The Star and Newark Advertiser Archive

The morning edition of The Star and Newark Advertiser had the punchy graphics and advertising of the evening edition. To compete in the circulation and advertising arena, the newspaper also ran competitions with cash prizes and voting contests (your favorite policeman, or delegates-at-large).

The idea of developing a "Greater Newark" was a perennial occupation of Newark's politicians and commercial leaders at the end of the 19^th century and beginning of the 20^th, and the Star and Newark Advertiser often reflected these ideas.

In How Newark Became Newark, Brad Tuttle discusses the city's struggle to provide municipal services such as sewage, water, parks, paving, and electricity, which were an expensive but necessary endeavor (typhoid deaths dropped 70 percent when the city changed its water supply in the 1890s). The idea of spreading costs over more citizens in a larger area, as had been done in Chicago and New York City, had wide appeal within Newark. Municipalities surrounding Newark, like the Oranges, Irvington, Bloomfield, and Montclair also struggled to pay for intensive municipal projects. The April 24, 1908 morning edition of the Star and Newark Advertiser containsa cartoon with the caption "Newark, Center of the World's Coming Greatest City" and shows a young woman ("Miss Newark") saying "They say I'll be a grand lady when I grow up." Ads of the time also promoted the idea of Greater Newark. In the September 8, 1908 edition, a page of ads for the suburban merchants surrounding Newark has the banner "At the Mouth of the Tunnel/Those Who Make it Greater Newark".

While the idea of a "Greater Newark" was enticing for Newark politicians, it had little support in other municipalities and consolidation remained out of reach.