Great Falls Historic District, Paterson, New Jersey

In November 2001, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized by Congress, through the "Great Falls Historic District Study Act of 2001" (P.L. 107-59), to conduct a Special Resoutce Study of the Great Falls Historic District in Paterson, New Jersey to determine if its resources meet applicable criteria for designation as a unit of the national park system. This report constitutes the results of the study undertaken by the Northeast Regional Office of the National Park Service (NPS). The study, in accordance with previous legislation regarding the criteria to be used in such analyses and reflecting current NPS management policies, examines the national significance of the Great Falls Historic District, its suitability and feasibility for designation as a unit of the national park system, and the need for NPS management of the resource versus management by other agencies of government, or through other means. The importance and methods of applying these criteria to result in a recommendation by the Department of the Interior to Congress for potential designation of a resource as a unit of the national park system are explained in the following chapters of this report. Paterson enjoys a distinguished history as one of this nation's earliest industrial centers. It was, most simply stated, chosen to be such a place. It owes its existence to the far-reaching vision of one of America's most important founders, and a true shaper of our modern governmental and financial institutions, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton envisioned Paterson, with its water power provided by the Great Falls of the Passaic River, as America's counterpart and response to the industrial revolution occurring in England during the same period. Indeed, Hamilton was not beyond attracting, through inducements and active recruitment, the talents of those who knew of the English technological advancements despite English laws prohibiting exportation of such proprietary knowledge and skilled labor.