Hoboken, New Jersey, is home to many parks, historical landmarks, and other places of interest.
Landmarks Association of Exempt Firemen Building
Carlo's Bakery A famous bakery and setting for the TLC reality television series Cake Boss. It is located on Washington Street, across from City Hall.
Castle Point
Castle Point is the highest point in Hoboken. The name is a corruption of "Castille Point", due to its supposed resemblance to the Castilian coast. To early navigators, the high serpentine crag jutting over the river reminded them of a miniature Rock of Gibraltar. The land was bought at public auction in 1804 by Col. John Stevens, who built his estate there."Hoboken, Castle Point" , Historic Houses of New Jersey (1902). After his death, his son Edwin Augustus Stevens took responsibility of the estate and in 1853 built a 40-room mansion, the "Stevens Castle", on land adjacent to the point. It was acquired by Stevens Institute of Technology in 1910 and served as an administrative and residential building until 1959. Castle Point is still part of the Stevens campus. It overlooks Sybil's Cave.
Castle Point also includes the surrounding area and streets such as the yellow brick Castle Point Terrace. Castle Point Park and Castle Point Skate Park are at the base of Castle Point, next to the Hudson River.
Clam Broth House The Clam Broth House (1899–2004), was a landmark Hoboken restaurant that operated for over a century.
The Clam Broth House opened in 1899. The restaurant attracted attention with several giant hand-shaped signs. There were two giant hand-shaped signs, one hanging on the outside of the Clam Broth House that pointed downward towards the entrance, and one on a neighboring building (which is the only sign still there today). In addition, there was a third, smaller hand-shaped sign.
In 2004, the Clam Broth House building was condemned by city officials because of structural failures caused by construction workers, and destroyed. There were cracks and bulges in the building's façade prior to the building's destruction, and the facade also buckled in May 2003, causing it to be shut down.
The Clam Broth House reopened in 2010, but was bought in 2012 by another restaurant, Biggie's Clam Bar.
DeBaun Auditorium
In Edwin A. Stevens Hall on 5th Street opposite Stevens Park.DeBaun Center for Performing Arts. Stevens Institute of Technology. Accessed November 19, 2008.
Hoboken City Hall
Hoboken Free Public Library At Church Square Park, the Hoboken Public Library contains a collection of historical photos and publications related to the history and culture of Hoboken. Erected with funds from philanthropist Martha Bayard Stevens in 1896.Stevens Matriarch, by Leah Loscutoff, Archives and Special Collections Librarian
Hoboken Historical Museum The Hoboken Historical Museum was founded in 1986 and moved into its current location at 1301 Hudson St. in 2001. It presents displays on the city's history as well as exhibits of local artists' work. Its current location was once the W. & A. Fletcher Company machine shop, a hub of the city's 19th century shipbuilding and repair industry.
Hoboken Projects
The Hoboken Projects are a complex of low-income apartments on the south western side of Hoboken, built in 1949 by the Hoboken Housing Authority.
Hoboken Terminal Hoboken Terminal, also known as Lackawanna Station (named for the Native American tribe that formerly made the area their dwelling), at the city's southeast corner, is a major transportation hub and a national historic landmark was built in 1907.
Hudson River Waterfront Walkway The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway is a promenade along the Hudson River.
Hudson Tea Building
The Hudson Tea Building apartment complex (1500 Washington and 1500 Hudson Streets) is the site of a former Lipton Tea plant. The part of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway which opened in 2004 forms a "C" shape around the west, north and east sides of buildings at the Hudson Weehawken Cove. Although places are farther north and east than the northeastern most point in Hoboken is found here. It is the home of former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and was used as a residence by actress Mischa Barton when she filmed the 2009 film Assassination of a High School President in nearby Bayonne.Sullivan, Al (September 23, 2007). "Movie stars seen around Hudson County" The Union City Reporter. p. 8 In 2016 Hudson Tea opened a series of new buildings, designed by DeWitt Tishman Architects with interiors by Andres Escobar (designer).
Miracle statue On July 29, 2005, a claim was made that a miniature statue of Jesus opened one of its eyes on its own. Before July 29, its eyes were shut. The statue is a part of a shrine at the corner of Jackson Street and Third Street that is taken care of by Julio Dones, a partially blind man who says he noticed one of its eyes was open while he was cleaning it. He claims that it is a miracle, while others believe it was a hoax. Some believe that there were already eyes in the statue, and that eyelids were glued on and one of them fell off. Regardless of how it happened, the incident gained publicity quickly. On July 29, 2005, two local news stations, ABC and UPN, came to the shrine to report it live and interview people. It has since been called "The Miracle Statue".Nickell, Joe (August 9, 2005). "Statue Mystery Solved". Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
Maxwell's
Marine View Plaza Marine View Plaza is a building complex made up of two 25-story Brutalist style buildings, constructed in 1975. These two buildings are the 2nd tallest buildings in Hoboken, New Jersey at 240.5 feet. 1 Marine View Plaza is the northernmost and 2 Marine View Plaza is the southernmost. Both buildings are 432-unit rental apartments with roof-deck swimming pools. The complex is bordered on the west by Hudson Street, on the north by 4th Street, on the east by River Street and on the south by 3rd Street.
As well as having two 25-story buildings, the Marine View Plaza complex also has a smaller building called 5 Marine View Plaza. It once housed Hoboken's only movie theater, which closed in 2005 and been replaced by a bank.
Stevens Institute of Technology
The university is situated overlooking the Hudson.
Sybil's Cave Sybil's Cave is a cave with a natural water spring, that is now buried at the bottom of the Stevens Institute of Technology hill, near the Castle Point Skate Park on Frank Sinatra Drive. One of Hoboken's best known landmarks, it was first excavated around 1832 by Hoboken's founder, Col. John Stevens III, and adorned with a gothic-style stone arch. Named after the ancient Greco-Roman prophetesses, it was originally Hoboken's biggest tourist attraction, for the magnesium-laced water that flows from the spring.Abernathy, Melissa (Summer 2014). "What the Heck is Going on with Sybil's Cave?". Hoboken 07030. pp. 24-37. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
The cave gained national attention in 1841 when the body of a young cigar shop worker, Mary Cecilia Rogers, washed ashore nearby, an incident that inspired Edgar Allan Poe's The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, one of the first true-crime detective novels. From the mid-to-late-1800s, thousands of glasses were sold daily for a penny each to tourists from New York, who drank the cave's waterLaunay, Michael. "The Legend of Sybil's Cave and the Murder of Mary Rogers". hobokeni.com. Retrieved June 29, 2014. in the belief that it had therapeutic properties.Hack, Charles (March 24, 2013). "Hoboken Historical Museum hosts talk on Sybil's Cave". NJ.com. The cave was closed in 1880 due to health department concerns about water quality, and it was used as a cool storage locker for a nearby eating establishment. That establishment devolved into a seedy waterfront tavern and closed in the 1930s, when the cave was filled in with concrete and dirt.
Around the time of World War I the cave fell into disuse and was sealed. It was reopened in October 2008 after former Mayor David Roberts worked with the Hoboken Historical Museum, Hoboken Brownstone company and others on a $106,752 renovation project to unblock the cave and make it accessible to the public.
Today, although the exterior gate to the park is usually open 24 hours a day, the gate to the cave itself is locked, as its water was found to contain too many impurities to be drinkable, and the interior is rocky and slippery. As of December 2018, there are no plans to reopen it.
Weehawken Cove
Weehawken Cove is a small cove that extends westward from the Hudson River. The cove straddles the boundary between Hoboken to the south and Weehawken to the north. Explorer Henry Hudson anchored his ship there on October 2, 1609. His first mate noted that Castle Point looked as if it contained silver mines.
United Synagogue of Hoboken Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the United Synagogue of Hoboken is among the oldest synagogue buildings in New Jersey.
Parks
Castle Point Park Castle Point Park is a public park consisting of a walkway along the Hudson River, offering scenic views of Manhattan. Stretching north along the river from Frank Sinatra Park, it terminates near 10th Street, with Sinatra Drive following along its length. Castle Point Park runs past the bottom of Castle Point, home to the Stevens Institute of Technology. Historic Sybil's Cave is also visible from the park.
Within the park is the Castle Point Skate Park, Hoboken's only designated skateboarding area. It features many ramps: one small half-pipe, one large half-pipe, one quarter pipe, and one 45° ramp, as well as several smaller ramps.
Church Square Park
Church Square Park is bordered between Fourth and Fifth Streets and between Willow Avenue and Garden Street, was originally dedicated as a "Public Square" by John Stevens, the founder of Hoboken, in 1804.
In the eastern part of the park is a statue, sculptured by Arturo Dazzi. of the radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, with a bas-relief tribute to the Four Chaplains, who sacrificed their lives, going down with their ship, the U.S.S. Dorchester, during World War II. The statue was commissioned and donated by John Minervini and replaced the damaged (in transit) Italian 1939 World's Fair Marconi statue received from the Italian government. Since the original pedestal was too large for the present monument, Mr. Minervini added the four chaplains at the request of Mayor John Grogan.
The Firemen's Monument, Hoboken is a statue of a fireman, in the western part of the park.
Covering two square blocks, this popular park is often a hub of community activity. With four separate playground areas (including a gated infant playground and a gated toddler playground), a sprinkler area turned on in the summer, basketball courts, ping pong tables, chess tables, a covered gazebo, an astroturf area and plenty of grassy areas.
Columbus Park Columbus Park is a park near Hoboken High School at the corner of 9th Street and Clinton Street originally designed by Charles N. Lowrie, who was a landscape architect for the Hudson County Park System, of which the park is a part. There is a statue of Christopher Columbus in the center of the park. There is also a memorial dedicated to John A. Sacci, a beloved Hoboken High School History teacher, who was tragically shot on February 12, 1998. The monument was facilitated by students and to this day, the word "remembrance" is misspelled on the marble monument.
Columbus Park is home to multiple athletic courts, including a multi-use with a half basketball court, three lighted tennis courts, bocce courts, a shuffleboard court, and a hitting wall. There are two playgrounds and a spray park. The playground closest to 9th Street was dedicated in 2002 to the memory of Deborah Lynn Williams, a Hoboken mother killed at the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks.
Frank Sinatra Park