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Friday, January 18, 2013

NJoy - hoboken terminal


It is time for another post in my NJoy column and this time I have some photos for you of the Hoboken Terminal. I pass through this place every day, not the nice waiting area though, but I catch the Path train to the city at the station below. If you believe the Wikipedia article 50,000 people pass through the terminal daily, either through one of the commuter rail lines, the buses, ferries, or the path. The rail and ferry terminal buildings were designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Kenneth M. Murchison and built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1907. The copper clad façade is very ornate, unfortunately I couldn’t get a great overall photo of the façade with the copper on top and the limestone on the bottom as there are lots of porta-potties and a huge generator blocking the view. The terminal sustained water damage during Sandy and the waiting room with its toilets for the travelers passing through is closed. A 225-foot clock tower had been originally built with the terminal but it had been dismantled in the 1950ies due to structural damage. In the year of the terminal’s centennial in 2007 a new clock tower was built which is now overlooking the structure. If I hadn’t read about it during my research for this post I would have believed the tower was the original one. We moved to the area a year after the tower was built and I have never seen the terminal without it. The interior of the waiting room is beautiful on its own, I would have never guessed that it was there because from the side I enter the terminal it doesn’t look that spectacular so I was surprised when we went inside the first time in the summer of 2011 with P’s parents. The interior photos are from that time, I tried to take some more last weekend but the waiting room is closed. My father in law actually took three of the photos from this post, I or rather P asked him what photos he had to make my post complete. I just love the old timey feel of the interior, you can imagine waiting for a steam powered train while sitting in one of the wooden benches. Notable is also the large stained glass ceiling by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Funny enough I have seen the station play roles in movies too, in the German movie Friendship it was Central Station in NYC and in the movie Julie & Julia it was one of the train stations in Paris where Julia and her husband pick up her sister. I love spotting places I know in movies and a lot of times the location is very off. Are you like me and watch for those little details in movies?

Happy Friday everyone! I am off for a weekend of snowboarding in the Catskills. What are you guys up to?



10 comments:

  1. What a beautiful place. So detailed. Just to think how long it must have taken for them to finish this back in the days.
    Have a nice time snowboarding.

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    1. It's too bad they don't build them like they used to anymore...

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  2. Absolutely beautiful! You know how people have one iconic image in their head associated with certain things? Like you say "castle" and everyone imagines one specific castle? Or "Paris" and people think Eiffel tower? When I think "train station" THIS is exactly what I picture! The ornate entrance, the benches, the light fixtures, all of it. So amazing you get to experience that everyday. The ceiling alone would put me in a good mood on my way to/from work! I love all that Beaux-Arts goodness. And I REALLY love this NJoy series! Have fun in the Catskills, Nina! It'll be a quiet one for me. xo

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    1. Yes, you're so right it looks like how a train station is supposed to look like. It was a great weekend in the Catskills but all my muscles are sore ;)

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  3. Ok, this is really an architectural gem. It have must been so romantic to use this station in past time. Have a good time und bleib gesund. :)

    Ana

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    1. I made it back from the weekend of snowboarding with no broken bones. Yay! ;)

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  4. I've only been in that terminal a few times, but it always made me wonder how it must have been in it's heyday. Great pictures Nina!

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    1. I imagine well dressed women an gentlemen in hats that hurry around the station ;) Now I am curious and have to google old photos.

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  5. Very nice - love the photographs, too. I like spotting places I know in movies, too - and I hate it when they walk down a street of Berlin, turn around the corner - and suddenly they are in a completely different part of the city! (Happened in "Lola rennt" all the time!) xLena

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    1. Lena, maybe Lola was just a very fast runner ;) No, I totally understand what you mean, I see that in movies all the time...

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