This article is the last one for this semester. Looking back, I have covered most of the most significant buildings on campus that have historical meaning. Sadly, I have had to skip some (Peirce, Kiddie, Burchard, River Terrace, the Gatehouse, etc.). To end, though, I wanted to cover something unique. Most schools have their own Palmer or Castle Stevens, but most schools don’t have a boat that they float in the Hudson River and call a dorm. Today, I am happy to explain what exactly S.S. Stevens was.
In 1967, under the leadership of President Jess Davis, Stevens Institute of Technology was experiencing a surge: increased student population, the construction of new buildings like Burchard, the Wesley J. Howe Center, and plans for more facilities like the Samuel C. Williams Library were well underway. However, despite a plan for more dormitories, the school needed more bed space for students — faster than a building could be created.
After a long life in military service, in June of 1967, the United States Maritime Commission announced that one of its ships, the Exochorda, was for sale under the conditions that it would be scrapped or at least not be used for transportation. With the assistance of shipbuilding experts, Stevens submitted a bid to buy the Exochorda to transform it into the dorm space it so desperately needed. Then, on September 26, 1967, it was announced that Stevens had submitted the highest bid, by nearly $6,700.
A week later, on October 4, McAllister Brothers and Bethlehem Steel, two Hoboken companies, brought the Exochorda from the shipyards at Stony Point, New York to Hoboken. For about a month, the Exochorda was renovated from a military-grade, World War II-era fighting ship into a livable, floating dormitory. The engine room was sealed off, the living quarters were converted into double-style dorms, the ventilation system was refurbished, and electricity and water from the campus’s supply were permanently connected to the ship at its new home at the 8th Street Pier.
On November 10, 1967, at a ceremony attended by students, faculty, Trustees, and Hobokenites, President and Mrs. Davis rechristened the ship as the S.S. Stevens. The ship opened to upper-classmen for the rest of the fall semester and opened to first-years during the beginning of the spring semester in January of 1968. For its nearly eight-year tenure at Stevens, it housed around 150 students at a time.
Life aboard the S.S. Stevens was lavish, but still had some typical aspects as being a college dormitory—student lounges on the upper decks and modestly sized sleeping quarters—with the added bizarreness of being a boat. However, there still were emergency power generators, a brig, ship-wide alarms, and military-naval safety features like watertight doors and reinforced steel frames.
The S.S. Stevens served as a dorm until August 1975, when rising maintenance costs and the need for extensive repairs forced the school to sell the ship.
The S.S. Stevens is one of the most unique and historical structures at Stevens. I want to thank Bruce Blondia, Stevens Class of 1971 and a resident of the S.S. Stevens for helping me learn about the ship and offering some amazing stories. So remember as you look down towards the Hudson, the history of the Stevens students truly living as Ducks: floating on the S.S. Stevens.
