⁴ᴷ⁶⁰ Walking downtown Rahway, New Jersey

June 16, 2024 - 1:00 PM
76°F / 24°C

Walking tour (without narration) of downtown Rahway, New Jersey via the following route: northbound on Irving Street → southbound on Main Street → westbound on Milton Avenue → northbound on Irving Street. Filmed with GoPro Hero 12.

Highlights:
00:00 - Walking northbound on Irving Street
01:31 - Union County Performing Arts Center, Rahway Arts District Park
02:27 - Walking southbound on Main Street
07:25 - The Mint apartment complex, Meridia Lafayette Village Apartments
10:09 - Trinity United Methodist Church, Rahway City Hall
11:00 - Walking westbound on Milton Avenue
11:33 - The Watt Hotel Rahway, Rahway Train Station Plaza
12:25 - Walking northbound on Irving Street
15:12 - Park Square apartment complex

From Wikipedia:
"Rahway is a city in southern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway Valley region, in the New York metropolitan area. The city is 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Manhattan and 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Staten Island.

Built on the navigable Rahway River, it was an industrial and artisanal craft city for much of its history. The city has increasingly reinvented itself in recent years as a diverse regional hub for the arts and biological sciences, with a new global headquarters for Merck & Co.

In 2020, downtown Rahway received accolades as a Great Downtown by the American Planning Association: 'Downtown Rahway is a great place. It is a place that emphasizes livability, walkability, shopping, food, art, diversity and a destination. Centered in the heart of the bustling City of Rahway, next to the NJ Transit Station, Rahway's downtown is the building block for this diverse city.'

In 2019, the Watt Hotel opened across from the train station, with 100 rooms managed by Hilton on the third and fourth floors of a 17-story building, a lobby cocktail lounge and a rooftop terrace with a seasonal bar offering views of the city, river and outwards to the Watchung Mountains.

Beginning in the early 1990s and continuing through the present day, the City of Rahway has rebounded as its downtown began to see the construction of new restaurants, art galleries, market-rate housing and the old Rahway Theatre reopening as the Union County Performing Arts Center. The theater underwent a $6.2-million renovation and expansion project, completed in 2007. As part of the expansion, the facility was purchased by the County of Union for $1.3 million and leased back for $1 a year."