A
historic plaque, marking the site of the first baseball
game ever played
will be one of four historic markers to be placed on the
property. The New
Jersey State Historic Preservation Office recently approved
these historic
markers.
This first marker will mark Hoboken’s most
famous event on the
site; that being the first baseball game ever played (on
June 19,1846, when
the Knickerbockers Club beat the New York Nine by a
score of twenty-three to one”). Since the baseball
field will be part of the first phase of the
development, the Mayor is planning to host the ribbon cutting
at the new
baseball field in mid 2005. The city has received a commitment
from the
American Historical Baseball League team, the Neshanocks
(located in
Flemington N.J.), whose volunteers will put on a historically
accurate
recreation baseball game the day of the event.
The second
historic marker will be installed at the water’s
edge memorializing the fact that in 1609 Henry Hudson weighed
anchor at the very location the park now occupies. His
log makes note of “the
green serpentine rock outcropping, which may have copper
in it” which
we now call Castle Point.
The third historic marker will be on the boathouse announcing
it was the
original site of the New York Yacht Club. “John Cox
Stevens, the oldest son
of the colonel, known as the leading yachtsman of his day,
organized the New York Yacht Club and in 1845 donated a
clubhouse near the Elysian Fields, which served the group
for twenty years. In 1850 Stevens accepted a British challenge
and, aided by his brother Edwin and by other sailing men
including Colonel James Hamilton, the son of Alexander
Hamilton, he contracted for a state-of-the-art yacht, the
America. The next year this vessel,
under the command of John Cox Stevens, defeated the entry
of the prestigious Royal Yacht Squadron in a race around
the Isle of Wight. The victors welcomed Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert on board and then returned home, bringing with
them their nation’s first international trophy,
the “America’s Cup”
(Hudson County-The Left Bank by Joan Doherty Lovero 1999).
The fourth historic marker will memorialize the fact that
in 1938, when the
Maxwell House Factory was built, it was the largest coffee
factory in the
world. It accounted for 40% of worldwide coffee production
of the Maxwell
House Brand. Part of the Historic Preservation Office requirements
was for a
complete photo documentary of the existing 11 factory buildings.
A
collection of artifacts and memorabilia regarding the history
of the Maxwell
House Coffee Factory is being collected and archivally preserved
and will be
presented in the common areas of the property for public
viewing.
Additionally all the original blueprints for the factory,
done by hand in
pencil on Mylar back in the late 1930’s, are being
preserved.Daniel Gans and George Vallone also announced
to the Mayor that their joint venture partner, who will
be completing the four construction and marketing phases
of the $600,000,000 development with them, has been selected. “We selected
Pinnacle, Ltd., headed up by Brian Stolar, President and
CEO of
Pinnacle Communities of Millburn, N.J. as our joint venture
partner, because
of the company’s outstanding reputation as a top
quality homebuilder. We
have joint ventured several projects in Hoboken and have
been close personal
friends with Brian for almost 20 years”, Vallone
said. Brian Stolar said,
“ we have been looking for urban development opportunities
in cities all over
N.J. and the Maxwell House site in Hoboken doesn’t
get any better for a new
urban community.”
The Mayor announced that less than one year from this spring
we will all be
invited to the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony celebrating completion
of the
baseball field, the first part of Hoboken’s largest
new waterfront park.
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