Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park in New Jersey

Our visit to the Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park, NJ.

Silk cloth and steam locomotives; textiles and continuous paper rolls; firearms and aircraft engines. What do these things have in common? All were manufactured in the same place - Paterson, NJ.

In 1792, Paterson was established as America's first planned industrial city, centered around the Great Falls of the Passaic River. From humble mills rose industries that changed the face of the nation.

Industry

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.

Labor

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.

People

Founded within the Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape for over 18,000 years, Paterson succeeded 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.

Mary Ellen Kramer Park

During their visit in 1778, Alexander Hamilton, the Marquis de Lafayette, and General George Washington rested here under a tree and had a picnic lunch of cold ham, tongue, and biscuits.  They enjoyed the view of the waterfall and the surrounding landscape of forest and farmland.

Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park Sign

Ranger Station

A bronze statue of Alexander Hamilton rightly takes a place of honor here.  Hamilton was born on a small Caribbean island, the child of a father who deserted the family and a mother who died when he was 12 years old.  After writing an article about a devastating hurricane for the island's newspaper, local merchants recognized Hamilton's potential and raised money to send him to New Jersey for a formal education.  He rose quickly to become George Washington's most trusted aide in the Revolutionary War.

In July 1778, a young Alexander Hamilton visited the Great Falls with General Washington, French general Lafayette, and other officers of the Continental Army.  Hamilton would return to the Great Falls again as the Secretary of the Treasury.  No natural wonder would have a greater impact on our nation's history.

As the nation's first Treasury Secretary, Hamilton was concerned that America remained largely dependent on England for virtually all manufactured goods, including military supplies.  Hamilton chose to implement a new economic vision for America at the Great Falls.  He founded Paterson to create an economy that required not slavery but freedom, that rewarded no social status but hard work, and that promoted not discrimination against some but opportunities for all.

Paterson was a whole new city planned from the start to stimulate industry and innovation through power.  Recognizing and powering a factory, Hamilton created the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures (New Jersey's first corporation), and secured large investments to purchase land around the Falls and finance a complex hydropower system centered on a system of power canals called raceways.

The S.U.M. investors would make their money by renting mill sites and selling power to manufacturers, sometimes building new factories to rent them out.  If a fledgling manufacturer could not afford rent but had a promising idea, Hamilton's charted gave the S.U.M. the opportunity to accept stock in the startup manufacturing company instead of rent.

The hydroelectric plant was designed as a way to end the mills' reliance on water from the raceways.  Thomas Edison's Electric Company drew up plans for a 4849 kilowatt energy facility which operated from 1914 to 1969, using about half the water necessary for the raceways to generate the same amount of power.  When the plant opened in 1914, its primary purpose was to supply electricity to Paterson's industries.  Today, the refurbished plant provides energy for homes and businesses throughout the region.

Unfortunately, the bridge over the falls was closed.  That would have given us a great view up close.

Part of what is left of the Colt Manufacturing Company which was founded in 1855.

Another place checked off in my National Sites and Parks book.