Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken is a densely populated city on the west bank of the Hudson River in Hudson County, New Jersey, just across from Manhattan. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 38,577. The current mayor of Hoboken is David Roberts.

History

Early History

Hoboken was originally an island, surrounded by the Hudson River on the east and a swamp at the foot of the Palisades on the west. It was used seasonally as a campsite by the Lenni Lenape until they fell victim to war, disease and forced migration brought by Europeans in the 17th century. The name Hoboken is derived from the original Lenape name for the area ?Hobocan Hackingh? or ?land of the tobacco pipe.? The Lenape made their pipes from the soapstone of Castle Point.

Related Topics:
Palisades - Lenni Lenape - War - Disease - Europeans - 17th century

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The first European to discover the area was Henry Hudson, who anchored his ship off the northern coast of Hoboken in Weehawken Cove on October 2, 1609. Three Native Americans eventually sold the land that is now Hoboken to Michael Paauw, Director of the Dutch West India Company on July 12, 1630 for 80 fathoms (146 m) of wampum, 20 fathoms (37 m) of cloth, 12 kettles, 6 guns, 2 blankets, 1 double kettle and half a barrel of beer. The first European settlers of Hoboken were Dutch farmers. Hendrick Van Vorst of Jersey City leased the land to Aert Van Putten, who became Hoboken?s first resident. In 1643 Van Putten built a farm house and brew house north of Castle Point. The brew house was America?s first.

Related Topics:
Henry Hudson - Weehawken Cove - October 2 - 1609 - July 12 - 1630 - Hendrick Van Vorst - Jersey City

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Eventually, the land came into the possession of William Bayard. Bayard, who originally supported the revolutionary cause, converted to a Loyalist Tory in 1776 after the fall of New York. At the end of the Revolutionary War Bayard?s land was confiscated by the Revolutionary Government of New Jersey.

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The nineteenth century

After the American war for independence, the area that is now Hoboken was purchased at auction by Colonel John Stevens in 1784 for 18,360 pounds sterling, then about $90,000. In the early 1800s, Stevens developed the waterfront as a resort for Manhattanites, which he used as a sort of laboratory for testing his many mechanical inventions, as well as a lucrative source of income. Later in the century, the advantages of Hoboken as a shipping port and industrial center would become apparent. By the late 1800s, great shipping lines were using Hoboken as a terminal port, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (later the Erie Lackawanna Railroad) had developed a railroad terminal at the waterfront. Hoboken was incorporated as a city in 1855, and Cornelius V. Clickener became the first Mayor. (For more information, see List of Hoboken Mayors.)

Related Topics:
American war for independence - Colonel John Stevens - 1800s - Inventions - Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad - Erie Lackawanna Railroad - 1855 - List of Hoboken Mayors

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In 1832, the legendary Sybil's Cave opened as an attraction. At the time, Hoboken was not yet an industrial city, and it was seen as a country spot. Sybil's Cave was the basis for one of Edgar Allan Poe's stories in 1841. When the water being served in the cave was found to be contaiminated, it was shut in the 1880s, and in the 1930s it was filled with concrete. There are plans to re-open the cave for the first time in over 60 years.

Related Topics:
Sybil's Cave - Edgar Allan Poe

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The new city experienced a boom in population and employment during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, founded by Colonel Stevens in 1838 and managed by his heirs, laid out a regular system of streets, blocks and lots, constructed housing, and developed manufacturing sites. In general, the housing consisted of masonry attached rowhomes of three to five stories. Many of these buildings survive to the present day, as does the street grid. It was also during this time that German immigrants became the predominant population group in the city. In addition to the primary industry of shipbuilding, well-known industries that developed a major presence in Hoboken included Maxwell House, Lipton Tea, and Hostess. In 1870, the Stevens Institute of Technology was founded at Castle Point, the highest point in Hoboken and site of the Stevens family's former estate.

Related Topics:
19th - 20th - Hoboken Land and Improvement Company - German - Immigrants - Maxwell House - Lipton Tea - Hostess - 1870 - Stevens Institute of Technology - Castle Point

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Birthplace of Baseball

In 1845 the Knickerbocker Club of New York City began using Elysian Fields in Hoboken to play baseball due to the lack of suitable grounds on Manhattan. In 1846, the Knickerbockers played the New York Nine on these grounds in the first organized game between two clubs. By the 1850's, several Manhattan based members of the National Association of Base Ball Players were using the grounds as their home field.

Related Topics:
1845 - Knickerbocker Club - New York City - Elysian Fields - Baseball - Manhattan - 1846 - New York Nine - National Association of Base Ball Players

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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".

Related Topics:
1865 - Mutual Club - New York - Atlantic Club - Brooklyn - Currier & Ives - Lithograph

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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 began to diminish. 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 on Manhattan that became known as the Polo Grounds. Hoboken, though, rather than Cooperstown, New York, can fairly claim to be the birthplace of baseball.

Related Topics:
Brooklyn - Elysian Fields - 1868 - Manhattan - Mutual - Union Grounds - 1880 - New York Metropolitans - New York Giants - Polo Grounds - Cooperstown, New York

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"Heaven, Hell or Hoboken."

World War I proved to be the city's turning point. Anti-German sentiment led to part of the city being placed under martial law, and many Germans were forcibly moved to Ellis Island in nearby New York Harbor or left the city altogether. During the war however, Hoboken achieved a new national fame. It was from terminals in Hoboken that American troops boarded ships bound for Europe. More than three million soldiers passed through the port, and their hope for an early return led to the slogan, "Heaven, Hell or Hoboken... by Christmas."

Related Topics:
World War I - Ellis Island - New York Harbor

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Interwar years

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. Other ethnic groups followed, most notably Puerto Ricans in the 1960s. Despite the continued infusions of new residents, the city appeared to be in the throes of inexorable decline by midcentury as industries sought greener pastures in the suburbs, port operations shifted to larger facilities in Newark Bay, and the automobile, truck and airplane displaced the railroad and ship as the transportation modes of choice in the United States. Most of the port facilities closed for good in 1975.

Related Topics:
Italians - Irish - Puerto Ricans - 1960s - Newark Bay - 1975

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Post World War II

In the 1970s and 1980s, Hoboken surprised many people by reinventing itself as a haven for artists, musicians, and young, upwardly mobile Manhattan commuters. This gentrification took place in much the same way as in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo, whereby the initial presence of artists changed the perception of the city such that other people who would not have considered moving there before now perceived it as an interesting, safe, and even desirable address. The gentrification process has continued, with many new apartment blocks now being constructed on former industrial sites, both on the waterfront and, increasingly, in the low-lying western portions of the city that were traditionally the most impoverished. Nonetheless, political control of the city has remained mostly in the hands of the city's long-term residents, largely because the often transient newcomers appear to have much lower levels of interest and organization than do the long-term residents. The City of Hoboken is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) system of municipal government.

Related Topics:
1970s - 1980s - Gentrification - SoHo - Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council)

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