Speech about Ted Conrad by Sam Pesin at 30th Birhtday Luncheon

Remembering the late Ted Conrad is essential. The park street, Conrad Drive, is named

 for this park founder, to whom we are deeply grateful. As a Jersey City historic

 preservationist and open space advocate, he contacted my father within a couple of years

 of Morris’s starting the crusade to establish the park. In treasuring the past, Ted worked

 to preserve historic sites, and in valuing the future, he worked to create LSP. In his 1961

 opposition letter to a housing development replacing  his neighborhood park, he declared,

 “ We must hang on to every bit of park space and acquire more, if we are to have some

 breathing space”. In May, 1962, Morris and Ted formed the Statue of Liberty Causeway

 and Park Association, made up of civic, business, and religious leaders to promote their

 vision, of replacing a decaying waterfront with a park. The causeway idea didn’t get off

 the ground, but Morris and Ted were delighted, when eventually, ferry service connected

 the park to Lady Liberty.

 Ted Conrad was an internationally-known maker of architectural models. He pioneered

the use of metal and plexiglass in models. He did the model for the gravesite of President

 John Kennedy, for New York’s Museum of Modern Art and for Rockefeller Center.

 In 1962, he did a great model of what the park could be, with walkways and trees in a

 park behind Lady Liberty. The model was instrumental in helping elected officials,

 bureaucrats, and the public envision the old freight yard as a waterfront park. Morris and

 Ted took countless trips with the model, to Trenton and throughout Hudson County to

 build support for the  park idea. They were compassionate people and knew the park

 would lift up people’s spirits.

 In the 1960’s, activists formed the “Hudson County Citizen’s Committee”. It’s first

 president, Dr. Ethel Lawner, who is here today, led the battle with Ted, Audrey Zapp,

 Morris, the late city historian J. Owen Grundy and many others. That progressive

 Committee proved that people could defeat horrendous official plans. The Committee

 stopped Kennedy Boulevard from becoming a federal highway, thereby saving all the

 Boulevard trees from being cut down. With Ted Conrad’s leadership, the Committee

 prevented the demolition of the architectural gem of the Hudson County Courthouse.

 Then the activist Committee turned its attention to supporting the cause of LSP, and

 Audrey then came to the forefront with Morris and Ted. That trio of giants worked

 tirelessly for the park. When DEP Commissioner Richard Sullivan dedicated himself

 to finding funding to purchase the Railroad land, the vision was on its way to becoming a

 reality.

 Once the park opened, Ted Conrad was a passionate leader in fighting commercialization

 plans, and he continued his JC preservation leadership which included saving the Loews

 Jersey Theater from the wrecking ball. The theater has been restored by volunteers, but

 the city needs to bring it up to code, as promised, so the landmark can thrive with shows.

 I hope that when Liberty Science Center leaves its temporary headquarters at the

 Terminal, that the park historian will add to its train resource room, and create an

 archives room for the papers of Audrey, Morris, and Ted. And I hope, that with the

 Conrad family’s permission, the model will get a place of honor in a permanent display.

Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer

J. Owen Grundy and Theodore Conrad were two giants who loomed large in the history of Jersey City. Both have public landmarks in the city named for them.

They also have left significant legacies. Grundy helped form the city's Municipal Historic Districts Commission, now known as the Jersey City Historic Preservation Commission. Conrad was involved in preserving the historic Loew's Theater.

The late residents became fixed in neighbors' minds in the 1960s and 1970s for their tireless activism to preserve and save architectural landmarks from destruction.

Now, the late Mr. Grundy has a pier at Exchange Place named after him, J. Owen Grundy Pier. Residents can sit on the benches and look across the Hudson River at the Manhattan skyline.

Theodore Conrad has a street named after him, Theodore Conrad Drive, near Liberty State Park.

Theodore Conrad

Recently, Conrad's daughter Doris Brown showed The Reporter several binders filled with drawings that Conrad made and articles about his life.

"He could never throw anything away," said Brown. "I even have a drawing he did when he was in kindergarten." Conrad was born on May 19, 1910 to German immigrants in a house on 31 Griffith St. in the city's Heights section.

According to Brown, her father was intrigued at an early age by seeing his grandfather construct homes and buildings in his neighborhood.

Conrad studied draftsmanship at Dickinson High School in Jersey City, and then attended Pratt Institute in New York City.

He landed a job with the prestigious architectural firm of Harvey Walley Corbett in 1932 during the Great Depression. There, he designed the models for the Metropolitan Life Insurance building and Rockefeller Center, and became a respected figure in the architectural milieu, working alongside such giants as his good friend Phillip Johnson. Doris Brown said her father never lost his love for his hometown.

"He couldn't imagine living anywhere else. This was the best place in the world," said Brown. "He could see Manhattan from here and all the buildings he helped create."

Conrad went one step further in his love for his Jersey City by assuming an activist role after he turned 50.

It started after he heard of plans to take down the old Hudson County Courthouse on Newark Avenue to build a parking lot. Built in 1910, Conrad called the courthouse in an article he wrote, an "architectural gem."

Conrad fought for about 20 years to save the courthouse until it was restored to its original glory and reopened for business. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preventing it from demolition.

Conrad participated in other good fights as part of the Citizens Committee of Hudson County. He and fellow activists Morris Pesin, J. Owen Grundy, Audrey Zapp, and Dr. Ethel Lawner helped prompt the development Liberty State Park, and they saved Kennedy Boulevard from being turned into a six-lane highway.

One of Conrad's later crusades was saving the historic Loew's Theatre in Journal Square from being demolished in the late 1980s. Colin Egan, one of the founders of the Friends of the Loew's group that formed in 1987 to save the theater, said Conrad's presence was integral to the building becoming a functioning movie theater, which is still being renovated.

Egan said Conrad's influence changed his life.

"Ted told me double check, to rethink everything," said Egan. "He would tell me never to believe things immediately, to always think in the long-term. And that's what made him a visionary, a stalwart in his community, and we all owe him a tremendous debt."

Conrad passed away on Aug. 19, 1994 at the age of 84.

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