Hoboken In Images Of America
The city of Hoboken in Hudson County, New Jersey is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Hoboken is directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan and has long been a transportation hub. For many years, Hoboken was linked to lower Manhattan by a ferry. In this 1997 book, "Hoboken", historical preservationist Patricia Florio Colrick offers a photographic story of Hoboken focusing on its ferries, railroads, ships, streetcars and on its role in industry. The book is part of the Images of America series of local photographic histories of the many unique communites in the United States.
This book has a personal touch, and the author clearly loves her subject. Readers who enjoy photos of trains, terminals, harbors, ships, busy city streets will enjoy this book as will readers familiar with Hoboken. The book shows detailed photos of the old Hoboken Terminal before and after it was destroyed by a catastrophic fire and rebuilt with its cavernous halls and its train, ship, and streetcar connections. Hoboken is now connected to New York City by a subway under the river, PATH, but that was not so in the early days. The first two chapters of this book focus on the terminals, their traffic, and their people.
The book's third chapter describes the streets of Hoboken during its years as a center of commerce and trade. The photos will appeal to readers who enjoy scenes of urban America. They show businesses large and small and the construction of landmark, historical buildings, many of which still survive and grace the streets.
In the fourth chapter, the book explores a single large street, Washington Street, in the second decade of the 20th Century when the trolley system was expanded. The reader can follow the path of the trolley up and down Washington Street, with its storefornts and apartments as the trolley ran its course.
The fifth and sixth chapter discuss the Hoboken Waterfront from its days as a center for leisure and for boating clubs to its later development as an industrial center, a harbor for ocean streamlines, and a point of departure for soldiers heading to the front in WW I. The first organized game of baseball was played in Hoboken's waterfront area, the Elysian Fields, on June 19, 1846. The book's final chapter, looks briefly at landmarks in Hoboken and it some of its famous residents, including Frank Sinatra, who was born and raised in the city. Sinatra has places named in his honor throughout the city, and his birthplace is marked with a bronze sidewalk star
Although I have never been to Hoboken, I enjoy visiting old urban America and I loved the photos in this book. The book might have been easier to follow if the author had done more to place the photos and the history in a broader context of the history of Hoboken.
