You can’t fully appreciate the falls from the parking lot – you need to get closer! We got the last spot in the little parking lot and were immediately treated with our first glimpse of the falls. The park wasn’t particularly crowded, and we weren’t sure if that was due to the fact that it was a holiday and people were otherwise engaged or if, like us, people really just don’t know this park even exists.
It was a beautiful day on the 4th of July when we visited, but it was also very sunny, muggy, and hot. (Thanks, Obama!) Visiting Paterson Great Falls The area around Paterson Great Falls is officially designated a National Historical Park, having just only been deemed as such in 2011. Located on the Passaic River, the Paterson Great Falls are 77 feet tall and stretch 300 feet wide, and the park’s literature describes them as the second most powerful falls east of the Mississippi. The falls powered local Paterson mills for more than 100 years before Paterson eventually went the way of most other former manufacturing cities in the U.S. At one point, Paterson also produced so much silk that it became known as “Silk City”. And so, American manufacturing began, with Paterson being home to the production of textiles, firearms, and even locomotives. This location in particular was selected because the hydropower created by the falls was essential for getting a manufacturing center up and running. The city was named for a Hamilton supporter, Governor William Paterson of New Jersey, who is also known as a former senator, Supreme Court justice, and signer of the U.S. Statue of Alexander Hamilton at Paterson Great Falls National Historical ParkĪs such, Hamilton selected the area above and around the Great Falls to be the site of America’s first planned industrial city, Paterson, NJ. needed to begin to manufacture our own goods.
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Once a free and independent country, though, the U.S. did not have its own manufacturing processes in place since it had not actually been permitted for us to do so while under British rule. was still heavily reliant on the British and others for supplying manufactured goods. (If you don’t believe me, you can read this really, really long report he gave on the subject to Congress back in 1791.)Īfter the Revolutionary War, the U.S. What you may not know, though, is that Hamilton is actually the founder of American manufacturing. You may recall that the 4th of July weekend was when Disney+ launched the Hamilton movie, which we (and many, many other people) proceeded to watch during the holiday. And on the 4th of July, we decided to head on over to check it out! History of Paterson Great Falls Located not even 15 miles from NYC, this lovely little park sits on the site of America’s first manufacturing center known as Paterson, NJ.
However, arguably the most important feature of the Great Falls Youth Center is that it is a safe and welcoming space for all Paterson high school students to come to during out-of-school hours, including the summer and days when schools are closed.During several of our recent drives to NJ to go hiking, we passed signs for a national park that neither my husband nor I even knew existed: Paterson Great Falls.
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The Youth Center staff and our AmeriCorps members are continuously offering various programs tailored to students' needs and interests, such as college prep and guidance, arts programming, movie nights, coffee house nights featuring students' spoken word and poetry performances, and much more.
It also contains a sound studio designed to allow participants to make music and learn sound engineering and other musical and music production-related skills. The lower level features a computer lab for homework and programming, such as basic coding and video editing workshops. The top floor serves as a space for students to do homework, play board games and video games, compete in ping-pong tournaments, and learn culinary skills in the kitchen space. During the 2019-2020 school-year, the Great Falls Youth Center served over 600 students. Since its opening, the Youth Center has quickly grown from serving about 20 students a day to serving over 100 students each day. Fortunately, NJCDC was able to purchase a building-Paterson's former American Legion Hall originally constructed in 1954-and transform it into the space it is today, thanks to the generous support of many donors. Before the opening of this space, the need for a youth center in Paterson that would stay open late on weeknights and provide a variety of programs and services for older teens was overwhelming. The Great Falls Youth Center opened in March 2018 as a safe-space for Paterson high school students to go after school to do homework, spend time with friends, and participate in engaging youth development programming.
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