Hoboken is unlikely to ever again be a city where blocks full of factories pump out products. That phase of the city’s history has passed, but the industrial roots can still be seen in much of the architecture.
Through the process of “adaptive reuse,” new life has been breathed into what were once blighted or abandoned factories.
First, a little history
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, and Bethlehem Steel, and dozens of smaller specialized companies including Keuffel & Ester Instrument Co. and Ferguson Propeller. In 1889, there were just over 3,000 manufacturing employees in Hoboken; by 1909, that number had increased threefold.
As the 19th century became the 20th, Hoboken was a hotbed of industrial activity. This was due in large part to the planning of Hoboken’s “founding family,” the Stevens family. In the early 19th century, the Stevens family, through the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, began hearty development, building most of the city’s characteristic brownstones.
At this time, the family also began selling land to industrialists, forever changing the face of the city.
But the 1950s and 1960s saw the invention of containerized shipping. With this came the need for larger ships and deeper ports. Seemingly overnight, Hoboken’s docks became obsolete. With no easy way to transport products out of Hoboken, most of the city’s factories closed, and Hoboken fell on hard times.
About the only silver lining of the period was that Hoboken was so depressed and devoid of economic development that few of the abandoned factories and historic brownstones were razed. This meant that Hoboken largely avoided the lackluster architectural period of the 1970s.
Transition to residential
Many of the city’s vestiges outlived their original use and sat empty and derelict. Instead of demolishing the interesting old buildings, there has been a movement in urban renewal called adaptive reuse, in which buildings are adapted for new uses while retaining their historic features and maintaining a link to the city’s past.
Today, the old factories have given way to popular luxury condos with high ceilings, awesome views, and urban charm.
The first example in Hoboken was the Keuffel & Esser Manufacturing Complex at Third and Grand streets.
According to officials from the Hoboken Historical Museum, the factory was built in 1906 to produce precision instruments for the architectural, engineering and drafting professions. Their products were used in planning the Brooklyn Bridge, and they supplied the Navy with periscopes in World War I and the Army with range-finders in World War II.
In the mid-1960s, Keuffel & Esser relocated. According to museum officials, in 1975 the West Plant, known locally as the Clock Tower Building, was converted to housing and has been cited as a premiere example of adaptive reuse of an industrial building.
Tea to condos
Another prime example of adaptive reuse is the Standard Brands/Lipton Tea Building at the northern terminus of Washington Street.
Near the turn of the century, the factory’s prime location allowed ships full of tea to anchor alongside the building to unload directly onto its private dock. But like so many of the city’s other factories, it closed in the 1970s.
In the late 1990s, the factory was converted to luxury rental apartments and renamed the Hudson Tea Building. It has become one of the most sought-after addresses in the state and is currently the home of N.J. Governor Elect Jon Corzine.
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.”