Turning the pages back... October 10, 1997 (10/10/99)

Turning the pages back...

October 10, 1997

Exactly two years ago, The Ukrainian Weekly reported that the Ukrainian National Association was moving into a new Home Office in Parsippany, N.J., located some 30 miles west of its Jersey City headquarters.

The UNA's move was scheduled for Friday, October 10, through the weekend, and operations formally began at the new site, at 2200 Route 10, on Monday, October 13.

At the time it was reported:

"The new UNA headquarters is a 10-year-old, two-story building comprising 65,750 square feet of office space. The UNA and its subsidiary operations will occupy the second floor of the building, while the first floor will be rental space. Formerly known as Executive 10, the building is located in Morris County on Route 10 westbound, just past the Route 10-Route 202 intersection and near routes 287 and 80."

"The new building will house the UNA's insurance operations as well as the editorial and administrative offices of its two newspapers, the Ukrainian-language daily Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly. Although typesetting and layout operations will be moved to Parsippany, the Svoboda Press print shop will continue to operate at the previous headquarters building at 30 Montgomery St. in Jersey City."

The week after our move, in an editorial titled "Farewell to Jersey City" we wrote:

"When we began writing this editorial a week ago, the memories and the history were already packed away in boxes, neatly labeled. The sadness was palpable. We were leaving Jersey City, bound for Parsippany (that's in Morris County, New Jersey). It was difficult to leave the place we had called home for the last 23 years. After all, this was where The Ukrainian Weekly grew up, literally.

"The UNA's former headquarters on Montgomery Street holds many precious memories, for it was there that our paper's first 16-page tabloid issue came on July 4, 1976, on our new offset printing press; it was there that we published our book dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Great Famine in Ukraine and countless special issues dedicated to the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group, Ukraine's independence, the Chornobyl nuclear accident; it was there that our paper grew to 24 pages.

"We loved our neighborhood and our neighbors. The view from the UNA building - well, it was simply the best. From our vantage point less than two blocks from the Hudson River, we could see the twin towers of the World Trade Center directly across from us, plus all of Manhattan from the Battery to the George Washington Bridge. ... And, of course, there was our famous neighbor, the 111-year-old Statue of Liberty whose ideals and name were so closely tied to that of our 104-year-old sister publication, Svoboda. Another link to the past - to UNA history - was located just three blocks away. What we used to call the 'old UNA building' at 81-83 Grand St. was comfortingly close by, a connection to our roots. The UNA's color emblem depicted in bas-relief on stone still adorns the facade of that historic building.

"Because of our proximity to New York (and our accessibility) we enjoyed many visitors - many of them historic figures. But there was so many other stories that walked right into our offices at 30 Montgomery Street ... so very many. The visitors came from all around the world: from throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and, more recently, from Ukraine, as our building became a regular stop for visitors in the heady days of sovereignty and independence. ...

"How do you say good-bye to a building, a neighborhood, a period of your life and the community's life? ...

"Before closing the door to your office, you take a last look at the changing cityscape of Jersey City - this area that once was full of warehouses and piers, and today is home to the tallest office building in all of New Jersey. You remember with such indescribable pride that it was the UNA that began the urban renewal in this part of the city when it broke ground in 1970 for its new headquarters building. You study the tall factory building that is the most prominent feature outside your Jersey City office window with its smokestacks and high arched windows - and the wild 'roof garden' that sprouted atop the now-abandoned structure. It, too, is a link to the past that will never be forgotten.

"And you wonder: how will it be in the new place? You know many things will change. That is inevitable. But life goes on."

Source: "UNA moves its Home Office," The Ukrainian Weekly, October 12, 1997 (Vol. LXV, No. 41); "Farewell to Jersey City" (editorial), October 19, 1997 (Vol. LXV, No. 42).

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