2013.002

Staff / Collected by

Collected by Staff

Museum Collections.

2012 - 2012

Date(s) Created: 2012 Date(s): 2012

Notes: Archives 2013.002.0002, draft version, 105 pages, May 2012 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin, How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional certification comments, entries, and narrative items on continuation sheets if needed (NPS Form 10-900a). 1. Name of Property historic name Hoboken Free Public Library and Manual Training School, Hoboken, New Jersey other names/site number 2. Location street & number 500 Park Avenue city or town Hoboken not for publication vicinity state New Jersey code 034 county Hudson code 09 zip code 07030 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance: Date Date Title national statewide local Signature of certifying official/Title State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria. Signature of commenting official State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government 4. National Park Service Certification I hereby certify that this property is: entered in the National Register determined not eligible for the National Register other (explain:) determined eligible for the National Register removed from the National Register Date of Action Signature of the Keeper 5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply.) Category of Property (Check only one box.) Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) building(s) district site structure object X private public - Local public - State public - Federal Contributing Noncontributing buildings sites structures objects Total X 1 1 0 Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing) Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register N/A 6. Function or Use Historic Functions Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) (Enter categories from instructions.) EDUCATION/Library EDUCATION/Library EDUCATION/School 7. Description Architectural Classification Materials (Enter categories from instructions.) (Enter categories from instructions.) LATE VICTORIAN/Italian Renaissance Revival foundation: Brick walls: Brick Stone-Limestone roof: Composite other: Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current physical appearance of the property. Explain contributing and noncontributing resources if necessary. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the property, such as its location, setting, size, and significant features.) Summary 0 The Hoboken Free Public Library, designed by architect Albert Beyer (1846-1922) occupies the northwest corner of Park Avenue (east elevation) and Fifth Street (south elevation) on 0.15 acre of land (City of Hoboken Tax Block 167, Lot 24) directly across Fifth Street from Church Square Park, which occupies two city blocks (between Fourth Street on the south and Fifth Street on the north and? between Garden Street on the east and Willow Avenue on the west. The four-story Hoboken Free Public Library and Manual Training School - three stories atop a partially exposed below-grade basement -- faces south onto Fifth Street (an east-west street) at the right-angle intersection of Park Avenue (a north-south street) in Hoboken, New Jersey. The highly ornamented exterior is constructed of brick, terra cotta, bluestone, and limestone. The primary elevation, 61 feet wide along Fifth Street, is six bays wide. It is built to the property line. The secondary elevation, 95 feet along Park Avenue, is nine bays deep. It is built 5 feet 7 inches to the west of the property line, thereby creating a below-grade light well for the basement windows as well as space for two set of six steps leading to the two doors in the basement wall. Anchoring the building on the street intersection is a tower articulated by its one-foot projection from both the primary facade and secondary facade. It is topped with a beehive-shaped dome. The dome projects above the parapet wall that forms the top feature of both facades. The parapet wall hides the roof ridge from street-level view. A flagpole that originally projected straight up from the top of the dome has been removed; a replacement flagpole extends from the second floor facade on Fifth Street. Original ornamentation has been removed from the parapet wall. The building's rectangular floor plan is supplemented by an original four-story projection on the building's northwest corner, visible only and barely through the walkway to it from Fifth Street. The building faces the City of Hoboken's Church Square Park, a rectangular two-city- block park that interrupts the alignment of Park Avenue between Fifth Street on the north and Fourth Street on the south, and provides frontage on Garden Street on the east and Willow Avenue on the west for several prominent civic and ecclesiastical structures constructed during the subject building's period of significance (a public school, church, rectory, and parochial school, as well as a monument within the park honoring volunteer firefighters). Entry to the library portion of the Hoboken Free Public Library and Training School is from Fifth Street. The entry to the space formerly used by the school, on Park Avenue, now is used solely as an emergency exit. The interior of the building, particularly the portions of the building that have remained in library use since the period of significance, are highly detailed. Both the exterior and interior appear to be in good condition. The library portion of the building continues to perform its original purpose. The former school portions of the building have been adapted for library use or are the subject of a historic rehabilitation plan that the Board of Trustees plans to implement. The main structural system consists of masonry load- bearing exterior walls and three internal bearing walls of mixed masonry and cast iron girders. The foundation rests on piles sunk into soft, sandy soil. The first-floor slab is concrete barrel vaulting formed of corrugated metal barrel vaults set into the bottom flange of cast iron beams. Cast iron columns supplement the girders by providing support from the basement floor to the library's books stacks on first floor above as well as a mezzanine between the first floor and second floor. The second and third floors are built upon wood joist platforms. Reinforcing the wood joints under the second floor are iron straps. The roof is a timber truss system reinforced with wrought iron straps and iron tie rods. Perpendicular to the trusses are wood purlins. The roof ridge follows a north-south alignment. A four-story elevator tower was added in 2007 in the inside angle of the building's western facade and the south facade of the original projection. The elevator tower is accessible from Fifth Street through an exterior passage Exterior Architecture: The Hoboken Free Public Library and Manual Training School displays the organic shades of building material and highly-stylized ornamentation that are characteristic of the Italian Renaissance Revival style of the Late Victorian period (Photograph #1). The building rests on a rusticated base constructed of Wyoming bluestone, a course of Indiana limestone with rock-faced center panels and patent-hammered borders extending from grade level to just below the first-floor window sills. The base is interrupted on the Fifth Street elevation with four windows that open onto the public sidewalk. They align with the windows above. (Photograph #2) Originally the first floor windows were shaded by awnings (see historic photographs). The first floor of the Fifth Street elevation is finished with a course of flush-sawn Indiana limestone with projecting corner quoins. Six steps rise to the entrance. The bottom tread and threshold are finely dressed bluestone; red-hued terrazzo, coated with a yellow substance that has worn away in heavily trafficked area, is the primary material used in constructing the steps. Heavily trafficked treads in the center portion have been patched with modern-day roughly dressed bluestone and cement. The entrance steps lead from the sidewalk to the pedimented entry supported by two fluted columns with Scamozzi Ionic capitals, a limestone pediment with the words "Free Public Library" and an arched entry doorway. (Photograph #3) The design drawings that architect Albert Beyer prepared on January 14, 1896 and that library trustees' representatives signed (hereafter referred to as the "architect's plans" or "original plans") show a solid double door, with raised wooden panels, that was set within the limestone door entry. At some point, the double door was replaced with an out-of- period single, one-lite door that opens outward from wooden framing introduced into the original masonry doorway surround. (Photograph #2) The second and third floors are finished with pressed yellow (buff) iron-flecked brick with tight joints. (Photograph #4) At the second floor, three pairs of semicircular, arched windows face Fifth Street with an orange-red terra cotta horizontal belt course aligning with the base of the arch surrounds. A flagpole protrudes from the window column above the pediment at a nearly horizontal angle. A terra cotta floral-motif medallion is centered between the first two pairs of arches just below the second terra cotta belt course that delineates the third floor. Two pairs of flat-topped windows appear at the third floor with a single flat-topped window flanked by two oval windows at the third floor tower. Terra cotta quoins mark the corners of the projecting tower and also the brickwork at the second and third floors. (Photograph #5) A terra cotta frieze runs just below a projecting copper cornice along the two street facades. The copper cornice has tightly spaced copper eave brackets and continuous dentil molding. Originally the cornice was designed to include and was constructed with antefixes topped with a series of palmettes and anthemia, which since have been replaced with an aluminum drip edge (see architect's 1896 drawings; see also historic and current photographs). The tower is capped with a dome roofed with plastic-composition material designed to look historic, as well as three decorative terra cotta urns. (Photograph #6) The fourth corner of the tower, not visible to the public below, has no urn. The secondary (east) facade along Park Avenue is detailed in a manner similar to the Fifth Street facade. In contrast, however, to the Fifth Street facade's fenestration, the fenestration pattern on Park Avenue varies significantly from floor to floor to best serve the building's functions within. (Photograph #7) Nine windows pierce the rusticated base along Park Avenue. Two small windows in the base of the tower projection (closest to Fifth Street) admit light to the original Coal and Wood Storage Room (now used for general, non-fuel storage). The next set of openings to the north - a door, a narrow window, a window and a second narrow window - provides light to the original Work Room for the library (now unused space). Completing the basement fenestration are four full-size windows illuminating a Classroom of the former manual training school (now unused space). The final opening in the basement is a service-entrance doorway into the spandrel under the former Manual Training School's 7 step, stone exterior stairway at the northern end of the building. (Photograph #8) An original cast iron grillwork door blocks unauthorized entry to the area under the stairs. A window well outside all but the two northernmost windows leads to the public sidewalk approximately four feet above by means of two sets of six-tread modern black-painted, diamond- pattern steel-plate stairways that replaced the original seven-tread steps. The architect's plans indicate that the original steps were constructed of iron. A waist-high fence separates the sidewalk from the window well below. (Photograph #13) Some of the railing's original elements have not survived -- for example, crenellation on the top railing (only a fragmentary remnant remains) and C- scrolls within the twisted straight-iron bar armature that supports the top railing (suggested by evidence of removal). A non-original iron railing constructed of straight iron-bar stock continues the alignment of the original light-well railing to the front of the building, forming a sidewalk-level enclosure used by patrons for parking strollers. The retaining wall is constructed of yellow (buff) iron- flecked brick. The first floor of the Park Avenue facade, like the Fifth Street facade, is finished with a course of flush-sawn Indiana limestone with projecting corner quoins of limestone. The entrance leads to the space formerly used for industrial education, still designated as "Manual Trade School" in the limestone pediment. (Photograph #9) Unlike the library entrance, the school entrance lacks limestone columns and instead is flanked by stacked limestone quoins. The original double doors, hinged to swing outward, are intact. Eight windows pierce the first floor facade on Park Avenue. Two windows in the tower projection (closest to Fifth Street) admit light to the former Reference Room (now the director's office). The next two windows, flanked by total of three narrow windows, admit light to the former Librarian's Room and Cataloguer's Room (now office space). Unlike the three evenly-spaced windows directly above on the second-floor elevation, the remaining four windows on the first-floor facade on Park Avenue are tightly spaced. They generally are aligned with, and admit light to, the rows between the floor-to-ceiling book shelving in the library's Stack Room, still used for its original purpose. The second and third floors of the Park Avenue elevation are finished with pressed yellow (buff) iron- flecked brick with tight joints. At the second floor, nine semicircular, arched windows face Park Avenue with an orange-red terra cotta horizontal belt course aligning with the base of the arch surrounds. (Photograph #7) The southernmost two windows, in the tower projection, admit light to the original Reading Room (still used for its original purpose). The next five windows repeat the Fifth Street facade pattern: terra cotta medallions flank the windows just below the second terra cotta belt course that marks the third floor. The two southernmost windows of the five windows illuminate the former Library Trustee's Room (now used as a reference room). The second two windows admit light to the room formerly used as the Reading and Daily Newspapers Room (currently the computer/internet room). The next window to the north, along with a pair of windows above the entrance to the school, provides light for the school's former Cooking Room (now the periodicals room of the library). On the third floor Park Avenue facade, as on the Fifth Street facade, the tower is pierced by a single flat topped window flanked by two oval windows. The five windows in the central portion of the Park Avenue facade align with the five windows on the second floor. (Photograph #7) The third floor windows admit light to the large third-floor space that school and library originally used at different times during the week or month as their shared Assembly Room (now used for Children's Books) and the original Carpenterwork Room (subsequently converted into school classrooms now used by the library as an ancillary children's room and two classrooms). The building's two other facades are detailed simply. The west facade faces a narrow walkway, and is constructed of red brick and bluestone sills and lintels (Photograph #10) with the exception of one bay at its south end. The southernmost bay, which is visible to passersby traveling east on Fifth Street, matches the primary facade. (Photograph #11) The west facade shows evidence of a former fire escape (removed) and the closing up of former windows and opening new doorways to accommodate functional changes (a new interior staircase added in 1914-1915 and an elevator tower added in 2007). A rusted iron crane attached to the northwest corner of the tower projection on the west facade appears to have been used to hoist ash cans from the basement level boiler room up to the level of Fifth Street. The north facade abuts an adjacent two-story building; only the uppermost portions of north wall, which are stuccoed, are visible from street level. (Photograph #12) Existing Conditions: The condition of the exterior is good and very little has changed from the time of construction. The original iron-flecked brick retaining wall adjacent to the public sidewalk by the Park Avenue window well shows signs of lateral shifting - mainly along the top five courses of brick in the four-foot high wall. Decorative ironwork grills continue to protect the basement windows in the tower on the Fifth Street elevation and the tower portion of the Park Avenue elevation. The original slate, limestone, brick fabric, and decorative terra cotta friezes on the primary facades remain as constructed in 1896-1897. The copper frieze is original to the building, but shows evidence soldering and patching repairs. Ornamental copper antefixes on top of the copper frieze have been removed and replaced with an aluminum drip edge. Certain terra cotta details were re-pointed with a pinkish mortar that does not match the original red mortar. (Photograph #3, Photograph #4, Photograph #5) The current windows are painted wood replacement windows with insulating glass, installed in the late 1970s. The typical window is a large double-hung window with single-pane sashes. Photographs of the original windows show single-pane sashes. The original cupola was roofed in copper and supported a 50-foot flagpole on top of the dome (see historic photographs). The original architectural drawings indicate that the friezes at the base of the cupola had elaborate carved wood scrollwork, and copper lion heads at the transition between dome and terra cotta frieze below it. The original hip-style main roof was slate. Records found in the library's archive indicate that the roofing system, both copper dome and slate hip roof, was prone to leaks. Interior The floor plans, interior partitions and finishes retain much of their original function and form - with certain key changes. The following description utilizes, with original initial capital letters and punctuation, the names of the spaces as shown on the original architectural drawings as a way of providing a historical context for the present day uses. Minor revisions and additions are described in the "additions" section below. Two drawings from the 13-sheet set of original drawings, itemized in the bibliography show a cross section from the primary (Fifth Street) elevation and a longitudinal section from the secondary (Park Avenue) elevation. The text below is based upon a review of the original drawings in conjunction with the chair and vice chair of the Hoboken Historic Preservation Commission, minutes and annual reports of the trustees of the library and industrial education association that operated the Manual Training School, and a detailed contemporaneous newspaper account. Basement Configuration of Space: Access to the basement is by five means: two exterior doorways from Park Avenue and a third exterior doorway from the walkway on the opposite elevation as well as two interior stairways, one from the original library portion of the building and one from the former Manual Training School portion. The first exterior door on Park Avenue, 28% feet on center north of the Fifth Street elevation, enters into a vestibule and walkway separating, to the south, a storage room (the former Coal and Wood storage room), Adjacent to it is a room housing a furnace (the former Ash Pit and Boiler). Adjacent to the north of those utility spaces are a staff room and storage room. Those spaces formerly were occupied by the Vestibule, Hall and Workroom for Library. The room next to Park Avenue gained light from three windows into an exterior window well and, on the opposite wall, from windows glazed in ground glass facing an interior landing at the foot of the stairs from the first floor of the library. The casement windows remain. The original book lift up to the office space in the former Cataloguer's Room directly above is operable but not used. Under the stairway to the library is a storeroom (originally the Librarian's Toilet) and a staff restroom (originally the library's General Toilet). The area at the foot of the stairs has been equipped with a sink, refrigerator, storage cabinets and microwave oven for staff use. The former Class Room for the Manual Training School, measuring 30'2" along the window elevation and 45'8" deep, occupied much of the basement and now is vacant. Four columns support the book stacks on the first floor and first-floor mezzanine directly above. Four windows into the Park Avenue window well provided light, as did, originally, four windows into the walkway on the west facade. The four windows on the west facade have been blocked up. The second exterior basement door on Park Avenue is eight feet on center south of the northern building line. Access to that door is under the spandrel formed by the masonry steps to the former Manual Training School above. The door enters into a lobby (formerly the Hall) 14 % feet wide and 41 feet long. The Hall was designed to house two means of access to the upper levels of the former Manual Training School. One is the existing interior stairway built on the north, west and eastern walls of the space from the basement to the third floor. An interior doorway at the western wall of the basement hallway leads to a former classroom, now vacant, at the rear of the building, shown on the original plans as a Store Room. A door and two windows provided access to an exterior space, currently unused. Next to the Passage was the Boy's [sic] Toilet Room. The portion that remains currently is used for storage. An air shaft provided air to the Boy's Toilet Room. A door from the Passage led to an exterior walkway to Fifth Street. Construction of the elevator has eliminated that door. A second access to the walkway exists next to the former Boiler room. Architectural Features: The ceiling height is 10'2." Basement walls are generally full plaster with a painted wood base, or bead-board wainscot. The exterior walls of the former Boiler and Storage Rooms are exposed brick. The ceilings are concrete barrel vaults that support the poured concrete floor of the building's first floor. The floors are poured concrete. The floors of the rooms used for purposes other than utilities have composite floor tiles. Slate blackboards in the former Class Room are trimmed in wood casing. Four painted eight-inch diameter cast- iron columns in the former Class Room support the book stacks on the first floor and mezzanine above it on the first floor. (Photograph #39) First floor Configuration of Space: The first floor is rectangular in plan, 50'3" by 95'0" with an extension off of the northwest corner measuring 19'6" by 25'. Entry to the library is by means of a seven steps up from the Fifth Street sidewalk through an arched doorway five feet, six inches wide and nine feet high. The entrance leads to the Vestibule. Two additional steps within the Vestibule lead up to a set of double doors glazed with beveled glass and hanging on double-swing hinges that allow them to swing open or be hooked open in either direction. Beyond the double doors is a continuation of the Vestibule (Beyer distinguished the Vestibule on his plans from what he called the Inner Hall). A second set of double doors is set within an archway at the northern end of the Vestibule. The two glazed double doors are hinged in a wood frame structure that appears to have housed a revolving door. The erstwhile revolving-door entry is set within an arch that leads to the library's central lobby. Called "Public" on Beyer's plans, the lobby in its original configuration currently provides patrons access to a room in the southwest corner of the building that currently houses audio visual resources. Formerly the room was the Women's Reading Room. The lobby opens to the stairway to the second floor, and a contemporary circulation counter. (Photograph #14) Until 1912 the library operated on a "closed-stack" circulation system. In that system, patrons in the lobby approached a counter with a grille that separated the lobby from staff members who worked in the Stack Room and patrons submitted their requests through a grilled window, which still exists (see historic photograph). Also adjacent to the lobby is the door to the secretarial space (formerly the Library Director's Room) that adjoins the current library director's office on the southeast corner of the building. The current library director's office originally was the Reference Room. In its original configuration, the Reference Room was accessible to patrons through a Passage from the lobby. The Passage is now blocked off and use for storage; currently reference services are provided on the second floor. Also behind the lobby wall is secretarial space (formerly the Cataloguer's Room), accessible only from the Librarian's Room and the Stack Room? The library's concentration of book shelves (called the Stack Room) is the largest space on the first floor, measuring 31 feet along the Park Avenue elevation and 46 feet deep. A contemporaneous news account stated that it could house 100,000 volumes. The stack area contains a mezzanine, accessible by a set of steel stairs in the southeast corner of the space. (Photograph #15) Although the mezzanine covers the entire square footage of the space, it appears that originally the central part of the mezzanine was open to the level below. The architect's first-floor plan shows a spiral staircase with 10 treads located adjacent to the desk at which patrons would hand their book requests to the library staff. A dotted line indicates that above the main level a structure - a mezzanine - extended eight feet from each wall, creating an open area measuring 30 feet by 15 feet below. At some point, that 450-square foot open area was decked over by the addition of I-beams bolted to the four columns that support the mezzanine. The mezzanine is 6 feet 7 inches above the main level. At the northwest corner of the book shelving area, a three-foot wide door set in an angled wall provides access to the lobby for the elevator tower and restrooms that were added during 2006-2007. Those additions utilized the space that formerly was the Women's Lunch Room for library staff and the Board of Trustees Room for the Manual Training School. Access to the former Manual Training School from Park Avenue is via a nine-tread set of steps, possibly constructed of bluestone, that now is covered with gray paint. The steps lead to an arched doorway. A set of double doors, with decorative iron grillwork and a fanlight with original iron filigree form the entry way. The entrance from Park Avenue leads through a vestibule to the vestibule and entry hall of the former Manual Training School. (Photograph #24) The lobby provides access to the stairway up to the second and third floors of the Manual Training School (Photograph #25). A closed wood staircase descends to the basement fro try hall. Architectural Features: The ceiling height is 15'4". The single door in the front doorway, on Fifth Street, is not original. (Photograph #2) An architectural drawing by Albert Beyer dated January 14, 1896 shows that he designed a double door at the exterior. Moreover, four pieces of evidence remain to strongly suggest that a double door filled the 5 foot 6 inch wide limestone door surround on the Fifth Street facade: The two exterior entry doors are shown as constructed of solid wood. They likely served the same function as contemporaneous entry doors to grand public buildings. When closed after hours, the two doors' solid robustness kept weather and trespassers at bay while simultaneously conveying to passersby the serious purpose of the public institution within. During library hours, following the convention of the period of significance, the two doors likely were hooked inward, creating additional paneled space within the entry way. That likely use is consistent with existing physical evidence. For example, indentations at door-handle height in the wood-paneled vestibule align with the likely inward sweep of heavy doors whose handles over time apparently came into repeated contact with the wood. Also, in the baseboard on the western side of the vestibule, the remnant of a brass door hook, symmetrically matched by a long-empty screw hole on the opposite baseboard, suggests that the outer doors were hooked open inwardly during patron hours. The oak paneling in the vestibule, adjacent to the door jamb, remains in good condition - an integrity that the wood p... [truncated due to length]