When there was a historical landmark or quality-of-life issue in Jersey City that needed to be addressed, the late Theodore Conrad was usually either in the middle of the fray or leading the charge.
Among some of Conrad’s accomplishments as an activist for the last 35 years of his life was helping in the creation of Liberty State Park, helping preserve the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre in Jersey City, and stopping Kennedy Boulevard from being turned into a superhighway.
And then there was his effort in the 1960s to save the old Hudson County Courthouse at 583 Newark Ave. from being demolished to make way for either a building or parking lot. He fought for about 20 years to save the courthouse (now known as the Justice William J. Brennan Court House) until it was restored to its original glory and reopened for business in 1985.
He was also responsible for having the courthouse listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, preventing it from demolition.This coming Thursday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. he will be honored for his efforts at a dedication ceremony. The courthouse rotunda will be known as The Theodore Conrad Memorial Rotunda, with a plaque describing who Conrad was.
Ceremony coming
Sam Pesin of the Friends of the Liberty State Park, who spurred the ceremony by mentioning at a Hudson County Freeholders meeting last year that there had never been a dedication, called Conrad a “pioneer” for his activism. Conrad passed away on Aug. 19, 1994 at the age of 84. A memorial service in honor of Conrad was held at the courthouse a month after his passing.
Conrad’s daughter, Doris Brown, said last week the news of the dedication ceremony is a testament to the dedication her father showed in serving his community, and the example he set for activists to follow.
“I hope people will learn, when they study what my father and others like Audrey Zapp, Morris Pesin, and Dr. Ethel Lawner did, are that it is the efforts of regular people who can make change in the world,” Brown said.
Born in 1910, designed NYC building models
Conrad was born on May 19, 1910 to German immigrants in a house on 31 Griffith St. in the city’s Heights section. According to Brown, her father’s interest in architecture and design was piqued at an early age by seeing his grandfather construct homes and buildings in his neighborhood.
Conrad studied draftsmanship at Dickinson High School in Jersey City, and then attended Pratt Institute in New York City. He then landed a job with the prestigious architectural firm of Harvey Walley Corbett in 1932 during the Great Depression. There, he designed the models for the Metropolitan Life Insurance building and Rockefeller Center, and became a respected figure in the architectural world, working alongside such giants as his good friend Phillip Johnson as well as developing friendships with icons such as the late John F. Kennedy.
Even with his success in the field of model making, he still maintained a deep love for his hometown, always keeping a home on Ogden Avenue, which his family still owns. “Everything that he did was a passion because his family had lived [in Jersey City] for so long,” Brown said. It was that love that led to him, upon turning 50, to pursue a new chapter in his life: activism.
Brown said it started with his beloved Riverview-Fisk Park, located on Ogden Avenue not far from his longtime home, being considered as the site for a senior housing complex.
Nearby residents like Conrad fought that plan and it was scrapped. Then, he heard of plans to take down the old Hudson County Courthouse on Newark Avenue.
Saving the courthouse
Conrad called the courthouse in an article he wrote in the 1960s an “architectural gem.” As a student of architectural history and a world-class model maker, he had good reason to make such a claim. Built in 1910, the courthouse designed by Jersey City resident Hugh Roberts was constructed in the beaux-arts or “Modern Renaissance” style for $3.3 million.
Resembling Italian Renaissance palaces of old, the six-story courthouse exterior of the courthouse was built with granite walls, bronze window frames and doors, Corinthian columns, and a low flat copper dome. Also, eight columns of Italian green marble rise from the second to the fourth floor in the center of the building forming an interior court covered by a dome.
But the highlight of the courthouse is the works of muralists Edwin H. Blashfield, Charles Yardley Turner, Kenyon Cox, and Howard Pyle throughout the building, depicting the history of Hudson County.
However, in the 1960s, Hudson County government looked to relocate courtroom operations to the then recently opened Hudson County Administration Building next door at 595 Newark Ave.
The historic theater
Conrad’s protégé, Colin Egan, met Conrad in the early 1980s. They worked alongside each other throughout the 1980s and 1990s until Conrad’s death to save the historic Loew’s Theatre in Journal Square from being demolished. Egan had many conversations with Conrad about the efforts to save the courthouse, and looks forward to Thursday’s dedication ceremony.
“The courthouse battle set the mold for all other preservation battles to come,” Egan said. “When Ted and others were fighting to save the courthouse, not many people knew about preservation.”
Egan said among the things that Conrad did to save the courthouse was go to numerous freeholder meetings, lead the collection of 20,000 signatures to stop demolition and pulled off one of the great citizen-led coups over the Hudson County government run by legendary powerbroker John V. Kenny.
“When Ted stood up at a freeholders meeting and says they can’t tear down the courthouse because he put it on the National Register, I could only imagine the gears of the political machine at the time grinding to a halt,” Egan said.
Brown said her father in later years looked back with pride at what he did in saving the courthouse but without being boastful. “Dad had a thing where while he had a sense of accomplishment, but to him, it’s what you’re supposed to do,” Brown said. “He always told me, ‘If you live in a community and you’re not participating, then you have no right to complain about it.’ ”
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