In 1889, Dorothy Fearing became Jersey City’s first Black schoolteacher, and the Bergen Hill home where she lived offers a fascinating window into the city’s Victorian era. But like many black history sites, it has no landmark designation and no protection from demolition. But that could change soon.
Fearing’s home at 363 Randolph Avenue, where she lived in 1906, is one of many notable black history landmarks. It is part of a new city-commissioned study identifying similar sites, presented at last month’s Historic Preservation Commission meeting. These sites will be added to an important index called the Historic Sites Inventory, which gives the Historic Preservation Commission some teeth to prevent demolition.
“We’re really happy to have some of this begin to be documented,” Maggie O’Neill, senior historic preservation specialist, said. “It is extremely overdue not just for this but for, frankly, most of the underrepresented groups in the city.”
Hunter Research, which authored the study, worked with Neal Brunson, director of the Afro-American Historical Society Museum, Charles Mainor, president of the Jersey City NAACP, and Gillian Sarjeant-Allen to identify the sites in the survey…