Tales from The Silk City

  That was what my third grade teacher told me. My home town, Paterson, New Jersey was the “Silk City” of the U.S as Rouen in France was the Silk City of Europe.

She told her class that as part of the reasoning for the lack of  building codes that permitted factories and other business, manufacturing, commercial to be built next residences or homes. This meant that some neighborhoods never slept because the factory and the store were open 24/7.

 Paterson was birthed by Alexander Hamilton who had a special interest in the Falls of the Passaic river that snaked through the growing village that became the first industrial city in the U.S. 

Locomotives,Submarines, Guns(Colt), and the garment industry were the products that the early settlers in the city made and fed their families with their wages.

Streets like Broadway, Main, River ,Straight and E.33rd all had significant meanings other than location. Neighborhoods like 4th ward , Bunker Hill, Eastside and “the Projects and Riverside created their own images and energy that contributed to the legend that has come to define Paterson, N.J. the Rouen of America

The families made the tales..Jones, Cottens, Wimberlys , Carters, Costellos, Kramers, Graves, Iggie and Clarkie, Snitching 101 provided some of the principles that we who lived around Newman’s playground were raised and  JJ and Smooty were two residents  whose lives provided examples of that course from “Street Academy”.