Downtown Newark, officially known as the Central Business District, is an unincorporated community and neighborhood within the city of Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. Downtown Newark is Newark's central business, retail, and cultural district and the largest such district in New Jersey. It is located at a bend in the Passaic River.
Downtown is the site of the original Puritan settlement of Newark. The first settlers, led by Robert Treat, landed not far from the present site of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The intersection of Broad and Market Streets, known as Four Corners was once considered the busiest intersection in the nation, and is the heart of traditional downtown.
Most of Newark's office buildings are located in this area. In the post-World War II era, downtown seemed to be moving north during the New Newark architectural period, in the direction of Washington Park. Since the 1967 riots, it has been shifting slightly east in the direction of Newark Penn Station, the Gateway Center and the Passaic River.
Downtown Newark is the home to Newark's major cultural venues - the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), the 3,000-seat Newark Symphony Hall, Prudential Center, the Newark Museum, Military Park, and the New Jersey Historical Society. Downtown is also home to Seton Hall University School of Law and Aljira, an emerging artist's gallery. It is also home to Government Center, an area of municipal and federal government offices and Newark Convention and Visitors Bureau, where visitors can find out all things happening right here in the city of Newark. It was once home to a Chinatown neighborhood centered on Mulberry Arcade, which was off of Mulberry Street, near Lafayette and Green Streets. Many of downtown's cultural and historical sites are linked by the unmarked Lenape Trail, which also leads to Branch Brook Park, the Watchung Mountains and the Passaic Meadows on this yellow-blazed trail.