The Beacon Condominium (Jersey City, New Jersey)

 condominium, interesting place, Art Deco (architecture), New Deal Depression Relief Project [1933-1945]

Charity Hospital was opened on this site in 1882, name changed to Jersey City Hospital by 1885. When Frank Hague became mayor of Jersey City in 1917, his mission was to greatly expand the hospital into a leading center. The original building was renovated and a new 23-story structure for surgery opened in 1931.

During the Great Depression, seven buildings were added as a WPA project designed by John T. Rowland, Jr., with such architectural and design features as marble walls, terrazzo floors, etched glass, decorative moldings and chandeliers, and it housed one of the most famous maternity wards in the country – the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital.

The formal dedication of the Jersey City Medical Center was on October 2, 1936, with Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicating the building. During the 1950s, JCMC was the home of the medical school of Seton Hall University, which later became the New Jersey Medical School, now located in Newark. Oversized and understaffed, the complex closed down in 1988, and the hospital and offices fully moved to a new complex by 2004. Prior to that, one building of the complex, 591 Montgomery Street, had been converted for senior assisted-living residence.

Metrovest Equities/George Filopoulos was designated the redeveloper of the property in 2003 and officially closed on it in 2005. The developer started converting the ten federally-landmarked, Art Deco buildings in the largest residential restoration project in the country and the largest in the history of New Jersey, called The Beacon, with luxury condominium and rental buildings opening beginning in 2008 and continuing thru 2016. The interiors retain much of their wonderful historic detailing.

npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/85003057
lorea.smugmug.com/Lincoln-NJ/The-Beacon-Apts-JC/