To spot Edwin A. Stevens Hall, look for a large, stone building with a steep, pointed tower in the center and lots of arched windows-it's just ahead, rising above the trees and parked cars.
Imagine yourself standing here in 1870, when the freshly built Edwin A. Stevens Hall towered over Hoboken like a castle from an inventor’s dream. This isn’t just any old stone building-inside, you’d have found students hurrying down echo-filled halls and the clink of tools spilling from engineering labs. Designed by Richard Upjohn, it was named after Edwin Augustus Stevens, a man who loved machines so much he helped found the Stevens Institute of Technology right here! Generations of bright minds have flocked to these halls, hoping some of Stevens' genius would rub off on them. And wait-over a hundred years ago, the DeBaun Auditorium opened its doors in this very building, lighting up countless faces with music, performances, and maybe a few dramatic gasps when actors forgot their lines. Today, it’s home to the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science, but the energy of discovery and invention is still crackling in the air. So if you listen closely, you might just hear the faint sound of applause, whispers of lively debates, and maybe even an old ghostly professor asking, “Did you finish your homework?”
