![Hoboken_map_1854](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Hoboken_map_1854.jpg)
The Elysian Fields in
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
, was recreational parkland located on the city's northern riverfront in the 19th century. The area was a popular getaway destination for New Yorkers in the 19th century, much in the tradition of the
pleasure garden
A pleasure garden is a park or garden that is open to the public for recreation and entertainment. Pleasure gardens differ from other public gardens by serving as venues for entertainment, variously featuring such attractions as concert halls, ...
, offering open space for a variety of sports, public spectacles, and amusements. The lavish grounds hosted the Colonnade Hotel and tavern, and offered picnic areas, a spa known as
Sybil's Cave Hoboken, New Jersey is home to many parks, historical landmarks, and other places of interest.
Landmarks Association of Exempt Firemen Building
Carlo's Bakery
A famous bakery and setting for the TLC reality television series '' Cake Boss''. It i ...
, river walks, nature paths, fishing, a miniature railroad, rides and races, and a
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
landing, which also served as a launch for boating competitions.
The Elysian Fields was the site of countless
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
matches between amateur clubs based in New Jersey, Manhattan, and Brooklyn in the pre-professional era of the 1830s to the 1870s.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
matches were also popular at the grounds, and the
New York Yacht Club
The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. ...
established quarters at the Fields.
The grounds extended south to north roughly from present day 8th Street to the southern edge of what is now
Weehawken
Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,197. , and west to east from Washington Street to the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
. It was established in the 1820s and '30s on land owned by
Col. John Stevens III and his family.
Historian Tom Gilbert said, "The Elysian Fields
asa kind of laboratory of transportation, leisure and recreation.
Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
,
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
,
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
and the modern
baseball park
A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...
can all claim the Elysian Fields as an ancestor."
[Gilbert, Thomas W., ''How Baseball Happened: The True Story Revealed'' (]Godine
Godine is a New England based independent book publisher, known for its beautifully published and carefully selected books, primarily nonfiction, literary fiction, and poetry.
History
The company was founded in 1970 by David R. Godine who acted a ...
, 2020)
Early history of the area
![1808_watercolor_rendering_of_Stevens'_Villa_before_the_Elysian_Fields_were_developed](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/1808_watercolor_rendering_of_Stevens%27_Villa_before_the_Elysian_Fields_were_developed.jpg)
Originally called "Hobuck Island," the area had in the 18th century been an estate owned by the politically prominent
Bayard family
The Bayard family has been a prominent family of lawyers and politicians throughout American history, primarily from Wilmington, Delaware. Beginning as Federalists, they joined the party of Andrew Jackson and remained leaders of the Democratic P ...
. Because William Bayard was a British loyalist during the
Revolutionary War, after America achieved independence the land was
confiscated
Confiscation (from the Latin ''confiscatio'' "to consign to the ''fiscus'', i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, ...
and sold at
public auction
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
. Col. Stevens acquired the estate in 1783. In 1788, Stevens bought another 125 acres in the rural area known as Weehawken. With these real estate purchases, Stevens owned more than a mile of Hudson River frontage.
[Mann, William A., "The Elysian Fields of Hoboken, New Jersey," ''Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Vol. 1, No. 1'', McFarland Books, Spring 2007] In the early 19th century, the Stevens property in Weehawken acquired notoriety as "The Dueling Ground," where New Yorkers went to settle disputes with pistols, because dueling was outlawed in their state. In was on these grounds that
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Burr's legacy is defined by his famous personal conflict with Alexand ...
fatally shot
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
in 1804.
The Stevens family lived in a villa atop
Castle Point
Castle Point is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south Essex, east of central London. The borough comprises the towns and villages of Canvey Island, Hadleigh, Ess ...
, a bluff that overlooked the Hudson, surrounded by lavishly landscaped property. "
hegardens eventually boasted many vegetables and fruit trees, and hundreds of varieties of flowering shrubs, coffee plants, and exotic plants such as yucca," according to Hoboken historian Melissa Abernathy.
[Abernathy, Melissa, "John Stevens, Avid Gardener: Hoboken's Horticultural History"](_blank)
''hMAG'' (Hoboken lifestyle magazine), June 3, 2015
At the time, the rest of Hoboken was largely an undeveloped, mosquito-infested swamp. There was also an abundance of turtles to be found — the swampy wetlands were known as "Turtle Grove" — and this led to the founding, in 1796, of The Hoboken Turtle Club (see illustration below). According to a story published by the
Penn Museum
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...
, "The Club became a venerable part of the local culinary landscape and continued throughout its existence to offer turtle soup and turtle steak dinners to its members."
In the 1820s, the Stevens family began to drain the swamp and fill nearby marshes. The family, who shared interests in
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
,
invention
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...
, sports,
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
, and business, began to envision the waterfront area below their estate as a combination recreational/pleasure resort for New Yorkers looking to escape from the city during sweltering summers and on weekends.
[Thorn, John, ''Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game'' (]Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
, 2011)
In 1824, before the full development of the landscape surrounding Castle Point, Col. Stevens offered to sell the site to the city of New York for use as a public park. (This was decades before the creation of Central Park.) After the proposed sale was rejected by the city of New York, Col. Stevens decided to finish the project himself.
Development of the grounds
Stevens described the newly developed parkland as a "place of general resort for citizens, as well as strangers, for health and recreation". He further boasted that the grounds were "easily accessible, and ... in a few minutes the dust, noise, and bad smells of the city may be exchanged for the pure air, delightful shades, and completely rural scenery."
Historian Tom Gilbert wrote:
In 1829 Hoboken's permanent population reached 500. Two years later the Stevenses expanded and upgraded their pleasure grounds to raise the tone and appeal to the discriminating emerging urban bourgeoisie. This is when they began using the name " Elysian Fields," after the paradise of classical mythology where earthly heroes somehow spent a blissful eternity .... The wooded section north of the Castle Point site of the Stevenses' Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
villa was cleared and landscaped.
In 1831, the ''New York Commercial Advertiser'' printed the following account:
evisited yesterday afternoon the Elysian Fields, as the now cleared and beautiful groves and lawns in the vicinity of what was formerly known as Turtle Grove, have been called by the enterprising owners. The name, if trite, is apt. The change from the wild state of these woods and banks to their present condition, has been magical. The Hamadryads
A hamadryad (; grc, αμαδρυάδα, hamadryáda) is a Greek mythological being that lives in trees. It is a particular type of dryad which, in turn, is a particular type of nymph. Hamadryads are born bonded to a certain tree. Some maintain t ...
, it is true, have perished in great numbers, and the Sylvans retired to other nooks, where the solitary lover of nature may still explore their haunts. It was impossible that these shores and groves, along which there is one of the finest walks in the world, should remain forever in their rude state, so near the crowded city. The business of reform fell happily into good hands. Nature has been tamed, not violated; and our citizens have reasons to thank the owners of this property, while they boast of having, so near their wilderness of brick and mortar, a place of resort for health and recreation.
![Elysian Fields 1856 Leslie's](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Elysian_Fields_1856_Leslie%27s.jpg)
The Elysian Fields became a popular destination for city-weary New Yorkers, with ferries to the grounds originating at
Barclay,
Canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
, and
Christopher Street
Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue.
It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher St ...
s. "From the opening of the 'River Walk' to the public in about 1810, until the Civil War," wrote historian William Mann, "New Yorkers flocked to the Elysian Fields in the summer months. Among the luminaries that history records as visitors were
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
,
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
,
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (Uni ...
,
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, ...
,
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
,
P.T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...
, and
Robert "Toot" Fulton. Descriptions of the place were made by many of the park's visitors, including
Bryant">illiam CullenBryant,
Mrs. Frances Trollope,
Frances Kemble, and scores of lesser-known writers."
During its midcentury heyday, the grounds drew upwards of 20,000 visitors on weekends,
and proved a financial bonanza for the family of Col. Stevens. According to Gilbert:
The Stevenses' pleasure grounds ... became New York City's main playground for much of the 19th century. It provided New Yorkers with something their government could not or would not provide, ample green park space, including grounds for baseball, cricket, and other sports—for free. One by one, the top New York City baseball clubs gravitated to Hoboken. And the Stevenses' pleasure grounds helped sell a lot of real estate. ... John Stevens's real estate sales and the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, formed in 1838 and owned by Colonel Stevens's son Edwin, made an astronomical amount of money. When Edwin Stevens died in 1868 the real estate company's holdings were valued at $20 million, a figure that did not include the Elysian Fields and other waterfront land worth an additional $15 million, for a total of $35 million.
John Thorn
John A. Thorn (born April 17, 1947) is a German-born sports historian, author, publisher, and cultural commentator. Since March 1, 2011, he has been the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball.
Personal profile
Thorn was born in ...
, the Official Historian of Major League Baseball, explained that the encouragement of baseball at Elysian Fields had commercial implications for the Stevens family:
oprietor Edwin Augustus Stevens (in conjunction with his brothers) had already donated the use of his grounds to the New York Cricket Club and the New York Yacht Club, and had offered liberal lease terms to the Magnolia and New York baseball clubs. In this support of sport, Stevens was of course encouraging traffic to the Elysian Fields: he controlled the ferries as well as the resort, which included the Beacon Course, a horse-racing track opened in 1834. By encouraging play (and gambling) on his turf and along his waters, he created a long-standing model for "traction magnates" to own baseball clubs.[Thorn, John, "New York's First Baseball Club](_blank)
''The National Pastime: Baseball in the Big Apple'' (New York, 2017), posted at SABR.org
The Stevens villa was destroyed in a fire in the early 1850s, and was replaced by a castle in 1854.
Baseball and cricket
While the city of Hoboken boasts that the Elysian grounds were the "birthplace" of baseball in 1846, this is a myth. There were countless baseball clubs and games played during the 1830s, if not earlier — in Hoboken, New York City, Brooklyn, and elsewhere — and the first rules were drawn up by the Gotham Club of New York in 1837. Nonetheless, while Hoboken cannot claim to be "the cradle of baseball", it has historic standing for its pivotal role in the early game as it evolved from a pleasant leisure time pursuit to a highly competitive — and commercial — spectator sport.
[Ryczek, William J., "New York City and Vicinity: Introduction," ''Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players, and Cities of the Northeast that Established the Game'' (McFarland and Co., Inc., 2013). "Until the enclosed Union Grounds n Brooklynwere constructed in 1862, the Elysian Fields were the center of baseball activity in the New York area."]
The
Knickerbocker Club
The Knickerbocker Club (known informally as The Knick) is a gentlemen's club in New York City that was founded in 1871. It is considered to be the most exclusive club in the United States and one of the most aristocratic gentlemen's clubs in th ...
of New York City, which was founded in September 1845, is often cited as the first club to play baseball anywhere, and that their first game took place in Hoboken in 1846. However, a number of clubs played amateur baseball at the Elysian Fields before the Knickerbockers. John Thorn writes that the Magnolia Ball Club and the New York Club (a.k.a. the Gothams) were known to have played at the Elysian Fields in the autumn of 1843.
(Both clubs also played in New York City.)
Baseball historian Bill Ryczek notes, "For many years, the origin of New York baseball was attributed to the Knickerbockers, who left an exhaustive trail of documentation, including scorebooks, minutes of their many meetings, and endless detail of their petty arguments and mundane tasks. In recent years many scholars, most prominently the indefatigable John Thorn, have proved to us that there were New York clubs that preceded the Knickerbockers but lacked their propensity to painstakingly record their deeds for posterity."
[Ryczek, William J., "New York City and Vicinity: Introduction," ''Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players, and Cities of the Northeast that Established the Game'' (McFarland and Co., Inc., 2013)]
By 1845, rapid urban development was claiming open spaces across the Hudson River in New York, prompting the Knickerbockers to choose the Elysian Fields, which was a 15-minute ferry ride from lower Manhattan, as their home grounds. In an un-bylined reminiscence, attributed to "an old pioneer" (later identified as Knickerbocker founding member
William Wheaton
William Rufus Wheaton (May 7, 1814 – September 11, 1888) was an American lawyer and politician. He was also a baseball pioneer.Nucciarone, Monica"William Wheaton" sabr.org. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
Personal life
Wheaton was born in New York Cit ...
),
published in the ''
San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...
'' in 1887, the origins of the club and the playing fields in Hoboken were described:
The new game quickly became very popular with New Yorkers, and the numbers of the club soon swelled beyond the fastidious notions of some of us, and we decided to withdraw and found a new organization, which we called the Knickerbocker. For a playground we chose the Elysian fields of Hoboken, just across the Hudson river. And those fields were truly Elysian to us in those days. There was a broad, firm greensward, fringed with fine shady trees, where we could recline during intervals, when waiting for a strike .e., a turn at bat and take a refreshing rest.
On June 19, 1846, the Knickerbockers faced off against the New York Ball Club. (Both clubs were offshoots of an earlier club, the New York Gothams.) This match is historically considered the first fully documented baseball game. Countless games had preceded this matchup; 37 prior matches at the Elysian Fields alone occurring before June 19, 1846, have been documented at Protoball.org. The Knickerbockers were simply the first to compile and preserve a batter-by-batter account of the action (arguably the game's first "
scorecard
A scorecard may refer to:
*Balanced scorecard
A balanced scorecard is a strategy performance management tool – a well structured report, that can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their contr ...
"). In this match, New York defeated the Knickerbockers 23-1 in four innings.
(It is worth noting that the Knickerbockers rarely challenged opposing clubs. "From 1845 through 1850, the club played over 200 games," wrote Tom Gilbert, "but only three of these were against other clubs. The rest were intramural games played between impromptu lineups made up of Knickerbocker members.")
![baseball1866](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Baseball1866.JPG)
By the late 1850s, several of the premiere Manhattan-based member clubs of the amateur
National Association of Base Ball Players
The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was the first organization governing American baseball. (The sport was spelled with two words in the 19th century.)
The first convention of sixteen New York City area clubs in 1857 effecti ...
, including the Gothams, Eagles, and Empires, as well as the Knickerbockers, were using the Elysian grounds as their home field. The
Mutual Club of New York made the Elysian grounds their home field in 1857; in 1865 they renovated a diamond and added stands to accommodate spectators.
The New York Cricket Club was organized at McCarty's Hotel (the Colonnade — see below) on October 11, 1843.
The earliest known, documented cricket match at the Elysian Fields was in July 1844, between the
St. George's Cricket Club and the New York club. The St. George CC, which was formed in Manhattan in 1838, made the Elysian Fields their home grounds in the 1850s. In 1859, an international
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
match was held at the Elysian grounds with an
All-England Eleven
In English cricket since the first half of the 18th century, various ''ad hoc'' teams have been formed for short-term purposes which have been called England (or sometimes "All-England"; i.e., in the sense of "the rest of England") to play against, ...
as part of an English
tour of North America.
Pioneering sports journalist
Henry Chadwick, then a cricket reporter for ''The New York Times'', regularly attended baseball matches at the Elysian Fields in the 1850s. (It merits mention that many athletes of this era excelled at both sports.)
"After watching a particularly spirited contest between the Gotham and Eagle clubs of New York on the grassy grounds of Elysian Fields in Hoboken," wrote Chadwick biographer Andrew Schiff, "Chadwick came away a changed man." He became one of baseball's earliest and most vocal proponents, writing regularly about the sport for the next 50 years (for which he was eventually inducted into
Baseball's Hall of Fame). Chadwick recalled:
"I chanced to go through the Elysian Fields during the progress of a match between the noted Eagle and Gotham Clubs. The game was being sharply played on both sides, and I watched with deeper interest than any previous ball match between clubs that I had seen. It was not long before I was struck with the idea that base ball was just the game for Americans."
Chadwick's epiphany was not isolated — it was during this decade that newspapers began to carry accounts of local games. In fact, according to Tom Gilbert, "Clubs made up of newspapermen played at the Elysian Fields in the 1850s and 1860s; in 1871 a baseball diamond was set aside for them exclusively."
In 1865, the Elysian grounds hosted a championship baseball match between the Mutuals and the
Atlantic Club of
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
that was attended by an estimated 20,000 fans. The event was immortalized in an apocryphal
Currier & Ives lithograph
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
, ''The American National Game of Base Ball'' (which historians agree does not reflect a journalistic portrayal of the game, the players, or the Elysian Fields; it is a "fantasy" reimagining of the event).
In 1870,
hooligan
Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as rioting, bullying and vandalism, usually in connection with crowds at sporting events.
Etymology
There are several theories regarding the origin of the word ''hooliganism,'' which is a ...
s frequently attempted to disrupt amateur matches. As reported in the ''
New York Clipper
The ''New York Clipper'', also known as ''The Clipper'', was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a ...
'' in 1871, "Last season crowds of roughs used to gather there every evening and annoy the regular ball players so much that finally the Hoboken authorities interfered and put a stop to ball playing except by clubs having special permission from the city authorities. ...
e south field has been engaged for the season by the Knickerbocker, Eagle and Social Clubs, and no other clubs will be permitted to use the field. On the north field the Gothams
ndthe Columbia College Club
ill play ... The western field has been set apart for the Saturday games of the newspaper nines."
Baseball was played at the Elysian Fields for about 50 years, although the date of the last recorded game is unknown. Just about all games played at the grounds were amateur matchups. The last known published reference to a baseball game played at the Elysian Fields occurred in 1889; the ''Jersey City News'', of September 4, 1889, carried a report of a September 2 game between the Jersey of Hoboken and the Palisades of North Hudson. In 1890 and thereafter, no known newspaper references to baseball games at the Elysian Fields have been found.
The only documented professional games played on the Elysian grounds occurred in 1888 between black (Negro league) teams as part of a series of championship matches.
Colonnade Hotel
![Etching_of_Hoboken's_Elysian_Fields,_ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Etching_of_Hoboken%27s_Elysian_Fields%2C_ca._1834%2C_by_artist_A._Dick.jpg)
In 1830, the Stevens family erected near Turtle Cove a Grecian-style pavilion, known as the Colonnade, which opened for business in 1831. Stevens boasted that it was "devoted largely to the worship of Bacchus" (drinking and revelry).
There was already a tavern on the premises, the "large commodious '76 House," or "Tavern on the Knoll," an inn situated on the sloping lawn between the ferry dock and Stevens mansion.
The Colonnade's "white front and
Doric pillars made it an impressive edifice."
[Thorn, John, William Ryczek, and Peter Morris, "The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, ''Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players, and Cities of the Northeast that Established the Game'', McFarland and Co., Inc., 2013 (citing "Elysian Fields of Years Ago," ''New York Times'', Feb. 17, 1895)] The Colonnade appears prominently in countless 19th century illustrations of activities at the Elysian Fields. It was one of the favorite hangouts of ball players after the conclusion of games.
Irish-born Michael McCarty became proprietor in 1841, and the venue became so closely identified with him that it was often referred to as McCarty's Hotel. (It was also casually known as the "Pavilion.") "For special events," as recounted in ''Base Ball Founders'', "he set up stages or pavilions around the hotel so that patrons could eat or drink to their heart's content while enjoying the scenery."
McCarty joined the Knickerbocker Club and played in at least one of their baseball games.
On March 3, 1852, McCarty fatally shot himself while bird-hunting; newspapers reported his death as an accident, but the nature of the fatal wound indicated an apparent suicide.
The Colonnade continued to operate for years under a series of new owners, many of whom renamed the hotel. In the 1880s it was known as Charles W. Roedenburg's
lager beer
Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storage ...
saloon.
The building was torn down, most likely in 1893. (A November 1893 article in the ''New York Herald'' claimed, "The old hotel was demolished but a short time ago.")
["Last of Famous Elysian Fields; The Long Favored Amusement Haunts of New Yorkers Soon to Disappear," '']The New York Herald
The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''.
His ...
'', November 19, 1893
Sybil's Cave
![Sybil's_Cave_Hoboken_NJ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Sybil%27s_Cave_Hoboken_NJ.jpg)
The spa Sybil's Cave was excavated around 1832 by Hoboken's founder,
Col. John Stevens III, and adorned with a gothic-style stone arch. Named after the
ancient Greco-Roman prophetesses, from the 1840s through the 1880s it was one of Hoboken's biggest tourist attractions for the allegedly healthful
magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...
-infused water that supposedly flowed from a spring within the cave. From the mid- to late-1800s, glasses of this water were sold for a penny.
[Abernathy, Melissa (Summer 2014)]
"What the Heck is Going on with Sybil's Cave?"
''Hoboken 07030''. pp. 24-37. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
"The Stevenses carved out an old iron mine to create the Sybil's Cave, a fake grotto that functioned as a folly and refreshment stand," wrote Tom Gilbert. "Here visitors strolling along the river walk stopped to buy water that supposedly came from a spring in the cave, and supposedly had health-giving properties. A wink to the waiter would bring you hard liquor instead."
The cave gained national notoriety in 1841 when the body of a young cigar shop worker,
Mary Cecilia Rogers, washed ashore nearby, an incident that inspired
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
's ''
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
"The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", often subtitled ''A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"'', is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe written in 1842. This is the first murder mystery based on the details of a real crime. It first ...
'', one of the first
true crime
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events.
The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...
detective novels.
[Hack, Charles (March 24, 2013)]
"Hoboken Historical Museum hosts talk on Sybil's Cave"
/ref>
Other features
The Elysian Fields proprietors might have aspired towards an upscale clientele, but the appeal was democratic. As Tom Gilbert explained, "The pretentious and educated tended to look at the Elysian Fields the way New Yorkers who summer in the Hamptons
The Hamptons, part of the East End of Long Island, consist of the towns of Southampton and East Hampton, which together comprise the South Fork of Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York. The Hamptons are a popular seaside resort and one o ...
look at Jones Beach. Others were puritans who hated to see people having a good time."
In the 1830s, a tribe of Native-American Penobscots
The Penobscot (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic ...
arrived from Maine to entertain and sell handmade merchandise. For over a decade they staged "Indian dances," held canoe races, and sold fine handwoven baskets to tourists. Jugglers, rope dancers, musicians, and magicians performed amid the crowds, and there were carnival rides and culinary delicacies in abundance. Liquor flowed freely and tobacco fumes were everywhere. "Among the entertaining features that Colonel Stevens installed on the Green near his ferry dock," wrote Mann, "were a primitive Ferris Wheel
A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules ...
, a Merry-go-round
A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...
, a ten-pin alley, wax figures
A wax sculpture is a depiction made using a waxy substance. Often these are effigies, usually of a notable individual, but there are also death masks and scenes with many figures, mostly in relief.
The properties of beeswax make it an excell ...
, a Camera Obscura
A camera obscura (; ) is a darkened room with a aperture, small hole or lens at one side through which an image is 3D projection, projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole.
''Camera obscura'' can also refer to analogous constructions su ...
, and a Flying Machine, or as Stevens called it, a "Whirligig"."
At the north end of the ground was a deer park and a horse "Trotting Course." Stevens, who was infatuated with speed, owned racehorses and lobbied for the New Jersey legislature to legitimize horse-racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...
. His interest in speedy steeds was linked to his determination to operate the fastest stage coaches
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
in New Jersey — in fact, he fancied a monopoly on carrying the U.S. mail. The Stevenses maintained a stable and stud service in partnership with the Livingstons and Dr. Hosack. According to Col. Stevens' wife, Rachel, "The old set continue their daily visits to The Green and amuse themselves with talking and looking at their race horses ... all as happy as lords."
A riot sparked by a disrupted boxing match took place in Hoboken in 1835. Because of this and a rougher clientele frequenting the recreation spots, in 1836 the ''New York Herald'' was ready to declare the impending demise of the town's shorefront and the Elysian Fields:
The character of Hoboken is gone forever. It is now as bad as the Five Points—as dirty and drunken as Walnut street—and as riotous as the Burnt District
The Burnt District was the original red light district in Omaha, Nebraska in the late 19th century. The area was located east of Creighton University from Douglas Street six blocks north to Cass Street and from the Missouri River west to Sixteenth ...
during the strikes. Its beautiful arbors are filled with cigar-smoking blackguards—its serpentine walks crowded with drunken vagabonds—its sea shore resounds only to all the graces of Billingsgate
Billingsgate is one of the 25 Wards of the City of London. This small City Ward is situated on the north bank of the River Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge in the south-east of the Square Mile.
The modern Ward extends south to the ...
, and the swearing of a man of war. No gentleman—no lady—no decent—no respectable people go there. It is the rendezvous for loafers, pickpockets, ''filles de joie'', thieves, burglars, and Thomas street fashionables. The Hoboken boats are just as filthy and disagreeable as Hoboken itself. The Canal street steamer, the other day, was so crammed with loafers that it almost capsized. The Elysian Fields have been turned into a perfect and unapproachable Hell. Their drinkables are poisons, and their milk punch death.
As a result of such incidents and the consequent negative publicity, attendance at the grounds began to fall in the mid-1830s. "During the last years of Colonel Stevens' life e died in 1838" wrote Mann, "his park began its gradual decline — a fact hard to imagine for the student of baseball who assumes the park and the game flourished in tandem." To counter potential economic reversals, "Stevens staged events, such as musical concerts, ox roasts, Indian war dances, sideshow acts, bare-knuckle boxing matches, sailboat races, hot-air balloon demonstrations, and oratory competitions." At this stage, the Elysian Fields still had another three decades of popularity and recreational activity ahead, but the grounds were becoming increasingly disreputable.
The Elysian Fields' tree-lined groves gained notoriety as " lovers' paths," where couples could discreetly express the sort of physical affection generally frowned upon in public. In 1844, New York lawyer/musician George Templeton Strong
George Templeton Strong (January 26, 1820 – July 21, 1875) was an American lawyer, musician and diarist. His 2,250-page diary, discovered in the 1930s, provides a striking personal account of life in the 19th century, especially during the eve ...
lamented in a (posthumously published) diary entry, "Hoboken's a good deal cut up and built up, but pleasant still; pity it's haunted by such a gang as frequents it; its lysian Fieldsare sacred to Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
and I saw scarce anyone there but snobs and their strumpets. Walked on in momentary expectation of stumbling on some couple engaged in . . . 'the commission of gross vulgarity.'"
The Elysian Fields were also notorious as a preferred suicide spot, with the semi-famous (composer S.H. Dyer and Colonnade proprietor Michael McCarty) and the unknown among the victims. According to the ''Jersey Journal
''The Jersey Journal'' is a daily newspaper, published from Monday through Saturday, covering news and events throughout Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Journal'' is a sister paper to ''The Star-Ledger'' of Newark, ''The Times'' of Trenton a ...
'' in 1884, "The bodies of suicides found dangling from the trees and those washed ashore during the past three decades would give the lysianFields a startling record as a morgue, as during that period more than 300 corpses were found in that locality."
Decline
After the Civil War, the Elysian Fields, according to John Thorn, "ceased to be a fashionable destination".
By the early 1870s, as Hoboken's waterfront become more industrial and the neighborhood more run-down, the allure of the Elysian Fields, the Colonnade, and Sybil's Cave as tourist attractions began to fade. By this time, all of the founding fathers of the grounds — the Stevens patriarchs — had died, the last, Edwin Augustus Stevens
Edwin Augustus Stevens (July 28, 1795 – August 7, 1868) was an American engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur who left a bequest that was used to establish the Stevens Institute of Technology.
Life
Stevens was born at Castle Point, Hobo ...
, in 1868. The original Stevens family plan to build the grounds to attract buyers of Hoboken real estate had been successful, and the Elysian Fields no longer served that purpose.
With the construction of two significant baseball parks enclosed by fences in Brooklyn in the early 1860s (the Capitoline Grounds
The Capitoline Grounds, also known as Capitoline Skating Lake and Base Ball Ground,Lowry, p. 34 was a baseball park located in Brooklyn, New York from 1864 to 1880. It was built to rival nearby Union Grounds, also in Brooklyn. The park hosted loc ...
and Union Grounds
Union Grounds was a baseball park located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The grounds opened in 1862, its inaugural match being played on May 15. It was the first baseball park enclosed entirely by a fence, thereby allowing ...
), enabling promoters to charge admission to games, the prominence of the Elysian Fields as a baseball and cricket venue began to wane. The St. George Cricket Club, which had relocated from the Elysian Fields to Hoboken's nearby Fox Hill, left the latter grounds in 1865 to secure playing space in New York. In 1868, the leading Manhattan baseball club, the New York Mutuals, shifted its home games from the Elysian Fields to the Union Grounds.
The completion of Central Park in the 1860s gave New York residents a Manhattan-based alternative to crossing the Hudson for relaxation and amusement in a landscaped meadow.[Gilbert, Thomas W., ''How Baseball Happened: The True Story Revealed'' (p 108): "Newspapers ran obituaries for the Elysian Fields pleasure grounds, which died in its early 70s of unnatural causes. One cause was the opening of Central Park; another was New York's expansion into upper Manhattan, which made Hoboken too long a trip for most New Yorkers. More importantly perhaps, the Elysian Fields were no longer needed to help the Stevens family sell Hoboken real estate."] (Ironically, the city of New York prohibited baseball in Central Park.) Until the Polo Grounds
The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...
in Upper Manhattan
Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park ( 110th Street), ...
were leased to the New York Metropolitans
The Metropolitan Club (New York Metropolitans or the Mets) was a 19th-century professional baseball team that played in New York City from 1880 to 1887. (The ''New York Metropolitan Baseball Club'' was the name chosen in 1961 for the New York ...
in 1880, New York-area teams after the Civil War were largely based in Brooklyn. The ''New York Clipper
The ''New York Clipper'', also known as ''The Clipper'', was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a ...
'' wrote in 1869: "This is probably the last season of the once famous Elysian Fields as a place of resort for our metropolitan ball clubs." The once-preeminent New York clubs who had begun playing at the grounds in the 1840s and 1850s — the Gothams, the Knickerbockers, the Empire, and the Eagles — continued playing in Hoboken until the 1870s. However, by then the sport had evolved to paid professionalism (the first major league, the National Association, debuted in 1871), and these old clubs were competitively irrelevant.
In 1879, the New Jersey Athletic Club opened new multi-use grounds at what remained of the northeastern part of the Elysian Fields. The grounds showcased bicycle and foot-races, pole-leaping, hammer throwing, shot-put, and other competitive athletic pursuits. (By enlarging the image, the name of the NJ Athletic Club can be seen printed along the perimeter wall in the accompanying 1881 map.)
Sybil's Cave was closed in 1880 due to health department concerns about water quality, and it was used as a cool storage locker for a nearby eating establishment. That establishment devolved into a seedy waterfront tavern and closed in the 1930s, when the cave was filled in with concrete and dirt.[
]
Tom Gilbert wrote that by the mid-1890s, "The baseball fields gave way to piers, warehouses, and more railroad tracks." The ''New York Herald-Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'', in 1890, described the area's rapid urban transformation:
In the upper part of the city, row after row of fine flat houses and dwellings have sprung up where boys formerly played baseball. The splendid old oaks of the famous Elysian Fields, the scene of the murder of Mary Rogers, the tragedy which gave birth to Poe's "Mystery of Marie Roget," have one by one fallen before the axe, and in their places are the rows of new brick dwellings. The River Walk, a stretch of two miles under the cliffs of Castle Point, has been extended, and soon expensive wharves for the accommodation of European steamers will be built along the base of the Point. A new public school, costing $75,000, has just been finished, and a new police station on the Elysian Fields is contemplated.
A November 1893 article in the ''New York Herald'' was even more apocalyptic: its headline was "Last of Famous Elysian Fields," followed by a succession of three sub-heads, which read, "The Long Favored Amusement Haunts of New Yorkers Soon to Disappear / Time's Destroying Touches / Historical Retreats and Honored Landmarks of Early Days Now Being Rapidly Obliterated." The article stated:
Even up to the past year was the hand of progress and time stayed and inroads toward the utter obliteration of the former spot so dear and memorable to New Yorkers sparsely advanced, so that it appeared as if it was really with reluctance that the despoilers of the grounds almost held sacred cared to go on at any rampant pace, as though fully mindful of the fact that when the news was spread of the final destruction of the old Elysian Fields, the work would be by many felt as an utter desecration. But during the past four months the march of improvement in Hoboken as a modern suburb and town of stimulated enterprise has been steadily asserting itself, and piece by piece the approaches to the Elysian Fields have been encroached upon, until the very centre of the greatly admired domain, filled with its treasured romantic and historical surroundings, is now in readiness for speedy and complete obliteration. First the lower approaches to the famous pleasure grounds were cut into by the establishing of a number of steamship wharves for foreign traffic, just below the grounds of the Stevens Institute ... To those with whom a lingering regard still exists for Elysian Fields and who have not of late frequented the old grounds, the transformation now being wrought and already accomplished will be indeed surprising. In fact, certain quarters of the favorite, ancient domain to old Gothamites who were wont to make the Elysian Fields the one retreat for their Sunday's recreation will scarcely be recognized.
W. Jay Mills, in his 1902 book ''Historic Houses of New Jersey'', wrote:
The Stevens home to-day does not miss the wide strip of pebbly beach, now profaned by huge piers and warehouses, the immortal river walk, which has disappeared, where old New York came to promenade and recruit its wasted energy, and the forgotten green where the weary rested and sipped their sangaree punch and strong waters. These all belong to another period, but it can ever look proudly on the great institute which the wealth given by Hoboken helped the family to establish, almost on the spot where Colonel John Stevens, the planner of the forgotten "Hoboken, the Beautiful," had his workshop and conducted his mechanical experiments.
The area today
The Elysian Fields has long since been supplanted by a modern street grid. A Maxwell House
Maxwell House is an American brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Heinz in North America and JDE Peet's in the rest of the world. Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, it was named in honor of the ...
Coffee plant was built on a section of the former Elysian grounds in 1939.[Smith, Taylor, "Urban History: The Maxwell House Coffee Plant"](_blank)
''Urban Agenda Magazine'' During its heyday it was the largest employer in town, and its towering "Good to the Last Drop" sign, featuring a giant tilted coffee cup, dominated Hoboken's skyline along the Hudson River. A neighborhood tavern named Maxwell's
Maxwell's, last known as Maxwell's Tavern, was a bar/restaurant and music club in Hoboken, New Jersey. Over several decades the venue attracted a wide variety of acts looking for a change from the New York City concert spaces across the river. Ma ...
, whose habitués were the plant's shift workers, was located around the corner at 1039 Washington Street. In the 1970s, Maxwell's became a notable bar/restaurant and indie-rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produce ...
club. The Maxwell House plant closed in 1990 and was later demolished, to be replaced by a high-rise condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
.
The only recreational remnant of the Elysian Fields is a small playground named Elysian Park. It is bounded on the west by Hudson Street, on the north and east by Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
Drive,[ and stretches from 10th to 11th Streets. One scene from the 1954 ]Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...
film ''On the Waterfront
''On the Waterfront'' is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. ...
'', starring Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
and Eva Marie Saint
Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an American actress of film, theatre and television. In a career spanning over 70 years, she has won an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, alongside nominations for a Golden Globe Award and two Brit ...
, was filmed in Elysian Park along its iron fence overlooking the Hudson. There is no baseball field on the grounds.
The Stevens name lives on at the Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical ...
, located south of where the Elysian Fields were situated. The institute was established in 1868 through a bequest
A bequest is property given by will. Historically, the term ''bequest'' was used for personal property given by will and ''deviser'' for real property. Today, the two words are used interchangeably.
The word ''bequeath'' is a verb form for the act ...
from Edwin Augustus Stevens. As of 2021, there were over 8,000 students enrolled.
At the intersection of 11th and Washington Streets, a few blocks west of Elysian Park, a marker was placed where one of the two Elysian Fields baseball diamonds is thought to have been situated; however, the spot is historically speculative, as the neighborhood and streets have changed drastically since the mid-19th century and the waterfront has been extended by landfill. In 2003 a civic improvement organization called the Hoboken Industry and Business Association placed concrete and bronze "base" monuments in the sidewalk at the intersection's corners. A bronze plaque denoting the connection to early baseball was placed in the median strip of 11th Street between first and second bases.
References
{{NewYorksportsvenues
Hoboken, New Jersey
Sports in Hudson County, New Jersey
Defunct baseball venues in the United States
Baseball venues in New Jersey
Tourist attractions in Hudson County, New Jersey
1880s disestablishments in New Jersey
History of baseball
History of baseball in the United States
Defunct sports venues in New Jersey
Amusement parks opened in the 1830s
Amusement parks in New Jersey
Resorts in New Jersey
Parks
Pleasure gardens