The Weehawken Public Library is the free

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

Weehawken, New Jersey Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located on the Hudson Waterfront and Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's po ...

. The library has a collection of about 43,000 volumes and circulates 40,604 items annually. It is a member of the

Bergen County Cooperative Library System The Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS, pronounced "buckles") is a consortium of public libraries in the four northeastern New Jersey Gateway Region counties of Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, and Essex. Founded on October 1, 1979, the o ...

, a consortium of municipal libraries in the

northeastern New Jersey The Gateway Region is the primary urbanized area of the northeastern section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The region is anchored by Newark, the state's most populous city, and constitutes part of the New York metropolitan area. The area enc ...

counties of

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

Hudson Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudson Rodrigues dos Santos, Brazilian f ...

Passaic Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city was the state's 16th-most-populous municipality,Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. The library sits at 49 Hauxhurst Avenue on a precipice overlooking the

Lincoln Tunnel Helix The Lincoln Tunnel Helix, known commonly as The Helix or the Route 495 Helix, is an elevated spiral bridge controlled-access highway, freeway that carries New Jersey Route 495 to and from the Lincoln Tunnel in Weehawken, New Jersey. It is an ov ...

. Originally built as a private home, it became a library in 1942, and was extensively renovated and expanded in 1997-1998. The landmark is home to the town's historical commission. An annual fundraiser for the library at

Lincoln Harbor Lincoln Harbor is a station on the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) located at Waterfront Terrace, north of 19th Street, in Weehawken, New Jersey. The station opened on September 7, 2004. There are two tracks and an island platform. A five m ...

, a culinary event called ''A Taste of Weehawken'', has taken place since 2000.

History

Wilhelm Joseph Peter (aka William Peter) (March 16, 1832 – June 10, 1918) immigrated from

Achern Achern (; ) is a city in Western Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located approximately 18 km southwest of Baden-Baden and 19 km northeast of Offenburg. Achern is the fourth largest town in the district of Ortenau (Ortenaukreis), aft ...

in the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...

after the

German revolution of 1848 German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

to avoid persecution due to his father's affiliation with it. After some years in the

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

business at several locales in North Hudson, he established the William Peter Brewing Company in 1862 at Hudson Avenue and Weehawken Street in what was then Union Hill. Parts of the imposing structure remained, and were repurposed as a storage facility. While he and his family lived for a time across the street at the since demolished Fausel Mansion, Peter eventually built a mansion across the valley on the cliff where the library now stands. William_Peter_historical_marker-Hudson_Ave_%26_Peter_Street-Union_City

William_Peter_historical_marker-Hudson_Ave_%26_Peter_Street-Union_City

Completed in 1904 at the cost of $75,000, the home was designed like a German-style castle with 17 rooms and elaborately decorated with ornate woodwork, marble, stained glass, and several fireplaces. A successful businessman, Peter was also a painter encouraged by

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

artist Max Eaglau and maintained a studio as his home for himself and others to use. The gallery in the house included many works inspired by his native

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

and the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...

, where he summered. After Peter's death, the house changed hands and was owned for a time by the Arnoldi family. In the 1930s, to make way for the construction of the Midtown-Hudson Tunnel (today's

Lincoln Tunnel The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It carries New Jersey Route 495 on the New Jersey side and the unsigned N ...

), the building and others in the neighborhood and along

Boulevard East Boulevard East (officially John F. Kennedy Boulevard East, and sometimes referred to as JFK Boulevard East) is a two-way street, two-way, mostly two lane, scenic county road in the municipalities of Weehawken, New Jersey, Weehawken, West New Yor ...

were acquired by the

Port Authority A port authority (less commonly a port district) is a governmental or quasi-governmental public authority for a special-purpose district usually formed by a legislative body (or bodies) to operate ports and other transportation infrastructure. ...

. Many were demolished, but the Peter Mansion was spared and later given to the township. The library opened in September 1942 with books and memorabilia donated by local residents. In 1997, the library closed for expansion and renovation. It re-opened in 1999. In March 2022, the town council adopted a $1.4 million bond ordinance to modernize the library. The project includes installation of energy efficient lighting, replacement of exterior windows, improved

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

, a new

HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...

system, an improved electrical system, and additional

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

ports to public work stations.

Weehawken Historical Commission

The Weehawken Historical Commission maintains materials originally contributed upon the creation of the library as well as other acquisitions made over the years. The ''Weehawken Time Machine'' is a website that has digitized many of the photographs and documents in the collection. In 2009, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the town's incorporation, members of the commission published ''Weehawken'' as part of

Arcadia Publishing Arcadia Publishing is an American Publishing, publisher of neighborhood, local history, local, and regional history of the United States in pictorial form.(analysis of the successful ''Images of America'' series). Arcadia Publishing also runs th ...

's ''

Images of America Arcadia Publishing is an American publisher of neighborhood, local, and regional history of the United States in pictorial form.(analysis of the successful ''Images of America'' series). Arcadia Publishing also runs the History Press, which publ ...

'' series.

References

External links

*
Bergen County Cooperatived Library SystemWikimapia
{{authority control Weehawken, New Jersey Public libraries in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Hudson County, New Jersey Education in Hudson County, New Jersey Houses completed in 1904 Tourist attractions in Hudson County, New Jersey Houses in Hudson County, New Jersey Stone houses in New Jersey