A young person – 50 or under – living in Passaic today who reads this would probably wonder what in the world this is about because there isn’t any railroad – or trains – that pass through Passaic.

That is true today and it has been true since September 1963 when the first railroad tracks were removed from the downtown area between Main Avenue and Lexington Avenue.

When I was growing up in Passaic in the 1950s and early 1960s, the trains were part of every day life. The trains, the railroad tracks and the station had always been there for as long as I could remember.

That made me wonder. Exactly when did train service first pass through Passaic and where did the trains go?

Wikipedia has a very lengthy article on the Passaic Station of the Erie Railroad that goes into depth on the ups and downs of the Passaic stations and the history of Passaic train service.

What surprised me the most is that railroad service began on 28 May 1832!!! Passaic wasn’t even Passaic until 1854. In 1832, it was the village of Acquackanonk, first settled by the Dutch.1832 was a total shocker to me.

Why was a new modern train service passing through a little village? Well, the main reason is its proximity to New York City. Manhattan is a short 15 miles away.

As the 19th century came to an end, the city of Passaic was booming with factories. European immigrants were arriving daily to begin new lives – either temporary or permanent – and work was to be found in all the mills that opened along the Passaic River.

Automobiles weren’t around yet so immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, often made their first stop in Passaic. Off the ships in Manhattan, they would often be met by family or friends and would take the bus or, if the family member had a bit of money, the train, which stopped at two or three stations in downtown Passaic.

This above postcard is an undivided back, so it pre-dates 1907. Main Avenue is the scene on the left, while Lexington Avenue is on the right. Businesses like banks and trade schools tended to be found on the Main Avenue side, at least downtown, and the shops and little markets were usually on Lexington Avenue.

Downtown Passaic had at least three arrival/departure stations through the years. The first one apparently burned down around 1878. The second one also suffered a fire, but was renovated and updated.

Here is a second view, a bit more close up and probably taken about the same time.

It is correctly identified as Main Avenue, rather than Main Street and the pedestrian crossing has a man along with a person pushing a baby carriage across the tracks.

The train station that I remember was near Main Avenue and Jefferson Street and wasn’t anything special by the 1950s.

However, back in the day, it was quite nice.

The above photo (Public Domain) dates from c1910 and this is what my Nana would have seen as she got off the train, having made the ocean voyage from Ujak, Slovakia back to the city of her birth, Passaic.

Here is another view:

The same smokestack can be seen in the distance just past the station.

The train was “the” mode of travel for those who could afford it. Not only did it go to New York City, it made local stops in cities like Paterson.

I took the train from Passaic all the way to Boston when I was five years old. It was just before the birth of my sibling and my Aunt Barbara came down to bring me to Massachusetts and be out of my parents’ hair for a couple of weeks until the baby came.

My mom took us on the same train a few years later to visit my grandparents and extended family in the Boston area.

Those were my only two adventures riding a train, aside from some city subway rides, but the trains were always passing through – until all of a sudden, they weren’t.

Even though many of Passaic’s residents never rode the train, or like me did so once or twice, we always knew the trains were there.

I don’t really remember train noise downtown, probably because there were so many people walking to the stores that it was just background noise.

Passing trains couldn’t be heard from my house, either, even though I only lived about a full block away.

However, Nana and I often walked up to Main Avenue to shop in the local stores (not in the downtown area) and (in the map below) if you look at the red pin where my house is and to the left for the red arrow showing the tracks and just left of that, Main Avenue, it’s obvious that we had to cross the train tracks every time we went shopping. Most of the time, we walked, but Mom and Dad had to stop in the car, too, to let the trains pass.

And they did! Often! More times than not, we had to wait for a train to go by before we could safely cross and continue up the street.

While reading the history of the Erie Railroad in Passaic, I learned that talks first began during the Depression years to stop train service and remove the tracks.

It wasn’t until 2 April 1963 that life changed in downtown Passaic. The city and railroad company made the decision to remove the tracks and end train service through Passaic.

The ceremony was held on a Tuesday and we had time off from school that day so we could view history for ourselves.

I found a photo for sale online – which is probably still under copyright since it was taken in 1963 – that shows the crane on the track almost in front of SS Kresge’s and the beloved Jefferson Bake Shop with hundreds of people packed on the sidewalk and in the streets of both Lexington and Main Avenues, which had been closed to car traffic.

I was in that throng of people with a couple of friends and we watched as the first piece of track was removed.

The vacant land was paved over and became parking spaces for the shop patrons downtown and it remains that way today.

After that first track was removed, the crowds dispersed and life went on. It was quite sad that the trains had become a part of Passaic’s bygone days.

Here is a view of where the train tracks were and where I lived.

My home on Summer Street is marked by the red pin. The spot where the first track was removed is in the bottom right area where the red square marks the bottom of the arrow. That’s the corner of Jefferson Street.

Just to the left of the lowest part of the red arrow, you can see little black spots. Those are cars parked where the tracks used to be.

It was good that people had more parking available downtown, but train service was a loss to Passaic and removing the tracks and, of course, bulldozing the train station destroyed some of the charm of old Passaic.

Over time, neighborhoods change, sometimes with updates that are barely noticeable, other times with drastic overhauls.

Changes are most frequent in small, somewhat rural areas that grow into towns or even small cities.

However, small cities can also undergo unexpected changes in their development.

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I grew up in Passaic, New Jersey. I thought I was familiar with many parts of the city, having lived there for so many years.

I was aware of one change that happened in the 1920s. I learned about it when I was researching the history of my grandmother’s church, today the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel Byzantine Catholic Church in Passaic.

Here is a map view of the area today. Th view is upside down to correspond with the view from the church:

First, look at St. Michael’s with the upside down red pin at the top of the map. The address is 96 First Street. Now, travel down First Street to the black oval with the red arrow in it. That is the corner of Madison Street.

The area is quite industrial, although there is a school near the corner of First and Madison, which will be our viewpoint in the next image. Note that there are lots of buildings and black top in the area.

Now, jump back in time to 1906. Look at this early view, found on a postcard:

There is a canal meandering in front of St. Michael’s. In fact, the water is so close, if a person wasn’t paying attention, they might end up very wet on Sunday morning.

I found out that the Dundee Canal was covered over in the 1920s. If someone dug up that area today, presumably the water would be exposed once again! I had no idea about the size of the canal, but knew that it was built to accommodate the factories that popped up in the second half of the 1800s.

Recently, I cam across another postcard, which puzzled me. It’s also frm 1906 and Identifies the water as “Vreeland’s Pond.”

There is a square building just about smack in the middle of the picture. Beyond that, you can see St. Michael’s original towers just behind.

So, what was this body of water doing in the neighborhood? Take a look at this street view image:

Again, almost in the middle of the picture, you can barely see the church towers of St. Michael’s. This is the corner of First and Madison seen on the map above.

This was Vreeland’s Pond! This body of water was quite large and, from it, was built the Dundee Canal!

The other buildings seen in the postcard view are all gone, replaced by this ugly blacktop.

My grandmother came back to live in Passaic in 1910. She married my grandfather in St. Michael’s in 1915 and would have had to carefully navigate the steps up into the church, avoiding the water.

The covering over of the canal also marks a moment in history, signalling the demise of the factories in the area. The Great War was over and in 1921, the United States greatly restricted immigration and it was the immigrants who worked in the factories. Life was changing!

By the time my father was born in the 1920s, the whole neighborhood had been black topped over with not so much as a drop of water to be seen.

These old postcards provided a great look at the old neighborhood and gave me an understanding of how much the area changed.

Vintage postcards are a great resource for understanding local history. Postcards had their heyday in the first half of the 20th century. I regularly look online for new historic views of neighborhoods in which I’m interested and I buy postcards fairly regularly. Most can be purchased for under $10.

The fun part is that you never know what is going to pop up!