Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey, Historic park site in Hoboken, United States

Elysian Fields was a 19th-century recreational parkland on the northern riverfront of Hoboken, New Jersey. It covered the area from present-day 8th Street to the southern edge of Weehawken, and from Washington Street to the Hudson River, and offered open space for sports, spectacles, and amusements.

The land was owned by the Stevens family, who drained the swamps and developed the grounds in the 1820s and 1830s. It became a popular getaway for New Yorkers, and later hosted early baseball and cricket matches before fading as the city grew.

The name comes from the paradise of classical mythology, chosen by the Stevens family to give the grounds an air of refinement. Today, local baseball clubs and historians point to this spot as an ancestor of the modern ballpark, and the story of the fields is kept alive in Hoboken's local memory.

The grounds are long gone, so visiting means exploring the modern streets of northern Hoboken where the park once lay. Look for traces near the waterfront and Castle Point, and allow time to walk the grid of streets that now cover the site.

The Elysian Fields once had a spa known as Sybil's Cave, a small spring house built into the riverside cliff. Visitors can still see the sealed entrance of the cave near the waterfront, a remnant of the area's past as a leisure destination.