Fireman’s Monument
Located in Church Square Park in Hoboken, standing in the west end of the park at Garden Street and 5th Street. The Firemen’s Monument sits atop a 20-foot granite pedestal that features emblems of a ladder, pike poles and a fire hose on its face. The statue itself is approximately 8 feet tall and features a mustached fireman in uniform, holding a small child in nightdress in his left arm and a lantern in his right hand. Similar statues have been noted as being modeled after statues of the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus. The monument reads: Erected by the citizens of Hoboken, NJ in honor of the volunteer fire dept. May 30th, 1891. Starting in the 19th century, statues of firemen who died in the line of duty were placed in municipal burial plots, which eventually led to placement of monuments in more accessible public places and often to commemorate various departments or events.
The monument in Hoboken was built to commemorate the end of the Volunteer firefighters in the city, as earlier that year, firefighting became a paid profession. The first statues were made using marble, but many, including the Firemen’s monument in Hoboken, were sculpted using zinc and cast in bronze by Caspar Buberl and sold by J.W. Fiske. The monument was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
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