What to See in Elizabeth - Top Sights and Attractions

The Union County Park Commission Administration Buildings are located in Warinanco Park in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The Administration Building and the Service Building were built in 1924-1925 in the Tudor Revival style soon after the establishment of the commission. They were listed on the state and the federal registers of historic places in 1985.

In April 1921, Superior Court Justice James J. Bergen was petitioned to appoint a temporary committee to study the feasibility of a parks commission. On April 30, a temporary commission was named and given $10,000.00 and two years to complete the study. Within five months, the group finished the study and returned $8,391.00 of the funds. The emphasis of the report was to move quickly, before the available open space was gone. On the November 8, 1921, ballot, voters were asked to approve a permanent five-member Park Commission and $2.5 million to be spent at the commission's discretion.

The Union County Department of Parks and Recreation now comprises 36 parks that encompass nearly 6,200 acres, including Elizabeth River Parkway, Passaic River Parkway, Rahway River Parkway, Warinanco Park, and Watchung Reservation^[1]

Cable-stayed bridge in Staten Island, New York. The Goethals Bridge is the name of a pair of cable-stayed bridge spans connecting Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Staten Island, New York, in the United States. The spans cross a strait known as Arthur Kill, and replace a cantilever bridge span built in 1928. The bridge is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The original cantilever span was one of the first structures built by the Port Authority. The New Jersey side is about 2.5 miles (4 km) south of Newark Liberty International Airport. The bridge was grandfathered into Interstate 278, and named for Major General George Washington Goethals, who supervised construction of the Panama Canal and was the first consulting engineer of the Port Authority.

In 2013, two new cable-stayed crossings, running parallel to the old cantilever bridge and replacing it, were approved. The new eastbound span opened on June 10, 2017, at which time the original span was closed. The old cantilever span was dismantled in January 2018 and the new westbound span opened on May 21, 2018.^[4]

Township in New Jersey. Roselle Park is a borough in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 13,297, reflecting an increase of 16 from the 13,281 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 476 from the 12,805 counted in the 1990 Census.

Roselle Park was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 22, 1901, from portions of Union Township. Roselle Park's name is derived from the Roselle Land Improvement Company, which was created in 1866 to lay out a community around the Mulford Station on the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The name "Roselle" is said to have been based on the company's founder, John Conklin Rose or from John Pierre Roselle, a friend of the railroad's president.^[5]

Museum in Union, New Jersey. The Liberty Hall Museum, located in Union, Union County, New Jersey, United States, is a historic home where many leading influential people lived. It is now a museum. Originally a fourteen-room Georgian-style house, it was built in 1772. Liberty Hall stands today as a fifty-room Victorian Italianate mansion. Liberty Hall has been home to many historical figures and was the home of William Livingston, the first Governor of New Jersey, who served from 1776 to 1790; United States Supreme Court Justice Henry Brockholst Livingston; the Kean political dynasty, including Susan Livingston Kean, widow of Continental Congress delegate John Kean, United States Senator and Congressman John Kean, and Captain John Kean, son of United States Senator Hamilton Fish Kean; and, in its first year of occupancy, future Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. Liberty Hall has had visitors of such stature as George Washington, Martha Washington, Lewis Morris, Marquis de Lafayette, Elias Boudinot, and John Jay, the latter of whom was married there.

The Liberty Hall Museum is located on the Liberty Hall Campus of Kean University in Union, New Jersey between the campus' Main Campus in Union and East Campus in Hillside, New Jersey.^[6]

Theatre in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The Ritz Theatre in Elizabeth, New Jersey is a performing arts center.

The Ritz was built on the site of the 1865 Drake Opera House/People's Theatre/Star Theatre/ Jacob's Theatre/Proctor's Theatre. The theatre was purchased in 1925 by Jacob Fabian, who hired architect Fred Wesley Wentworth to design the Ritz Theatre on the site, which opened on March 9, 1926 with 2,791 seats. By 1941 it was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp. While there were performances through the 1970s, by the 1980s it was threatened with demolition. In 1989 it was purchased local philanthropists who set out to restore the theatre but ran out of funding. In 1994 purchased by George Castro, who has restored it to its 1920s grand appearance. It is a contributing property to the Mid-Town Historic District. Among the notables who have performed there are Chaka Kahn, George Burns, Harry Chapin, Jack Benny, The Marx Brother, Maya Angelou, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, and Rodney Dangerfield.^[7]

Presbyterian church in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Siloam Hope First Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth is a historic church at 14–44 Broad Street in Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey, United States.

It was built in 1783 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 for its significance in architecture.

The churchyard dates from 1687 and has over two thousand graves, many from the American Revolutionary War, including the Reverend James Caldwell.

In 2013, a Bible dating from 1699 belonging to founder John Odgen was returned to the congregation.

In 2019, the First Presbyterian Church merged with the Siloam Hope Presbyterian Church, becoming the Siloam Hope First Presbyterian Church. The newly merged congregation would remain at its original Broad Street location.^[10]