History of the Clock Tower

History of the Clock Tower. . , In 1904, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad commissioned Kenneth Mackenzie Murchison, an Ecole des Beaux Arts trained architect in private practice in New York City, to design a new terminal at Hoboken. His design was nearly complete when the existing nineteenth century terminal was destroyed by a devasting fire in 1905. Murchison's Beaux-Arts inspired design addressed the complex's multiple purposes in its massing and in the connection of spaces, while its architectural expression elevated the function within to a level of grandeur and monumentality. Reflecting the City Beautiful movement's commitment to produce dignified public buildings, the terminal, which was highlighted on the cover of a 1907 pamphlet published by the Hoboken Board of Trade, was a highly prominent building in the city and along the Hudson River., The Hoboken Lackawanna Terminal opened in 1907 after the 1905 fire had destroyed its previous terminal structures. Between the opening of the terminal and the termination of ferry service in 1967, passengers commuting in and out of Manhattan from northern New Jersey's growing suburban towns completed their journeys on ferries. As the eastern terminus of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, the complex comprised both a railroad and a ferry terminal, with grand concourses and passenger services, lofty train sheds, and various structures for baggage, immigrant processing and associated activities., The most striking element of the new complex was, of course, the dramatic clock tower. Rising 203 feet above the mean tide to the base of its flagpole, this vertical elements stood out from the horizontal mass of the terminal as a beacon to travelers, anchoring the complex at the point of transition between train concourse and ferry terminal. The tower contained a four-faced clock installed by the Self Winding Clock Co. and a 2,500-pound bell. It was lit at night with hundreds of incandescent lamps and four large signs with four-foot-tall illuminated letters. The terminal and clock tower were clad entirely in copper, patinated for dramatic decorative effects., Though the clock tower was essentially a decorated shell, as a strong vertical element on the shore of the Hudson River it served as a beacon to ferry captains and passengers on the water, highlighting their destination by day and night. A similar tower, atop the corresponding ferry terminal designed by Murchison at the base of 23rd Street on the west edge of Manhattan, bookended the journey across the river.