I have been driving past this old building in North Newark on my way to and from work for over 20 years. And yet, only in the past few weeks did I notice that it might be something a bit more special than just another junky old building being used as a supply warehouse for some two-bit local business. From the ground level (first photo), it doesn’t look like much; just another place with graffiti and metal security doors. But if you happen to look at the top, you see the year 1876 proudly displayed. And you see signs of a building design and architecture that certainly are over 125 years old, remnants of another era, of a different way of living and doing things.
Wow, 1876; the USA’s Centennial. A decade after the Civil War was concluded. It’s interesting that whoever built that building took the time and expense to have its year of construction prominently advertised. Today we usually hide a building’s date of construction in an obscure cornerstone, or don’t show it at all.
Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any Internet information on this building, other than that it is located at 577 North 3rd Street and is home to the Ascot Tag and Label company. Newark has plenty of architecturally and historically significant buildings that are being preserved, and that is good. Still, it’s too bad that a plebeian, day-to-day industrial building like this isn’t getting any attention. In a way, places like this tell you even more about what daily life must have once been like, than any old church or mansion. Please take a moment and sample a bit of late 19th Century urban America, via my camera and my blog.
