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Members of the Hoboken Historical Museum and the Friends of the Hoboken Public Library initiated the Hoboken Oral History Project in 2000. The initial focus of the Project was to capture, through the recollections of longtime residents, “Vanishing Hoboken”—the working-class identity and tradition of multi-ethnic living that has been disappearing as the city has gentrified over the past twenty years. Interviewees told stories about mom-and-pop shops, the city’s many movie palaces, vaudeville performances, political campaigns, ethnic traditions, and factory jobs. A second series in the Oral History Project was introduced, “Hoboken Memoir,” when it became clear that there were notables in the city willing to talk about their personal experiences in addition to the topics mentioned above.

Some transcripts were edited into short texts that were published (with images supplied by the Museum, the interviewees, and the Hoboken Public Library) into small booklets called “chapbooks.”

A more detailed explanation of the Hoboken Oral History Project and the origins of the word “chapbook” may be found at the end of each of the booklets included on this web page.

We hope you enjoy reading these Hoboken stories online. There will be more to come! Click on a cover to open a Portable Document File (PDF) read each chapbook. It will take 1 to 2 minutes for the PDF to load.

“The Pigeon Guys, recollections of Vinnie Torre and Lynne Earing” on the sport of pigeon racing.

“We Were Downtown,
recollections of MarieTotaro“
growing up and living on the
west side of Hoboken

“I’d Rather Lose a Clam than a Customer, Recollections of Michael “Brother” Yaccarino" tells the story of Biggie’s Clam Bar, founded in 1946.

“The Fruit Truck,
Recollections of Domenick Amato”
focuses on the peddlers who used to sell produce from trucks parked on Hoboken street corners.

Paul Samperi describes his father's ownership of the Union Club and the Continental Hotel during Prohibition and beyond.

Evelyn Smith recalls the contributions of her parents, Leo and Sarah Smith, to the Civil Rights Movement and trade unionism.

Two former Girl Scouts and Scout Leaders Lee Raines (1924- 2006) and Catherine Ruchhovansky remember the fun they had, and discuss the changing role of women, opportunities Scouting afforded poor and working class girls, and the demand for parking in Hoboken which brought about the sale of the Girl Scout House for a robotic parking garage.

Hoboken educator Amada Ortega remembers how she and her husband Manuel were welcomed by their neighbors when they arrived from Cuba in 1948, and recalls her years teaching at the Industrial School and in the Hoboken Public Schools.

Owner of Giorgio’s Bakery, Giorgio Castiello, and one of his daughters, Mary Grace, discuss Mr. Castiello’s introduction of traditional Italian pastries to Hoboken residents.

Paula Millenthal Cantor
is the great-granddaughter of one of the founders of Congregation Adas Emuno and an alumna of Stevens Hoboken Academy.

Carol Ann Wilson discusses the after-school jobs she held at the Maxwell House Coffee and Lipton Tea factories in Hoboken.

Dorothy McNeil worked at Club Zanzibar, an African American nightclub at 601 First Street in Hoboken. It featured performances by popular African- American entertainers throughout the 1960s & 1970s, continuing until 1981 as a neighborhood bar.

Louis LaRusso II(1936-2003) was a Hoboken-born playwright who featured the working class people of his beloved city in over half of the 70 plays he authored.

Charles Kosbab (1915-2001) was a rigger at the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in Hoboken (and its predecessors, W. & A. Fletcher Co. & United Dry Docks) for 53 years.

Jack Quinby (1930-1995) was a marine engineer at Hoboken’s Lackawanna Railroad Terminal and worked as a fireman on coal-burning tugs and ferryboats

Tom Olivieri a former tenant’s rights activist and city cultural affairs official, has long been at the center of cultural and civic activities in Hoboken’s broad-ranging Hispanic community.

Jack O’Brien has been playing the fife in various Hoboken fife and drum corps for over 65 years.

Marvin Stemple is now retired as a second-generation Hoboken pharmacist.

Betty Silvani one of the daughters of Schnackenberg’s Luncheonette, founded by her parents in 1931 on Washington Street.

Albert “Heget” Hegetschweiler (1914-ca. 1990) was a woodworker at the Soborg Woodworking Company on Clinton Street, which specialized in work for the maritime industry.

Judge Charles DeFazio, Jr. (1905-1996) was an attorney and self-described “political gadfly,” whose recollections include stories about his family’s journey from Italy to Hoboken, the city’s role as one of the ports of embarkation for troops during World War I, Prohibition, the McFeely administration, Mayor Thomas Vezzetti, and the deadly fires of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The Minute I Walked Into the Place I was Home

When People Got Together and There Were Feasts

Everybody Seems to Know Me by the Paper Hat