In this Rewind, it’s 1954 in Journal Square, where Bergen Avenue pretty much begins, and Hudson Boulevard curves to the west (it wouldn’t be renamed Kennedy Boulevard for another decade).
Part of the sign for the China Clipper Restaurant can be seen at the top of the building on the left, as it follows the curve of the Boulevard. The China Clipper, one of old Journal Square’s legendary eateries, was named after the first four-engine flying boats built for Pan American Airways, and was designed inside to resemble the interior of an airplane. It was a theme restaurant before theme restaurants had become a thing!
The marquee seen on the Loew’s Jersey was only five years old at the time, having been installed in 1949 to provide bigger letterboards that allow for multiple sizes of letters, and was generally intended to be more eye-catching than what it replaced.
But what’s really amazing in the photo, looking at it from our vantage of 2026, is how huge the Theatre’s now-vanished vertical sign was! It was why the north tower of the Theatre’s facade is so much taller than the south tower – but even at that, the sign stretched still higher. And the width was almost as amazing as the height!
The vertical sign was taken down in the mid-1960s. The man who was the Theatre’s manager at the time later told #FOL that maintaining the sign had become a problem. And FOL also found that the steel which once held it was badly corroded.
Do you ever see the vertical sign in place? If not, can you imagine something that big hanging off of the Theatre’s front?
Do you remember any of the businesses in the photo?
Right now, all of the buildings seen in it remain. But plans have been revealed to replace the old China Clipper building, and others stretching around the curve, with a tower that would dwarf the old vertical sign. And the previous Jersey City administration backed the idea of tearing down the landmark building next to the Loew’s, where Charles Men’s Store is seen in the photo.