This Month in Hoboken History
The picture above is a half-page wood engraving from an 1851 issue of Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion showing Riot at Hoboken (exact month not certain, warm weather, 1851). The article that accompanies this picture mentions that a large group of Germans immigrants rented the cricket ground in Hoboken, and proceeded to have an outdoor party. A group of “rowdies” from New York proceeded to crash the party, and start a riot. These rowdies, the “Short Boys” apparently were known for this sort of behavior elsewhere.
January
January 1, 1930. Barney McFeeley became Hoboken’s mayor, replacing Gustav Bach who resigned to become Clerk of Hudson County.
January 8, 1863. St. Mary Hospital was started in a house owned by Bryan Smith on Meadow Street, now Park Avenue.
January 30, 1658. Lenape Indians formally deeded lands which included Hoboken to Peter Stuyvesant.
January 31, 1897. A fire in a blacksmith shop at Adams and Newark Streets caused the death of 3 persons.
February
February 5, 1663. Nicholas Varlett obtained from Peter Stuyvesant a patent for the first brewery in America, located on Castle Point.
February 6, 1815. The first charter to develop a railroad was granted to Colonel John Stevens by the New Jersey Legislature.
February 11, 1861. Hoboken Academy was opened on Fifth Street. It is believed the first kindergarten in the US was founded here.
February 15, 1870. State of New Jersey passes an act incorporating Stevens Institute of Technology.
February 21, 1775. The Hoboken Ferry Company was established to connect the Corporation Dock in Manhattan with Hoboken.
February 25, 1908. The first subway ride from Manhattan to Hoboken took place. At the White House Theodore Roosevelt pressed an electric key starting the first train.
March
March 6, 1838. Death of Colonel John Stevens.
March 7, 1930. Gunmen shot Frankie Dunn, retired beer baron, in the hallway of his office building at 68 Hudson Street.
March 28, 1855. Hoboken was incorporated as a city.
March 28, 1881. Dedication of City Hall.
March 28, 1906. A gas tank at the corner of Twelfth and Clinton Streets caught fire and burned for 6 days.
April
April 1, 1867. Edwin A. Stevens bequeathed land and $650,000 for the founding of Stevens Institute of Technology.
April 6, 1917. With World War I declared, a squad of secret service men seized German properties and ships in Hoboken.
April 10, 1855. Cornelius V. Clickener was elected first Mayor of Hoboken
April 10, 1906. Maxim Gorky, would famous author, arrived in Hoboken. He was greeted by thousands of admirers.
April 11, 1873. Secretary of Fred Klennen absconded with funds from the Hoboken Bank for Savings. Every depositor was eventually paid back in full.
April 13, 1969. The First Spanish Baptist Church was dedicated.
April 16, 1849. Hoboken became a township.
April 26, 1971. 5,000 attended the Earth Day celebration in Church Square Park.
April 28, 1857. The first bank in Hoboken, the Hoboken City Bank, began business.
May
May 1, 1775. The Hoboken Ferry was rowed across the Hudson from Hoboken to Manhattan for the first time.
May 1, 1784. Colonel John Stevens of New York purchased the Island of Hoboken at public auction. It had been expropriated by the State of New Jersey from it’s former owner, who sympathized with the Crown during the Revolutionary war.
May 1, 1881. The New York and New Jersey Telephone Company began business in Hoboken.
May 27, 1836. The cornerstone of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was laid. It is the oldest congregation in Hoboken.
May 30, 1883. The Soldier’s Monument was unveiled at Elysian park.
May 30, 1891. The Firemen’s Monument was unveiled at Church Square Park.
June
June 1, 1891. The first paid Fire Department was organized in Hoboken.
June 11, 1851. Hoboken City Council passed an ordinance forming a paid Police Department.
June 11, 1891. Hoboken Board of Health was organized.
June 14, 1889. The Hoboken Free Public Library was organized.
June 14, 1917. The first convoy of US combat troops left Hoboken for Europe.
June 19, 1846: Play ball! On this day Hoboken proudly hosted the first recorded game of organized baseball played by modern rules. The New York Nine defeated the Knickerbockers, 23 to 1 in four innings at Hoboken’s Elysian Fields near the current site of Elysian Park and the former Maxwell House facility.
June 30th, 1900: On this day a fire broke out on Hoboken’s downtown piers that claimed the lives of up to 400 people. It was one of New York Harbor’s most devastating catastrophes. Click here for an excellent article by The Hoboken Reporter’s David Danzig.
July
July 8, 1778. A cavalry party called Light Horse of the patriots raided Hoboken and seized a great number of cattle.
July 12, 1630. Michael Paauw, Director of the Dutch West India Company, had his agents sign a deed for Hoboken with 3 Indians who claimed ownership.
July 18, 1890. The cornerstone of the First Baptist Church at Ninth and Bloomfield Streets was laid.
August
August 7, 1776. The Hoboken Ferry was taken over by the Continental troops.
August 7, 1905. The Lackawanna Ferryhouse, Duke’s House, and the DL&W train sheds were destroyed by fire.
August 9, 1910. Mayor William J. Gaynor of New York was shot in Hoboken. He recuperated at St. Mary Hospital.
August 11, 1872. The cornerstone of the Church of the Holy Innocents was laid.
August 12, 1888. The cornerstone of St. Francis Church was laid.
August 12, 1944. Pier 4 was totally destroyed by fire, with damages over $4 million.
August 25, 1921. Fire totally destroyed Pier 5. Damage was estimated at $3 million. On the pier were bodies of US servicemen being returned from France. 5,795 bodies were saved.
October
October 2, 1609. Henry Hudson’s Half Moon dropped anchor off Elysian Fields.
October 2, 1890. The Hoboken Free Public Library opened with a collection of 3,900 books. http://www.bccls.org/hoboken/welcome.html
October 6, 1885. The Hudson Electric Light Company was organized. It supplied all of Hoboken’s electrical needs until 1898.
October 9, 1848. The first volunteer Fire Department was organized in Hoboken.
October 19, 1911. Dedication of the A.J. Demarest High School.
October 23, 1824. The first steam locomotive to operate on a track in America was build by Colonel John Stevens in Hoboken.
October 30, 1864. Dedication of St. Matthews Lutheran Church, then located at Third and Washington.
November
November 3, 1823. Colonel John Stevens incorporated the Hoboken Steamboat Ferry Company with two ferries, the Hoboken and the Pioneer.
November 13, 1919. The Lake Daroga docked at the Army’s port of embarkation piers in Hoboken. The freighter brought home the first US war dead, 114 bodies.
November 17, 1874. Subway tunneling began on the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad lines.
November 17, 1951. The last edition of the 59-year-old Jersey Observer was published.
November 22, 1967. Ferry service ended when the Elmira left Hoboken at 5:30 PM and docked at Barclay Street in Manhattan. It marked the end of 192 years of service. New York Waterway resumed Ferry service in the 1980s.
November 25, 1783. British troops relinquished control of the Hoboken Ferry.
November 27, 1966. Last run of the famed Phoebe Snow which was the Erie-Lackawanna’s Hoboken to Chicago train.
November 28, 1778. Colonel Christian Eleazor sent an American force of 36 men to the Weehawken and Hoboken ferries with orders to intercept and disrupt the traffic of supplies to New York.
December
December 2, 1946. The Hoboken Land and Improvement Company was dissolved.
December 4, 1918. President Woodrow Wilson left from Pier 4 in Hoboken to attend the Paris Peace Conference where he proposed the formation of the League of Nations, precursor to the United Nations.
December 11, 1886. The Evening News, Hoboken’s first daily paper, was published.
December 12, 1917. Y.M.C.A. club house formally opened at 127 Hudson Street.
December 15, 1889. The cornerstone of St. Peter and Paul’s Church was laid.
December 18, 1855. The cornerstone of Trinity Church was laid.