Stevens Institute of Technology

The Stevenses didn't just make money in Hoboken during the city's heyday before World War l; they were also Hoboken's main benefactors. In 1887, Martha Bayard Stevens established the "Industrial Education Association "dedicated to teaching young female Hobokenites the skills of home economics neatness and the principles of saving.

In 1896, the Stevenses gave land and funds for the establishment of the Hoboken Public Library at Fifth and Park streets. In the same period, they established the Church Square Park across from the Library and the Hudson Square and Elysian Parks at either end of their estates. They established the Martha Institute for training boys in industrial skills, the Hammond Home for Children, and the Robert L. Stevens Fund for Municipal Research. Although the Stevenses never served in elected offices in Hoboken, "Colonel" Edwin A. Stevens, 11 served as tax commissioner, public works commissioner, and trustee of the local Episcopal church. In addition, he served the State of New Jersey as chairman of the commission which established the Interstate Palisades Park and as state commissioner of highways.

And, of course, they founded S I T which opened its doors to students in 1871. The idea of using part of the Stevens patrimony for an educational institution originated with Colonel John Stevens. In his letters he said, "Good morals and good government in a republic are only attainable and maintainable by knowledge and information pervading the whole mass of society." He hoped that part of his estate would be employed for the founding of an academy for teaching a variety of scientific subjects.

Perhaps with his father's wish in mind or perhaps with the experience of his self-taught engineering brother, Robert, in mind, Edwin Augustus Stevens made provision in his will for an "institution of learning" in 1867, one year before he died.

Edwin's will entrusted his wife, Martha; her brother, Samuel Bayard Dod; and his long-time business associate, W.W. Shippen, with the task of establishing the academy. These trustees were provided with a block of land between Hudson and River streets and between Fourth and Fifth streets; a building fund of ,000 and an endowment of ,000 were used to build the main building and to hire the first faculty. The trustees used more of the endowment in 1872 to open the Stevens School, a preparatory school for Stevens Institute made necessary by the lack of scientific training given to secondary students. The trustees, as is well-known, dedicated the institute to educating mechanical engineers - the first institution of its kind in the United States.

The institute has continued to foster a broad-based education including science and humanities which make up a good deal of its curricula. Samuel Bayard Dod, the son of a Princeton mathematics professor, did extensive research on the best French and German technical schools and consulted forward-looking scientists like Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian before choosing as first president the scientist, Henry Morton. Morton, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania was also a physicist and the editor of the Journal of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. He, along with the trustees, hired the first faculty and designed the components of the first curriculum .

Edwin Augustus Stevens' legacy was supplemented by other members of the Stevens family who continued as benefactors of the institute which bears their name. In 1895, Martha Batyard Stevens gave the institute two plots of land, and a house, valued at ,000, for the institute's president. In 1903, her sons, Edwin Augustus II and Robert Livingston II, jointly bestowed a tract of land 196xl00' on the southwest corner of River and Seventh streets to the left of the gates and gatehouse of Castle Stevens.

Then, in 1911 they sold the Stevens Castle and its grounds to the institute on terms which the latter considered hard to turn down. Subsequently, the Stevens family and their relations by marriage, the Hammonds, Alexanders, etc., have continued to take an interest in the activities of the institute and make substantive contributions for its welfare.

Before concluding the story, one can ask what circumstances led the family to sell the Stevens Castle and leave Hoboken. The answer probably lies in both political and economic developments beyond their control. During the progressive era when Woodrow Wilson was governor of New Jersey, the Stevenses and other well-to-do families found their suggestions for municipal improvements and greater efficiencies increasingly misunderstood by machine politicians and their constituencies. Facing increasing antagonism to their call for increased taxes for new sewage systems and facing entrenched resistance to their progressive desire to root out corruption in City Hall, the Stevenses fought hard from 1911 to 1915 to change Hoboken's government from councilman to commission form.

Much to the dismay of the progressive forces, when they finally pushed through the commission form of government, the machine politicians led by Mayor Patrick R. Griffin and his political lieutenant, Bernard N. McFeely, were more strongly in control of City Hall than before the change. It was during this political imbroglio that the Stevens and other wealthy families moved to rural estates in the New Jersey hinterlands.

Economically, the Stevenses and their relatives continued to own properties in Hoboken through the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company. But, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the "Company" started to liquidate its Hoboken real estate: rollbacks in rent and bankruptcies of companies which leased their properties made the Stevenses' stock in the company less profitable. In 1946, the liquidation was completed, the company's funds were divided among the stockholders and the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company was formally dissolved.

In conclusion, the Stevens legacy was immense for both Stevens Institute and for the city of Hoboken-not to mention New Jersey and New York City. If some would question the role of "the Company" as landlord of the shoreline, it must be remembered that it was the Stevenses' to lease and sell and that they disposed of it before it was seized by the federal government from German companies during World War I and subsequently monopolized by the U. S. government for decades. Similarly, one cannot blame "the Company" for housing which was built a century ago and has since fallen into disrepair. In fact, palpable and desirable parts of the legacy include most of the parks of Hoboken, its public library, the layout of the streets, much of the gentrified housing in the upper part of the city, the site of the Hoboken ferries and the railroad, and S I T.

Lastly, their legacy for Stevens Institute and Hoboken includes less material elements, namely the fabulous history of the family, the Stevenses vision and fame as marine and railroad entrepreneurs and engineers, and their spirit of citizenship and industry.