Martha Stewart of “It’s a good thing” fame was born in Jersey City. If she’d grown up here she would’ve known to keep her yap shut when the FBI came calling.
Megan Smolenyak reports that “Martha’s grandfather, Frank Kostyra, owned a tavern in Jersey City. On the 4th of July in 1929, two boys stuck a piece of dynamite in the foundation of the tavern causing an explosion that did considerable damage, but fortunately did not injure anyone.”
Considering that in 1929 Prohibition was in place, it’s interesting that neither the paper nor the police found it noteworthy that there was a saloon at 153 Liberty.
One of the old owners of the Tunnel Bar — just outside the Holland Tunnel on the Jersey City side — related that that place continued operating right through the supposed “dry” spell.