265 Grove Street

265 Grove St.

La Nueva Isla Market

Jersey City is chock-full of great hand-painted grocery store signs. The signs at Nueva Isla Market on Grove Street are in great shape and have a lot more style than some generic computer-printed awning. The colors, textures, and letter styles used really make this place stand out from its neighbors. The lettering has quite strong shadows, which are particularly eye-catching in bright sunlight.

352 Grove Street

352 Grove St.

La Conga Supermarket

La Conga has one of downtown's best storefronts-- funky and dated, but still well-maintained and (hopefully) thriving. The printed awning text is full of character, and the handpainted signs above reveal a lot about the Grove Street of decades past. I especially like that three of the five grocery items on the front of their store are animals depicted in perfect, living barnyard form. Perhaps the signage is a non-verbal advertisement for their fresh meats. Maybe a warning to vegetarians?

84 Bay Street

84 Bay St.

The Powerhouse

The powerhouse is the poster child for creative re-use of buildings in downtown Jersey City. Much has been written in print and on the web about its future-- the powerhouse was even the subject of a PATH train ad campaign. It has its own website and seems to be the pride of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy. If things go as planned, we might one day enjoy this building as a beautiful hub for culture, retail, working and dining. Until then, I will enjoy the brightly-colored window panels installed during recent stabilization efforts. They stand in bold contrast to Newport's corporate bleakness--hopefully a sign of good things to come.

109 Bay Street

109 Bay St.

former (current?) Tai Tung Toys, Inc.

On a weekend walk through the waterfront warehouses, we found this great door.

14 Bright Street

14 Bright St.

former Passaic Hose IV Firehouse

The gorgeous details on the facade of this firehouse are a gold mine for architecture history geeks. I noticed it on a walk home from the Downtown Taqueria and immediately went home to look up information about the building and Passaic Hose on the internet. My dreamhouse is a repurposed building that can hold an automobile on street level and hold living quarters on the upper floors. This location isn't ideal for a residence (the firehouse is on an odd block where Bright St. dead ends into noisy Grand St.), but someone should have the joy of passing under this beautifully sculpted hat everyday.

Some websites tell me that the building is a Jersey City Child Development Center (!) and others think it's part of a firehouse-themed sub sandwich chain. This February 2009 article from the Jersey City Independent acknowledges that the empty building is quite stable and even has new plumbing and a new roof. J City theater, a live-performance group, lobbied the city to renovate and use the building as a performance venue. The city chose to auction the property in March 2009, but I can't find the results of the auction online.

Whether it becomes a theater, a restaurant, or even a lucky person's home, this building should become something. soon.

591 Jersey Avenue

591 Jersey Avenue

former Funeraria Las Americas

I used to walk by this overgrown but lovely building every day. I saw a funeral gathering there only four or five years ago. The building looked mostly the same then, with broken windows, peeling paint and a dry fountain in an overgrown yard. With the attached garage-like structure and coffin loading door, the possibilities for creating both living and working spaces in this building inspire many daydreams. The economic downturn stymied plans to convert the property into more condos--condos whose occupants shouldn't mind living in a former funeral facility.

I'm thankful that the condo plans are on hold for a while, but I hope that the building will one day see its potential realized. It's a good symbol for Jersey City on the whole- a once practical (maybe even beautiful) place waiting to be reborn with a new purpose.

North Facade

"Suburban Security"

A reminder of the bad old days when even funeral homes needed cutting-edge security technology.

Fountain