Hoboken's 1840s 'Monkey House' May Not Be Oldest Home In City, But Sure Is Popular

HOBOKEN, NJ — As a Hoboken board considers an application to tear down a 170-year-old house on Third Street, residents weighed in on a Patch story from last Friday about the house's history. And local researchers shed some light on how old the home really is.

Late Hoboken historian Jim Hans and his wife Beverly bought the wood-frame house at 206 Third St. for $8,000 in 1976, records indicate. Hans passed away a year ago, and a potential new owner is seeking permission to demolish the home.

A hearing on an application to tear down the home was held on Monday, Jan. 8, and will be continued at a Historic Preservation Commission meeting in February.

For years, Hans and his family have decorated the porch of the house to inspire passers by. Often, a group of stuffed monkeys sat sentry on the porch.

On Patch's Facebook page last weekend, people reacted to the possible demolition with mixed feelings:

"They are tearing down old buildings and houses for more apts. and it's nothing we can afford," wrote one woman. "They are chasing the middle class out. To pay over $2,000 for a one bedroom is crazy."

"I passed that house every day walking my kids to David E Rue school," wrote another woman. "I loved seeing the monkeys in the chair."

"It's more valuable as 200 sqft studios going for 4K a month.....parking additional!" wrote a man.

"No way I use to walk pass there everyday to go to school and always stopped to look at the doll monkeys they have since over 40 yrs I'm sad," wrote a woman.

But another reader wrote, "We have a crisis of buildings collapsing and killing people, because no one wants to ever tear anything down in this country. The building is structurally unsound, and engineers are saying it should be torn down... Appreciate them when you can, but accept eventually their time will have passed."

So What Do Historians Say?

The house may be slightly newer than people think. Last March, a few months after Hans died, the Hoboken Historical Museum asked Hoboken Library Special Collections Manager James Cox to find out more about it.

Apparently, the home was not built in 1840, as online listings say. Cox's March 2023 report says that on an 1841 map, the area is just wetlands. But the home does appear on maps by 1851, so it was built some time in the 1840s or in 1850.

Cox's findings cite a 2019 report on Hoboken's historic district that states, "206 Third Street (Property ID -1199299686), built ca. 1850, is one of the earliest surviving wood frame dwellings in the Hoboken Historic District as well as one of few examples of the Greek Revival style, featuring a denticulated cornice; full façade front porch with columns; and an original or early door surround with sidelights and multi-light transom."

There are a few other pre-Civil War buildings south of Third Street in Hoboken, the report says.

"Architectural styles represented in the Hoboken Historic District run the gamut from Vernacular interpretations of the Italianate, Prairie, and Art Deco styles to high-style examples of Anglo-Italianate, Beaux-Arts, Classical Revival, and Romanesque Revival. Of particular note are the few surviving examples of the Greek Revival style that remain in the Project Area. These include the ca. 1850 brick rowhouses at 50-54 Newark Street (Property ID 1039337880), the ca. 1850 wood frame dwelling at 206 Third Street (Property ID -1199299686), which retains its original Greek Revival-style door surround, the ca. 1855 brick rowhouse at 56 Newark Street (Property ID -1403568199), and the 1856 Plymouth Brethren Gospel Hall at 641 Bloomfield Street (Property ID 746309483)."

But in the densely populated mile square city, a single family home from before the Civil War is a rarity.

The history says that a few families owned the home before it was sold to the Hans family 1976.

(Want to look inside the house? Here are photos of an estate sale of Jim Hans' collectibles and art, to be held later this month.)

'Rotten At Their Bases'

The application to demolish 206 Third St. includes a report saying the house is "out of plumb," or leaning, and has severe problems that would be costly to fix.

An engineer's report completed in December 2023, based on a walk-through of the 1,639 square foot home in September, reports:

"The Western girder line was found to have timber posts installed which appear to no longer be bearing at their top connection. It also doesn’t appear that acceptable footings are in place, and the posts appear to be rotten at their bases. It is unclear why these timber posts were installed, but they are not performing any function presently. The writer measured the 1st Eastern pier for plumbness and found that it was out of plumb."

In addition, "The North pilaster of the Eastern girder line was found to have missing bricks at its base. This pilaster is supporting a large load from the timber girder above, and must be repaired immediately to prevent further movement. ...The crawlspace was found to be filled with debris and had several bowls of rat poison present, indicating that the building is suffering from a severe rodent problem."

The report concludes:

"After reviewing the level of structural deficiencies found at the site, it is this office’s opinion that the building is in an advanced state of disrepair and would be too costly to repair or bring up to current standards. It is recommended that the building be vacated and then demolished."

Read the application here.

Read prior reporting in Hoboken Patch here: Older Hoboken Home On Agenda For Demolition