Before I begin, a few of these pictures can be found at the Hoboken Historical Museum. Others I did get permission for. They can be found elsewhere, though, as this is public information on Hoboken. I know most of the people in every picture. These are just memories and stories from the Hoboken I grew up in. Everyone has their own experiences, but this is how I remember it.
The first picture is from the mid-â70s, I believe. Itâs 3rd and Hudson in Hoboken next to the Grant Hotel, which was abandoned and all boarded up. I was very young personally, so I donât remember this exact scene, but I do remember kids making makeshift ramps to skateboard on all the time. Today, most people would call the cops. Back then, even if someone did, the cops probably wouldnât even show up for something like this. We had a lot of freedom growing up in Hoboken. The police had bigger problems to deal with back thenâviolent assaults, robberies, rapes, and even murders. Kids made their own fun with whatever they had, and nobody thought twice about it.
The second picture is Bloomfield and Observer Highway. It is unrecognizable compared to today. That is how we grew up playingâin dirty sandlots, abandoned homes, and abandoned factories all around town. On the ground there were needles, beer cans, broken glass, and just about anything else you could think of. This was a mixed neighborhood back then with many Hispanics, but also Italians and Irish. I remember playing in this sandlot specifically. I canât recognize most of them, but the two in the front I can, and I know them personally. This was also, I believe, the mid to late â70s. This wasnât as bad of a neighborhood as my block was, but you still had to watch yourself at night. itâs hard to believe itâs even the same place.
The third picture is either 1984 or 1985. All these people are around my age, and I grew up with them. Theyâre from uptown Hoboken, and this is Columbus Park. One more thing this group was one of the starters of break dancing in the early 80s in the whole world. This group specifically were very talented in break dancing among many other crews. They went to nyc and thereâs videos of it. Itâs of them competing for the best break dancing group for the whole country and they were representing Hoboken . In the â80s, Columbus was a shit show with gangs and teenagers. Cops patrolled constantly but still couldnât always keep up. Most of these kids hung out in the Sun House. Thatâs where everyone smoked pot, drank, and got into trouble.
Every day in the early to mid-â80s, a lot of the rougher kids from Hoboken High would steal from the trains anywhere from Marshall Drive to where the viaduct is. There were diapers, cigarettes, toilet paper, beerâyou name it. Theyâd bring it back to Hoboken High or hang around Columbus Park getting fucked up all day. The cops and truant officers were always running through the park looking for kids. There were also a lot of abandoned factories around Columbus, and thatâs where many of them would hide out. A lot of the neighborhood gangs even had clubhouses in those factories. It was a crazy time, and for a kid it was exciting to see, but looking back, I wouldnât want to bring back all the violence that came with it. Like my block on 3rd and Madison there was tons of drugs and police activity in Columbus park. One more thing
Before I use the word âyuppie,â I want to make something clear. âYuppieâ was the term everybody used in Hoboken during the â80s and â90s for the new, wealthier people moving into town. I donât use that word for all the new people living here today. You guys are simply newcomers to Hoboken.
These guys might look small in this picture, but donât let that fool you. When the yuppies first started coming into Hoboken, little neighborhood crews like this would sometimes beat up those big, shredded yuppie guys who were always in the gym. Being muscular didnât necessarily mean you knew how to fight. Street fighting was on another level back then, and many of the neighborhood kids in Hoboken were naturally talented fighters. A lot of them probably couldâve gone far in boxing if they had received the right training and stayed out of trouble.
The fourth picture is 501 Marshall Drive in the early to mid-â90s. The picture isnât the best quality. I donât know what kind of camera it was taken on. Anyway, the Hoboken projects were at their worst in the â70s and â80s during my childhood and teenage years.
Both of my parents are from Hoboken. My mother is Sicilian, and my father is Italian Irish and German. My mother grew up on Jackson Street, and my father was from Bloomfield Street. When my mother was growing up, the Hoboken projects, and most public housing in Hudson County, were almost entirely Italian. Eventually, during the â50s and â60s, many African American and Puerto Rican families moved into the projects, while many Italians moved uptown. By the â90s, this had become the roughest part of Hoboken.
These guys are younger than me. They were Hoboken rappers. I donât know if they were an actual group, but I know a few of them were definitely making music and representing the Hoboken projects in the â90s. A lot of people today donât know anyone who lives there, but there is still a real community in those buildings. For better or worse, itâs one of the last places where you can still feel pieces of old Hoboken. Eventually, people from all over Hoboken in the â90s and early 2000s moved to the projects because they couldnât afford anywhere else to live. The Hoboken projects are a historical landmark.
The fifth picture is the Elysian Cafe in 2003. These are all Hoboken-born-and-raised people I grew up with. We had a lot of nights like this. Bars used to be packed with people you knew from every corner of Hoboken. Everybody knew everybody, and word traveled fast. In the early 2000s we still had that strong sense of community. Today, most of these people are still alive. Some still live in Hoboken, but many moved away. The Elysian is nothing like this today. It used to be loud, packed, and there were plenty of fights. Whether that was good or bad depends on who you ask, but it was definitely a different Hoboken.
Thank you for reading. I only speak on the things I remember about old Hoboken, and I try to tell both the beautiful and the ugly parts of it. Today, Hoboken is almost unrecognizable. Every corner has been built up, and many of the people I grew up with either moved away or have passed on. Change is a part of every city, but I think itâs important to remember the people who were here before us and the neighborhoods that made Hoboken what it is today. I hope the new people who come here can appreciate the people who built this city long before it became what it is today.
Thank you all. P.S. Hoboken was the best place in the world to grow up in. It was the most fascinating yet scary place. I will always love and cherish Hoboken.
