54 Marshall Street : A Room With A View?

Today the neighborhood around 54 Marshall Street, home of William A. Dixon and his family around 1909-1911, includes a large public school, a waterfront park and the Elizabeth Marina. There is also a mixture of homes, businesses, and industry.

 In the years that my great-grandparents lived there, you would certainly find the mix of residence and business, but this waterfront area was also heavily industrial. I can imagine that the neighborhood was never quiet.

A water view...almost.

If you stand with your back to the Staten Island Sound, at the foot of Marshall Street where it begins at Front Street, the Dixon home was in the third building from the corner on the left-hand side of the street. The building was comprised of three flats, or apartments, one family per floor.

The front windows of each flat looked out on an industrial site: The Bethlehem Shipyard. The site housed a machine shop and a foundry, as well as offices and storage buildings. It took up the whole block on the opposite side of Marshall Street. Across Front Street, on the waterfront, were additional metal and carpentry shops and the shipways. Rail lines on Front Street brought in supplies. All of these industrial buildings stood between the Dixons and a view of the water. Perhaps they could catch a glimpse of it from time to time.

Here are two clips from the Sanborn Maps from 1903 and 1918 showing the neighborhood. I've added the red arrows to indicate the Dixon home at 54 Marshall Street. If you follow the link in the caption, you'll see a list of all of the Sanborn Maps for Elizabeth that are available through the Princeton University Library website.

You will notice some changes in the neighborhood. The portion of Franklin Street between First and Front Streets is gone by 1918. The Bethlehem Ship Building Company took over those two full blocks for their operations. Despite that industrial growth, the residences on Marshall, and in the block behind on Elizabeth Avenue are still there.

1903 Sanborn Map. The red arrow indicates 54 Marshall St.
Insurance Maps of Elizabeth, New Jersey. New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1903. Sheet 75.
Princeton University Library: Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Elizabeth.

1918 Sanborn Map. The red arrow indicates 54 Marshall St.
Insurance Maps of Elizabeth, New Jersey. New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1918. Sheet 75.
Princeton University Library: Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Elizabeth.

The neighborhood today

Here's a Live Street View of 54 Marshall Street today, courtesy of Google Maps. The three story house with the brick first floor is where the Dixon family lived. It appears that the three structures shown here, numbers 50, 52, and 54 are the same buildings that were there in 1910. They all appear in the both the 1903 and 1918 Sanborn Maps.

Take a virtual drive around and check it out. It looks pretty nice with the school and waterfront park, there are some new homes mixed in among the older buildings, along with neighborhood stores and restaurants. And, finally, it looks like the current residents of number 54 got that water view.




This is the link to the image on Google Maps.

Sources

Insurance Maps of Elizabeth, New Jersey. New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1903. Sheet 75.
Princeton University Library: Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Elizabeth.

Insurance Maps of Elizabeth, New Jersey. New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1918. Sheet 75.
Princeton University Library: Sanborn Maps of New Jersey: Elizabeth.

Google Maps. Showing 54 Marshall Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey.