Hoboken ( ; )Hoboken , Lenape Talking Dictionary. Accessed June 2, 2016. is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 60,419, an increase of 10,414 (+20.8%) from the 2010 census count of 50,005, which in turn reflected an increase of 11,428 (+29.6%) from the 38,577 counted in the 2000 census.Table 7. Population for the Counties and Municipalities in New Jersey: 1990, 2000 and 2010, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, February 2011. Accessed May 1, 2023. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 59,149 for 2024. With more than in data from the 2010 census, Hoboken was ranked as the third-most densely populated municipality in the United States among cities with a population above 50,000.Maciag, Mike. "Population Density for U.S. Cities Statistics" , Governing, November 29, 2017. Accessed December 4, 2020. "The following are the most densely populated cities with populations exceeding 50,000:... [3rd] Hoboken, N.J.: 42,484 persons/sq. mile" In the 2020 census, the city's population density climbed to more than of land, ranked fourth in the county behind Guttenberg, Union City and West New York, all of which are in Hudson County."Diversity, density and change in Hoboken and other Hudson County municipalities", Fund for a Better Waterfront, September 7, 2021. Accessed January 18, 2023. "Hudson is the most densely populated county in New Jersey, which is the most densely populated state in the country. Hudson County also contains the four most densely populated cities in the nation: Guttenberg, Union City, West New York and Hoboken. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Hoboken has 47,202 people per square mile, in fourth place behind the three other Hudson municipalities."
Hoboken was first settled by Europeans as part of the Pavonia, New Netherland colony in the 17th century. During the early 19th century, the city was developed by Colonel John Stevens, first as a resort and later as a residential neighborhood. Originally part of Bergen Township and later North Bergen Township, it became a separate township in 1849 and was incorporated as a city in 1855. Hoboken is the location of the first recorded game of baseball and of the Stevens Institute of Technology, one of the oldest technological universities in the United States.
It is also known as the birthplace and hometown of the world-famous singer and actor Frank Sinatra (1915–1998); various streets and parks in the city have been named after him.
Located on the Hudson Waterfront, the city was an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey and was home to major industries for most of the 20th century. The character of the city has changed from an artsy industrial vibe from the days when Maxwell House coffee, Lipton tea, Hostess Cupcakes, and Wonder Bread called Hoboken home, to one of trendy shops and expensive condominiums.Martin, Antoinette. "Less Luster on the 'Gold Coast'" , The New York Times, October 29, 2010. Accessed September 24, 2012. "In Hoboken the inventory was just over nine months. In Jersey City it had swelled to 17.6 months." It was ranked 2nd in Niche's "2019 Best Places to Live in Hudson County" list, and 1st in 2022.
History Etymology The name Hoboken was chosen by Colonel John Stevens when he bought land on a part of which the city still sits. The Lenape, later called Delaware Indian tribe of Native Americans, referred to the area as the "land of the tobacco pipe", most likely to refer to the soapstone collected there to carve tobacco pipes, and used a phrase that became "Hopoghan Hackingh"."The Abridged History of Hoboken" , Hoboken Museum, Accessed February 24, 2015.Hutchinson, Viola L. The Origin of New Jersey Place Names , New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed September 1, 2015.Gannett, Henry. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, p. 158. United States Government Printing Office, 1905. Accessed September 1, 2015. Like Weehawken, its neighbor to the north, as well as Communipaw and Harsimus to the south, Hoboken had many variations in the folks-tongue. Hoebuck, old Dutch for high bluff, and likely referring to Castle Point, the district of the city highest above sea level, was used during the colonial era, and was later spelled as Hobuck,Hoboken Reporter January 16, 2005 Hobock,Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1675–1776, Volume 8 , p. 428. Archived at Google Books. Accessed June 9, 2014. HobukHistory of Hoboken , WNET. Accessed September 1, 2015. "The following description of Hobuk, as it was then known, comes from a letter written in 1685 by a George Scott, of Edinburg" and Hoboocken.New Jersey Colonial Records, East Jersey Records: Part 1 – Volume 21 Calendar of Records 1664–1703 , USGenWeb Archives. Accessed November 27, 2011. However, in the nineteenth century, the name was changed to Hoboken, influenced by Flemish immigrants, and a folk etymology had emerged, linking the town of Hoboken to the similarly named Hoboken district of Antwerp.Van Der Sijs, Nicoline. Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops: The Influence of Dutch on the North American Languages , p. 109. Amsterdam University Press, 2009. . Accessed June 2, 2016.
Hoboken has been nicknamed the Mile Square City, but it actually occupies about of land. During the late 19th/early 20th century the population and culture of Hoboken was dominated by German language speakers who sometimes called it "Little Bremen", many of whom are buried in Hoboken Cemetery, North Bergen."Hoboken Historical Museum Hosts Publication Party for Oral History Chapbook, "A Nice Tavern" , Hoboken Historical Museum. Accessed November 17, 2010.Applebome, Peter. "Our Towns; Jitters About Who's in Charge on the Waterfront, in 1917 and Today" , The New York Times, March 5, 2006. Accessed September 13, 2018. "And Hoboken, where as early as the 1850s, more than 1,500 of the 7,000 inhabitants were of German origin, was known as Little Bremen, and had an elaborate network of German beer gardens and restaurants, social clubs, newspapers, theaters and schools."
Early-European arrival and colonial period
Hoboken was originally an island which was surrounded by the Hudson River on the east and tidal lands at the foot of the New Jersey Palisades on the west. It was a seasonal campsite in the territory of the Hackensack, a phratry of the Lenni Lenape, who used the serpentine rock found there to carve pipes.
The first recorded European to lay claim to the area was Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who anchored his ship the Halve Maen (Half Moon) at Weehawken Cove on October 2, 1609.Short History of Hoboken , Hoboken Historical Museum. Accessed September 1, 2015. An entry made in the journal of Hudson's mate, Robert Juet, on that date, is the earliest known reference to the area today known as Hoboken, and would be the last known such reference until twenty years later. Soon after the area became part of the province of New Netherland.
In 1630, Michael Reyniersz Pauw, a burgemeester (mayor) of Amsterdam and a director of the Dutch West India Company, received a land grant as patroon on the condition that he would plant a colony of not fewer than fifty persons within four years on the west bank of what had been named the North River. Three Lenape sold the land that became Hoboken and part of Jersey City for 80 fathoms (146 m) of wampum, 20 fathoms (37 m) of cloth, 12 kettles, six guns, two blankets, one double kettle, and half a barrel of beer. These transactions, variously dated as July 12, 1630 and November 22, 1630, represent the earliest known conveyance for the area. Pauw, whose Latinized name is Pavonia, failed to settle the land, and he was obliged to sell his holdings back to the company in 1633.
It was later acquired by Hendrick Van Vorst, who leased part of the land to Aert Van Putten, a farmer. In 1643, north of what would be later known as Castle Point, Van Putten built a house and a brewery, North America's first. In series of Indian and Dutch raids and reprisals, Van Putten was killed and his buildings destroyed, and all residents of Pavonia, as the colony was then known, were ordered back to New Amsterdam.
In 1664, the English took possession of New Amsterdam with little to no resistance, and in 1668 they confirmed a previous land patent by Nicolas Verlett. In 1674–1675, the area became part of East Jersey, and the province was divided into four administrative districts, Hoboken becoming part of Bergen County, where it remained until the creation of Hudson County on February 22, 1840. English-speaking settlers (some relocating from New England) interspersed with the Dutch, but it remained sparsely populated and agrarian.
Eventually, the land came into the possession of William Bayard, who originally supported the revolutionary cause, but became a Loyalist Tory after the fall of New York in 1776 when the city and surrounding areas, including the west bank of the renamed Hudson River, were occupied by the British. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Bayard's property was confiscated by the Revolutionary Government of New Jersey. In 1784, the land described as "William Bayard's farm at Hoebuck" was bought at auction by Colonel John Stevens for £18,360 (then $90,000).
19th century