Home > Films > O > On The Waterfront

Thursday December 12th 2024

On The Waterfront | 1954

On The Waterfront location: St Peter and St Paul Church, Hudson Street, Hoboken, New Jersey
On The Waterfront location: the church interior: St Peter and St Paul Church, Hudson Street, Hoboken, New Jersey

Elia Kazan’s drama of mob rule among the longshoremen’s unions was made on location on the waterfronts of Hoboken, New Jersey (the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, the original choice to play Terry Malloy).

On The Waterfront location: Our Lady of Grace Church, Williow Avenue, Hoboken, New Jersey
On The Waterfront location: the exterior of Father Barry's church: Our Lady of Grace Church, Willow Avenue, Hoboken, New Jersey

The piers and warehouses are long gone, and Hoboken is now a squeaky clean middle class suburb, but some of the movie’s locations remain.

On The Waterfront location: Stevens Park, Husdon Street, Hoboken, New Jersey
On The Waterfront location: Terry Malloy and Edie Doyle walk in the park: Stevens Park, Hudson Street, Hoboken, New Jersey

The exterior of Father Barry's (Karl Malden) church is Our Lady of Grace Church, 400 Willow Avenue, which looks out onto Church Square. This square doesn't face the river, so once Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) and Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint) start to walk through the park (where the improvisational Brando famously toys with Saint's dropped glove), it becomes Stevens Park, four blocks north.

Oddly, St Peter and St Paul Church, 404 Hudson Street, which overlooks Stevens Park, was used for the church interiors.