Several members of the Azarian and Blanck families lived in Weehawken.

Herman Blanck was listed in Weehawken at 134 Highwood Terrace in the 1920 and 1930 Federal Censuses.

Mary Azarian Iorio, Anthony Iorio, and their children, Neil and Lucille, lived in Weehawken near the Reservoir in the 1940s.

Alice and John Blanck lived at 2 Potter Place, Weehawken in 1942. Between December 1944 and March 1945, while John was overseas, Alice was living at 12 Cooper Place Weehawken. They were still at this address when John was discharged from the army in August 1945. They lived at 155 Edgar Street, Weehawken before they moved to Hackensack.

Alice Blanck was living at this address while John was in the service during WWII.

In October 2006 Howard DeVoe emailed

" In my researches I found that my great grandparents, Samuel and Christena Hannah, lived at 12 First Street in Weehawken NJ. First Street was renamed Cooper Place about 1940, so it was the same address as on your website. According to census records, they were living there in January 1920 and in April 1930. The census records showed Samuel as the owner of the house, and Charles and Maude Lyon as tenants.

Actually, Samuel and Christena were not compatible and, at least in the later years, only Christena lived in this house together with a niece. Christena died in February 1940 at age 79, and the house must have been sold then. I was seven years old when she died.

I remember the house well as a young boy. My parents lived in Pleasantville, New York, and we would drive down to Manhattan and cross on the Weehawken ferry to visit my great grandmother. She lived on the second floor, and the tenants were on the first floor.

I haven't seen the house since 1940.

At the same address Charles Lyon, head Rent $40, radio, age 51, conductor railroad, Maud wife, age 48

1920 Census: Weehawken Ward 3, Hudson, New Jersey, 12 First Street, Samuel J Hannah, head, own, age 59, born NY, conductor railroad, Christine Hannah, wife age 59, born Illinois Lizzie M Bell, age 45 boarder, born Indiana, secretary minister

At same address, John W Lyons, head rent age 41, born NY, conductor railroad, Maude F wife age 37, born NY, Roma F daughter age 14, born NJ

In the 1910 census Samuel and Hannah were living in Haverstraw New York.

While I was photographing, a neighbor lady struck up a conversation with me. She is restoring her house at #3 Cooper Place, and told me the houses on the street were part of a development begun in the 1890's. She claims the houses have changed little since they were built, although apparently the exterior walls were originally covered with asphalt sheet siding in place of the present horizontal siding.

Howard De Voe, November 2006

Not posted

Notice that the cars are pasted in and are not to scale.

Bonn Place, Highwood Park, Weehawken, N.J.

Posted 1908

Posted 1913

This is where the entrance to the Linclon Tunnel is today.

Posted 1948

Printed on back

"The Lincoln Tunnel runs under the Hudson River and connects 39th street, Manhattan with Weehawken, N. J. The toll gates are on the New Jersey side. The tues have a two-lane roadway. 21 and a half feet wide between curbs and an operating headroom clearance of 13 feet."

Printed on back:

"Lincoln Tunnel

The Lincoln Tunnel helix and Plaza on the New Jersey sidde. The only 3 tube underwater vehicular tunnel in operation in the world. Links Weehawken, N. J. with midtown Manhattan, N. Y.

Another undated view of the helix.

Robin Haines wrote in April 2009 to say that her parents, Audrey and Ted Hainfeld, bought the house from Tony Iorio in 1956.

From the end of Oak street you can look down on helix and the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.

The Shippen steps go from the Hackensack Plank Road to Park avenue following the east west line of Shippen street.

In April 1900 the New York Tribune reported the death of Mrs. Mary Morris, age 71, who on her way to visit her daughter-in-law Mrs. Julia Morris in West Hoboken was climbing the Weehawken steps. Half way up Mary Morris felt faint, fell, and rolled down the steps fracturing her skull. She died a few hours later.

Another version of this post card is labeled: "Steps to West Shore Ferries - Highwood Park Weehawken"

Yet another labels the steps as "Wooden".

Also labeled "42nd street steps leading to Boulevard" (Note: 42nd street in Union City leads to Liberty place in Weehawken. These may be the steps known as the Clifton Terrace steps.)

And "Steps to West Shore Ferries, Highwood Park"

The 2020 google map shows stairs from Liberty Place to Pershing Rd. They open in 2008.

The building (buildings) to the left of the top of the staircase is studio of Karl Bitter (a well known sculptor) in the Eldorado section of Weehawken.

In the 1890s Eldorado was the site of an amusement park. It was also the name of a neighborhood later called Highwood Park.

"Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was an Austrian-born American sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work. Wikipedia Born: December 6, 1867, Rudolfsheim-Funfhaus, Vienna, Austria Died: April 9, 1915, Manhattan, New York, NY Education: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna"

Not posted - Published in Union Hill.

Another set of steps can be seen in the upper part of the above postcard.

Steps Up the Palisades in Weehawken

In 1935 there were said to be five sets of steps up the Palisades in Weehawken:

1. The Lossburg 262 steps that were "worn and old" by 1935.

   "The lower three flights of the famous Lossburg steps, which figured ninety-seven years ago in an unsolved murder that inspired Edgar Allen Poe to write "The Mystery of Marie Roget," are to surrender to progress in the form of a WPA road-widening project after a century or more of existence." (NY Times July 18, 1938)

   Marie Cecelia Rogers, a tobacconist in a New York shop, was murdered in August 1841. She was last seen alive in the company of a young man at the Lossburg steps in Weehawken. Her mutilated body was found floating in the Hudson River. The murder was never solved.

   In May 1892 a well dressed woman about 30 years old grew faint at the top of the Lossburg steps. She fell and was knocked unconscious. The momentum of the fall caused her to tumble from step to step until she reached the bottom of the stairway on the Old Turnpike Road. Miraculously she did not fall off the stairs and unto the bluff. She lay unconscious on the ground for several minutes until some men came to her aid. Nothing was broken and the men put her in a horse car and sent her off home to Hoboken. (Jersey City News)

   In September 1918 eight "German" bombs were found under the Lossburg steps. Each bomb was attached to a looped cord so it could be hung. With the bombs was a note in German: "To be hung against a heavy wall or hard surface. Bomb will explode five seconds after fuse is lighted."

   In the 1960s the 22 story Troy Towers was built on the site. (On Mountain road off of 18th street in Union City.)

2. The Renner steps up King's Bluff from Boulevard east built circa 1910 by a real estate investor. Not in good condition by 1935.

   In 1934 King's Bluff was described as "a vertical wall of solid rock".

   Kings Bluff is a section of northern Weehawken named for the King family who had an estate in the area in the 1830s.

   The end of King's Bluff road offers a spectacular view of the Lincoln Tunnel helix and the Manhattan skyline.

   The 1910 Federal Census listed: Samuel E Renner 50, manager real estate, Erma Renner 41, wife, 2 children 2 living, Harry N Renner 21, son insurance, Robert S Renner 20, son, insurance, Rosie Eumer 73, mother-in-law, Sophie Schroeder 24, servant, 19 Boulevard Loop

3. The Shippen steps built in 1878 that ran from Park Ave to Hackensack avenue with 136 steps and an additional flight up to Gregory ave.

   In January 1898 Mary A Nemeyer, a domestic, in Weehawken was held up, robbed and assaulted by three men on the second landing of the Shippen stairs. It was around midnight when Mary was returning home after visiting her mother. She noticed the three men but hurried down the stairs hoping to safely reach her employers house which was near the bottom of the stairway. Two of the men attacked her at the second landing. They demanded money. She denied having any. The forced a bottle of some burning liquid in her mouth, threw her violently to the ground, struck her over the head with a club, kicked her and "horribly ill-treated" her, tearing off her clothes. She was unconscious part of the time. The men finally left and went off down the steps. Fearful of going in the same direction lest she be attacked again, she crawled up the stairs and managed to reach help. She was taken to her mothers house where she lay in critical condition. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

4. The Grauert Causeway built in 1915 with 246 steps lead from Columbia Terrace to Pershing rd.. Named after Emile Grauert (1855-1931) architect - 11 times mayor of Weehawken starting in 1912 - died of a heart attack April 1931.

5. The Clifton Terrace steps built in 1900 that led from Columbia Terrace down to Pershing Road

"Here Hamilton lost his life in a duel with Burr. The rocky bank of the river rises about one hundred and fifty feet above the river, and on a shelving of the rock, about twenty feet above the water, and which is reached by an almost inaccessible flight of stairs, is the famous battleground."

An 1896 article in The School Journal reported on some Weehawken children having a difficult trip to school. "The children of Upper Weehawken who attend school do so at the risk of their necks". From Upper Weehawken heights "beyond the Palisades" the children attended a school on the Boulevard. They were forced to walk a long distance "over the common" and then descend the 100 step stairway "of the Palisades."

"In fine weather this climb and descent would tax an adult, and when the wind blows and the stairs are coated with ice it is a perilous trip for pupils."

In July 1906 Philip "Yetso", age 20, was hurrying down the Palisades steps two at a time when he pitched forward and fell through the railing falling about 30 feet. His skull was crushed and he was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Hoboken. He was not expected to live. The steps consisted of about twenty flights of twenty steps each. (New York Times)

In 1914 J. Rydings spent the day wandering around Weehawken and West Hoboken. He descended the 244 steps on the "remarkable staircase" between West Hoboken and Weehawken. On it he observed the "passengers" some of whom moved very "quietly and philosophically" - some young people took the stairs two at a time. Most people going up took the steps one at a time. Two young ladies stopped and rested on a seat on a landing half-way up. (The Morning Call, Patterson)

Starting in 1874 trolley lines ran to West Shore Line Terminal at Weehawken, Palisades Amusement Park and several other destinations.