2005.006

Staff / Produced by

Produced by Staff

Museum Collection.

Hoboken Historical Museum

1991

English

Display Value: Good Notes: Library 2005.006.0002 page [1], front cover HOBOKEN HISTORY [photo] Hoboken's Famous Duke's House Restaurant as it appeared in 1905 Hoboken Public Library Horses and Cabbages: A Ferry Tale The Duke of Hoboken Our Town in 1891 News of the Museum The Magazine of the Hoboken Historical Museum. Hoboken, N.J., Number 1, Autumn, 1991. ==== page 2, inside front cover HOBOKEN HISTORY Published by the Hoboken Historical Museum President Pro Tem.: John De Palma Museum Founder: Jim Hans Editor: Paul Lippman Production Editor: Barbara Lippman Photography Director: Robert Foster Advertising Director: Darrell Whitely Published four times a year. Business address: PO Box 707, Hoboken NJ 07030 Welcome to HOBOKEN HISTORY Magazine You're reading the first issue of hoboken history, the new magazine published by the Hoboken Historical Museum, researched, written, and produced by its members. hoboken history will introduce its readers to the people,^ places, and events of the fascinating past of the City of Hoboken, the unique and colorful community of which we are so proud. Hoboken's history is too lively to be embalmed in a dry and pedantic journal. So hoboken history intends to present Hoboken's past in as sprightly and interesting a manner as possible, in words and pictures. You walk past Hoboken's history every day. It is in our streets and buildings. hoboken history will try to bring it to life. So we will avoid tales of long-dead politicians and shun old stories that have been told and re-told endlessly. Instead, as much as we can, we will introduce our readers to the little-known, the unusual, and especially, the past that is visible today if you know where to look. The things you may have walked by every day but never noticed. We want you to see Hoboken as you may never have seen it before. To find for perhaps the first time the fascinating and unexpected discoveries that await you on your way to the bus. If hoboken history makes you more aware of the special character of our city, we will have done our job. We also welcome your participation in this magazine. Your knowledge and memories of life in Hoboken are eagerly sought. We'd like to hear from you. You do not have to be a historian or a writer. Just drop us a line — an anecdote, a memory, an old photograph, are all welcome. To receive hoboken history four times a year, you need only become a member of the Hoboken Historical Museum. It costs only $20.00 a year and includes the magazine and discounts on Museum souvenirs and reproductions of documents and memorabilia. We hold meetings once a month, except in July, and you are welcome to attend, meet your fellow-members and find out how you can join in the Museum's activities. Mail your check or money order for $20.00 to the Hoboken Historical Business at the address above. MUSEUM NEWS JIM HANS RESIGNS During the summer, Jim Hans, whose term of office expires in January 1992 and cannot, under Museum by-laws, be renewed beyond the five years he has served, asked for a leave of absence from the presidency of the Museum until January 1, 1992, effective September 1, 1991, citing the increasing burden of the many responsibilities he has carried for so long. John De Palma was voted President Pro Tem. by the Board of Trustees, and Robert Foster, Director. Jim was then persuaded to continue as President until October 1, to allow time for his responsibilities to be assumed by others. In September, a proposal by Jim to become the Museum's historian with remuneration was declined by the Board which regarded such remuneration as particularly inappropriate in this time of financial constraints, such as the inability of the State Historical Commission to award its usual grant. Jim then tendered his resignation. With regret and appreciation of Jim's contributions to the organization, the Board accepted, effective October 1,1991. Members of the Board have stepped forward to assume the task of managing the Museum's affairs. LETTER FROM JIM HANS September 19, 1991 Dear Members: After almost six years I find it is time to sing my swan song. The Museum, that I started, has grown and became an unknowable entity to me. Some of those whom I entrusted to carry forth my ideas had ideas of their own, which resulted in differences of operation and procedures that I finally found irreconcilable. Thus, I have chosen to give up my active position with the Museum and take up work on various book projects, which have been more or less on hold for five years. In my opinion, the Museum would have benefited immensely from having a full time, paid Historian/Consultant, however, since the majority ruled against it, I must concentrate my full time efforts elsewhere. In any case, I wish the Museum success, despite the disputes which have divided its staff. The Museum was my brainchild, created from my desire to celebrate what I found fascinating and historical about Hoboken. Therefore, I wish it well and hope it can continue to make a valuable contribution in its new incarnation. As always, I appreciate the support you, the members, have given me and the Museum. Sincerely Jim Hans, President Museum News continues on inside back cover ==== page 3 FERRY TALE The story of the Hoboken ferry — it started with one man and a rowboat, and lasted 300 years ---- [illustration] Philip Hone's teamboat (1818) before Stevens improved it. Hoboken Public Library ---- Today's Hoboken Ferry is host to thousands who carry nothing more bulky, interesting, or fragrant than an attache case or a woman's handbag. You can stroll down to its dock at the Lackawanna Terminal, pay a fare of $2.00, board a fast, safe, comfortable vessel, and be certain that you will arrive in New York less than ten minutes later, on schedule. But as late as 1717 only slow and unreliable rowboats and canoes provided ferry service between Hoboken and New York The fare was one shilling (about 25 cents) for a man, a shilling and a half for a man and a horse (how they got a horse into a rowboat is not recorded). Big money in 1717 for very uncertain service. We are told of six-hour crossings to Manhattan in the early years. It has been said that "in those days, when a member of a family left for New York, he would bid the rest goodby as though starting on a journey of undetermined duration." Rowing Across the Hudson Hoboken ferry service began in 1661 when William Jansen, a brawny Dutchman, would row you across in a big open rowboat at a fee which in terms of the value of money of the time was considerably higher than today s fare. But Jansen's rowboat was only the beginning of a ferry service that lasted until November 22, 1967, the longest continuous public ferry operation in the United States. Ride the Hoboken ferry of today and you are taking part in history. ---- [center quote] "In those days, when a member of a family left for New York, he would bid the rest goodby as though starting on a journey of undetermined duration" ---- Understandably weary, Jansen later turned over the job to another Dutchman, Peter Hetfelsen, who was licensed by Philip Carteret (1639-1682), first Colonial governor of New Jersey. Under Carteret's license, Hetfelsen held a monopoly on ferrying people, cattle, and goods between Hoboken and Manhattan, but anyone could "keep a canoe or boate of his owne for transporting such goodes as belong to himselfe." Over the first century the ferry didn't improve very much. Oars and wind powered the boats and the vessels advanced only from a rowboat to a "periauger," a large sail boat decked over, with a rail all around, two masts and no bowsprit or boom. A Formal Ferry On February 20, 1775 the Hoboken Ferry was formally chartered, one that continued to run in one form or another until 1967 and since 1989 serves Hoboken once again. New York City records show that a ferry to be established "from the Dock belonging to this Corporation, at the Bear Market at the North River to Hobock," was leased for two years to Hermanus Talman at an annual rent of £50. On May 8 the lease was signed by New York Mayor Whitehead Hicks and ordered to be delivered to Talman. He must have made some private arrangement with a man named Cornelius Haring, for on May 1 Haring opened the ferry. As late as May 24, 1776, Talman was considered the lessee. Losing little time, Haring advertised on May 11, 1775 his new ferry service in the New-York Journal or General Advertiser: ==== page 4 Cornelius Haring, Presents his most respectful Compliments to the Public, and informs them that on...the 1st of May, he opened the New Established Ferry, from the remarkable pleasant and convenient situated place of William Bayard, Esq. at Hobuck -- from which place all gentlemen travellers and others ... will be accommodated with the best of boats...to convey them from thence to New York, near the new Corporation Pier, at North River, opposite Vesey Street at which place a suitable house will be kept for the reception of travellers ... by Mr. Talman ... the boats are to be distinguished by the name of the Hobuck Ferry, painted on the stern. Comes the Revolution After a brief disruption of the Ferry towards the end of the American Revolution, the ferries were resumed late in 1784 and rights to operate it were put up by the Common Council for bidding. Io 1791 John Cox Stevens was the highest bidder, the first time his name appears in the history of the Hoboken Ferry. He obtained a three -year lease, but it was not renewed. The Council leased Haring's old Hoboken ferry to John Van Alen. Stevens probably was not overly concerned; so long as the Ferry was well operated, it would enhance the value of his Hoboken properties. From 1789 John Stevens' main interest was development of steam engines and their application to land and water transportation. But legal and technical barriers delayed his exploitation of the steamboat. Leased but Not Last The history of the Ferry becomes at this point a rather tedious tale of leases granted to one operator after another, year after year, according to Romance of the Hoboken Ferry, by Harry J. Smith, Jr. and John M. Emery, 1931. (Captain Emery, manager of the marine department of the Lackawanna Railroad, in 1915 lived at 1214 Garden Street.) The Common Council rented the ferry to Joseph Smith in 1791 for a term of three years at an annual charge of £91. The terms were changed in 1795 to two years at £95 a year. In 1796 the Council leased the Ferry to Smith for three years at £120 a year. In 1799 the Council proposed to lease the Hobock Ferry (the spelling changed) for three years and accepted the bid of a man named Zadock Hedden, who lasted only a few months. When the Council asked Hedden for a security deposit, he resented the insinuation and quit. In his absence, the Ferry sank into mismanagement. In 1802 a Garret Covenhoven took over for two years and nine months at $250 a year. A man named Elis Haynes then took charge of the Ferry on the New York side and John Town on the Hoboken side. Smith and Emery write that the Hoboken Ferry fleet at his time consisted of two rowboats and two periaugers. For a long time, it states, the crew of one of the periaugers was one man and his dog! When there was not enough wind for a periauger, a rowboat was used. In 1808 the Ferry was leased yet again, to David Goodwin for three years at $350 a year. It was beginning to look as if the Ferry enterprise would never fly, let alone float. Stevens vs. Hone Stevens eventually became embroiled in a dispute over the Ferry with Philip Hone (1780-1851), a merchant and auctioneer who became Mayor of New York in 1825. How this dispute came about is a tangled tale, with confusion and conflict among surviving records and later accounts. Apparently Stevens obtained a 14-year lease in 1813 for a ferry between Spring Street, Manhattan and Hoboken. He later sold this ferry lease to John, Robert, and Samuel Swartwouts (or Swarthout). Either they, in turn, sold the lease to Hone, or the New York Ferry Committee took it for non-payment of rent and transferred it to Hone. This occurred in 1818 at the same time that the Ferry terminal in New York was moved from Murray Street two blocks south to Barclay Street, the terminal until 1967. It was in 1818 that the first significant improvement took place in the ferryboats themselves took place. It was the teamboat, invented and later improved by John Stevens, a twin-hulled vessel propelled by horses or mules walking on a wheel, its rotation geared to a paddlewheel between the hulls. Though quite slow, it could maintain a schedule, and wagons could be driven on at one end and straight off at the other without unhitchingthe horses or turning the boats around. Stevens had invented the first double-ended ferry boat. Hone operated at least one horse boat on the Barclay Street route and in 1819 obtained a lease for ----- [table center] RATES OF FERRIAGE set for the Hoboken Ferry in 1799, given in shillings (s.) and pence (d.), which were used in the United States for some years after American Independence. 1 shilling = 12 pence A Passenger 9d. A coach, chariot, or covered wagon 8s. 6d. A chair 2s. 6d. A sheep, calf, or hog 6d. A bushel of salt 2 ½ d. A hogshead of wine or molasses 8s. 0d. A barrel of beef, flour or fish 1s. 3d. Planks of every kind 2d. A side of sole leather 2d. A raw hide 3d. A basket of fruit or bag of two bushels 4d. A mahogany chair 2d A common chair 1d. A feather bed 6d. A clock case 1s. 0d. A chest of tea 2s. 0d. Large bale of cotton 2s. 0d. Cabbage per hundred 1s. 0d Shad per hundred 2s. 0d. And all other articles and things in like proportion. ---- ==== page 5 a new line between Hoboken and Christopher Street, a ferry service maintained until March 1955. Why the continual effort to provide regular ferry service between Hoboken and New York? The farmers of New Jersey were anxious to deliver their produce to the market in New York, which was conveniently situated near the river at Barclay Street, and with the encouragement of John Stevens, New Yorkers even then saw Hoboken as a pleasure resort. Also, the only way to get to Philadelphia and other destinations west of the Hudson River was to ferry first to Hoboken. The Hoboken ferry terminal in the early 1800s consisted of three wooden shanties, a waiting room, a tavern (owned by John Stevens) erected in 1776 and called the 76 House, and a warehouse where farmers stored their produce until a boat was running. John Stevens' dispute with Hone began when Stevens, fed up with the poor quality of service on Hone's Hoboken Ferry, contested Hone's right to ferry between Hoboken and New York and proposed to the Council that steam boats be used in place of Hone's horse and mule boats. Stevens was irked by Hone's service mainly for business reasons, and possibly because Stevens had not only designed a superior team boat but wanted to use steamboats on the ferry. Stevens' improved team boat was a paddlewheel vessel, 90 feet long, consisting of three hulls fastened together, with a treadmill cleated for footholds, on which teams of horses or mules walked. Two horses might propel the boat in a calm if it were lightly loaded, but there was room for as many as eight horses. It had the power of 40 oars, and accommodated six to eight loaded wagons and nearly 100 passengers. ----- [center quote] "How this orbicular movement can promote the rectilinear advancement of this mammoth boat is to me a mystery." ----- All for 3 Cents In a broadside criticizing Hone's horse-powered ferry service from Hoboken to New York Stevens wrote: "We embarked upon an aquatic conveyance called by the people of these parts a horse boat. But I am inclined to believe that this novelty is a mere sham, a trick upon travellers. "There are a dozen sorry nags in this contrivance, which go round in a circular walk with halters on one end and beams at the other extremity. How this orbicular movement can promote the rectilinear advancement of this mammoth boat is to me a mystery. [Stevens'engineering mind evidently thought ill of the horse boat. He could do better with steam!] And as we were six hours in crossing the river, I suspect that they go and come with the tide and that the horses are a mere catch-penny to bring their masters thetrigesimosecundal part of a dollar [almost three cents] more on each head than the customary ferriage..." Stevens had other grievances with Hone. Stranding his passengers in mid-river for hours at a time, Hone furnished his boats with liquor bars, depriving Stevens' 76 House in Hoboken of its trade. And Hone failed to provide ferry service after sundown, cutting off Stevens' tavern from the profitable evening bar customers from New York, even then a feature of Hoboken nightlife! By this time Robert Fulton's steamboats were efficiently serving the East River ferries, and Stevens began legal action against Philip Hone to recover the rights to the Hoboken Ferry which he had granted to the Swartwouts only to lose them to Hone. In 1821 a compromise was reached under which Stevens was able to incorporate the Hoboken Steamboat Ferry Company to replace Hone's horse-powered service. The era of steam had begun on the Hoboken Ferry. (To be continued in the next issue) SOURCES: Smith and Emery, Romance of the Hoboken Ferry, Prentice-Hall, New York, 1931. World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1934. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Third Ed., Columbia Univ. Press, New York and London. ---- [display ads] Valdes Travel, Inc., 830 Washington St. Golden Age Comics, 1200 Washington St. [on 12th St.] ==== page 6 The times and Hoboken itself have changed since April 25, 1891 when this puff piece for the Hoboken Land and Improvement Co. appeared in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. It was a century ago, but much of what it says about Hoboken still holds true. HOBOKEN ... A DELIGHTFUL SUBURB GENERAL MISAPPREHENSION ABOUT ONE OF THE MOST PLEASANT OUTLYING CITIES NEAR NEW YORK It may sound strange to those who have been under a misapprehension regarding Hoboken, New Jersey, to learn how attractive and beautiful this delightful suburb of New York really is. Minstrels have for years have been fond of making their jokes about Hoboken, and comic writers have seen fit to take up the place as a proper subject for contemptuous remarks and humorous expressions. Whatever might have been said in disparagement of Hoboken as an unattractive spot ten or twenty years ago, no one who visits it today can deny that it offers the greatest advantages to be found in any city adjacent to New York in the way of pleasant, healthful, and comfortable homes at prices within the reach of all. For many years the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company [incorporated in 1838 and dissolved in 1956] largely representing the capital and enterprise of the famous Stevens estate, has been the life and spirit of the development of Hoboken. Mr. T. C. Dunn, its agent, has given us some interesting facts about it and its great success. This wealthy company, with an eye to the prosperity of Hoboken, has erected a large number of dwellings. These are sold to purchasers for ten per cent of the price in cash, the balance payable by installments that can be easily met by any prosperous young man. Aside from the sightly location of Hoboken, the healthfulness of the city itself, its fine churches, places of amu sement, plentiful supply of water from the Hack-ensack River, its public library and other attractions, it has what no other suburb of New York possesses, i. e., a magnificent, splendidly equipped inst-itution of learning, the famous Stevens Institute, which offers, perhaps, the best scientific and mechanical education that can be had in this section. Connected with it is a high school, where students can prepare for an academic or collegiate education. The Stevens Institute faces the Hudson River. It occupies a commanding situation, with an outlook of surpassing beauty. ---- [center photo] The 1200 block of Garden Street today looks much as it did a century ago when it was built. residents then included Judge Frederick Ogden, veneer manufacturer Joel Woodman, educator Joseph Brandt, and Carl Hecker and his art school, as well as clerks, firemen, grocers, and janitors. {hotographed by Barbara Lippman in 1982 ---- ==== page 7 The streets of Hoboken are neatly kept, and its population of 50,000 is growing with extraordinary rapidity. It has two savings banks, national banks, a paid fire department, a well-organized police force, and a magnificent club-house is being built by the Hoboken Quartette Club, which will be one of the attractive social features of the city. One of the essential requirements of a suburb is rapid transit. This Hoboken has to such a degree that it is as near to the heart of New York City as Central Park. Magnificent ferry-boats, owned by the Land and Improvement Company, spacious and modern in construction, with new and elegant ferry-houses at the terminal, make direct connection from Hoboken to central points along New York's water front, and at every landing-place further connection is made by street cars promptly and conveniently with all parts of the city. The boats at the Fourteenth Street Ferry, Hoboken, connect with cars at the Twenty-third Street Ferry, New York side, which run to all the theatres and to the leading shopping centres of the city. The ferries to Barclay and Christopher Streets connect on the New York side with street cars running to all parts of the city, and with three cross-town lines of cars, the Christopher Street cars passing through Fourteenth Street to Broadway, while another line connects with the East Twenty-third Street Ferry to Brooklyn. It is a fact that one can reach the shopping and business centres of New York much more quickly from Hoboken than from Brooklyn or Harlem. No suburb of New York offers cheaper, more rapid, or more convenient facilities than Hoboken for residents to reach New York, and it is not surprising, therefore, that in late years particularly, many prominent business and professional men of New York have made their homes in Hoboken. The offices of the Land and Improvement Company in Hoboken face the joint entrance of the Barclay and Christopher Street ferries on that side, and visitors are cordially welcomed who desire to make inquiries regarding the purchase or renting of houses. Well-built houses rent as low as $40 and $50 per month, and can be had from this figure up to $800 and $1,000 per year. Convenient flat houses rent from $18 to $60 per month, or less than half of the ordinary flat rental of this city. It speaks well for the government of the city of Hoboken that is debt is less than that of any other city in the State of New Jersey. There is a feeling of pride among the people in reference to the maintenance of a superior standard of government that is specially manifested at this time. It is important to bear in mind that the growth of the city, dependent as it is in such a large measure upon the efforts of the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, has been well directed. The power and resources of the company have been employed to make Hoboken a city of pleasant homes. Realizing the value of rapid transit, no money has been spared for the improvement of the ferry-boat service. In fact, the Hoboken ferries were the first to introduce the propeller ferry boats with the superior speed they command. From year to year the facilities for rapid transit are increasing, and the time has already come when the few minutes spent on the ferry boat are regarded as a matter of no account. The preference of those who seek suburban homes is, by all odds, for a pleasant journey by water rather than a half-hours ride on dusty street cars or smoky elevated trains. The rising tendency in real estate values has been strongly felt in Hoboken and will constantly increase with the growth of its population, as it has in New York. This tendency must make itself phenomenally felt in the course of a few years, so that, as an investment, real estate in Hoboken is held in the highest favor. In a number of instances, young men on small salaries who have bought property on the installment plan from the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, have found before they have completed payments on their purchase, that the property has doubled in value. No location about New York is more favored by nature, and none has been more splendidly developed by man than Hoboken, and the time is not far distant when it will be fully appreciated as the most attractive and advantageous residential suburb, for people who labor in New York and who find that city undesirable as a place of residence. ----- [display ad] Hoboken Health & Fitness Center, 70 Hudson St. ----- ==== page 8 SIGNS OF LIFE IN HOBOKEN A portfolio of photographs by Robert Foster The Maxwell House sign isn't the only one. Raise your eyes as you walk the streets of Hoboken and you will see many fascinating signs of a bygone time you may have never noticed. Here are just a few of them. Are there any old and nearly forgotten signs you would like to see in the pages of Hoboken History magazine? Tell us about them. [photo top left] Swinging doors used to welcome you to the shot-and-a-beer of the former hotel Victor's bar at Hudson Street and Hudson Place. Today this sign remains to welcome you to the burritos and enchiladas of a Mexican restaurant. [photo top right] S. Zorn's grocery store at 413 First Street is no longer with us, but his sheet metal sign survives. [photo bottom right] Established in 1899, the Clam Broth House is still pointed out by this landmark hoboken sign, the free clam broth is still on tap, but shucked clam shells no longer adorn the barroom floor. [photo bottom left] This giant key on Willow Avenue at Willow Terrace must have once marked the presence of a locksmith, and has outlived the shop it identified. ==== page 9 [photo top left] When the ice cream parlor below this sign was in business, lunch counter slang for a chocolate and pineapple soda was "Hoboken Special." Today 926 Washington Street is a Chinese restaurant. But Hoboken is still pretty special. [photo top right] You can probably get a "Hoboken Special" beneath this vintage coca-cola sign which is at 1110 Washington. Street. It's above hoboken's oldest ice cream parlor: Schnackenberg's. ----- [display ad] The Elysian Cafe, 1001 Washington St., Serving Hoboken since 1896. ----- ==== page 10 The Duke's House Cafe and Restaurant, Opposite Lackawanna R.R. Depot and Hoboken Ferries. Letterhead from the Jim Hans Collection Hoboken has always been known for the quality of its restaurants, and as far back as the 1870s, its "Duke's House" on Hudson Place opposite the ferry on the present site of the Baker Waterfront Plaza building at Two Hudson Place was among the best, ranked with New York's internationally famous Delmonico's. The Duke s House attracted a celebrity clientele, among them Chester A. Arthur, who succeeded the assassinated James Garfield as President of the United States; actresses Lillian Russell and Marie Dressier; prizefighter John L. Sullivan; yachtsman William K. Vanderbilt; actors Maurice Barrymore, De Wolf Hopper, and Nat Goodwin; vaudeville stars Weber & Fields; and financiers Jay Gould and James Buchanan ("Diamond Jim") Brady. Duke Louis? The Duke's House had all these glamorous patrons, but did it ever have a duke? Legend says it did. About 1879, according to some sources, an Italian, styling himself Duke Louis Calibretto (or Calibritto) arrived in New York. A question arose as to the authenticity of his title. August Belmont, who later became the driving force behind the construction of New York's Interborough Rapid Transit subway, confirmed through correspondence with business associates abroad that not only was Calibretto a "veritable duke," but that he represented one of the oldest of the Italian nobility. Notwithstanding his noble birth, Calibretto is said to have later taken a job in a bar in Hoboken and ultimately became proprietor of it and finally of the restaurant that became the Duke's House. That is the legend of the duke, but the Duke's House story really begins with a French baron, whose name is given by newspaper accounts in probable misspelling as Edmund D' Y*Vernos [sic]. He is said to have been driven from France during the French Revolution when many nobles fled to avoid execution, his departure hastened by playing a role in defending the Bastille against the revolutionaries. In Europe he acquired a reputation as a maitre d'hotel and when he came to the United States the Baron was appointed maitre of the famous original Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. There, it is said, he arranged the very first presidential inauguration dinner to be given in Washington. The president was John Tyler and the year was 1841. On to New York From the Willard, the Baron went to New York to take charge of the New-York Hotel, which had opened in 1847 at 721 Broadway, between Washington Place and Wa-verly Place, next to the fashionable Broadway Central Hotel. The New-York Hotel was known during the ----- center text: Lillian Russell and Diamond Jim Brady dined here, but who was Duke? ----- ==== page 11 Civil War as a "hotbed of Southern sympathizers," so much so that it was under constant surveillance by the US Secret Service. Here was hatched the Confederate plot to burn the city of New York. From New York the Baron came to Hoboken, opening... [truncated due to length]