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By Rod Hirsch
Somerville has its very own underground art gallery, tucked away in a tunnel beneath the NJ Transit train station off Veterans Memorial Drive West. Admission is free and all tours are self-guided, but here’s some help: the mosaic tile images set into the western wall of the walkway between the east and westbound tracks depict events and familiar images that evoke the character, history and traditions of Somerville. The mosaics depict the interior of Borough Hall, bicycle racers speeding by the historic Somerset County Courthouse, a drum and fife marching band in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, Friday Night Cruize Night on Main Street, a horse and carriage trotting down Main Street beneath a Christmas wreath and American |
flag, historic buildings along Main Street and a skateboarder at the skateboard park on Veterans Memorial Drive East.
Other images include a gold finch, the state bird of New Jersey; Monarch butterflies, Canada geese, a pile of pumpkins, beekeepers and hives and plates of scrumptious food representing the four-star restaurants in downtown Somerville.
Lambertville artist Katherine Hackl was commissioned to create the mosaics; she was one of three artists whose works were included in a $113,000 fund for art enhancements at the station. The railings along the track include insets of birds and wildlife native to New Jersey created by Kathy Bruce and Alastair Noble of New York.
The centerpiece of the renovated train station is a 2,600-pound stainless steel sculpture in the plaza on the southern side of the station composed of wheels fashioned after those on older locomotives, stacked in a vertical pattern to mimic the smokestack of a steam locomotive like those that used to travel between Somerville and points east and west. “The Somerville Beacon” sculpture was designed and assembled by Tom Nussbaum of Montclair. The sculpture is illuminated at night.
Work on the refurbished NJ Transit train station in Somerville was recently completed; the $15.3 million project has dramatically improved the appearance and function of the facility and includes upgrades for the physically handicapped.
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