Hoboken’s ‘Last Drop’ of industrialism 1992 marked closing of Maxwell House factory

Few, if any, properties better mirror Hoboken’s evolution than the site of the former Maxwell House Coffee buildings on the central waterfront.

The land was once a picnic, yachting and recreation area for wealthy Manhattanites, but with industrialization came the Maxwell House Coffee plant, a giant 11-building complex.

Then, when the city’s prosperity waned and its piers became obsolete, the city’s largest employer closed shop.

Now, like so much of the city, new life is being breathed into the property, with the ongoing construction of 832 high-end condominiums.

Yachting and baseball

In 1609, explorer Henry Hudson made his way up the river that now bears his name. Several sailors on his boat noted Hoboken’s green-veined rock that made up what is now called Castle Point. Historians believe that Hudson dropped anchor at or near the natural beach that was part of the Maxwell House property.

During Hoboken’s infancy, the city’s waterfront was originally utilized for recreation. On weekends, the area welcomed as many as 20,000 visitors for picnics and sailing.

The Maxwell House property was built on the original site of the New York Yacht Club. According to historian Joan Doherty Lovero, who wrote the book Hudson County: The Left Bank, John Cox Stevens – the eldest son of Col. John Stevens, Hoboken’s founder – organized the New York Yacht Club. In 1845, he donated a clubhouse near the Elysian Fields, which stayed open for more than 20 years.

But maybe the most significant event to occur on the property happened on June 19, 1846. The first game of baseball was played on Elysian Fields, which encompassed much of the Maxwell site and today’s Elysian Park, and stretched west toward Washington Street. During that game, the Knickerbockers beat the New York Nine by a score of 23 to 1.

250 companies in Hoboken

The beginning of the last century saw an industrial renaissance that brought more than 250 companies to Hoboken. They included industrial giants such as Maxwell House, Standard Brands, Lipton Tea, Hostess Cakes, Tootsie Roll, Bethlehem Steel, and dozens of smaller specialized companies including Keuffel & Esser Instrument Co. and Ferguson Propeller.

In 1889, there were just over 3,000 manufacturing employees in Hoboken; by 1909, that number had increased threefold.

In 1938, the Maxwell House Coffee factory was built. At the time, it accounted for 40 percent of worldwide production of the Maxwell House brand and was the largest coffee factory in the world.

The 11 buildings of the factory were designed in the Bauhaus style. From Manhattan, one could see the neon Maxwell House coffee cup sign, which proclaimed that the company’s coffee was “Good to the Last Drop.”

The sign has since been refurbished and is being stored by the Hoboken Historical Museum.

As Hoboken’s waterfront thrived, so did the factory. In its heyday, it employed hundreds of workers.

The decline

But in the 1950s and ’60s, the growing importance of air travel and the development of containerized cargo, which necessitated deep-water ports, took its toll on Hoboken’s waterfront.

While some smaller factories remained open, Maxwell House was the last of the industrial giants to close.

The company shifted most of its production to its factory in Jacksonville, Fla. and in 1992 shut down all of its Hoboken operations.

Many people point to the closing of Maxwell House as the unofficial end of Hoboken’s industrial era.

A new start

In the 1980s, a growing group of artists, followed by young professionals, began to discover Hoboken.

Developers began taking an interest in the town and converted inland homes into new condos, which sold well. This surge in the new market created a frenzy to develop dormant property on the waterfront.

Gotham Partners, the now defunct Manhattan-based hedge fund, bought the Maxwell House property in 1998 for a reported $18 million.

Their partners, local developers Daniel Gans and George Vallone of the Hoboken Brownstone Company, became the public faces for the project and oversaw a nearly five-year application before the city’s Planning Board.

In late 2003, they were granted approvals for an 832-unit condominium project. The project, which sits on a 24-acre site, 10 acres of which are water, will include nearly six acres of fully accessible public open space, mostly on the banks of the Hudson River.

The entire residential component of the project will be approximately 1,090,000 square feet and made up of high-rise buildings with luxury condominiums, approximately 1,500 parking spaces, and approximately 206,000 square feet of commercial space.

In August of 2004, the property and approvals were sold to Toll Brothers, Inc., a nationally known real estate development firm based in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., and New Jersey-based Pinnacle Downtown.

The reported sale price was approximately $76 million.

In 2004, Toll and Pinnacle began demolition of the old factory buildings and started construction of the $500 million project, which has since been renamed Maxwell Place on the Hudson.

The first building in the development could open as early as late 2006.

Commemorating history

According to the developers, there will be four historical markers on the property. They will commemorate Hudson’s landing, the New York Yacht Club, the first baseball game, and the Maxwell House Coffee factory.

A collection of the artifacts and memorabilia regarding the history of the Maxwell House Coffee factory is being collected and preserved. Additionally, all of the original blueprints for the factory, done in pencil on Mylar in the 1930s, are being preserved.

The exhibit will be presented in the common areas of the property for public viewing.

Tom Jennemann can be reached at tjennemann@hudsonreporter.com.

All of the past columns from this year-long series are available online by visiting www.hobokenreporter.com, scrolling down the left-hand side of the page and clicking on “150th Anniversary.”

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