As far as I can tell the Horseshoe is the downtown area near modern day Newport/Hamilton Park/Harsimus Cove.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive- ... 3A25755C1A9629C946395D6CF

Where is the horseshoe area of Jersey City in modern times?

Also check out:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jedsey_journal/

Young Frank Hague and the Lucky Horseshoe Bob Leach's latest Hague book - (review by Marty Walsh)

Anyone who grew up in Jersey City before 1970 will enjoy reading Bob Leach's latest story -treasure , Young Frank Hague and the Lucky Horseshoe ( How a Neighborhood Forged a Political Boss). This 82-page , odd-size book with drawings is a reader's delight. It's loaded with short, descriptive and funny tales of the characters, events and unique downtown neighborhood that created Mayor Frank Hague and his successor, John V. Kenny.

Above all, it's the story of Jersey City politics at the turn of the 20th century as experienced through the lives of the disenfranchised and exploited Irish-Catholic immigrants. The saloon served as the turbulent centerpiece for grass- roots organizing, as the Irish slowly made inroads into securing city jobs and eventually became a political force that toppled the long-entrenched Protestant -power elite.

Author Bob Leach reminds me of Garrison Keillor in the way he tells an interesting story, using simple, graceful and easy -to-digest prose. At times, I could almost hear the author happily telling the Jersey City folklore stories to me, the reader, as he does to community groups and library patrons for the Jersey City Free Public Library and the Division of Cultural Affairs today. That's how comfortable his stories are to the reader's ear and imagination.

Finally I have a confession to make. Even though I am familiar with Jersey City like the back of my hand, I realized I knew little about the horseshoe section other than St. Michael's high school gym where I played three times with St. Al's high basketball team (1954-56), and St. Francis Hospital where I dated a student-nurse as a St. Peter's College freshman. The only time I went there was at night. So I never saw the magnificent neighborhood in daylight until Jed took me on a tour earlier this spring. The area rivals the finest blocks in Greenwich Village.

One more confession. Bob Leach called one of the Irish saloons in the horseshoe section the "Bucket of Blood". I laughed reading that. You see, when I was a Jesuit scholastic at St. Peter's Prep, I bumped into an ancient Irish guy, without any teeth, on a house stoop around the Grant and Warren Street neighborhood on a hot summer day in August 1967. When I told him that my father owned an Irish bar on the corner of Van Nostrand and Ocean Avenues in Greenville section in the 1940's, he exclaimed in an awed, hushed whisper: "You mean, the Bloody Bucket!" And I always thought my dad's bar-- Walsh"s Tavern-- was a civilized, classy, white table-cloth, beer palace!

If you want to give yourself or a friend, a relative, or someone special a treat , a birthday present or Christmas gift, check out Bob Leach's enjoyable book. You may be surprised like I was to find something about your family folklore in this lovely little book about the genesis of Jersey City politics, as we experienced it, growing up in the 1950s!

In a month the book should be available at major bookstores where the price
will be $14.95 but until June 1, readers of the Jedsey Jourmal may buy a
copy for a $10 donation to the Jersey City Public Library. Please send check
check payable to Library to "Bob Leach c/o The Jersey City Public Library 472
Jersey Av., Jersey City New Jersey, 07302. Please allow 7-10 days for delivery.
For futher info call Bob at 201-547-6951-The $10 offer expires June 1

if you want to learn more about Leach (who also has a library appearance next week) check out our profile story on him.

Author to read from new book about legendary Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague

by The Jersey Journal
Thursday May 14, 2009



Legendary Jersey City Mayor Frank "I Am the Law'' Hague is the subject of a new book, "Young Frank Hague and the Lucky Horseshoe'' by Bob Leach.

Storyteller and author Bob Leach will read from his new book, "Young Frank Hague and the Lucky Horseshoe,'' at 6:30 tonight at the Heights branch of the Jersey City Public Library, 14 Zabriskie St.

A legendary political boss, Hague held the city's highest office from 1917 to 1947 and is often referred to as "I Am the Law'' because of his authoritarian rule.

Admission is free, and light refreshments will be served.

The book was published by the Jersey City Public Library's Historical Project, and all proceeds will go to the library.

For a limited time, books are available for a $10 donation to the library. It will retail in bookstores for $14.95.

Call 201-547-4556 for information.