There is a tendency among real estate agents to portray Jersey City as a hip, modern metropolis with new development and amenities attracting young, upwardly mobile types from Manhattan – but the branding somewhat obscures the city’s rich past, when immigrants migrated to a blue-collar town to find work.
But not everyone forgets. Some modern-day Jersey City families have a long link to that past.
“They will have to literally carry me out of the house.” – Sean Connelly
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Until death will he part
Sean Connelly lives in the same house on Grand Street in downtown Jersey City that his family purchased in the early 1900s.
Last week, Connelly, an attorney, talked about his great-grandfather Michael, known as “Michaelangelo” or “Boots” Connelly. He was an Irish immigrant in the 1850s that ended up serving the Union Army during the Civil War as a shoemaker. After the war, he settled in downtown Jersey City with his wife and children, continuing his living as a shoemaker.
Connelly said that even though he grew up outside of Jersey City, he always returned to visit his grandparents, who lived in the historic house on Grand Street. Then, he came back to live in the city in the 1970s as a teenager and attended nearby St. Peter’s Prep, a renowned parochial school.
Since then he has never left. Connelly said he is still in his parents’ house, and has no plans to move.
“They will have to literally carry me out of the house,” Connelly said.
Connelly said he has been asked by family and friends why he doesn’t just move out to the suburbs. But he sees being in the house as a connection to the past.
“Why would I want to go anywhere else when I could live on the block where my father and his brothers played ball, and in the house where my father was born?” Connelly said.
Still living in the zone
Charles and Yvonne Balcer live in a 157-year old house on York Street that Charles Balcer’s mother owned until her death in 1989.
Balcer’s maternal grandfather, John, emigrated from Prussia in the 1880s and initially settled near Journal Square with his family. Balcer’s father lived in downtown Jersey City, on Mercer Street, where Balcer grew up as a child. After moving in and out of Jersey City when he got older, Charles and his wife settled in the downtown area in the early 1970s and have remained there ever since, raising their children while helping his mother out.
As Balcer puts it, he is still living “in the zone” where he has spent most of his life.
But Balcer said he is not sure he and his wife will spend the rest of his life here, that he is looking to “move past here” in the future but not sure when.
“I see myself as a rarity in that there aren’t too many people who have lived here as long,” Balcer said. “Yet I have adapted to the changes.”
Why has he decided to stay?
Balcer looked at the convenience of being only a few train stops away from New York City, where he has worked over the years as an actor, and where his wife worked as a schoolteacher.
Doesn’t see himself leaving
John J. Hallanan prides himself on being a history buff. His roots in Jersey City reach back through both of his parents, especially through his mother Agnes.
Agnes’ grandfather, Phillip Muldoon, a New York native, came with his family to Jersey City in the 1850s. Muldoon led an interesting life. He served with the 21st New Jersey Volunteers who fought in the Civil War, then opened a cigar store on Morgan and Grove streets.
Then he became a Jersey City public servant as the superintendent of sewers and the school system.
Muldoon’s daughter eventually married a New York City fireman. They gave birth to Hallanan in the Bronx, but he has lived in Jersey City since the age of 3.
He and his son, also named John, now live in their home on Gifford Avenue. And John Sr. has no plans to leave.
“There’s too much to empty out of this house,” Hallanan said. “And my son said he wants to stay here, so that’s fine with me.”
Hallanan, when he also thinks about staying put in Jersey City, is reminded of a former co-worker who traveled from Toms River to Weehawken, where Hallanan once worked.
“I would ask him why he would travel two hours to work and two hours back home when he live closer to work,” Hallanan said. “That’s four hours you miss in your family’s life and I didn’t see myself doing that.”
The irony
James Waddleton’s family has lived in the city’s Heights section for a combined 140 years. His father William, and mother Judy (maiden name Bald), have had family in this town since at least the 1880s.
But last week, he had a complaint: The U.S. Census Bureau hadn’t sent a form yet to his parent’s home in the city’s Heights section, despite their long residence there.
“I will be in Jersey City until my dying day,” Waddleton said. “My family and I are extremely proud to be Jersey City residents, and that will never change.”