Cathedral House

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Cathedral House was built in 1941 as a parochial school for the nearby Trinity & St Phillips Episcopal Church.

Prominamt Newark architectural firm John and Wilson Ely designed the school in the popular Collegiate Gothic style. The father & son duo were responsible for some of the most iconic buildings in the city, most notablely the Newark National Tower. 

 The new school included three levels of classroom space, a 600 seat auditorium, and a chapel with stained glass windows and 20 foot ceilings. 

After the rebellion of 1967 Cathedral House was used as a venue during the National Conference of Black Power. Delegates from more than 120 cities convened in Newark to discuss a range of issues affecting the black population of the US. The timing was more or less coincidental, as the conference had already been scheduled. The event was more important and interesting than I could ever summarize, so I recommend reading up on it at Rise Up Newark.

When the New Jersey Performing Arts Center was built, a number of significant historic buildings were demolished to make space fpr it. The organization agreed to sign a protection agreement that stated they will not demolish more historic buildings in the area, including Cathedral House.

By 2001 the building underwent significant renovations to accomidate programs being offered by NJPAC. Arist Paula Scher installed her Supergraphics piece on the facade of the building, fully transforming the 60 year old structure into a modern learning space. 

For whatever reason, they never remediated the asbestos throughout the building as they were legally required to under N.J.S.A. 34:5A-32 passed almost 20 years prior. 

Despite the renovation NJPAC announced plans to demolish the building in 2022. They acknowledged the signed protection agreement from 1993 but claimed asbestos remediation would cost too much.  After a wave of outcry from residents and preservation officials, they backed off the plan and offered a modified proposal that would have preserved a large portion of the building. The new plan was well received among city officials.

However just four years later the organization once again stated they intended to demolish most of the building they intentionally left vacant. They once again cited the asbestos they illegally left inside the building as one of the main factors. After a vote from the preservation commision, many of whom had long personal ties to the arts center, the new plan was approved 5 - 2. Commissioner Myles Zhang was removed from the board as a direct result of his steadfast refusal to waver to the demands of NJPAC and city leadership. 

Preservation New Jersey listed the building as one of their 10 most endangered histpric buildings of 2026. Unfortunately by that point the most significant architectural features of the interior of had already been irreparably damaged by demolition prep.

By the fall of 2026 the building was gone, with just one small section of the front entrance surviving. With this, NJPAC continues their legacy of being one of the most destructive forces towards the city's history. 

Thanks for learning with me. 

American Strip Steel

Passaic Avenue in Kearny looks much different than it did at the turn of the century. Factories and machine shops used to tower over both sides of the street. Those industries have since died out and made way for cookie-cutter retail and tacky, high density housing. One such factory that was recently demolished was the American Strip Steel Company. 

American Strip Steel was founded by Newark Entrepenuer LeRoy Schecter. Schecter had just returned home after fighting in World War II. After a brief stint working in the local steel mills he founded his own rolling mill just up river from the city in Kearny.

After a few decades, Schecter noticed that one of the pinch points in his operation was having to rely on outside trucking firms to move his goods around. The mill had a shoreline crane to load barges and was adjascent to a freight railway, but fright was losing out to truck transportation as more and more lines across the country closed and consolidated. This led Schecter to found Norbert Trucking in 1965. 

Kearny experienced the same heavy blows to domestic production that much of the country faced as the decades passed. The Aluminum Bat Factory to the north had been shuttered, as had the Clark Thread Mill to the south. Despite this American Strip was thriving. Things were going so well they began branching out to fill other niches.

In 1989 the company started manufacting metal studs under the name Ware Industries. Ware then purchased the Marino company four years later, rebranding themselves Marino-Ware. 

The Passaic Avenue Industrial corridor was beginning to become a nuicense to the town of Kearny. They declared the strech "an area in need of redevelopment". This allowed them to rezone the area for high density and grant special tax incentives so developers can make a ton of money rebuilding the properties. 

Most of the old industrial buildings were swiftly demolished. American Strip Steel, however, managed to hang on just a bit longer. It wasn't until the 2020's that American Strip had finally left Kearny. They moved to the large Marino-Ware compound in South Plainfield. 

At this point their old buildings stood out a bit like a sore thumb among the equally unappealing "peel and stick" style apartments. The oginal American Strip Steel Buildings were eventually demolished in the early 2020s. Workers moved slowly to salvage some of the overhead gantry cranes that were built into the structure, but by 2023 the buildings were entirely wiped away.

The site is currently being reworked to accomidate the new buildings that will rise where American Strip Steel once stood. Hopefully they pay some sort of homage to what once stood there, as the story is such a quintessentially American one. Only time will tell.