The Resurrection of Hinchcliffe Stadium Brings New Life to Paterson BY HELENE FOX
O
n Thanksgiving Day, football fans from across Paterson, NJ used to crowd into Hinchcliffe Stadium for the annual game between Paterson Eastside and John F. Kennedy (JFK) high schools. Prior to that, Hinchcliffe Stadium was the home of storied Negro League Baseball games. Hinchliffe was the home of the New York Black Yankees for more than a decade and even hosted the Colored Championship of the Nation, the Negro Leagues equivalent of the World Series. A far cry from its glory days, Hinchliffe Stadium now serves mostly as a parking lot and a canvas for aspiring graffiti artists. But there’s hope on the horizon. Real estate developer and Paterson native Baye Adofo-Wilson of BAW Development and Edward Mar-
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The Positive Community Winter 2021
togolio of RPM Partners have partnered with the City of Paterson and the Paterson Public School District to develop an ambitious neighborhood redevelopment project centered around the preservation and restoration of Hinchliffe Stadium. The Hinchliffe Stadium Neighborhood Restoration Project (HSNRP) aims to restore the glory and functionality of the stadium named for Paterson Mayor John Hinchcliff, whose persistence is credited with bringing the structure to fruition in 1932. Hinchliffe Stadium is located within Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park and only hundreds of
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