

Today, the city's story continues. Heavy industry is mostly gone, but light manufacturing, education, filming, and tourism make up parts of Paterson's vibrant urban landscape and continue to support a diverse population. While the S.U.M.'s original vision may not have come to pass as anticipated, the city's success mirrors that of the nation: industry and innovation, developed by and supporting people from across the world who call Paterson and the United States their home. Paterson's contributions as the first planned industrial city in the nation enabled growth, prosperity, and security in times of peace and conflict, and it continues looking to the future as an ongoing experiment, as post-industrial communities adapt to continue thriving and people recognize the importance of preserving and protecting natural and historical resources .

The histories of Paterson and its National Park include people from many different places and backgrounds. Explore different pieces of the puzzle by following the links below:

History is more than just names, dates, places, and events. Through stories, experiences, and anecdotes, historians can construct a social history of an era, preserving astounding and everyday events from those who lived them. Explore the stories of the people of Paterson through our Oral History Project .

One of America's "Founding Fathers," Alexander Hamilton is one of Paterson's literal founders. Through the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufacturing (S.U.M), Hamilton's experimentation with a business and industrial economy to support the new nation were founded on the banks of the Passaic River around the Great Falls. Study his story by reading the National Park Service introductory article on Alexander Hamilton's life .

Explore Paterson's history as an active part of the Underground Railroad with " Slavery at the River's Edge ," produced by historian and Patersonian Jimmy Richardson.

Born in England, Catholina Lambert immigrated to the United States and became the head of one of Paterson's massive silk manufacturers. Explore his life and the castle which bears his name.

Born in 1880 in Castelgrande in southern Italy, Gaetano Federici emigrated to the United States at age seven. Settling with his family in Paterson, over the course of a sixty-year career he completed over forty public monuments in the small radius around Paterson's City Hall alone, earning the nickname “sculptor laureate of Paterson.” Today, Federici’s sculptures, plaques and lunette carvings can be found on city property, on the grounds of private properties and churches, and in galleries such as the Federici Studio Collection at Passaic County Community College or under the care of the Passaic County Historical Society. Take the self guided Federici Walking Tour to explore his work & legacy.

The first black player in the American League, Larry Doby endured the prejudices of the Jim Crow era and helped dismantle them. His sports career started at Paterson's Eastside High School as a skilled multi-sport athlete, where he was drafted by the Negro National League’s Newark Eagles. From Paterson's Hinchliffe Stadium , he moved onward and continued breaking records with the Cleveland Indians (now Cleveland Guardians) in the American League, and in 1947 fully desegregated baseball shortly after Jackie Robinson broke the National League color barrier. An acclaimed athlete and mentor, Doby was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on March 3, 1998. Visit our multimedia page to watch "The Legendary Larry Doby" and learn more about this pioneering Patersonian; review his record at the Baseball Hall of Fame .

For members of a generation, Paterson is synonymous with a song. Explore the larger story of the central figure of Bob Dylan's protest song: Rubin "Hurricane" Carter .

Paterson is less than nine square miles in size, yet contains an incredibly dense landscape of historic places. Learn more about some of the locations that make this city special:

One of the most defining features of the Great Falls after the waterfall itself is the large brick building built beside it into the cliffside. Looking more like a church than an industrial building, its walls hide a thrum of activity where water still generates power in a practice fundimental to the very founding of Paterson as the first planned industrial city in the nation. Constructed by the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, the hydroplant's history mirrors the rise, decline, and revitalization of Paterson's urban industrial period. Explore the Great Falls Hydroelectric Station

Constructed in 1931-32, Hinchliffe Stadium is one of the few remaining Negro League stadiums in the nation. A venue for record-breaking baseball, boxing, track and field, football, automotive racing, and performances, this National Historic Landmark reopened after a nearly two-year restoration on May 20th, 2023. Today, it once again hosts regional and local sports teams, school district activities, and performances. Visit our multimedia page to watch "Hinchliffe Stadium Memories" and learn more about this historic field. For game/event schedules, news, and basic information, visit the stadium website . For historical information, visit the Friends of Hinchliffe Stadium website .

Alexander Hamilton founded Paterson to serve as the nation’s first industrial city in 1792. Shortly thereafter, workers arrived from all over the world to utilize their talents in the cities new and booming industries. Among those earliest workers were the Irish, who began arriving in sizable numbers around the year 1820. The neighborhood around Paterson Great Falls historically carried the monicker "Little Dublin" due to this influx. Like many neighborhoods, it has seen many waves of immigration since - today, this area is known as "Little Lima" for it's large Peruvian population. Explore Little Dublin

The story of Catholina Lambert, a prominent Paterson silk mill owner in the late 1800's, ties heavily into the story of the city's well known textile industry. Today, Lambert's local home, Lambert Castle, is open for touring under the management of the Passaic County Historical Society. Explore Lambert Castle

As a major population center and manufacturing city, Paterson, New Jersey played an important role in the Second World War. Through defense manufacturing, civil defense preparedness, personnel serving in the armed forces, and adaptation to wartime disruption, Paterson made significant contributions to the war effort through manufacturing, civil defense, and war financing efforts. Large numbers of personnel serving in the Armed Forces called the city home, and industries which had previously supplied critical materiel during World War I quickly retooled and once again provided a wide range of products – Paterson had over 300 allied defense industries during World War II. Two industries which particularly made Paterson a key contributor to the war effort were the silk and aircraft manufacturers – industries critical enough to warrant increased civil defense preparations and the establishment of military observation and defense posts. For these reasons, Paterson is New Jersey's American WWII Heritage City - recognized through the American WWII Heritage City Program for meeting high criteria for home-front activities and modern commemoration. Only one city in each state/territory can be so designated, emphasizing Paterson's significant contributions and modern remembrance.

The entry of the United States into the Second World War had a profound impact on Paterson. Like many Northeastern industrial centers, Paterson suffered in the post-World War I period. As with other centers of textile manufacturing, economic downturns had already begun in the late 1910s and 1920s as the industry collapsed and disinvestment favored smaller, non-unionized factories with newer, more advanced equipment throughout the southern United States. With the onset of the Great Depression unemployment skyrocketed and “Hoovervilles” proliferated as thousands struggled to find work or retain a home. As in World War I, the vast scale and scope of manufactured products and materiel required by the Federal government injected life into stagnating cities. Thanks to a diversified industrial economy, infrastructure, and large population, Paterson benefitted tremendously from the war effort and was a key city in the “arsenal of democracy.”

Prior to WWI, Paterson earned the nickname “Silk City” as the center of silk dying and weaving in the United States – at its height producing 50% of the nation’s finished silk. While wartime rationing and isolation from raw silk supplies in Asia hit textile mills hard, the Allied Textile Printers (ATP), a conglomeration of smaller firms, began working with nylon. Developed in 1938, (the same year ATP formed) this synthetic material was an excellent substitute for the silk used in parachutes and straps – items which had to be both strong, flexible, and lightweight. ATP retooled its dyeing facilities on Van Houten St. and an on-site government inspection laboratory was set up to monitor production quality. It maintained steady output despite rationing and shortages of raw materials and fuel oil thanks to government contracts and recognition of its vital role in the defense sector. This shift supported the war effort (often despite government contracts being a known financial loss) and allowed the company to continue limited production of civilian goods. It also ensured the firm’s future – ATP survived the silk industry’s decline post-war thanks to its transition to synthetic materials, operating in Paterson until 1983.

Other Paterson industries would transition from consumer goods to military manufacturing, also thriving post-war as a result. The diversity of manufacturing which enabled Paterson to survive when other single-industry cities faltered meant that the wartime demands for a variety of products could be met despite entirely different manufacturing requirements. Two examples of this include Paterson's power cable and toy firms. The Okonite Company, manufacturers of high-voltage paper insulated power lines and undersea cables, produced not just wiring for the military – their plants, including one in Paterson, produced portions of the 140 miles of American manufactured pipeline for the 710-mile Pipeline Under the Ocean (PLUTO). This critical logistical lifeline, running from Sandown to Cherbourg and Dungeness to Boulogne respectively, helped supply petroleum products to the Allied Expeditionary Force in Northwest Europe. Okonite continues to supply military bases with cabling in addition to industrial customers and utilities, and in the 1980s supplied the underwater cable which provides power to the Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island . Molded Latex Products Inc. (later renamed the Kaysam Corporation of America) produced toys prior to the war – during WWII production shifted to latex balloons for meteorologic data collection and the signal corps. Branches of the company also produced M 278-A “Gibson Girl” canned emergency rescue radio transmitters, which used a contained balloon to raise a wire aerial. These emergency rescue devices were distributed to many Allied air services, such as the United States Army Air Corps/United States Air Forces and the Royal Air Force. For this work they received an Army-Navy "E" Award for excellence in production on May 17 th , 1944. Post-war, the company continued producing weather balloons, often to fulfill defense contracts.

Besides balloons, Paterson factories produced another aviation resource. The Curtiss-Wright Corporation was a critical industry for the Allied war effort, producing thousands of military aircraft engines. Wright’s R-1820 Cyclone powered every B-17 Flying Fortress and Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber, as well as numerous other military aircraft – it was also utilized in armored vehicles such as the M4A6 Sherman and M6 Heavy Tanks. Wright R-975 Whirlwinds powered Canadian Ram tanks, the M3 Lee/Grant and M4 Sherman tanks, and M7 Priest self-propelled guns. The B-25 Mitchell bombers used in the Doolittle Raids used Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone engines (as did the Douglas A-20 Havoc, Grumman TBF Avenger, SB2C Helldiver, and Martin PBM Mariner), while the Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone was used in numerous aircraft including B-29 Superfortresses such as the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. By war's end, Curtiss-Wright had produced 142,840 aircraft engines, 146,468 electric propellers, and 29,269 aircraft; of these, 77,554 engines - over half of their total wartime production - were produced in Paterson alone.

To support these industries, Paterson dramatically expanded its manufacturing capacity. To meet production demands, Curtiss-Wright built 2.3 million square feet of new manufacturing floor space with the construction of a single massive new building, while also redeveloping or replacing older structures with space for manufacturing, warehousing, and testing facilities. Thanks to the city's established industrial infrastructure, transportation networks, and skilled workforce, this growth was accomplished quickly and effectively. Paterson's workforce grew as well, often dramatically changing from pre-war demographics. Women took over critical factory jobs as men volunteered or were drafted to serve in the armed forces, and the city’s Black population swelled as employment opportunities and Federal hiring standards drew thousands of people. They were needed - wartime production demands far exceeded peacetime; Curtiss-Wright alone employed over 50,000 Patersonians. Their contributions enabled critical wartime industries to not only meet the demands of war, but frequently surpass them in production and quality.

Given the city’s critical role in defense manufacturing, great emphasis was placed upon civil defense preparedness. This urgency increased after it was identified as a likely “target area,” a designation confirmed by post-war analysis of Axis military planning documents. The Paterson Fire Department, for example, sent men to receive training at the Federal Chemical Warfare School at Maryland’s Edgewood Arsenal, and sent representatives to train air wardens and teach at schools for Instructors of Voluntary Fire Brigades. Sixteen Auxiliary Fire Companies with over three hundred additional firemen were established, with weekly training and instruction (Paterson firefighters also directly served in the armed forces – at least thirteen received the Purple Heart).

Today, Paterson preserves the heritage and legacy of the city’s contributions to the war effort and World War II history in several ways, including commemoration, education, and preservation. Annual Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day events highlight the sacrifices made by those who served in the conflict.

Paterson also invests in making public memorials and commemorations more accessible – something particularly important for aging WWII veterans. In 2019 the city invested over $150,000 to construct an ADA-accessible road, parking lot, and walkway at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Hayden Heights, increasing access to the monuments at the Hill of Heroes memorial. Organizations like the Paterson Veterans Council support those who served and their stories, while institutions like the Paterson Museum use exhibits to educate and preserve them. Commemoration also includes interpretive programming and performances, such as the Paterson Museum's “birthday celebration” for Lou Costello’s featuring a reenactment of his Paterson Victory Bond awarding. Collaborations with performers such as the US Army Jazz Ambassadors have highlighted WWII – at their 2021 performance at Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park the band’s set list included patriotic and period selections as well as a salute to veterans. The City and other organizations also partner with the National Park Service, which established Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park in 2011 . The Park’s mission to preserve and protect includes Paterson’s WWII history, and projects and resource preservation such as at the ATP manufacturing site (now Quarry Lawn Park) create new spaces where the legacy of the city’s contributions to the war effort can be taught. Tours and programming touch on the city’s wartime history. Preservation of historic structures and inclusion into protected status is another focus across the city. Since the 1960s several dozen structures have been surveyed and added to the registers of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). Restoration, stabilization, and reuse have been undertaken in many instances. Historic resource studies identify important resources and sites - comprehensive study in 2017 surveyed 189 structures in the city, identifying 57 as “contributing” to the Historic District and another third of those studied as subjects of possible inclusion (not counting ATP site ruins). Most of these structures were utilized (often for unique or different purposes than originally intended) during the war.

Paterson contributed significantly to the Allied war effort during WWII, providing critical defense manufacturing, engaging in civil defense, and supporting government financing and morale. Today, memorials, exhibits, and public spaces are used to preserve the legacy of Paterson’s sacrifices and contributions while educational programs expose the public to these stories. Paterson’s status as an American World War II Heritage City honors the sacrifices and significant efforts taken by the city’s citizens, who rose to the challenge in time of conflict.

National parks preserve and protect not just nature, but the history and culture of a landscape. Explore the stories of Paterson - production, people, and places which helped shape a nation and the globe:

The National Park Service, in cooperation with the Organization of American Historians, has released the long-anticipated Historic Resource Study (HRS) of Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park: “An Incorporation of the Adventurers”: A History of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, Paterson “Silk City” and its People, and the Passaic Great Falls. The purpose of the HRS is to provide a historical overview of a park or region and identify a park’s cultural resources within historic contexts. The study expands upon earlier analysis of park resources and provide essential information which will inform decisions about the preservation, management, and interpretation of historic and cultural resources at the park. This baseline study builds on thematic work accomplished to date, including themes and contexts addressed at the 2012 Scholars Roundtable and the environmental, economic, industrial, and social history associated with resources within the park boundary. Explore the full Historic Resource Study and the Historic Resource Study Appendices

The history of the City of Paterson includes its beginning in 1792 as the ambitious project of Alexander Hamilton and the 1791 "Society for Establishing Usefull Manufacturers" (S.U.M.) at the Great Falls, the early development of water power systems for industrial use, and the various types of manufacturing that occurred in the District's mills into the 20th Century. These included cotton fabrics, railroad locomotives, firearm manufacturing, textile machinery, jute and silk spinning, weaving, and dyeing, and brewing, among many others. Explore the creation of a nation through Paterson's industries .

A core aspect of the Paterson experiment was the relationship between industry and labor. Patersonians were some of the first in the nation to engage in strike actions to fight for better hours, wages, and working conditions - from the 1835 children's "Baby Strike" through the Great 1913 Silk Strike to continued activism today, Patersonians helped create our modern relationship to work. As such, Paterson is one of the sites included in the 2022 "Americans at Work" National Historic Landmark Theme Study on Labor History . Paterson Great Falls is also located approximately ten minutes by car from the American Labor Museum , itself a site directly associated with the 1913 strike in Paterson.

Founded within the Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape for over 18,000 years, Paterson succeded thanks to immigrants. The city's founder, Alexander Hamilton, was himself an immigrant - the culture and diversity of the community he created comes from the workers and their families, who helped build up the area - some who owned and operated manufacturing concerns and became wealthy, and others who struggled for better working conditions and pay for themselves and their descendants. All called the city home, raising families and pursuing countless American dreams. Immigrants still settle in Paterson today to pursue their versions of Hamilton's vision, creating a diverse, vibrant, ever evolving culture. Explore the stories of the people of Paterson

When families immigrated to Paterson they brought with them their unique cultural identities. People came from all walks of life, and with their diverse backgrounds it only helped to grow the city's distinct personality. From seemingly endless rows of towering brick mills to compact corner shops, from small homes at the river's edge to a castle atop the mountain, Paterson's built environment is a rich tapestry of history and culture. Each has a story to tell. Explore these important places in Paterson

The combination of people, places, & production which are the core of Paterson's story are highlighted throughout it's history. Alexander Hamilton recognized that this would be critical in times of conflict as well as times of peace. World War II was a prime example, a period when the city threw it's full effort into military manufacturing, civil defense, and mobilization on the home-front. This history is honored and shared to this day. For these reasons, Paterson is New Jersey's American WWII Heritage City - recognized through the American WWII Heritage City Program for meeting high criteria for home-front activities and modern commemoration. Only one city in each state can be so designated, highlighting the significance of Paterson's contributions.

History is more than just names, dates, places, and events. History includes the detailed daily lives of the people you see walking down the street. It includes the events that make up the life of a community. Oral histories give us the opportunity to discover what a community's life was like from the people who lived it. They are an authentic record that go well beyond the pages of a textbook. Through stories, experiences, and various anecdotes, historians can begin to construct a social history of an era. In this way, oral history is a tool for making the past important and relevant to future generations. Do you have a story to tell of Paterson's past? Would you like to participate in our Oral History project? Contact Us to find out how!

The goal of the Oral History Project at Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park is to connect with the people who lived and worked in and around the City of Paterson. These represent an often-untold historical record that will paint a richer picture of America's first planned industrial city. The stories might be accounts of factory workers or owners. They may be stories from labor leaders, activists, or politicians. They may be memories of adults recounting the history of the city through the eyes of their younger selves. The narratives we collect will allow us to share the great history of Paterson, New Jersey, with our visitors.

The stories below were recorded through the Oral History Project and collected by historians, National Park Service Rangers and Interns. Thank you to all the interviewees who were gracious enough to grant us these interviews.

Lawrence Francis "Pat" Kramer served as Paterson's mayor for two sets of consecutive terms, 1967-1972 and 1975-1982. In his oral history interview, Kramer talks further about his love of the city, its features, and its role as the nation's first industrial center.

Thomas Rooney served Paterson for decades, first as mayor for 18 months, and then as Sixth Ward councilman for 28 years. Rooney was also instrumental in helping establish the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, developing and presenting a proposal and building a model.

Francis Blesso was 29 years old when a job called him from New Britain, Connecticut to Paterson. That was in 1967 and he made Paterson his home. Blesso came as a civil engineer to help redevelop the city Paterson. Frank describes the contributions to the creation of the Park made by architect John Young and Mary Ellen Kramer.

Born in 1929, Dolores Davidson Most has been a devoted Patersonian. She bears the distinction of being the last surviving member of a female police force from the 1950s, a time when police academies did not exist and folks looked down their noses at divorced women.

Many years ago, native Patersonian Roberta Perez Farber was asked to write a guest column for the newspaper. She wrote about a time in the future, maybe 20-50 years ahead, about a female mayor of Paterson and the revitalization of the city's historic district and the Great Falls.

Art lived on Totowa Avenue in a largely Italian American neighborhood. Surrounded by Italians, Art grew up speaking Italian. With the help of Americanized cousins and cartoon programs, he eventually got the hang of speaking English, and recalls his experiences growing up in Paterson, including Philippe Petit walk a tight rope across the Great Falls.

Maria Mazziotti is a Paterson poet and educator. Maria specifically chose Paterson as the home of the Poetry Center, inspired by William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg, and her own upbringing.

Helene Arbus Miller was born at Barnert Hospital in Paterson in 1933 into a Jewish family of silk weavers from Lodz, Poland. The family owned a mill, New Deal Weaving Company, at 3 Mill Street.

In this series of three interviews, Paterson "Renaissance Man" Jimmy Richardson discusses the history of the city's African American churches, African American newspapers, involvement (or rather lack of involvement) in the silk and textile industry, the Negro League Baseball League and Hinchliffe Stadium, and historical preservation.

Roni Seibel Liebowitz, a genealogist, founded Jewish Roots in Paterson on Facebook. It was a way, she says, to reconnect and she marvels at the friendship and camaraderie that continue even after many years.

Reverend Erik Soldwedel, born in June 1958, has both family and religious roots in Paterson. Since 2016, Erik has been serving as interim clergy at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Paterson.

Sussex County native Irene Sterling first fell in love with Paterson when attending an urban theology conference there with her fiancé and Drew University theology student, Howard Sterling. She moved to Paterson and became involved in various nonprofit organizations, including the Great Falls Development Corporation.

Betty was born at General Hospital in Paterson in 1931 and lived here until 1966 when she and her husband, John, moved to nearby Totowa. She remembers visits to the Great Falls and picnicking with friends.

To Bonnie Wetter Ross, Paterson was a wonderful place to grow up. She was born in 1947 to Irving Wetter, a kosher butcher in Paterson, and his wife Mollie. Bonnie fondly talks about shopping downtown, taking a bus and getting off between Fabian's and where City Hall used to be.

Catholina Lambert was born in 1834 in Yorkshire, England. At 10 years old, he apprenticed as an errand boy at Boar’s Head Mill. Over the course of seven years, Lambert saved five pounds sterling, which made it possible for him to leave England and arrive in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1851. In Boston, Lambert worked for Benjamin Tilt and Walter Dexter at their silk factory. Several years later, Tilt left the business and Dexter offered Lambert a partnership. Dexter offered Lambert a $5,000 loan - over the course of three years, Lambert managed to pay back and buy Dexter’s share. As the business grew in the 1860s, Lambert had a three-story factory built in Paterson, NJ known as the Dexter Mill. This mill had a large amount of government contracting during the Civil War. In 1857, Lambert married Isabella Eldridge Shattuck. During their marriage, the couple had eight children who lived well accomplished lives. The Lamberts moved to Paterson, NJ in the 1860s when they purchased the Maplewood estate in south Paterson. Lambert was the president of the Silk Association of America and the Merchants Loan and Trust Co. of Paterson among other organizations.

Lambert acquired an extensive antique and art collection over many years; by 1891, Maplewood was no longer large enough to house the vast collection. As such, he began work on “ Belle Vista ,” also known as “ Lambert Castle .” The massive estate, eventually complimented by an observation tower added in 1896, was constructed in the Medievel Revival architectural style out of local sandstone and granite at the initial cost of half a million dollars. When President William McKinley and Vice President Garret Hobart visited the completed castle and gallery in 1898, McKinley described it as the "Louvre of America." Belle Vista was named after Lambert’s beloved wife Isabella, who died in 1901, eight years after moving into the castle. Lambert continued to live in the Castle until his death on February 15th, 1923. The declining fortunes of the silk industry in Paterson and the aftershocks of the 1913 Silk Strike hit Dexter, Lambert, and Co. hard, and the firm liquidated in 1914. Lambert was forced to leverage his assests to cover the company's liabilities, and sold his art collection in an auction in February 1916. The collection sold for an estimated one-third of it's actual value. Lambert Castle is now home to the Passaic County Historical Society. Its magnificent history still captivates the imagination of the visitors to the museum and library at “ Belle Vista .” Learn more: Explore the Passaic County Historical Society 's resources, located at Lambert Castle Check out Passaic County 's resources on their Lambert Castle webpage

For members of a generation, Paterson and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter are synonymous with a song. But Carter's life is much more than what was condensed into Bob Dylan's 1976 protest song.

Born in Clifton, New Jersey, on May 6th, 1937, Carter grew up in Paterson. The fourth child of seven, Carter had a troubled relationship with his disciplinarian father. At age eleven, he acquired a criminal record for assaulting a man with a knife, and was sentenced to a New Jersey juvenile reformatory at age twelve. He escaped the detention center in 1954, climbing through a basement window. Two weeks later he told a recruiter that he was from Philadelphia to hide his New Jersey criminal record, and joined the United States Army. Completing basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Carter's first duty station was in West Germany. While there, he began his boxing career, joining the U.S. Army Boxing team. In just two years, he won the European Light Welterweight Championship with a record of fifty-one wins and five losses. Shortly thereafter, in June of 1956, he was discharged as unfit for service or duty after four court-martials for disciplinary issues. After his discharge, Carter returned to the United States. Arrested for a pair of muggings, he was sentenced to prison, and was released in September of 1961. During that year, he became a professional boxer in the middleweight class, and two years later he surprised the boxing world by defeating previous and future world champion Emile Griffith. Carter had a career record of 40 fights - 27 wins, 12 losses, 19 knockouts (KOs), and 1 draw - and was a top-ranked contender for several years until another bell rang, signaling a new, very different round in his life.

At approximately 2:30 am on June 17 th , 1966, a shooting was reported at the Lafayette Bar and Grill on the corner of East 18 th and Lafayette Streets in Paterson. Reports of a triple murder soon spread, committed with a .32 caliber pistol and a shotgun, and the Paterson police went looking for the suspects. Bartender James Oliver and a customer, Fred Nauyoks, had been immediately killed - another customer. Hazel Tanis would succumb from her wounds a month later in hospital. Willie Marins, a third customer, survived the attack, (losing sight in one eye from his head wound). When questioned, both Tanis and Marins told police the shooters had been black men with a shotgun and a pistol. Ten minutes later, as Rubin Carter, John Artis, and John Royster (Artis at the wheel) drove home from a nearby bar in a rental car - a white 1966 Dodge Polara with New York license plates - they were stopped by the police for the first time that day. Why the men were stopped the first time has been disputed - some argue he was one of the few cars driving nearby at the time, while others point to racial profiling. Carter and his companions were released from the stop. Meanwhile, two eyewitnesses outside the bar - Alfred Bello and Patricia Valentine (the latter lived above the bar) - described a double-parked getaway car roughly matching the vehicle Carter was driving. A third neighbor, Ronald Ruggiero, concurred. Officers pulled Artis and Carter over a second time (Royster had been dropped at home by this time) at approximately 3:00 am. At this point, the two men were ordered to drive with police to a station house, where they were arrested. Discrepancies in identification and procedure from this day would be argued over for years. "Clean" lie detector tests of the suspects and witnesses taken at the time and in subsequent years would be pointed to by each side. Police reported finding a .32 caliber bullet under the front seat and a 12-gauge shotgun shell in the trunk of the rental - found during a second search five days after the vehicle was impounded, neither matched those which killed the victims. Neither Carter nor Artis were positively identified by Bello or Valentine. Bello would later admit to acting as lookout for another man, Arthur Dexter Bradley, who was robbing a nearby warehouse, and was found to have money from the bar's cash register. Bellow - and Bradley, who came forward later - "positively" identified Artis; based upon this, Carter and Artis were arrested and charged.

The prosecution sought the death penalty during the trial. The defense, led by criminal defense lawyer Raymond A. Brown, focused upon inconsistancies in the identification made by Marins, Valentine, and Bellow, producing witnesses who testified Artis and Carter were still at the other bar (the "Nite Spot") at the time of the shooting. The jury convicted both men of first-degree murder, recommending life sentences instead of execution at the end of the trial in 1967. Judge Samuel Larner imposed three concurrent life sentences for Artis and one concurrent and two consecutive life sentences for Carter. In 1974, Bello and Bradley made a motion to recant their testimony - the judge denied their motion. Two appeals were filed based upon this, and a motion was later made to the New Jersey Supreme Court. It was at this time that public campaigning began bringing the arrest and trial to national focus, and during this time that Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy co-wrote "The Hurricane," the song most associated with the event and, for many, Paterson. Notably, Dylan would perform this song at the Trenton State Prison on December 7th, 1975, where Carter was concurrently held for some time. Evidence of Bello and Bradley having made deals in exchange for testimony were unanimously pointed towards by the New Jersey Supreme Court as having failed to disclose and prejudicial to the jury by not being so, and a second trial commenced. After nearly nine hours of deliberation, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders and their sentences were reinstated. Artis was released on parole in 1981, while Carter's legal team continued appealing. The trial went before a federal judge under a writ of habeas corpus, as both men believed they were wrongfully imprisoned. Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin granted a writ, noting the prosecutions had been made "predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure." Many considered the all-white jury to be far from one of "peers" of Artis and Carter, one of several charges of racism made against the original trial. In his ruling, Judge Sarokin said the 1976 convictions were based on ''…an appeal to racism rather than reason, concealment rather than disclosure.” Prosecutors, noting the difficulty of pursuing another verdict after 22 years and with witnesses either unavailable or now considered "unreliable," declined to prosecute, and Carter was freed without bail in November, 1985 at age 48.

Carter eventually became a Canadian citizen, and lived most of the remaining years of his life in Toronto and Ontario. While in Canada, he became an executive director for the Association in Defense of Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) and a motivational speaker. In 1993 the World Boxing Council recognized him with an honorary championship title belt. In 1996 Carter would be briefly arrested in Toronto after being mistaken for a suspect in their thirties who sold drugs to an undercover officer - the 59 year old Carter was released upon recognition of the error. Carter's last round of life began in March of 2012. Diagnosed with prostate cancer, he succumbed on April 10th, 2014. Cared for by John Artis, he surpassed doctor's estimates of up to six months, living past diagnosis by a year and a half. Artis would pass away of an abdominal aortic aneurysm on November 7th, 2021. In the last days of his life, Carter worked on clearing another man of false incarceration: David McCallum, incarcerated for murder in 1985, releasing an opinion piece titled "Hurricane Carter's Dying Wish" two months before his death. On October 15th, 2014, McCallum was exonerated. Rubin Carter's life inspired movies, songs, and became part of popular culture. But his story was more complex than the often simplified depictions many people are familiar with (the most famous example, Dylan's song, was re-recorded due to legal concerns and takes some artistic liberties). But whether in the ring or in the courtroom, one theme ran consistently through "Hurricane" Carter's life: he was a fighter.

The Great Falls of the Passaic are an incredible natural resource - one that birthed an industrial era. To the surprise of many, the heart of a busy urban area is a thriving natural ecosystem - explore the natural and scientific wonder of Paterson with these resources:

The Great Falls of the Passaic, the centerpiece of this park, became a National Natural Landmark in 1967. Their impressive power was the inspiration for Alexander Hamilton to establish the first planned industrial city in the United States here in 1792.

The National Natural Landmarks Program encourages and supports the conservation of sites that illustrate the nation's geological and biological history, and to strengthen the public's appreciation of America's natural heritage.

The Great Falls of the Passaic / Society for Establishing Useful Manufacturers Historic District is also a National Historic Landmark, and was established in May 11, 1976. The National Historic Landmark Program preserves the stories of nationally important historic events, places, and people for all Americans, and helps secure funding and resources for their continued preservation.

One of the most defining features of the Great Falls after the waterfall itself is the large brick building built beside it into the cliffside. Looking more like a church than an industrial building, its walls hide a thrum of activity where water still generates power in a practice fundimental to the very founding of Paterson as the first planned industrial city in the nation. Balancing the industrial and natural value of the falls has been a key theme in Paterson's history - explore the science behind how the falls produce power today at the Great Falls Hydroelectric Station .