STEVENS CASTLE

The Stevens Castle Gatehouse.


"Stevens Castle"

I received E-Mail that said:

I was in the Post Card Section of Ebay & found this postcard up for bid. It's labeled as Entrance Steven's Castle Hoboken N.J. w/a post mark of 1907. I hope this is useful information!

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

Check out this web site for more information. The post card show the entrance to the Stevens Family Estate which is now Stevens Tech. University.

Later, I received E-Mail that said:

The castle overlooked NY city from the cliffs of Hoboken. It was built in 1854 by Colonel John Stevens. as his home. All of high society america at the time visited there. It was more of a mansion than a castle.

Col. Stevens was an engineer and in 1784 bought the entire city of Hoboken after the Revlouionay War (was just fields/marsh then). He layed out the streets and basically sold off parcels to found the city. He received one of the countrys first patents in 1791 for delvoping the steam engine. In 1825 he built the nations first steam locomottive. One son invented the "T" shaped railroad track rail, still used today. One son founded Americas first yacht club and started the America's Cup race.

The family made a fortune in railroad and steamboat ferrys over the years.

In 1870 the 55 acre site with the castle was turned into a college for engineering called "Stevens Institute of Technology"

The castle was used as the original dormitory and offices for the college. As the college expanded over the years, space was needed and the castle was demolished in 1959 to build a highrise office building for the college. Only the gate house remains...

This is located on 5th Street - corner of River Street @ Sinatra Drive near Hudson Square Park.

It looks like "Stevens Castle" was not a castle at all, but a large house. I am going to leave this listing on the webpage at least for a while because the gatehouse has a castle look to it.

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Second photo - Stevens Gatehouse - Copyright 2001, Robert W. Harney.