Paulus Hook, Jersey City

Paulus Hook is a community on the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City, New Jersey, located one mile across the river from Manhattan. The name Hook comes from the Dutch word "hoeck" which translates into "point of land." This "point of land" has been described as an elevated area, the location of which is today bounded by Montgomery, Hudson, Dudley and Van Vorst Streets. The neighborhood's main street is the north- and south-running Washington Street. The waterfront of Paulus Hook is along the basin of the Morris Canal in a park with a segment of Liberty State Park. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail has a Paulus Hook stop at Essex Street and the Liberty Water Taxi at Warren Street. The introduction of the light rail and development of office buildings on the Hudson Waterfront have brought more businesses to Morris Street including a number of restaurants with outdoor seating and small neighborhood shops.

Originally the location was called Arressick or Arisheck Island by the earliest settlers after a corrupted Lenape term, possibly from Kaniskeck meaning a long, grassy marsh or meadow.

The location was originally part of a tract of land purchased by Michael Pauw, an Amsterdam Burgomaster and Lord of Achttienhoven in 1630 as part the Pavonia, the first settlement at Paulus Hook was in 1633. The area was an island at high tide, in 1638 was granted to Pauw's agent, a man named Micheal Paulez (Pauluson, Powles) who operated an occasional ferry and traded with the local Lenape population. His name was eventually anglicized to Paulus, and given to the hook jutting into the river and bay.

On February 25, 1643, 100 Native American Indians were massacred at or in the vicinity of Paulus Hook (Pavonia Massacre).

Until the American Revolution, the Dutch and then the English governed the site. In 1664, an expedition sailed from England to seize Dutch colonies in the New World. New Amsterdam Governor Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch surrendered to the English forces on September 8, 1664 but the Dutch recaptured the territory the next year. Eventually, as a result of a war in the "Old World," the Dutch lost their "New World" territories to the British. In 1672, war broke out between England and the Netherlands. Peace was achieved in 1674 and under terms of the Treaty of Westminster, England recovered New Netherland. The king awarded the territories to the Duke of York (later King James II) the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony (as opposed to a royal colony). James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River (the land that would become New Jersey) to two friends who had been loyal through the English Civil War: Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton. The Duke, to honor Carteret who had been with him in exile in Jersey, Channel Islands, named part of the territory "New Jersey."

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