Erie-Lackawanna Rail & Ferry Terminal: Main Waiting Room
Hoboken, NJ

The waiting room was constructed in 1907 in a Beaux Arts style. The ceiling is made up of a 40-by-50 foot Tiffany-style laylight. The completed restoration project won two awards: the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office named the Hoboken Terminal Waiting Room as one of 14 historic preservation projects of merit for the year 2000, and it was named the restoration project of the year in 2000 by New York Construction News. We are very proud of our part of the project.

The Scope of the Work Included:

• Photographic documentation
• Shop drawings
• Submittals of samples
• Historic finishes analyses
• Wood sash restoration
• Scaffolding to reach 65' high
• Paint removal and clear refinishing of copper mouldings
• Cleaning and painting of steel T-sections and wood sashes
• Complete disassembly and re-leading of all 452 panels of leaded glass
• Replication of 44 missing panels
• Replication of 17 transom panels used as signs such as “Tickets” & “To Trains”
• Completed under the supervision of the architectural firm of Beyer Blinder Belle, NYC

Scaffolding to reach a 65-foot-high ceiling.

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Scaffolding from the inside, before covering.

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Extensive photographic documentation of every panel.

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Annotated rubbings of every panel, show position of tie wires and cracked or missing glass.

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Part of the organization of 496 individual panels.

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Working on the wood sashes.

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Component replacement for deteriorated and missing wood sashes.

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Sanding and refinishing the sashes.

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Scraping paint off the copper drop beams.

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Continuing to clean the drop beams.

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The copper finally starts to show on some of the beams.

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A steel T-bar stiffener above a sash.

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Restored copper beams and restored sashes, with temporary dust protection while we restore the stained glass panels.

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Releading a panel.

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Soldering a releaded panel.

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Assembling a transom sign, one of 17 that were restored or replicated.

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Soldering one of the “To Trains” transoms.

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Copper tie-wires being twisted around new painted steel re-bars which span individual leaded panels in each large wooden sash.

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Restored sash and leaded glass from above.

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Fabricating the dust/diffusing system, 5 stories up. Notice the restored drop copper beams.

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More dust/diffuser work.

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Installing the dust/diffusers on top of the stained glass laylight. Notice the steel structures and catwalks needed for this large laylight.

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Restored transoms in place. (The restaurant is no longer there, but it was in 1907)

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The “To Trains” transoms in place.

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The fully restored ticket window area.

The fully restored waiting room.

Many more photographs from the Erie-Lackawanna Rail and Ferry Terminal can be seen in the section The Restoration Process

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