History of the Hoboken Ferry Terminal

History of the Hoboken Ferry Terminal. . , Hoboken, New Jersey was Lenni Lenape Indian Territory until the 17th century. After the revolutionary war, Colonel John Stevens purchased the land, naming it The New City of Hoboken. when the sale of lots to the general public was not immediately successful once Hoboken's street grid was established in 1804, Stevens explored the possibility of establishing ferry service between New York City and Hoboken, and developed the land as an arcadian pleasure resort to which New Yorkers could retreat from the city., By 1811 Stevens was operating regular service to New York from Hoboken's first ferry house. Robert Fulton, inventor of the first commercial steamboat forced Stevens to abandon his ferry business until 1824, when Fulton's monopoly on Hudson River steam travel was dissolved in the US Supreme Court Case Gibbons vs. Ogden. In 1828 Hoboken had less than five hundred permanent residents but drew as many as 20,000 visitors daily during the summer months; the area continued to evolve as a summer resort for New Yorkers., The first rail line from Hoboken, serving Morristown to New York City (via the Hoboken Ferry), was leased by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) in 1835. By 1855, when Hoboken was officially chartered, the city had about 7,000 inhabitants and boasted a ferry service that ran both day and night. As a result of the city's thriving ferry and rail services providing an important and strategic connection between points west of the Hudson River and New York River with its active harbor, Hoboken was transformed from a resort community to a center of international shipping, domestic industrial operations, and transportation networks., In 1883, the DL&W built a new ferry house on the site that was connected to the railroad station in Hoboken. In 1903, the DL&W leased the ferry service from The Hoboken Ferry Company, and retained the architect Kenneth Marchison to draw plans for a new intermodal terminal complex that would fully integrate rail and ferry service., On August 7, 1905, the existing ferry house burned in a catastrophic fire. By August 17, 1905, construction had begun on Marchison's new Hoboken Ferry Terminal, and the new intermodal terminal complex opened in February 1907., The main buildings included the combined Railroad Terminal and Ferry Terminal and the Immigrant/Pullman Building , a way station for immigrants arriving by ferry from Ellis Island, and a depot for Pullman dining cars. The clock tower at the connection between the ferry and rail terminals stood out as a beacon to passengers approaching by land or water, highlighting their destination by day and night.