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Weequahic (pronounced "weekwake") is a neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey's South Ward. It is bounded by Hawthorne Avenue on the north, Irvington on the west, Frelinghuysen Avenue on the east, and Elizabeth on the south.
The name "Weequahic" is Lenni-Lenape for "head of the cove." The area was farmland until the late nineteenth century when it was developed into a middle-class, non-industrial neighborhood of detached single-family homes oriented around Weequahic Park.
Weequahic was a middle class Jewish neighborhood prior to the 1960s, home to many synagogues, yeshivas, and Jewish restaurants. The tallest building on Newark's South Side, Newark Beth Israel hospital, was built under auspices of the Jewish community. Author Philip Roth grew up in Weequahic and many of his novels are set there.
Nationally, Jewish neighborhoods tended to have short life spans and Weequahic was no exception. The neighborhood might have stayed middle class if not for the construction of Interstate 78. I-78 tore Weequahic's fragile urban fabric and separated the neighborhood from the rest of Newark. The 1967 riots were also devastating to the district, though the riots themselves were in the Central Ward.
The jewel of the neighborhood is the 311 acre Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Weequahic Park. This lovely park has a 2.2 mile rubberized jogging path around its 80 acre lake, and the oldest public golf course in the United States.
Part of the Weequahic neighborhood has been designated a historic district. The neighborhood's commercial heart is Chancellor Avenue, though the street's commerce is not what it was in Newark's Golden Age.
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