RIVER VALE—Hoboken holds a unique place in American history that few cities its size can match — a one-square-mile stage where industry, immigration, invention and celebrity all took their turn.
River Vale author and journalist Joseph Lauro makes that case in “Lost Hoboken,” a 112-page paperback published Nov. 11, 2025, by The History Press, an imprint of Arcadia Publishing.
The book traces the city’s arc from a Dutch outpost to an Industrial Revolution hub synonymous with steam power and ships and trains — and, later, to a hard-hit factory town that recovered into a bohemian enclave and national model for urban renewal.
Lauro is a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor and writer who was born in Hoboken and later covered it as a journalist. A graduate of the University of South Carolina College of Journalism, his work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, SoHo News, The Village Voice, New Jersey Monthly and The Sporting News, among other publications. He and his wife, Patricia Winters Lauro, are the parents of three children, and the family has lived in River Vale for more than 30 years.
“I was lucky to be working in Hoboken just as it transitioned from a working class place to a sixth borough of NYC,” Lauro said. “A really exciting time.”
He said he began the project for today’s newcomers — including one of his daughters — who know of Hoboken’s brownstones and bustling Washington Street, but may not have a feel for the earlier city of docks, factories, tenements and tough-edged neighborhoods.
“At the same time my publisher, The History Press, had a new imprint of books … designed to tell a city’s past by things that were no longer there,” Lauro said. “So it was a good match.”
In “Lost Hoboken,” Lauro moves from the city’s early days into the building of its neighborhoods and institutions, then into the pastimes and public spaces that helped define it. He writes about the waterfront that made Hoboken a port of consequence, the transportation network that tied it to the region, and the industries that left the city’s name stamped on products far beyond New Jersey.
Among his favorite discoveries, he said, was how many things people still use — or still eat — trace back to Hoboken. Lauro points to inventions “from the ice cream cone to the zipper,” and notes the strong German influence that shaped a local culture of baked goods and candy-making, with products he cites ranging from Wonder Bread and Twinkies to Sno-Balls and Tootsie Rolls.
He also highlights Hoboken’s role as a gathering place for famous visitors and residents across eras, including the city’s hosted luminaries such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jacob Astor, P.T. Barnum and Edgar Allan Poe.
“Everyone knows Frank Sinatra was born there,” he said, “but so too were the greatest photographers ever — Alfred Stieglitz and Dorothea Lange.”
Hoboken’s history, he argues, isn’t just colorful — it is nationally consequential. Lauro writes that when Germany’s luxury liners and cargo ships began calling in the 1860s, Hoboken became known as a “German city whose waterfront connections helped spread the city’s name around the world.” During World War I, he said, Hoboken was the main embarkation point for American soldiers sailing to France.
He also touches on the city’s enduring reputation as a place where people came to cut loose. During Prohibition, Lauro said, Hoboken was known “for a wide open place where you could still get a drink at nearly any hour — not unlike today.”
A recurring theme is what remains if you know where to look. Lauro writes about the famed Elysian Fields, which he said served as a green haven for New Yorkers through much of the 19th century, long before Central Park was created. While Hoboken has “lost” historical buildings and businesses over time, Lauro said, it still offers “an incredible amount of living history if you look closely enough.”
The book is organized into nine chapters: “Early Days,” “Building a Community and a Castle,” “Sports and Recreation,” “On the Waterfront,” “Creating a Transportation Network,” “Made in Hoboken,” “A World Comes to the Mile Square City,” “A Taste of Hoboken,” and “An Entertaining Place.”
Lauro said he has been asked to do a reading at the Hoboken Historical Museum.
“Lost Hoboken” is available at select Barnes & Noble stores, on Amazon and online through The History Press.
Book info
Title: Lost Hoboken
Author: Joseph Lauro
Publisher: The History Press (Arcadia Publishing)
Publication date: Nov. 11, 2025
Pages: 112
ISBN: 9781467159463
Format: Paperback