A short history of the Shipyard…

Hoboken maintains a palpable sense of history, but sometimes the past lives of buildings and the people who worked and lived in them can be hard to figure out after adaptive reuse. If you ever wondered about what went on in the building the Hoboken Museum occupies and the background of the complex known as “The Shipyard,” we are pleased to present a short documentary created by friend of the Museum, Lisa Sartori (Coyle). 

The waterfront property was formerly home to Bethlehem Steel, and before that, the W&A Fletcher Brothers shipyard. The workers built ships for day trips up the Hudson River, and troop transport ships for World War II, among others. After Hoboken’s waterfront lost jobs to other deep water ports, it sat empty for many years, until the Applied Companies acquired it and preserved the old Machine Shop, and created new buildings for residential, retail, and commercial use.

The film features interviews with Museum Director Bob Foster, and with several people who worked as crane operators, riggers and other jobs on Hoboken’s industrial waterfront. It’s illustrated with amazing film footage and historic photographs, including some by the very talented Benedict J. Fernandez, whose photos are also featured in our book, “From Another Time, Hoboken in the 1970s.” 

Film credits: Cretic Productions LLC, [Hoboken], 2001. Produced, written and directed by Lisa Sartori.