[2] The route of the avenue follows a Lenape trail, used by the Hackensack Indians between their summer encampment at Communipaw on the Upper New York Bay and a more permanent settlement at Overpeck Creek.

The ferry landing (nearby the present site of Liberty Science Center), was used by village on the bay as well the one on the hill (at today's Bergen Square) to travel to New Amsterdam.

[4] It travels northward to the former Jersey City Medical Center, a national historic site being restored and converted to a gated neighborhood, The Beacon and crosses Montgomery Street just east of McGinley Square.

The avenue becomes more residential, with examples of Victorian and Edwardian-era homes, and pre-war low rise apartment buildings.

[15]) Soon after Summit Avenue passes Union City High School, completed in 2009 on the site of the former Roosevelt Stadium, where Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played exhibition baseball games, and where National Football League greats Lou Cordileone and Frank Winters played during their high school days.

[citation needed] At 23rd Street stands a commercial building that has two ballrooms where Frank Sinatra, Tito Nieves, La Sonora, Bacilos, Guayacan, Nelson N and others have performed.

Until bustitution the Public Service Railway operated streetcar lines along the avenue which is now served by New Jersey Transit bus #85 and #83.