Thursday, July 31, 2014

Hoboken Walking Tour Part One

Good Afternoon,

I wasn't sure I would make it here today because it was my intent to come here and tell you my thoughts on The Fault in our Stars but honestly I just cant talk about it right now! I finished reading it last night while Kim Kardashian ugly crying and I just cant put my thoughts together yet to make a sensible book review. I will get my act together for tomorrow though, I promise!

So on Tuesday Tanya and I headed to Hoboken bright and early with the intent to take on the Hoboken walking tour. We may have bit off more then we could chew because we only got half way through the tour and had already walked about 10 miles, literally! So we decided that we would finish it next week as its suppose to rain continuously for the rest of this week.

It was my intention to take pictures of all the stops and then correspond them with information from the tour. That's not going to happen.. because as I mentioned, the tour is LONG! So you can view the tour HERE and I will post the pictures I took! I will say there are tons of walking tours available for Hoboken, food tours, etc! If you are heading to New Jersey for a vacation it would definitely be worth checking out as you can upload the map and do them all on your own!

So lets get started shall we? Some of the buildings in the city are absolutely gorgeous so if you are a architecture buff I think you would be pleasantly surprised.

This is a beautiful park outside of Josh and Tanya's apartment! I was a little early to meet Tanya so I sat down in this little park waiting for her and it was beautiful. Mornings in places like this don't make mornings seem so bad. 

The beautiful walk on the way to Hoboken from Jersey City. 

This is actually the first stop on the tour.. or the last stop I suppose depending on which end you choose to start. The Hoboken Train station is small but pretty impressive in what it offers. This particular room is beautiful like most train stations! 

This is not part of the tour but it looked historic. The building beneath it it now completely modern and redone but the sign remains. 

The Hoboken Land Building is right outside the train station and also apart of the tour. It is no longer the land building although the sign remains, it is now a child daycare. 


This World War I memorial is on the Hoboken Boardwalk (that spans through Jersey City) and is apart of the tour as well. If you are at all interested New York has quite a lengthy and interesting history in the roll is played in many wars, its really worth checking out. And yes I know this is New Jersey. 

I can't remember if this was on the tour or I just liked the building. This is why I didn't want to do a blog on the whole tour with all the information because I knew I wouldn't remember, my memory is complete crap.. and we only did half the tour. Either way this building is absolutely gorgeous, some great time and thought went into constructing this beauty.

This was the original City Hall and is still stands in all its glory. Here is an excerpt from the walking tour... 94 Washington Street, 1883. Francis George Himpler, architect. Second Empire modified to Beaux Arts Classicism. 
This square block, donated by Colonel John Stevens, was originally a public marketplace. The design was modified in 1911 to include two projecting bays and an enlarged third floor. The original entrance remains the same. The two patriotic gold-leafed copper eagles were named Hobo and Ken in a survey conducted by the Hoboken Historical Museum.


Excerpt From Tour: 213 Bloomfield Street, circa 1864. Francis George Himpler, architect. Italianate/Second Empire.
This early example of Himpler’s work is one of two architecturally intact Hoboken firehouses; the other is at 212 Park Avenue. The second floor features a plaster ceiling rondel of working firemen with the room’s gas line interpreted as a fire hose. Exempt Firemen were excused from public duty after seven years of volunteer service. Today the building serves as a  museum of Hoboken firefighters’ memorabilia. 



This is a beautiful Synagogue that is on the tour and appears to hold a daycare currently. Here is an excerpt from the tour... 115 Park Avenue.
Modeled after the Great Synagogue of Frankfort-am-Main, Germany, this building was dedicated in 1915.  With arched entranceways and windows, third-floor portal windows, and two copper domes, its style combines the Moorish and Gothic Revival architecture popular before World War I. 

Excerpt From Tour: 313-315 First Street, 1912. Architect unknown. Classical Revival.































































The Trust was founded in 1905 by a diverse group of Hoboken businessmen who chose the name torepresent their democratic and community-service ideals. The bank prospered as the town assimilated successive groups of immigrants. By 1912 the Trust was in this impressive granite and brick building of monumental scale. The coffered ceiling borders a flat-domed, leaded-glass skylight, and the richly detailed plaster interior remains practically unaltered. After the bank failed during the Great Depression, the property changed hands many times before its present owners undertook its restoration and adaptive reuse.


Grimaldi's is not part of the tour.. but I NEED to go there!! This is famous pizza, I believe the original on is in Brooklyn, NY. 






This is where I trailed off and started taking pictures of buildings that I just liked. We walked all the way down Washington St. further then we had walked before and not only are there TONS of restaurants but there are tons of interesting buildings. Doesn't the top make it look like a castle? This may be on the second half of the tour because I am sure there is some historical significance, for now I believe it is being used as an apartment. 


Again just a building I thought was interesting and dated back so quite aways. I believe this was once a girls school although I don't know what it is used for now, possibly a girls school. I do know that Tanya and I discussed how awful it would have been to go to a girls school. 


  

I wish the Library wasn't surrounded by scaffold because the building itself is gorgeous. This is a free to the public library. Here is a little excerpt from the tour. 
Bordered by Fourth, Fifth, Garden, and Willow.
A popular park for young and old, Church Square Park,  in the heart of Hoboken, is sited on land given to the city by Colonel John Stevens in 1804. The park plan dates from 1873. Near Willow Avenue is the 1891 Firefighters' Monument with Taps, a mascot, buried at its base. Across the park, the Four Chaplains Monument honors clergy of differing faiths who died while attending the crew of the torpedoed USS Dorchester in World War II. A pedestal commemorates Marconi, the inventor of the wireless.

Excerpt from Tour: 400 Willow Avenue, circa 1878. Francis George  Himpler, Architect. German Gothic.

Once the largest Roman Catholic Church in New Jersey, Our Lady of Grace Church was constructed after a design by Himpler, who also designed City Hall. Gifts of paintings and ceremonial vessels were sent by Victor Emmanuel, Emperor Napoleon III, and other Italian and French royalty when the church was dedicated. These and the lavish interior decorations by George Ashdown Audsley (1839-1925) are gone, but Audsley’s pipe organ, circa 1899 and designed especially for the chuch, plays on.


This I believe was on the tour, the whole street actually. These homes are original war time homes and were beautiful. The street was private therefore it was extremely quiet, the homes were so quaint. It was a beautiful little touch of serenity in the middle of the city. 



These last few pictures have been just because of their beauty! Sometimes I feel the need to express my creativity in photographs and I found a lot of places to do so here. 

This building would never stand out, you would never know of any historical significance unless you happened to stop and take notice of the plaque. Excerpt from Tour: 601 Bloomfield Street. 
The composer (1826-1864) lived here in 1854 when “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” was published.  “Hoboken” is penned on the original manuscript. This typical pre-Civil War brick dwelling is Foster’s only known intact residence. Some other compositions by Foster are “Camptown Races,” “Oh! Susanna,” and “Beautiful Dreamer.”



Beautiful Building on Washington Street. 



I may not remember half the tour (shoot me, its not like my memory sucking is a big secret! What did you expect?) but I do have a whole new appreciation for Hoboken, its beauty and historical significance. Although the next half of the tour will be blogged about and will probably suck as bad as this I do plan to do it! If it makes you feel better when Tanya does her blog on it I will provide a link over here so you can hop over there and get some real info... trust me I wont be offended! 

So that's that.. I think I have covered most of what I intended. Jason should be home anytime so I am off to make some dinner. The next few days its suppose to rain like cats and dogs, I'm hoping its a farce like the weather channel usually is but its not looking very good. We have outdoor weekend plans and I would appreciate if they weren't screwed with but I guess we will wait and see. 

Hope you guys are having a fantastic week, as always I love that you take time out of your day to stop in to my little corner of the world! 



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