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HOBOKEN, N.J. - For more than a century, the Clam Broth House has been nothing short of an icon in this waterfront city.
Marlon Brando was said to have dined there while filming On the Waterfront. Frank Sinatra's mother was a regular. Woodrow Wilson bid farewell to troops from the balcony as they shipped off to World War I, and he greeted them when they came home.
But the building is about to add a final, sorrowful chapter to its colorful history: the wrecking ball.
The Clam Broth House has been closed since May 2003, when cracks and bulges in its brick facade prompted city officials to condemn the property. A judge recently lifted an order blocking the building's demolition, and officials say it could be razed this month.
"It's one of those places that generations remember," Bob Foster, director of the Hoboken Historical Museum. In a mile-square city as packed with lore as it is with New York commuters, the Clam Broth House has been one of Hoboken's most beloved institutions since it opened in 1899, two blocks from the Hudson River waterfront.
Its hand-shaped, neon sign perched above the corner of Newark and Hudson streets literally pointed the way for generations of seafood lovers. Its shifting clientele reflected Hoboken's evolution from a blue collar shipping port to a high-rent bedroom community and nightspot for 20-somethings.
Though Hoboken's waterfront is now lined with luxury apartments, it had long been dominated by shipyards, and the Clam Broth House catered to longshoremen.
De De Rendaci fondly recalls working as a waitress there during the 1960s and '70s.
"Oh, my God, it was five dining rooms and lines all the way around the corner," said Rendaci. "There was sawdust on the floor, and everybody would throw their clam shells on the floor. And then there was a big bucket of clam broth, like a coffee urn with a spigot, and everybody would have clam broth from the steamers that they made."
John J. Curley, a lawyer for the property owners, said the site will be redeveloped.