Factoid Archive

  1. The first electrified train was driven by Thomas Edison from Hoboken Terminal to Montclair in 1930.
  2. In 1964 freeze-dried coffee was invented at Hoboken’s Maxwell House plant, now the site of luxury condominium Maxwell Place.
  3. On November 30th 1876 the first Yale/Princeton football game was played on a rented field in Hoboken. During the game Yale great Walter Camp threw the first forward pass in the game of football.
  4. The first chewing gum sold in the U.S. went on sale at a drugstore in Hoboken in February 1871.
  5. The first wireless phone, operable between Hoboken and Manhattan, was situated in Hoboken’s Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Terminal.
  6. The longest serving Mayor of Hoboken was Bernard McFeely who’s tenure lasted for 17 years between 1930 and 1947.
  7. The first horse car railroad in New Jersey began service in Hoboken on February 11th, 1860.
  8. John Jacob Astor, the Bill Gates of his era, moved to Hoboken in 1828. He lived at Astor Villa on 2nd and Washington St.
  9. Bubble wrap was invented in 1957 by Stevens Tech alumnus Alfred W. Fielding
  10. Colonel John Stevens, Hoboken’s founder, invented the worlds first steam powered ferry.
  11. The first Catholic school in New Jersey, Our Lady of Grace Grammar School, opened in Hoboken in September 1864.
  12. Pre-NBA, Hoboken was the home to three professional Basketball teams. The Hoboken G’s (1916), The Hoboken Thourots (1933) and The Hoboken Lisa’s (1931-33).
  13. Mayor Dawn Zimmer is Hoboken’s 38th Mayor.
  14. The video for Bruce Springsteen’s hit ‘Glory Days’ was shot at Maxwell’s Hoboken in 1984.
  15. Michael Chang the youngest tennis player (at 17) to ever win a Grand Slam event was born in Hoboken.
  16. Gordon Liddy, Watergate conspirator lived at 825 Hudson Street in Hoboken between 1932-45.
  17. In July 1921 a radio mast in Hoboken broadcast the first live sporting event. A heavyweight fight between Jack Dempsey & Georges Carpentier held at Boyles Thirty Acres in Jersey City.
  18. On 17th November 1874, subway tunneling began on the Hudson and Manhattan Railway Lines, that became the present day PATH.
  19. A fire at North German Lloyd’s Pier 2 in Hoboken on June 30th 1900, claimed 300 lives and caused $5 million worth of property damage.
  20. Emmy-winning actor Joe Pantoliano, of The Sopranos fame, was born in Hoboken in 1954.
  21. The Church of Holy Innocents at 6th & Willow was built by Martha Stevens in 1876 (not single-handed!).
  22. Located in Hoboken, The Stevens Institute of Technology chartered in 1870 was the country’s first college of technology.