Hoboken, New Jersey
Encyclopedia
Hoboken is a city
in Hudson County
, New Jersey
, United States
. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area
and contains Hoboken Terminal
, a major transportation hub for the region. Hoboken is also the location of the first recorded baseball
game in the United States, and of the Stevens Institute of Technology
, one of the oldest technological universities in the United States.
Hoboken was first settled as part of the Pavonia, New Netherland
colony in the 17th century. During the early 19th century the city was developed by Colonel John Stevens
, first as a resort and later as a residential neighborhood. It became a township in 1849 and was incorporated as a city in 1855. Its waterfront was an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey
and home to major industries for most of the 20th century. The character of the city has changed from a blue collar
town to one of upscale shops and condominiums. Hoboken is part of the New Jersey Gold Coast.
Hoboken was originally an island, surrounded by the Hudson River
on the east and tidal lands at the foot of the New Jersey Palisades
on the west. It was a seasonal campsite in the territory of the Hackensack
, a phratry
of the Lenni Lenape, who used the serpentine rock found there to carve pipes. The first recorded European to lay claim to the area was Henry Hudson
, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company
, who anchored his ship the Halve Maen
(Half Moon) at Weehawken Cove on October 2, 1609. Soon after it became part of the province of New Netherland
. In 1630, Michael Pauw
, a burgemeester (mayor) of Amsterdam
and a director of the Dutch West India Company
, received a land grant as patroon
on the condition that he would plant a colony of not fewer than fifty persons within four years on the west bank of what had been named the North River
. Three Lenape
sold the land that was to become Hoboken (and part of Jersey City) for 80 fathoms (146 m) of wampum
, 20 fathoms (37 m) of cloth, 12 kettles, six guns, two blankets, one double kettle and half a barrel of beer. These transactions, variously dated as July 12, 1630 and November 22, 1630, represent the earliest known conveyance for the area. Pauw (whose Latinized name is Pavonia
) failed to settle the land and he was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633. It was later acquired by Hendrick Van Vorst, who leased part of the land to Aert Van Putten, a farmer. In 1643, north of what would be later known as Castle Point, Van Putten built a house and a brewery, North America’s first. In series of Indian and Dutch raids and reprisals, Van Putten was killed and his buildings destroyed, and all residents of Pavonia (as the colony was known) were ordered back to New Amsterdam. Deteriorating relations with the Lenape, its isolation as an island, or relatively long distance from New Amsterdam may have discouraged more settlement. In 1664, the English took possession of New Amsterdam
with little or no resistance, and in 1668 they confirmed a previous land patent by Nicolas Verlett. In 1674–75 the area became part of East Jersey
, and the province was divided into four administrative districts, Hoboken becoming part of Bergen County
, where it remained until the creation of Hudson County
on February 22, 1840. English-speaking settlers (some relocating from New England) interspersed with the Dutch, but it remained scarcely populated and agrarian. Eventually, the land came into the possession of William Bayard, who originally supported the revolutionary cause, but became a Loyalist Tory
after the fall of New York in 1776 when the city and surrounding areas, including the west bank of the re-named Hudson River, were occupied by the British. At the end of the Revolutionary War
, Bayard’s property was confiscated by the Revolutionary Government of New Jersey. In 1784, the land described as "William Bayard's farm at Hoebuck" was bought at auction by Colonel John Stevens
for £18,360 (then $90,000).
The name "Hoboken" , was decided upon by Colonel John Stevens when he purchased land, on a part of which the city still sits. The Lenape
(later called Delaware Indian) referred to the area as the “land of the tobacco pipe”, most likely to refer to the soapstone
collected there to carve tobacco pipes, and used a phrase that became “Hopoghan Hackingh”. Like Weehawken, its neighbor to the north, Communipaw
and Harsimus
to the south, Hoboken had many variations in the folks-tongue. Hoebuck, old Dutch for high bluff and likely referring to Castle Point, was used during the colonial era and later spelled as Hobuck, Hobock, and Hoboocken.
Today, Hoboken's unofficial nickname is now the "Mile Square City", but it actually covers an area of two square miles when including the under-water parts in the Hudson River. During the late 19th/early 20th century the population and culture of Hoboken was dominated by German language speakers who sometimes called it "Little Bremen", many of whom are buried in Hoboken Cemetery, North Bergen
.
developed the waterfront as a resort for Manhattanites. On October 11, 1811 Stevens' ship the Juliana, began to operate as a ferry
between Manhattan and Hoboken. In 1825, he designed and built a steam locomotive
capable of hauling several passenger cars at his estate. Sybil's Cave, a cave with a natural spring opened in 1832. In 1841, the cave became a legend, when Edgar Allan Poe
wrote "The Mystery of Marie Roget
" about an event that took place there. In the late 1880s, when the water was found to be contaminated, it was shut and in the 1930s, filled with concrete.
Before his death in 1838, Stevens founded the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company
, which laid out a regular system of streets, blocks and lots, constructed housing, and developed manufacturing sites. In general, the housing consisted of masonry row houses of three to five stories, some of which survive to the present day, as does the street grid.
Hoboken was originally formed as a township
on April 9, 1849, from portions of North Bergen Township
. As the town grew in population and employment, many of Hoboken's residents saw a need to incorporate as a full-fledged city, and in a referendum held on March 29, 1855, ratified an Act of the New Jersey Legislature
signed the previous day, and the City of Hoboken was born. In the subsequent election, Cornelius V. Clickener became Hoboken's first mayor. On March 15, 1859, the Township of Weehawken was created from portions of Hoboken and North Bergen Township.
In 1870, based on a bequest from Edwin A. Stevens
, Stevens Institute of Technology
was founded at Castle Point, site of the Stevens family's former estate.
By the late 19th century, shipping lines were using Hoboken as a terminal port, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (later the Erie Lackawanna Railroad) developed a railroad terminal at the waterfront. It was also during this time that German immigrants, who had been settling in town during most of the century, became the predominant population group in the city, at least partially due to its being a major destination port of the Hamburg America Line
. In addition to the primary industry of shipbuilding, Hoboken became home to Keuffel and Esser
's three-story factory and in 1884, to Tietjan and Lang Drydock (later Todd Shipyards). Well-known companies that developed a major presence in Hoboken after the turn-of the-century included Maxwell House
, Lipton Tea
, and Hostess.
The first officially recorded game of baseball
in took place in Hoboken in 1846 between Knickerbocker Club
and New York Nine at Elysian Fields
. In 1845, the Knickerbocker Club, which had been founded by Alexander Cartwright
, began using Elysian Fields to play baseball
due to the lack of suitable grounds on Manhattan
. Team members included players of the St George's Cricket Club, the brothers Harry and George Wright, and Henry Chadwick, the English-born journalist who coined the term "America's Pastime".
By the 1850s, several Manhattan
-based members of the National Association of Base Ball Players
were using the grounds as their home field while St. George's continued to organize international matches between Canada, England and the United States at the same venue. In 1859, George Parr
's All England Eleven of professional cricketers played the United States XXII at Hoboken, easily defeating the local competition. Sam Wright and his sons Harry and George Wright played on the defeated United States team—a loss which inadvertently encouraged local players to take up baseball. Henry Chadwick believed that baseball and not cricket should become America's pastime after the game drawing the conclusion that amateur American players did not have the leisure time required to develop cricket skills to the high technical level required of professional players. Harry Wright
and George Wright then became two of America's first professional baseball players when Aaron Champion raised funds to found the Cincinnati Red Stockings
in 1869.
In 1865 the grounds hosted a championship match between the Mutual Club
of New York
and the Atlantic Club
of Brooklyn
that was attended by an estimated 20,000 fans and captured in the Currier & Ives lithograph "The American National Game of Base Ball".
With the construction of two significant baseball parks enclosed by fences in Brooklyn
, enabling promoters there to charge admission to games, the prominence of Elysian Fields
diminished. In 1868 the leading Manhattan
club, Mutual
, shifted its home games to the Union Grounds
in Brooklyn. In 1880, the founders of the New York Metropolitans
and New York Giants
finally succeeded in siting a ballpark in Manhattan that became known as the Polo Grounds
.
, the Hamburg-American Line piers in Hoboken (and New Orleans) were taken under eminent domain
. Federal control of the port and anti-German sentiment led to part of the city being placed under martial law, and many German immigrants were forcibly moved to Ellis Island
or left the city of their own accord. Hoboken became the major point of embarkation and more than three million soldiers, known as "doughboy
s", passed through the city. Their hope for an early return led to General Pershing
's slogan, "Heaven, Hell or Hoboken... by Christmas."
Following the war, Italians, mostly stemming from the Adriatic
port city of Molfetta
, became the city's major ethnic group, with the Irish also having a strong presence. While the city experienced the Great Depression
, jobs in the ships yards and factories were still available, and the tenements were full. Middle-European Jews, mostly German-speaking, also made their way to the city and established small businesses. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
was established on April 30, 1921. The Holland Tunnel
was completed in 1927 and the Lincoln Tunnel
in 1937, allowing for easier vehicular travel between New Jersey and New York City
, bypassing the waterfront.
), offering classes and other incentives to them. Though some returning service men took advantage of GI housing bills, many with strong ethnic and familial ties chose to stay in town. During the fifties, the economy was still driven by Todd Shipyards, Maxwell House
, Lipton Tea, Hostess and Bethlehem Steel
and companies with big plants still not inclined to invest in huge infrastructure elsewhere. Unions were powerful and the pay was good.
By the sixties, though, things began to disintegrate: turn-of-the century housing started to look shabby and feel crowded, shipbuilding was cheaper overseas, and single-story plants surrounded by parking lots made manufacturing and distribution more economical than old brick buildings on congested urban streets. The city appeared to be in the throes of inexorable decline as industries sought (what had been) greener pastures, port operations shifted to larger facilities on Newark Bay
, and the car, truck and plane displaced the railroad and ship as the transportation modes of choice in the United States. Many Hobokenites headed to the suburbs, often the close-by ones in Bergen
and Passaic
Counties, and real-estate values declined. Hoboken sank from its earlier incarnation as a lively port town into a rundown condition and was often included in lists with other New Jersey cities experiencing the same phenomenon, such as Paterson
, Elizabeth
, Camden
, and neighboring Jersey City
.
The old economic underpinnings were gone and nothing new seemed to be on the horizon. Attempts were made to stabilize the population by demolishing the so-called slums along River Street and build subsidized middle-income housing at Marineview Plaza, and in midtown, at Church Towers. Heaps of long uncollected garbage and roving packs of semi-wild dogs were not uncommon sights. Though the city had seen better days, Hoboken was never abandoned. New infusions of immigrants, most notably Puerto Ricans, kept the storefronts open with small businesses and housing stock from being abandoned, but there wasn't much work to be had. Washington Street, commonly called "the avenue", was never boarded up, and the tightly-knit neighborhoods remained home to many who were still proud of their city. Stevens stayed a premiere technology school, Maxwell House kept chugging away, and Bethlehem Steel still housed sailors who were dry-docked on its piers. Italian-Americans and other came back to the "old neighborhood" to shop for delicatessen.
dominated the northern portion for many years. On June 30, 1900, a large fire at the Norddeutscher Lloyd
piers killed numerous people and caused almost $10 million in damage. The southern portion (which had been a U.S. base of the Hamburg-American Line) was seized by the federal government under eminent domain
at the outbreak of World War I
, after which it became (with the rest of the Hudson County) a major East Coast cargo-shipping port.
With the construction of the interstate highway system and containerization
shipping facilities (particularly at Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal
), the docks became obsolete, and by the 1970s were more or less abandoned. A large swath of River Street, known as the Barbary Coast
for its taverns and boarding houses (which had been home for many dockworkers, sailors, merchant marines, and other seamen) was leveled as part of an urban renewal
project. Though control of the confiscated area had been returned to the city in the 1950s, complex lease agreements with the Port Authority
gave it little influence on its management. In the 1980s, the waterfront dominated Hoboken politics, with various civic groups and the city government engaging in sometimes nasty, sometimes absurd politics and court cases. By the 1990s, agreements were made with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
, various levels of government, Hoboken citizens, and private developers to build commercial and residential buildings and "open spaces" (mostly along the bulkhead and on the foundation of un-utilized Pier A
).
The northern portion, which had remained in private hands, has also been re-developed. While most of the dry-dock and production facilities were razed to make way for mid-rise apartment houses, many sold as investment "condos", some buildings were renovated for adaptive re-use (notably the Tea Building, formerly home to Lipton Tea, and the Machine House, home of the Hoboken Historic Museum). Zoning requires that new construction follow the street grid and limits the height of new construction to retain the architectural character of the city and open sight-lines to the river. Downtown, Frank Sinatra Park and Sinatra Drive honor the man most consider to be Hoboken's most famous son, while uptown the name Maxwell recalls the factory with its smell of roasting coffee wafting over town and its huge neon "Good to the Last Drop" sign, so long a part of the landscape. The midtown section is dominated by the serpentine rock outcropping atop of which sits Stevens Institute of Technology
(which also owns some, as yet, un-developed land on the river). At the foot of the cliff is Sybil's Cave (where 19th century day-trippers once came to "take the waters" from a natural spring), long sealed shut, though plans for its restoration are in place. The promenade along the river bank is part of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway
, a state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities from the Bayonne Bridge
to George Washington Bridge
and provide contiguous unhindered access to the water's edge and to create an urban linear park offering expansive views of the Hudson with the spectacular backdrop of the New York skyline.
), which enabled some low-income, displaced, and disabled residents to move within town. Hoboken attracted artists, musicians, upwardly-mobile commuters (known as yuppies), and "bohemian types" interested in the socio-economic possibilities and challenges of a bankrupt New York and who valued the aesthetics of Hoboken's residential, civic and commercial architecture, its sense of community, and relatively (compared to Lower Manhattan) cheaper rents, and quick, train hop away. Maxwell's
(a live music venue and restaurant) opened and Hoboken became a "hip" place to live. Amid this social upheaval, so-called "newcomers" displaced some of the "old-timers" in the eastern half of the city.
This gentrification
resembled that of parts of Brooklyn
and downtown Jersey City
and Manhattan's East Village
, (and to a lesser degree, SoHo
and TriBeCa
, which previously had not been residential). The initial presence of artists and young people changed the perception of the place such that others who would not have considered moving there before perceived it as an interesting, safe, exciting, and eventually, desirable. The process continued as many suburbanites, transplanted Americans, internationals, and immigrants (most focused on opportunities in NY/NJ region and proximity to Manhattan) began to make the "Jersey" side of the Hudson their home, and the "real-estate boom" of the era encouraged many to seek investment opportunities. Empty lots were built on, tenements became condominiums. Hoboken felt the impact of the destruction of the World Trade Center
intensely, many of its newer residents having worked there. Re-zoning encouraged new construction on former industrial sites on the waterfront and the traditionally more impoverished low-lying west side of the city where, in concert with Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and New Jersey State land-use policy, transit village
s are now being promoted. Once a blue collar
town characterized by live poultry shops and drab taverns, it has since been transformed into a town filled with gourmet shops and luxury condominiums.
and Union City
at the north and Jersey City (the county seat) at the south and west. Directly across the Hudson River are the Manhattan
, New York City
neighborhoods of West Village and Chelsea
. According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 1.98 square miles (5.1 km²), of which 1.28 square miles (3.3 km²) of it is land and 0.7 square miles (1.8 km²) of it (35.35%) is water.
Hoboken has 48 streets laid out in a gridiron. Many north-south streets were named for US presidents (Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe), though Clinton Street likely honors 19th century politician DeWitt Clinton
. The numbered streets running east-west start two blocks north of Observer Highway with First Street, with the grid ending close to the city line with 16th near Weehawken Cove and the city. Neighborhoods in Hoboken often have vague definitions making Downtown, Midtown, and Uptown subjective. Castle Point
, The Projects, Hoboken Terminal
, and Hudson Tea are distinct enclaves at the city's periphery. As it transforms from its previous industrial use to a residential district, the "Northwest" is a name being used for that part of the city.
Hoboken's ZIP code
is 07030, and its area codes are 201/551.
was 30,239.2 inhabitants per square mile (11,636.5/km2), fourth highest in the nation after neighboring communities of Guttenberg
, Union City
and West New York
. There are 19,915 housing units at an average density of 15,610.7 per square mile (6,007.2/km2). The racial makeup of the city is 80.82% White, 4.26% African American, 0.16% Native American, 4.31% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 7.63% from other races, and 2.78% from two or more races. Furthermore 20.18% of the total residents also consider themselves to be Hispanic or Latino.
There are 19,418 households out of which 11.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 23.8% are married couples
living together, 9.0% have a female householder with no husband present, and 64.8% are non-families. 41.8% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.0% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 1.92 and the average family size is 2.73.
In the city the population is spread out with 10.5% under the age of 18, 15.3% from 18 to 24, 51.7% from 25 to 44, 13.5% from 45 to 64, and 9.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 30 years. For every 100 females, age 18 and over, there are 103.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city as of the last census was $62,550, while the median income for a family was $67,500 (these figures had risen to $96,786 and $107,375 respectively as of a 2007 estimate). Males had a median income of $54,870 versus $46,826 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $43,195. 11.0% of the population and 10.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 23.6% of those under the age of 18 and 20.7% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. The homelessness problem is addressed by the Hoboken Homeless Shelter, one three homeless shelters in the county.
The city is a bedroom community of New York City
, where most of its employed residents work.
system of municipal government by a Mayor and a nine-member City Council. The City Council consists of three members elected at large from the city as a whole, and six members who each represent one of the city's six wards, all of whom are elected to four-year, staggered terms. Candidates run independent of any political party's backing.
The current Mayor of Hoboken is Dawn Zimmer
, previously the City Council President, who took office on July 31, 2009 after her predecessor, Peter Cammarano
, was arrested on allegations of corruption stemming from a decade-long FBI operation. Zimmer, who lost a June 9, 2009 runoff election to Cammarano by 161 votes, served as acting mayor until winning a special election to fill the remainder of the term on November 3, 2009. She was sworn in as mayor on November 6. Zimmer is the first female mayor of Hoboken.
Members of the City Council are:
Hoboken is in the
Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders District 5 comprises Hoboken and parts of the Heights in Jersey City
and is represented by Anthony Romano
.
unit, one fireboat, a command vehicle, and numerous other special and support units. The department reported to 3,352 emergency calls in 2010, arriving in an average of 2.6 minutes from the time the original call was received. The HFD has been a Class 1 rated fire department since 1996 as determined by the Insurance Services Office
, the only one of its kind in New Jersey
and one of only 24 in the United States. HFD's firehouses, including its fire museum, is on the National Register of Historic Places
.
Hoboken Terminal
, located at the city's southeastern corner, is a national historic landmark
originally built in 1907 by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
. The terminal is the origination/destination point for several modes of transportation and an important hub within the NY/NJ metropolitan region's public transit system.
's Main Line
, Bergen County Line
, Pascack Valley Line
, Montclair-Boonton Line
, Morris and Essex Lines and Meadowlands Rail Line
terminate at the Hoboken Terminal. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail
has three stations in Hoboken. The three stations are Hoboken Terminal, 2nd Street
and 9th Street-Congress Street
. PATH
is 24-hour subway service that operates from Hoboken Terminal to 33rd Street Manhattan
, World Trade Center
, Journal Square and Newark Penn Station
.
ferry service makes Hudson River crossings from Hoboken Terminal and 14th Street
to Battery Park City Ferry Terminal
, Wall Street-Pier 11
and the West Midtown Ferry Terminal
in Manhattan
.
. Taxi service is available for a flat fare within city limits and negotiated fare for other destinations. Zipcar
is located downtown at the Center Parking Garage on Park Avenue, between Newark Street and Observer Highway.
connects Hoboken to Paterson Plank Road
in Jersey City Heights
. Two highway tunnels that connect New Jersey to New York are located close to Hoboken. The Lincoln Tunnel
is north of the city in Weehawken. The Holland Tunnel
is south of the city in downtown Jersey City.
. These airports are Newark Liberty Airport, LaGuardia Airport
and John F. Kennedy Airport.
, and serve students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The district is one of 31 Abbott District
s statewide.
Schools in the district (with 2009-10 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics
) include
Joseph F. Brandt Primary School for Kindergarten (82 students),
three kindergarten through 8th grade schools -
Calabro Primary School (161),
Connors Primary School (350) and
Wallace Primary School (750) - along with
Hoboken High School
for grades 9-12 (530 students) and
A.J. Demarest High School, a vocational high school offering such programs as Culinary Arts, Construction and Cosmetology. Hoboken High School was the 187th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 322 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly
magazine's September 2010 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 139th in 2008 out of 316 schools.
In addition, Hoboken has three charter school
s, which are schools that receive public funds yet operate independently of the Hoboken Public Schools under charters granted by the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education
. Elysian Charter School
serves students in grades K-8, Hoboken Charter School in grades K–12 and HoLa Charter School in grades K-3 (K-5 by 2013).
Private schools in Hoboken include All Saint's Episcopal Day School
, The Hudson School
, Mustard Seed School, Stevens Cooperative School
and Hoboken Catholic Academy, a K-8 school operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark
.
is a technological university located in the Castle Point section of Hoboken and was founded in 1870.
restaurant opened in 1964 at the corner of Seventh and Washington Streets. Today, Hoboken is home to one of the headquarters of publisher John Wiley & Sons
.
According to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development
, Hoboken's unemployment rate as of 2010 was 5.6%.
and Stevens Park. Four other parks that were developed later but fit into the street pattern are Gateway Park, Jackson Street Park, Legion Park and Madison Park.
The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway
is a state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities from the Bayonne Bridge
to the George Washington Bridge
creating an 18 miles (29 km)-long urban linear park and provide contiguous unhindered access to the water's edge. By law, any development on the waterfront must provide a public promenade with a minimum width of 30 feet (9.1 m). To date, completed segments in Hoboken and the new parks and renovated piers that abut them are at Hoboken Terminal
, Pier A, the promenade and bike path from Newark to 5th Streets, Frank Sinatra Park, Castle Point Park, Sinatra Drive to 12th to 14th Streets, New York Waterway Pier, 14th Street Pier, and 14th Street north to southern side of Weehawken Cove. Other segments of river-front held privately are not required to build a walkway until the land is re-developed.
The Hoboken Parks Initiative
is a municipal plan to create more public open spaces in the city using a variety of financing schemes including contributions from and zoning trade-offs with private developers, NJ State Green Acres
funds, and other government grants. It is source of controversy with various civic groups and the city government. Among the proposed projects, the only one to that has yet materialized is at Maxwell Place, whose developer is obligated to build a public promenade on the river. The parks that are planned to be built are Hoboken Island, Pier C, Stevens Tech Ice Skating Rink, 1600 Park Avenue, Hoboken Cove, 16th Street Pier, Green Belt Walkway and Upper West Side Park.
Hoboken is home to the Macy's Parade Studio, which houses many of the floats for the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
.
. Hoboken Reporter
is part of the Hudson Reporter
group of local weeklies. Other weeklies, the River View Observer
and El Especialito also cover local news. Several blogs are dedicated to Hoboken coverage, including Hoboken411 and the Jersey Journal
owned Hoboken Now. hMAG, Hoboken's Lifestyle Magazine, launched in 2009 and showcases all things Hoboken. The campus newspaper at Stevens Institute of Technology
, The Stute, has also covered Hoboken news.
The production company for the 2009 film Assassination of a High School President
is based in Hoboken.
City (New Jersey)
A City in the context of New Jersey local government refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government....
in Hudson County
Hudson County, New Jersey
Hudson County is the smallest county in New Jersey and one of the most densely populated in United States. It takes its name from the Hudson River, which creates part of its eastern border. Part of the New York metropolitan area, its county seat and largest city is Jersey City.- Municipalities...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
and contains Hoboken Terminal
Hoboken Terminal
Hoboken Terminal is one of the New York Metropolitan area's major transportation hubs. The commuter-oriented intermodal facility, is located on the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey...
, a major transportation hub for the region. Hoboken is also the location of the first recorded baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
game in the United States, and of the Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
, one of the oldest technological universities in the United States.
Hoboken was first settled as part of the Pavonia, New Netherland
Pavonia, New Netherland
Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland in what would become today's Hudson County, New Jersey.-Hudson and the Hackensack:...
colony in the 17th century. During the early 19th century the city was developed by Colonel John Stevens
John Stevens (inventor)
Col. John Stevens, III was an American lawyer, engineer and an inventor.-Life and career:Born the son of John Stevens , a prominent New Jersey politician who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and Elizabeth Alexander, daughter of New York lawyer and statesman James Alexander. His...
, first as a resort and later as a residential neighborhood. It became a township in 1849 and was incorporated as a city in 1855. Its waterfront was an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey
Port of New York and New Jersey
The Port of New York and New Jersey comprises the waterways in the estuary of the New York-Newark metropolitan area with a port district encompassing an approximate area within a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument...
and home to major industries for most of the 20th century. The character of the city has changed from a blue collar
Blue collar
Blue collar can refer to:*Blue-collar worker, a traditional designation of the working class*Blue-collar crime, the types of crimes typically associated with the working class*A census designation...
town to one of upscale shops and condominiums. Hoboken is part of the New Jersey Gold Coast.
Early and colonial
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
on the east and tidal lands at the foot of the New Jersey Palisades
New Jersey Palisades
The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson Palisades are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in northeastern New Jersey and southern New York in the United States. The cliffs stretch north from Jersey City approximately 20 mi to near...
on the west. It was a seasonal campsite in the territory of the Hackensack
Hackensack (Native Americans)
Hackensack was the exonym given to a band of Lenape, a Native American people is a European derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers.-Territory and Society:...
, a phratry
Phratry
In ancient Greece, a phratry ατρία, "brotherhood", "kinfolk", derived from φρατήρ meaning "brother") was a social division of the Greek tribe...
of the Lenni Lenape, who used the serpentine rock found there to carve pipes. The first recorded European to lay claim to the area was Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
, who anchored his ship the Halve Maen
Halve Maen
The Halve Maen was a Dutch East India Company vlieboot which sailed into what is now New York harbor in September 1609. It was commissioned by the Dutch Republic to covertly find an eastern passage to China...
(Half Moon) at Weehawken Cove on October 2, 1609. Soon after it became part of the province of New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
. In 1630, Michael Pauw
Michael Reyniersz Pauw
Knight Michiel Reiniersz Pauw was a burgermeester of Amsterdam and a director of the Dutch West India Company...
, a burgemeester (mayor) of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and a director of the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
, received a land grant as patroon
Patroon
In the United States, a patroon was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America...
on the condition that he would plant a colony of not fewer than fifty persons within four years on the west bank of what had been named the North River
North River (New York-New Jersey)
North River is an alternate name for the southernmost portion of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City and northeastern New Jersey. The colonial name for the entire Hudson given to it by the Dutch in the early seventeenth century, the term fell out of general use for most of the river's...
. Three Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
sold the land that was to become Hoboken (and part of Jersey City) for 80 fathoms (146 m) of wampum
Wampum
Wampum are traditional, sacred shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic...
, 20 fathoms (37 m) of cloth, 12 kettles, six guns, two blankets, one double kettle and half a barrel of beer. These transactions, variously dated as July 12, 1630 and November 22, 1630, represent the earliest known conveyance for the area. Pauw (whose Latinized name is Pavonia
Pavonia, New Netherland
Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland in what would become today's Hudson County, New Jersey.-Hudson and the Hackensack:...
) failed to settle the land and he was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633. It was later acquired by Hendrick Van Vorst, who leased part of the land to Aert Van Putten, a farmer. In 1643, north of what would be later known as Castle Point, Van Putten built a house and a brewery, North America’s first. In series of Indian and Dutch raids and reprisals, Van Putten was killed and his buildings destroyed, and all residents of Pavonia (as the colony was known) were ordered back to New Amsterdam. Deteriorating relations with the Lenape, its isolation as an island, or relatively long distance from New Amsterdam may have discouraged more settlement. In 1664, the English took possession of New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
with little or no resistance, and in 1668 they confirmed a previous land patent by Nicolas Verlett. In 1674–75 the area became part of East Jersey
East Jersey
The Province of East Jersey and the Province of West Jersey were two distinct, separately governed parts of the Province of New Jersey that existed as separate provinces for 28 years, between 1674 and 1702. East Jersey's capital was located at Perth Amboy...
, and the province was divided into four administrative districts, Hoboken becoming part of Bergen County
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...
, where it remained until the creation of Hudson County
Hudson County, New Jersey
Hudson County is the smallest county in New Jersey and one of the most densely populated in United States. It takes its name from the Hudson River, which creates part of its eastern border. Part of the New York metropolitan area, its county seat and largest city is Jersey City.- Municipalities...
on February 22, 1840. English-speaking settlers (some relocating from New England) interspersed with the Dutch, but it remained scarcely populated and agrarian. Eventually, the land came into the possession of William Bayard, who originally supported the revolutionary cause, but became a Loyalist Tory
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
after the fall of New York in 1776 when the city and surrounding areas, including the west bank of the re-named Hudson River, were occupied by the British. At the end of the Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, Bayard’s property was confiscated by the Revolutionary Government of New Jersey. In 1784, the land described as "William Bayard's farm at Hoebuck" was bought at auction by Colonel John Stevens
John Stevens (inventor)
Col. John Stevens, III was an American lawyer, engineer and an inventor.-Life and career:Born the son of John Stevens , a prominent New Jersey politician who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and Elizabeth Alexander, daughter of New York lawyer and statesman James Alexander. His...
for £18,360 (then $90,000).
The name "Hoboken" , was decided upon by Colonel John Stevens when he purchased land, on a part of which the city still sits. The Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
(later called Delaware Indian) referred to the area as the “land of the tobacco pipe”, most likely to refer to the soapstone
Soapstone
Soapstone is a metamorphic rock, a talc-schist. It is largely composed of the mineral talc and is thus rich in magnesium. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occurs in the areas where tectonic plates are subducted, changing rocks by heat and pressure, with influx...
collected there to carve tobacco pipes, and used a phrase that became “Hopoghan Hackingh”. Like Weehawken, its neighbor to the north, Communipaw
Communipaw
Communipaw is a section of Jersey City, New Jersey west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and site of one the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its name to the historic avenue which runs from its eastern end near LSP Station through the neighborhoods of...
and Harsimus
Harsimus
Harsimus is a neighborhood within Downtown Jersey City. The neighborhood stretches from the Harsimus Stem Embankment in the north to Christopher Columbus Drive in the south between Coles Street and Grove Street or more broadly, to Marin Boulevard...
to the south, Hoboken had many variations in the folks-tongue. Hoebuck, old Dutch for high bluff and likely referring to Castle Point, was used during the colonial era and later spelled as Hobuck, Hobock, and Hoboocken.
Today, Hoboken's unofficial nickname is now the "Mile Square City", but it actually covers an area of two square miles when including the under-water parts in the Hudson River. During the late 19th/early 20th century the population and culture of Hoboken was dominated by German language speakers who sometimes called it "Little Bremen", many of whom are buried in Hoboken Cemetery, North Bergen
Hoboken Cemetery, North Bergen
The Hoboken Cemetery is located at 5500 Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen, New Jersey. It is bordered by Flower Hill Cemetery. Originally when the Secaucus Junction was built on land that was the Hudson County Burial Grounds, bodies exhumed were to be re-interred at the Hoboken Cemetery...
.
The 19th century
In the early 19th century, Colonel John StevensJohn Stevens (inventor)
Col. John Stevens, III was an American lawyer, engineer and an inventor.-Life and career:Born the son of John Stevens , a prominent New Jersey politician who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and Elizabeth Alexander, daughter of New York lawyer and statesman James Alexander. His...
developed the waterfront as a resort for Manhattanites. On October 11, 1811 Stevens' ship the Juliana, began to operate as a ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
between Manhattan and Hoboken. In 1825, he designed and built a steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
capable of hauling several passenger cars at his estate. Sybil's Cave, a cave with a natural spring opened in 1832. In 1841, the cave became a legend, when Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
wrote "The Mystery of Marie Roget
The Mystery of Marie Roget
"The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", often subtitled A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe written in 1842. This is the first murder mystery based on the details of a real crime. It first appeared in Snowden's Ladies' Companion in three installments, November and...
" about an event that took place there. In the late 1880s, when the water was found to be contaminated, it was shut and in the 1930s, filled with concrete.
Before his death in 1838, Stevens founded the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company
Hoboken Land and Improvement Company Building
The Hoboken Land and Improvement Company Building, is located in Hoboken, New Jersey. The building was designed by Charles Fall and was built by Myles Tierney in 1889. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 1979. The building housed the offices of the Steven's...
, which laid out a regular system of streets, blocks and lots, constructed housing, and developed manufacturing sites. In general, the housing consisted of masonry row houses of three to five stories, some of which survive to the present day, as does the street grid.
Hoboken was originally formed as a township
Township (New Jersey)
A township, in the context of New Jersey local government, refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government. As a political entity, a township is a full-fledged municipality, on par with any town, city, borough, or village, collecting property taxes and providing...
on April 9, 1849, from portions of North Bergen Township
North Bergen, New Jersey
North Bergen is a township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the township had a total population of 60,773. Originally founded in 1843, the town was much diminished in territory by a series of secessions. Situated on the Hudson Palisades, it is one...
. As the town grew in population and employment, many of Hoboken's residents saw a need to incorporate as a full-fledged city, and in a referendum held on March 29, 1855, ratified an Act of the New Jersey Legislature
New Jersey Legislature
The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the Senate...
signed the previous day, and the City of Hoboken was born. In the subsequent election, Cornelius V. Clickener became Hoboken's first mayor. On March 15, 1859, the Township of Weehawken was created from portions of Hoboken and North Bergen Township.
In 1870, based on a bequest from Edwin A. Stevens
Edwin A. Stevens
Edwin Augustus Stevens was an American engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur who left a bequest that was used to establish the Stevens Institute of Technology.-Early life and family:...
, Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
was founded at Castle Point, site of the Stevens family's former estate.
By the late 19th century, shipping lines were using Hoboken as a terminal port, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (later the Erie Lackawanna Railroad) developed a railroad terminal at the waterfront. It was also during this time that German immigrants, who had been settling in town during most of the century, became the predominant population group in the city, at least partially due to its being a major destination port of the Hamburg America Line
Hamburg America Line
The Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, Germany during...
. In addition to the primary industry of shipbuilding, Hoboken became home to Keuffel and Esser
Keuffel and Esser
The Keuffel and Esser Co. was a drafting instrument and supplies company founded in 1867 by German immigrants William J. D. Keuffel and Herman Esser.- Overview :...
's three-story factory and in 1884, to Tietjan and Lang Drydock (later Todd Shipyards). Well-known companies that developed a major presence in Hoboken after the turn-of the-century included Maxwell House
Maxwell House
Maxwell House is a brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Foods. Introduced in 1892, it is named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. For many years until the late 1980s it was the largest-selling coffee in the U.S. and is currently second behind...
, Lipton Tea
Lipton
Lipton is a brand of tea currently owned by Unilever.-History of Lipton Tea:Lipton was created at the end of the 19th century by a grocer, Sir Thomas Lipton, in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1893, he established the Thomas J. Lipton Co., a tea packing company with its headquarters and factory in Hobo ken,...
, and Hostess.
Birthplace of baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
in took place in Hoboken in 1846 between Knickerbocker Club
New York Knickerbockers
The New York Knickerbockers were one of the first organized baseball teams which played under a set of rules similar to the game today. The team was founded by Alexander Cartwright, considered one of the original developers of modern baseball....
and New York Nine at Elysian Fields
Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey
Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey is believed to be the site of the first organized baseball game, giving Hoboken a strong claim to be the birthplace of baseball....
. In 1845, the Knickerbocker Club, which had been founded by Alexander Cartwright
Alexander Cartwright
Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr. is one of several people sometimes referred to as a "father of baseball". Cartwright is thought to be the first person to draw a diagram of a diamond shaped baseball field, and the rules of the modern game are based on the Knickerbocker Rules developed by Cartwright...
, began using Elysian Fields to play baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
due to the lack of suitable grounds on Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Team members included players of the St George's Cricket Club, the brothers Harry and George Wright, and Henry Chadwick, the English-born journalist who coined the term "America's Pastime".
By the 1850s, several Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
-based members of the National Association of Base Ball Players
National Association of Base Ball Players
The National Association of Base Ball Players was the first organization governing American baseball. The first, 1857 convention of sixteen New York City clubs...
were using the grounds as their home field while St. George's continued to organize international matches between Canada, England and the United States at the same venue. In 1859, George Parr
George Parr (cricketer)
George Parr was an English cricketer, whose first-class career lasted from 1844 to 1870....
's All England Eleven of professional cricketers played the United States XXII at Hoboken, easily defeating the local competition. Sam Wright and his sons Harry and George Wright played on the defeated United States team—a loss which inadvertently encouraged local players to take up baseball. Henry Chadwick believed that baseball and not cricket should become America's pastime after the game drawing the conclusion that amateur American players did not have the leisure time required to develop cricket skills to the high technical level required of professional players. Harry Wright
Harry Wright
William Henry "Harry" Wright was an English-born American professional baseball player, manager, and developer. He assembled, managed, and played center field for baseball's first fully professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings...
and George Wright then became two of America's first professional baseball players when Aaron Champion raised funds to found the Cincinnati Red Stockings
Cincinnati Red Stockings
The Cincinnati Red Stockings of were baseball's first fully professional team, with ten salaried players. The Cincinnati Base Ball Club formed in 1866 and fielded competitive teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players 1867–1870, a time of a transition that ambitious Cincinnati,...
in 1869.
In 1865 the grounds hosted a championship match between the Mutual Club
New York Mutuals
The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players. It was a charter...
of New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and the Atlantic Club
Brooklyn Atlantics
The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty.Established in 1855, Atlantic was a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1857. In 1859, with a record of 11 wins and 1 loss, Atlantic emerged as the recognized champions of...
of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
that was attended by an estimated 20,000 fans and captured in the Currier & Ives lithograph "The American National Game of Base Ball".
With the construction of two significant baseball parks enclosed by fences in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, enabling promoters there to charge admission to games, the prominence of Elysian Fields
Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey
Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey is believed to be the site of the first organized baseball game, giving Hoboken a strong claim to be the birthplace of baseball....
diminished. In 1868 the leading Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
club, Mutual
New York Mutuals
The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players. It was a charter...
, shifted its home games to the Union Grounds
Union Grounds
Union Grounds was a baseball park located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The grounds opened in 1862 and was the first baseball park enclosed entirely by a fence, thereby allowing proprietor William Cammeyer or his tenant to charge admission, permitting only paying customers to...
in Brooklyn. In 1880, the founders of the New York Metropolitans
New York Metropolitans
The Metropolitan Club was a 19th-century professional baseball team that played in New York City from 1880 to 1887...
and New York Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
finally succeeded in siting a ballpark in Manhattan that became known as the Polo Grounds
Polo Grounds
The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963...
.
World War I
When the U.S. entered World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the Hamburg-American Line piers in Hoboken (and New Orleans) were taken under eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
. Federal control of the port and anti-German sentiment led to part of the city being placed under martial law, and many German immigrants were forcibly moved to Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
or left the city of their own accord. Hoboken became the major point of embarkation and more than three million soldiers, known as "doughboy
Doughboy
Doughboy is an informal term for an American soldier, especially members of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. The term dates back to the Mexican–American War of 1846–48....
s", passed through the city. Their hope for an early return led to General Pershing
John J. Pershing
John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, GCB , was a general officer in the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I...
's slogan, "Heaven, Hell or Hoboken... by Christmas."
Following the war, Italians, mostly stemming from the Adriatic
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
port city of Molfetta
Molfetta
Molfetta is a city and comune of the province of Bari in the southern Italian region of Apulia, on the Adriatic coast, at sea-level. It is 25 km WNW of Bari.It has a well restored old city, and its own dialect.- History :...
, became the city's major ethnic group, with the Irish also having a strong presence. While the city experienced the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, jobs in the ships yards and factories were still available, and the tenements were full. Middle-European Jews, mostly German-speaking, also made their way to the city and established small businesses. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...
was established on April 30, 1921. The Holland Tunnel
Holland Tunnel
The Holland Tunnel is a highway tunnel under the Hudson River connecting the island of Manhattan in New York City with Jersey City, New Jersey at Interstate 78 on the mainland. Unusual for an American public works project, it is not named for a government official, politician, or local hero or...
was completed in 1927 and the Lincoln Tunnel
Lincoln Tunnel
The Lincoln Tunnel is a long tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey and the borough of Manhattan in New York City.-History:...
in 1937, allowing for easier vehicular travel between New Jersey and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, bypassing the waterfront.
Post-World War II
The war facilitated economic growth in Hoboken, as the many industries located in the city were crucial to the war effort. As men went off to battle, more women were hired in the factories, some (most notably, Todd ShipyardsTodd Shipyards
Todd Shipyards was an American soccer club based in Brooklyn, New York that was an inaugural member of the American Soccer League. The team was formed when the Todd Shipyard company decided to merge the Brooklyn Robins Dry Dock with Tebo Yacht Basin F.C....
), offering classes and other incentives to them. Though some returning service men took advantage of GI housing bills, many with strong ethnic and familial ties chose to stay in town. During the fifties, the economy was still driven by Todd Shipyards, Maxwell House
Maxwell House
Maxwell House is a brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Foods. Introduced in 1892, it is named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. For many years until the late 1980s it was the largest-selling coffee in the U.S. and is currently second behind...
, Lipton Tea, Hostess and Bethlehem Steel
Bethlehem Steel
The Bethlehem Steel Corporation , based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was once the second-largest steel producer in the United States, after Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel. After a decline in the U.S...
and companies with big plants still not inclined to invest in huge infrastructure elsewhere. Unions were powerful and the pay was good.
By the sixties, though, things began to disintegrate: turn-of-the century housing started to look shabby and feel crowded, shipbuilding was cheaper overseas, and single-story plants surrounded by parking lots made manufacturing and distribution more economical than old brick buildings on congested urban streets. The city appeared to be in the throes of inexorable decline as industries sought (what had been) greener pastures, port operations shifted to larger facilities on Newark Bay
Newark Bay
Newark Bay is a tidal bay at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers in northeastern New Jersey. It is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the largest container shipping facility in Port of New York and New Jersey, 3rd largest and one of busiest in the United States...
, and the car, truck and plane displaced the railroad and ship as the transportation modes of choice in the United States. Many Hobokenites headed to the suburbs, often the close-by ones in Bergen
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...
and Passaic
Passaic County, New Jersey
Passaic County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 501,226. Its county seat is Paterson...
Counties, and real-estate values declined. Hoboken sank from its earlier incarnation as a lively port town into a rundown condition and was often included in lists with other New Jersey cities experiencing the same phenomenon, such as Paterson
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
, Elizabeth
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...
, Camden
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
, and neighboring Jersey City
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
.
The old economic underpinnings were gone and nothing new seemed to be on the horizon. Attempts were made to stabilize the population by demolishing the so-called slums along River Street and build subsidized middle-income housing at Marineview Plaza, and in midtown, at Church Towers. Heaps of long uncollected garbage and roving packs of semi-wild dogs were not uncommon sights. Though the city had seen better days, Hoboken was never abandoned. New infusions of immigrants, most notably Puerto Ricans, kept the storefronts open with small businesses and housing stock from being abandoned, but there wasn't much work to be had. Washington Street, commonly called "the avenue", was never boarded up, and the tightly-knit neighborhoods remained home to many who were still proud of their city. Stevens stayed a premiere technology school, Maxwell House kept chugging away, and Bethlehem Steel still housed sailors who were dry-docked on its piers. Italian-Americans and other came back to the "old neighborhood" to shop for delicatessen.
Waterfront
The waterfront defined Hoboken as an archetypal port town and powered its economy from the mid-19th to mid-20th century, by which time it had become essentially industrial (and mostly inaccessible to the general public). The large production plants of Lipton Tea and Maxwell House, and the drydocks of Bethlehem Shipbuilding CorporationBethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works in 1905...
dominated the northern portion for many years. On June 30, 1900, a large fire at the Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutsche Lloyd was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on February 20, 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic...
piers killed numerous people and caused almost $10 million in damage. The southern portion (which had been a U.S. base of the Hamburg-American Line) was seized by the federal government under eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
at the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, after which it became (with the rest of the Hudson County) a major East Coast cargo-shipping port.
With the construction of the interstate highway system and containerization
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
shipping facilities (particularly at Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal
Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal
Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal is a major component of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Located on the Newark Bay it serves as the principal container ship facility for goods entering and leaving New York-Newark metropolitan area, and the northeastern quadrant of North America...
), the docks became obsolete, and by the 1970s were more or less abandoned. A large swath of River Street, known as the Barbary Coast
Barbary Coast
The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to much of the collective land of the Berber people. Today, the terms Maghreb and "Tamazgha" correspond roughly to "Barbary"...
for its taverns and boarding houses (which had been home for many dockworkers, sailors, merchant marines, and other seamen) was leveled as part of an urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
project. Though control of the confiscated area had been returned to the city in the 1950s, complex lease agreements with the Port Authority
Port authority
In Canada and the United States a port authority is a governmental or quasi-governmental public authority for a special-purpose district usually formed by a legislative body to operate ports and other transportation infrastructure.Port authorities are usually governed by boards or...
gave it little influence on its management. In the 1980s, the waterfront dominated Hoboken politics, with various civic groups and the city government engaging in sometimes nasty, sometimes absurd politics and court cases. By the 1990s, agreements were made with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...
, various levels of government, Hoboken citizens, and private developers to build commercial and residential buildings and "open spaces" (mostly along the bulkhead and on the foundation of un-utilized Pier A
Landmarks of Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken, New Jersey is home to many parks, historical landmarks, and other places of interest.-Carlo's Bakery:A famous bakery and setting for the TLC reality television series Cake Boss. It is located on Washington Street, across from City Hall....
).
The northern portion, which had remained in private hands, has also been re-developed. While most of the dry-dock and production facilities were razed to make way for mid-rise apartment houses, many sold as investment "condos", some buildings were renovated for adaptive re-use (notably the Tea Building, formerly home to Lipton Tea, and the Machine House, home of the Hoboken Historic Museum). Zoning requires that new construction follow the street grid and limits the height of new construction to retain the architectural character of the city and open sight-lines to the river. Downtown, Frank Sinatra Park and Sinatra Drive honor the man most consider to be Hoboken's most famous son, while uptown the name Maxwell recalls the factory with its smell of roasting coffee wafting over town and its huge neon "Good to the Last Drop" sign, so long a part of the landscape. The midtown section is dominated by the serpentine rock outcropping atop of which sits Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
(which also owns some, as yet, un-developed land on the river). At the foot of the cliff is Sybil's Cave (where 19th century day-trippers once came to "take the waters" from a natural spring), long sealed shut, though plans for its restoration are in place. The promenade along the river bank is part of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway
Hudson River Waterfront Walkway
The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, also known as the Hudson River Walkway, is an ongoing and incomplete project located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and the Hudson River, implemented as part of a New Jersey state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities...
, a state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities from the Bayonne Bridge
Bayonne Bridge
The Bayonne Bridge is the fourth longest steel arch bridge in the world, and was the longest in the world at the time of its completion. It connects Bayonne, New Jersey with Staten Island, New York, spanning the Kill Van Kull. Despite popular belief, it is not a national landmark.The bridge was...
to George Washington Bridge
George Washington Bridge
The George Washington Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey. Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1/9 cross the river via the bridge. U.S...
and provide contiguous unhindered access to the water's edge and to create an urban linear park offering expansive views of the Hudson with the spectacular backdrop of the New York skyline.
1970s - present
During the late 1970s and 1980s, the city witnessed a speculation spree, fueled by transplanted New Yorkers and others who bought many turn-of-the-20th-century brownstones in neighborhoods that the still solid middle and working class population had kept intact and by local and out-of-town real-estate investors who bought up late 19th century apartment houses often considered to be tenements. Hoboken experienced a wave of fires, some of which were arson. Applied Housing, a real-estate investment firm, took advantage of US government incentives to renovate "sub-standard" housing and receive subsidized rental payments (commonly known as Section 8Section 8 (housing)
Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 , as repeatedly amended, authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of approximately 3.1 million low-income households...
), which enabled some low-income, displaced, and disabled residents to move within town. Hoboken attracted artists, musicians, upwardly-mobile commuters (known as yuppies), and "bohemian types" interested in the socio-economic possibilities and challenges of a bankrupt New York and who valued the aesthetics of Hoboken's residential, civic and commercial architecture, its sense of community, and relatively (compared to Lower Manhattan) cheaper rents, and quick, train hop away. Maxwell's
Maxwell's
Maxwell's is a music club in Hoboken, New Jersey that also has a restaurant. The intimate venue often attracts a wide variety of acts looking for a change from the New York City concert spaces across the river.-History:...
(a live music venue and restaurant) opened and Hoboken became a "hip" place to live. Amid this social upheaval, so-called "newcomers" displaced some of the "old-timers" in the eastern half of the city.
This gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
resembled that of parts of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and downtown Jersey City
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
and Manhattan's East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
, (and to a lesser degree, SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
and TriBeCa
TriBeCa
Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...
, which previously had not been residential). The initial presence of artists and young people changed the perception of the place such that others who would not have considered moving there before perceived it as an interesting, safe, exciting, and eventually, desirable. The process continued as many suburbanites, transplanted Americans, internationals, and immigrants (most focused on opportunities in NY/NJ region and proximity to Manhattan) began to make the "Jersey" side of the Hudson their home, and the "real-estate boom" of the era encouraged many to seek investment opportunities. Empty lots were built on, tenements became condominiums. Hoboken felt the impact of the destruction of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
intensely, many of its newer residents having worked there. Re-zoning encouraged new construction on former industrial sites on the waterfront and the traditionally more impoverished low-lying west side of the city where, in concert with Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and New Jersey State land-use policy, transit village
Transit village
A transit village is a residential development planned around a transportation hub, such as a train station, with the intent to make it convenient for village dwellers to get to/from work or run errands and travel via a public transportation network....
s are now being promoted. Once a blue collar
Blue collar
Blue collar can refer to:*Blue-collar worker, a traditional designation of the working class*Blue-collar crime, the types of crimes typically associated with the working class*A census designation...
town characterized by live poultry shops and drab taverns, it has since been transformed into a town filled with gourmet shops and luxury condominiums.
Geography
Hoboken lies on the west bank of the Hudson River between WeehawkenWeehawken, New Jersey
Weehawken is a township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 12,554.-Geography:Weehawken is part of the New York metropolitan area...
and Union City
Union City, New Jersey
Union City is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census the city had a total population of 66,455. All of the city is on land, an area of...
at the north and Jersey City (the county seat) at the south and west. Directly across the Hudson River are the Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
neighborhoods of West Village and Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
. According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 1.98 square miles (5.1 km²), of which 1.28 square miles (3.3 km²) of it is land and 0.7 square miles (1.8 km²) of it (35.35%) is water.
Hoboken has 48 streets laid out in a gridiron. Many north-south streets were named for US presidents (Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe), though Clinton Street likely honors 19th century politician DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton was an early American politician and naturalist who served as United States Senator and the sixth Governor of New York. In this last capacity he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal...
. The numbered streets running east-west start two blocks north of Observer Highway with First Street, with the grid ending close to the city line with 16th near Weehawken Cove and the city. Neighborhoods in Hoboken often have vague definitions making Downtown, Midtown, and Uptown subjective. Castle Point
Castle Point
Castle Point is a local government district and borough in south Essex. The borough comprises the towns of Canvey Island, Hadleigh, South Benfleet, and Thundersley which also provides the site of the council headquarters.-History:...
, The Projects, Hoboken Terminal
Hoboken Terminal
Hoboken Terminal is one of the New York Metropolitan area's major transportation hubs. The commuter-oriented intermodal facility, is located on the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey...
, and Hudson Tea are distinct enclaves at the city's periphery. As it transforms from its previous industrial use to a residential district, the "Northwest" is a name being used for that part of the city.
Hoboken's ZIP code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
is 07030, and its area codes are 201/551.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 38,577 people, 19,418 households, and 6,835 families residing in the city. The population densityPopulation density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 30,239.2 inhabitants per square mile (11,636.5/km2), fourth highest in the nation after neighboring communities of Guttenberg
Guttenberg, New Jersey
Guttenberg , is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the town population was 11,176. Only four blocks wide, Guttenberg is one of the smallest municipalities in New Jersey and the most densely populated incorporated place in the...
, Union City
Union City, New Jersey
Union City is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census the city had a total population of 66,455. All of the city is on land, an area of...
and West New York
West New York, New Jersey
West New York is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, situated upon the New Jersey Palisades. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 49,708.-Geography:...
. There are 19,915 housing units at an average density of 15,610.7 per square mile (6,007.2/km2). The racial makeup of the city is 80.82% White, 4.26% African American, 0.16% Native American, 4.31% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 7.63% from other races, and 2.78% from two or more races. Furthermore 20.18% of the total residents also consider themselves to be Hispanic or Latino.
There are 19,418 households out of which 11.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 23.8% are married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 9.0% have a female householder with no husband present, and 64.8% are non-families. 41.8% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.0% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 1.92 and the average family size is 2.73.
In the city the population is spread out with 10.5% under the age of 18, 15.3% from 18 to 24, 51.7% from 25 to 44, 13.5% from 45 to 64, and 9.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 30 years. For every 100 females, age 18 and over, there are 103.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city as of the last census was $62,550, while the median income for a family was $67,500 (these figures had risen to $96,786 and $107,375 respectively as of a 2007 estimate). Males had a median income of $54,870 versus $46,826 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $43,195. 11.0% of the population and 10.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 23.6% of those under the age of 18 and 20.7% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. The homelessness problem is addressed by the Hoboken Homeless Shelter, one three homeless shelters in the county.
The city is a bedroom community of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where most of its employed residents work.
Local government
The City of Hoboken is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council)Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council)
The Faulkner Act, or Optional Municipal Charter Law, provides for New Jersey municipalities to adopt a Mayor-Council government.This form of government provides for election of a mayor and five, seven, or nine council members...
system of municipal government by a Mayor and a nine-member City Council. The City Council consists of three members elected at large from the city as a whole, and six members who each represent one of the city's six wards, all of whom are elected to four-year, staggered terms. Candidates run independent of any political party's backing.
The current Mayor of Hoboken is Dawn Zimmer
Dawn Zimmer
Dawn Zimmer is the 38th mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey. She was sworn in on November 6, 2009 after winning a special election to fill the remainder of Peter Cammarano's term. She had been serving as Acting Mayor since Cammarano's resignation on July 31, 2009 following his arrest on corruption charges...
, previously the City Council President, who took office on July 31, 2009 after her predecessor, Peter Cammarano
Peter Cammarano
Peter J. Cammarano III was the 37th Mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, serving from July 1, 2009, to July 31, 2009. He was born in Wayne, New Jersey and attended Boston University and Seton Hall University School of Law...
, was arrested on allegations of corruption stemming from a decade-long FBI operation. Zimmer, who lost a June 9, 2009 runoff election to Cammarano by 161 votes, served as acting mayor until winning a special election to fill the remainder of the term on November 3, 2009. She was sworn in as mayor on November 6. Zimmer is the first female mayor of Hoboken.
Members of the City Council are:
- At-Large: Ravinder Bhalla (Council Vice-President)
- At-Large: David Mello
- At-Large: Carol Marsh (Council President)
- 1st Ward: Theresa Castallano
- 2nd Ward: Elisabeth Mason
- 3rd Ward: Michael Russo
- 4th Ward: Timothy Occhipinti
- 5th Ward: Peter Cunningham
- 6th Ward: Jen Giattino
Federal, state, and county
Hoboken is in the 13th Congressional district.Hoboken is in the
Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders District 5 comprises Hoboken and parts of the Heights in Jersey City
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
and is represented by Anthony Romano
Anthony Romano
Anthony L. Romano is an American Democratic Party politician, who represents on the Hudson County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders; one of nine members who serve in a legislative role administering all county business...
.
Fire Department
The City of Hoboken is protected by the professional firefighters of the Hoboken Fire Department (HFD), operating out of four fire stations located throughout the city. The department operates a fire apparatus fleet of five engines (including a reserve engine), three ladders (including a reserve ladder), two rescues (including a special operations rescue), one Haz-MatDangerous goods
Dangerous goods are solids, liquids, or gases that can harm people, other living organisms, property, or the environment. They are often subject to chemical regulations. "HazMat teams" are personnel specially trained to handle dangerous goods...
unit, one fireboat, a command vehicle, and numerous other special and support units. The department reported to 3,352 emergency calls in 2010, arriving in an average of 2.6 minutes from the time the original call was received. The HFD has been a Class 1 rated fire department since 1996 as determined by the Insurance Services Office
Insurance Services Office
Insurance Services Office, Inc. , a subsidiary of Verisk Analytics, is a provider of data, underwriting, risk management and legal/regulatory services to property-casualty insurers and other clients...
, the only one of its kind in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and one of only 24 in the United States. HFD's firehouses, including its fire museum, is on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Fire station locations and apparatus
- Fire Station # 1Engine Company No. 2Engine Company No. 2, is a firehouse located at 1313 Washington Street in Hoboken, New Jersey. The firehouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1984.-History:...
- 1313 Washington St. - Uptown- Engine 1
- Ladder 1
- Fire Headquarters - Fire Station # 3Engine Company No. 3Engine Company No. 3, is located in Hoboken, New Jersey. The firehouse was designed by Fagan & Briscoe and was built in 1915. The firehouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1984. The firehouse serves as the headquarters for the Hoboken Fire Department, but houses...
- 201 Jefferson St. - Midtown- Engine 3
- Rescue 1(Special Operations)
- Tour Commander
- Reserve Engine 2
- Reserve Ladder 4
- Special and Support Units
- Fire Station # 4Engine Company No. 6Engine Company No. 6, is located in Hoboken, New Jersey. The firehouse was built in 1907 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1984. A renovation occurred in 2008 at a cost of $650,000. The renovation included a new sprinkler system, a steel-reinforced floor, a...
- 801 Clinton St. - Uptown- Engine 4
- Rescue 1
- Fire Station # 5Engine House No. 3, Truck No. 2Engine Company No. 3, is located in Hoboken, New Jersey. The firehouse was designed by Charles Fall and was built in 1892. The firehouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1984. The firehouse currently houses Ladder Company 2 and Engine Company 5....
- 43 Madison St. - Downtown- Engine 5
- Ladder 2
- Fire MuseumAssembly of Exempt Firemen BuildingThe Association of Exempt Firemen Building, is located in Hoboken, New Jersey. The building was designed by Francis George Himpler and was built in 1870. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1984...
- 213 Bloomfield St. - Midtown
Transportation
Hoboken has the highest public transportation use of any city in the United States.Hoboken Terminal
Hoboken Terminal
Hoboken Terminal is one of the New York Metropolitan area's major transportation hubs. The commuter-oriented intermodal facility, is located on the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey...
, located at the city's southeastern corner, is a national historic landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
originally built in 1907 by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company was a railroad connecting Pennsylvania's Lackawanna Valley, rich in anthracite coal, to Hoboken, New Jersey, , Buffalo and Oswego, New York...
. The terminal is the origination/destination point for several modes of transportation and an important hub within the NY/NJ metropolitan region's public transit system.
Rail
New Jersey TransitNew Jersey Transit
The New Jersey Transit Corporation is a statewide public transportation system serving the United States state of New Jersey, and New York, Orange, and Rockland counties in New York State...
's Main Line
Main Line (NJ Transit)
The Main Line is a rail line owned and operated by New Jersey Transit running from Suffern, New York to Hoboken, New Jersey. It runs daily commuter service and was once the north-south main line of the Erie Lackawanna Railroad...
, Bergen County Line
Bergen County Line
The Bergen County Line is a commuter rail line and service owned and operated by New Jersey Transit in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The line loops off the Main Line between the Meadowlands and Glen Rock, with trains continuing in either direction along the Main Line...
, Pascack Valley Line
Pascack Valley Line
The Pascack Valley Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Hoboken Division of New Jersey Transit. The line runs north from Hoboken, New Jersey through Bergen County and into Rockland County, New York, terminating at Spring Valley. Service within New York is operated under contract with...
, Montclair-Boonton Line
Montclair-Boonton Line
The Montclair-Boonton Line is a commuter rail line of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations. It is part of the Hoboken Division. The line is a consolidation of three individual lines: the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's Montclair Branch, which ran from Hoboken Terminal to Bay Street,...
, Morris and Essex Lines and Meadowlands Rail Line
Meadowlands Rail Line
Meadowlands Rail Line is a rail line in New Jersey, United States, operated by New Jersey Transit . Trains run between the MetLife Sports Complex and Secaucus Junction, some with continuing service to Hoboken Terminal...
terminate at the Hoboken Terminal. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail
Hudson-Bergen Light Rail
The Hudson–Bergen Light Rail is a light rail system in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Owned by New Jersey Transit and operated by the 21st Century Rail Corporation, it connects the communities of Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City , and North Bergen.The system began...
has three stations in Hoboken. The three stations are Hoboken Terminal, 2nd Street
2nd Street (HBLR station)
2nd Street is a station on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail located west of Marshall Street near the foot of Paterson Plank Road in Hoboken, New Jersey-Northbound:...
and 9th Street-Congress Street
9th Street-Congress Street (HBLR station)
9th Street-Congress Street is a station on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail operated by New Jersey Transit which opened on September 7, 2004...
. PATH
Port Authority Trans-Hudson
PATH, derived from Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York City with Newark, Harrison, Hoboken and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey...
is 24-hour subway service that operates from Hoboken Terminal to 33rd Street Manhattan
33rd Street (PATH station)
The 33rd Street PATH station, opened on November 10, 1910, is located on Sixth Avenue , between 32nd and 33rd Streets in Manhattan, under Greeley Square and just south of Herald Square....
, World Trade Center
World Trade Center (PATH station)
The World Trade Center PATH station originally opened on July 19, 1909 as the Hudson Terminal. When the Hudson Terminal was torn down to make way for the World Trade Center, a new station was built, which opened in 1971...
, Journal Square and Newark Penn Station
Pennsylvania Station (Newark)
Pennsylvania Station is a major transportation hub in Newark, New Jersey. Located at Raymond Plaza, between Market Street and Raymond Boulevard, Newark Penn Station is served by the Newark Light Rail, New Jersey Transit commuter rail, Amtrak long distance trains, the PATH rapid transit system, and...
.
Water
NY WaterwayNY Waterway
NY Waterway, or New York Waterway, is a private transportation company running ferry and bus service in the Port of New York and New Jersey and in the Hudson Valley...
ferry service makes Hudson River crossings from Hoboken Terminal and 14th Street
14th Street (Hoboken)
Fourteenth Street in uptown Hoboken, New Jersey carries the Hudson County designation CR670. The eastern end is the Hudson River while its western portion is known simply as the 14th Street Viaduct. It is at the northern end of the city's urban grid, and one of the east–west streets that...
to Battery Park City Ferry Terminal
Battery Park City Ferry Terminal
The Battery Park City Ferry Terminal provides slips to ferries, water taxis, and sightseeing boats in the Port of New York and New Jersey. The floating dock is located on the Hudson River and moored at the foot of Vesey Street in Hudson River Park in Battery Park City, Manhattan...
, Wall Street-Pier 11
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
and the West Midtown Ferry Terminal
West Midtown Ferry Terminal
The West Midtown Ferry Terminal is a passenger ferry terminal serving ferries along the Hudson River in New York City and northeastern New Jersey. It is located at Piers 78 and 79 in Hudson River Park adjacent to the West Side Highway at West 39th Street in Midtown Manhattan...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
Surface
New Jersey Transit buses 64, 68, 85, 87, 126, 22, 89, 23 and 22X terminate at Hudson Place/Hoboken TerminalHudson Place (Hoboken)
Hudson Place, designated Hudson County Route 736, is a 0.05 mile long street in Hoboken, New Jersey that runs along the north side of Hoboken Terminal, providing the only automobile access to the major transportation hub...
. Taxi service is available for a flat fare within city limits and negotiated fare for other destinations. Zipcar
Zipcar
Zipcar is an American membership-based car sharing company providing automobile reservations to its members, billable by the hour or day. Zipcar was founded in 2000 by Cambridge, Massachusetts residents Antje Danielson and Robin Chase, and is now led by Scott Griffith, Chairman and Chief Executive...
is located downtown at the Center Parking Garage on Park Avenue, between Newark Street and Observer Highway.
Major roads
The 14th Street Viaduct14th Street (Hoboken)
Fourteenth Street in uptown Hoboken, New Jersey carries the Hudson County designation CR670. The eastern end is the Hudson River while its western portion is known simply as the 14th Street Viaduct. It is at the northern end of the city's urban grid, and one of the east–west streets that...
connects Hoboken to Paterson Plank Road
Paterson Plank Road
Paterson Plank Road is a road that runs through Passaic, Bergen and Hudson Counties in northeastern New Jersey originally lain in the colonial era. The route, connecting the city Paterson and the Hudson River waterfront, still exists...
in Jersey City Heights
The Heights, Jersey City
The Heights or Jersey City Heights is a district in the north end of Jersey City, New Jersey atop the New Jersey Palisades overlooking Hoboken to the east and Croxton in the Meadowlands to the west....
. Two highway tunnels that connect New Jersey to New York are located close to Hoboken. The Lincoln Tunnel
Lincoln Tunnel
The Lincoln Tunnel is a long tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey and the borough of Manhattan in New York City.-History:...
is north of the city in Weehawken. The Holland Tunnel
Holland Tunnel
The Holland Tunnel is a highway tunnel under the Hudson River connecting the island of Manhattan in New York City with Jersey City, New Jersey at Interstate 78 on the mainland. Unusual for an American public works project, it is not named for a government official, politician, or local hero or...
is south of the city in downtown Jersey City.
Air
Hoboken has no airports. Airports which serve Hoboken are operated by the Port Authority of New York and New JerseyPort Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...
. These airports are Newark Liberty Airport, LaGuardia Airport
LaGuardia Airport
LaGuardia Airport is an airport located in the northern part of Queens County on Long Island in the City of New York. The airport is located on the waterfront of Flushing Bay and Bowery Bay, and borders the neighborhoods of Astoria, Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. The airport was originally...
and John F. Kennedy Airport.
Public schools
Hoboken's public schools are operated by Hoboken Public SchoolsHoboken Public Schools
Hoboken Public Schools is a comprehensive community public school district located in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States, that serves children in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Hoboken Public Schools serves the city of Hoboken...
, and serve students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The district is one of 31 Abbott District
Abbott District
Abbott districts are school districts in New Jersey that are provided remedies to ensure that their students receive public education in accordance with New Jersey’s state constitution. They were created in 1985 as a result of the first ruling of Abbott v. Burke, a case filed by the Education Law...
s statewide.
Schools in the district (with 2009-10 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States...
) include
Joseph F. Brandt Primary School for Kindergarten (82 students),
three kindergarten through 8th grade schools -
Calabro Primary School (161),
Connors Primary School (350) and
Wallace Primary School (750) - along with
Hoboken High School
Hoboken High School
Hoboken High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school in Hoboken, New Jersey, part of the Hoboken Public Schools district.As of the 2008-09 school year, the school had an enrollment of 540 students and 49.5 classroom teachers , for a student–teacher ratio of 10.9.The school was the...
for grades 9-12 (530 students) and
A.J. Demarest High School, a vocational high school offering such programs as Culinary Arts, Construction and Cosmetology. Hoboken High School was the 187th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 322 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly
New Jersey Monthly
New Jersey Monthly is a monthly glossy publication featuring issues of possible interest to residents of the United States state of New Jersey...
magazine's September 2010 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked 139th in 2008 out of 316 schools.
In addition, Hoboken has three charter school
Charter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...
s, which are schools that receive public funds yet operate independently of the Hoboken Public Schools under charters granted by the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education
New Jersey Department of Education
The New Jersey Department of Education administers state and federal aid programs affecting more than 1.4 million public and non-public elementary and secondary school children in the state of New Jersey. The department is headquartered in Trenton.The Department is responsible for ensuring that...
. Elysian Charter School
Elysian Charter School
Elysian Charter School of Hoboken , is a public charter school located in Hoboken, New Jersey. It was founded in 1997 by a group of Hoboken residents including parents and educators . After a charter was granted in January 1997, the school opened in September 1997...
serves students in grades K-8, Hoboken Charter School in grades K–12 and HoLa Charter School in grades K-3 (K-5 by 2013).
Private schools
All Saint's Episcopal Day School
All Saint's Episcopal Day School, commonly referred to as All Saint's, is a small, private, coeducational day school located in Hoboken, New Jersey, serving pre-school children and primary school children from kindergarten to 5th grade. The upper grades often have fewer than 10 students...
, The Hudson School
The Hudson School
The Hudson School is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational day school located in Hoboken, in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in fifth through twelfth grade...
, Mustard Seed School, Stevens Cooperative School
Stevens Cooperative School
The Stevens Cooperative School , founded in 1949, is the only nonsectarian private elementary school in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. The school started as an informal playgroup for children of the faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology...
and Hoboken Catholic Academy, a K-8 school operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark
The Archdiocese of Newark is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church in northern New Jersey, United States. Its ecclesiastic territory includes all of the Catholic parishes and schools in the New Jersey counties of Bergen, Union, Hudson and Essex .-History:Originally established as the Diocese of...
.
University
Stevens Institute of TechnologyStevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
is a technological university located in the Castle Point section of Hoboken and was founded in 1870.
Economy
The first centrally air-conditioned public space in the United States was demonstrated at Hoboken Terminal. The first BlimpieBlimpie
Blimpie is a submarine sandwich chain in the United States. The company is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.The first Blimpie store was opened in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1964. . By mid-2002, there were about 2,000 Blimpie outlets in operation, located in 47 U.S...
restaurant opened in 1964 at the corner of Seventh and Washington Streets. Today, Hoboken is home to one of the headquarters of publisher John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...
.
According to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development
The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of New Jersey.Intially constituted in the late-1940s as the Department of Labor and Industry, pursuant to P.L. 1948, c.446, the department is one of 16 executive branch departments in New Jersey...
, Hoboken's unemployment rate as of 2010 was 5.6%.
Local attractions
Parks
The four parks were originally laid out within city street grid in the 19th century were Church Square Park, Columbus Park, Elysian ParkElysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey
Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey is believed to be the site of the first organized baseball game, giving Hoboken a strong claim to be the birthplace of baseball....
and Stevens Park. Four other parks that were developed later but fit into the street pattern are Gateway Park, Jackson Street Park, Legion Park and Madison Park.
The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway
Hudson River Waterfront Walkway
The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, also known as the Hudson River Walkway, is an ongoing and incomplete project located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and the Hudson River, implemented as part of a New Jersey state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities...
is a state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities from the Bayonne Bridge
Bayonne Bridge
The Bayonne Bridge is the fourth longest steel arch bridge in the world, and was the longest in the world at the time of its completion. It connects Bayonne, New Jersey with Staten Island, New York, spanning the Kill Van Kull. Despite popular belief, it is not a national landmark.The bridge was...
to the George Washington Bridge
George Washington Bridge
The George Washington Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey. Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1/9 cross the river via the bridge. U.S...
creating an 18 miles (29 km)-long urban linear park and provide contiguous unhindered access to the water's edge. By law, any development on the waterfront must provide a public promenade with a minimum width of 30 feet (9.1 m). To date, completed segments in Hoboken and the new parks and renovated piers that abut them are at Hoboken Terminal
Hoboken Terminal
Hoboken Terminal is one of the New York Metropolitan area's major transportation hubs. The commuter-oriented intermodal facility, is located on the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey...
, Pier A, the promenade and bike path from Newark to 5th Streets, Frank Sinatra Park, Castle Point Park, Sinatra Drive to 12th to 14th Streets, New York Waterway Pier, 14th Street Pier, and 14th Street north to southern side of Weehawken Cove. Other segments of river-front held privately are not required to build a walkway until the land is re-developed.
The Hoboken Parks Initiative
Hoboken Parks Initiative
The Hoboken Parks Initiative is an ongoing plan for the expansion of open space in the US city of Hoboken, New Jersey. David Roberts, the mayor of Hoboken, announced the plan on January 20, 2005. It involves several new parks to be added to Hoboken...
is a municipal plan to create more public open spaces in the city using a variety of financing schemes including contributions from and zoning trade-offs with private developers, NJ State Green Acres
Green Acres
Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...
funds, and other government grants. It is source of controversy with various civic groups and the city government. Among the proposed projects, the only one to that has yet materialized is at Maxwell Place, whose developer is obligated to build a public promenade on the river. The parks that are planned to be built are Hoboken Island, Pier C, Stevens Tech Ice Skating Rink, 1600 Park Avenue, Hoboken Cove, 16th Street Pier, Green Belt Walkway and Upper West Side Park.
Events
Hoboken has many annual events such as the Frank Sinatra Idol Contest, Hoboken House Tour, Hoboken International Film Festival, Hoboken Studio Tour, Hoboken Arts and Music Festival, Hoboken (Secret) Garden Tour and Movies Under the Stars. The Hoboken Farmer's Market occurs every Tuesday, June through October. There are also numerous festivals such as the Saint Patrick's Day Parade, Feast of Saint Anthony's, Saint Ann's Feast and the Hoboken Italian Festival.Hoboken is home to the Macy's Parade Studio, which houses many of the floats for the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
.
Media
Hoboken is located within the New York media market, most of it daily papers available for sale or delivery. Local, county, and regional news is covered by the daily Jersey JournalJersey Journal
The Jersey Journal is a newspaper published from Monday through Saturday, covering news and events throughout Hudson County, New Jersey. The headquarters in Jersey City are at Journal Square which was named after the newspaper...
. Hoboken Reporter
Hoboken Reporter
The Hoboken Reporter is a weekly community newspaper serving Hoboken, in Hudson County, New Jersey. The paper is one of nine weekly publications produced by The Hudson Reporter Assoc., L.P. The company's main office is located at 14th and Washington streets in Hoboken. The paper and its writers...
is part of the Hudson Reporter
Hudson Reporter
The Hudson Reporter Assoc., L.P. is a newspaper chain based in Hoboken, New Jersey. It is the only weekly newspaper chain in Hudson County, and one of only two newspaper companies in this busy metropolitan area. The Hudson Reporter publications focus on local politics and community news. In...
group of local weeklies. Other weeklies, the River View Observer
River View Observer
River View Observer is a monthly newspaper, published in Hudson County, New Jersey, and owned by Ad Vantage Publishing Inc., which also publishes the Bayonne Observer newspaper...
and El Especialito also cover local news. Several blogs are dedicated to Hoboken coverage, including Hoboken411 and the Jersey Journal
Jersey Journal
The Jersey Journal is a newspaper published from Monday through Saturday, covering news and events throughout Hudson County, New Jersey. The headquarters in Jersey City are at Journal Square which was named after the newspaper...
owned Hoboken Now. hMAG, Hoboken's Lifestyle Magazine, launched in 2009 and showcases all things Hoboken. The campus newspaper at Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
, The Stute, has also covered Hoboken news.
The production company for the 2009 film Assassination of a High School President
Assassination of a High School President
Assassination of a High School President is a 2008 American neo noir comedy film, directed by Brett Simon, written by Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski, and starring Reece Thompson, Bruce Willis, Mischa Barton and Michael Rapaport...
is based in Hoboken.
Notable media appearances
- Elia KazanElia KazanElia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
's 1954 film On the WaterfrontOn the WaterfrontOn the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
was shot in Hoboken. - Hoboken is home to Carlo's Bake ShopCarlo's Bake ShopCarlo's Bake Shop, commonly known as Carlo's Bakery and also known as Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop, is a bakery located at 95 Washington Street in Hoboken, New Jersey, opposite the City Hall. It is currently run by Buddy Valastro Jr...
, which is featured in the TLCTLC (TV channel)TLC is an American cable TV specialty channel which initially focused on educational content. Since 1991 TLC has been owned by Discovery Communications, the same company that operates the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel, as well as other learning-themed networks...
reality show, Cake BossCake BossCake Boss is an American reality television series, airing on the cable television network TLC. Set at Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey, the show mainly follows Buddy Valastro, his mother, four sisters, and three brothers-in-law, as they operate their business, with a focus on how they make...
. The popularity of the show has resulted in increased business for Carlo's Bake Shop, and increased tourism to the Hoboken area, resulting in both positive and negative reaction from local residents and businesses. - The fourth season of A&EA&E NetworkThe A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
's Parking WarsParking WarsParking Wars is a reality television series which airs on the A&E television network. The program follows traffic enforcement employees as they ticket, "boot," and tow cars as part of their parking enforcement duties....
, which documents the lives and duties of parking enforcement personnel, was filmed in Hoboken, in addition to its usual venues of Detroit and Philadelphia. - The short-lived 1995 ABC sitcom Hudson StreetHudson Street (TV series)Hudson Street is an American sitcom that aired on ABC for one season, from 1995 to 1996. The series starred and was executive produced by Tony Danza.-Synopsis:...
, starring Tony DanzaTony DanzaTony Danza is an American actor best known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards...
and Lori LoughlinLori LoughlinLori Anne Loughlin is an American actress, best known for her role as Rebecca Donaldson-Katsopolis on the ABC sitcom Full House. As of 2011, she portrays the role of Debbie Wilson on 90210, the spin-off of Beverly Hills, 90210...
, was set in Hoboken. Danza played a former Hoboken detective, and Loughlin played a crime reporter for the fictional newspaper The Hoboken Gazette.
See also
- Bergen, New NetherlandBergen, New NetherlandBergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties...
- Gateway RegionGateway RegionThe Gateway Region is located in the northeastern part of State of New Jersey in the United States of America. The area encompasses Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Union and Middlesex counties...
- List of people from Hoboken, New Jersey
External links
- City of Hoboken Official Website
- hMAG, Hoboken Lifestyle Magazine – Hoboken's largest bi-monthly lifestyle magazine showcasing all things Hoboken
- Hobokeni.com – Online guide to the mile square since 1995
- Hoboken Public Schools
- USGS satellite image of Hoboken
- Historic photos of Hoboken and Hamburg America Line ports