2006.041

Purchase

Purchase

Museum Purchase.

1956 - 1956

Date(s) Created: 1956 Date(s): 1956

Notes: Text of article published December 1, 1956, clipped from unidentified newspaper, Title: Mural in PA's New Pier Depicts Hoboken Waterfront in 1864. A beautiful wall-length mural completed this week in the passenger room of the Port Authority's newly renovated Pier B, depicts the Hoboken and New York waterfront in 1864, its foreground theme accentuating scenery at Stevens Castle and vicinity. Painted by the internationally famous artist, Robert Bushnell, the mural required 717 hours of work and was done at a cost revealed to be $6,000. The castle erected in 1854 was to replace the Steven Villa which, burned a few years earlier. It is located on a rock overlooking the Hudson River and New York Bay. Also in the foreground is the site from which Stevens Institute of Technology was to rise 6 years after the time of the scene in 1870. The institute, amid the modern hustle-bustle of the city's docks and industrial area, still stands as stately monument to a family famous for its mechanical and engineering contributions to the world. It is but one of the many remaining tributes to the Stevens family which dominated the growth of Hoboken from the time of its arrival in 1784 until the late 19th Century. The Stevens story centers around 4 figures, Colonel John Stevens, the first arrival of the family, and 3 sons, Robert, Edwin and John Cox Stevens, who together influenced a century of American progress in invention and transportation. Also clearly shown in the mural's foreground scene is a game of baseball in action on the site where the original contest was played June 19, 1846, at Elysian Fields, 100 years ago. The mural scenery fades away in a long perspective of the city looking southeast. Both sides of the harbor are lined with masted vessels, while others are shown entering and leaving Hoboken's port, destined to rise to one of the world's greatest. [end] Status: OK Status By: dw Status Date: 2006-08-29