USA > New Jersey > Atlantic County > Atlantic City > Atlantic City and County, New Jersey, biographically illustrated : a short biography : illustrated by protraits, of prominent residents of Atlantic County and the famous summer and winter resort, celebrated throughout America - Atlantic City. > Part 8
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and sand, and from whatever quarter the winds may blow there is always a stretch of shore where the wavelets ripple gently and where there is sunshine and comfort.
Apropos of another claim, it must be conceded that the future yacht- ing interests, as well as the most popular fishing facilities, will be centred at Longport.
Mr. P. M. Sharples, who contributes a lively description of life at Longport in its many phases (see page 129), has touched upon this topic
.
.. .
1.
ELECTRIC CAR STATION
convincingly. There is room in the bay for all the pleasure craft between New York and St. Augustine.
ABeautiful The accompanying illustrations indicate the artistic and substantial Domes character of the residences which establish the class of Longport improvements. The lots are of liberal dimensions, and in some sections of the borough but one cottage is allowed upon a lot.
Having thus sketched the Longport of to-day we may consistently record as an important chapter in the history of the island the story of the
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A FEW OF LONGPORT'S PRIVATE RESIDENCES
making of the settlement. In his first annual message addressed to the Longport Borough Council in April, 1898, Mayor M. S. Mccullough fur- nished the substantial basis of fact upon which all future histories of the place must be built.
Mr. Mccullough purchased the site of Longport from James Long of Philadelphia, in the year 1882, including the entire area from a line drawn between the present 23d and 24th avenues and Great Egg Harbor Inlet. It was an absolutely primitive waste. The first building was erected at 16th and Beach avenues and was used for a restaurant. It has since been moved to 17th and Atlantic avenues. The desolate sand hills reared their wind- swept crests everywhere. One of the greatest tasks in sight was the levelling of many of these in order to establish properly graded streets and building sites. The sand dunes were of such great height that from the location of the Aberdeen Hotel the thoroughfare could not be seen.
In his message Mr. Mccullough says: "After careful study of the situation, noting the long hard and smooth beach along the ocean, the long port or harbor on the bay or thoroughfare, the close proximity of Atlantic City, the freedom from meadow land, the sand beach along the thoroughfare as well as along the ocean, the grand outlook over the sea as well as over the quiet waters of the thoroughfare and the bay, and the beautiful land- scape beyond, it seemed to be an ideal place to found a family resort, and to make it attractive, as such, has since been my constant aim."
Building lots were offered for sale late in 1882, and in April, 1883, a special excursion train brought to Atlantic City a pleasant party of Phila- delphians who were taken to Longport along the beach in carriages, and many of them became identified as real estate owners with the future destinies of the new settlement. It is a matter of much satisfaction to all concerned, and especially to the original promoter of the enterprise, that all of the rosy forecasts made upon that occasion have long ago been far more than realized.
I 20
P
The first cottage builders were Mr. Amos Dotterer and Mrs. S. L. Oberholtzer, the first locating at 17th and Beach avenues and the second at 19th and Beach avenues. Cottages were built by Prof. J. P. Remington and his sister, Miss Caroline Remington, in the spring of 1884. In the same year a Philadelphia caterer had charge of the restaurant, and so attractive was the place that the building, which is now the west wing of the Aberdeen, could not accommodate all who wished to come.
The first train of car's entered Longport on the morning of August 31st, 1884; prior to that time passengers were conveyed by carriage to and
=
AT HIGH TIDE
from south Atlantic City. In a few years, however, travel increased so rapidly that the Railroad Company put into service between Atlantic City and Longport small cars with steam motors, making frequent trips between the two places, and in 1893, introduced the present electric system. Among the events of 1884 was the organization of an Agassiz Association, the Oberholtzer family being the prime movers. The first meeting was held in their cottage. Much pleasure and benefit were derived from the study of natural history as found in the specimens of animals and algæ from the sea and wild flowers from the land, which were gathered and brought in for examination.
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SAND DUNES NEAR LONGPORT
Interest in this society seemed to warrant a wider field than at first had been determined, and the present Longport Society of Natural Science was duly incorporated under the laws of New Jersey. The Society erected a hall at the corner of 15th and Atlantic avenues, which has Science been of great benefit to Longport, being used for divine worship on Sunday and for lectures and other purposes during the week.
Matural
In 1886 the Aberdeen was enlarged and leased to Mr. James Hood and Miss Elizabeth Newport ; shortly after Mr. Hood having built the Penn- hurst, in Atlantic City, Miss Ella Hood and Miss Elizabeth Newport as- sumed management of the Aberdeen. They were very successful, making
hotels and Clubs
many friends for themselves and also for Longport.
In 1890, Miss Hood being needed in the management of the Penn- hurst, and Miss Newport unwilling to assume the entire charge of the Aberdeen, they reluctantly withdrew, and it was leased to Mr. James M. Moore, now proprietor of the Revere, Atlantic City.
The Aberdeen was under Mr. Moore's management during the seasons of 1890 and 1891. In the spring of 1892 Mr. Wilmer W. Lamborn, who associated with him Mrs. Elizabeth Kitts, purchased it, and under their management it has been enlarged, and many improvements have been made, and it has continued to grow in favor with the public.
In 1886 Mr. James Long erected a beautiful cottage and made it his summer residence until recently, when he sold it to Mr. A. H. Phillips and Mr. Carlton Godfrey. Also in 1886 the Bay View Club rented and oc- cupied a house which had been built for them on 17th avenue. The members of the Club have taken great interest in Longport, and have done much for its improvement. They now own and occupy their new club- house, corner 17th and Beach avenues.
Mr. Fred Boice and sisters erected and opened the Devonshire in 1895, and have been very successful in its management. In 1896 Mr. A. H. Phillips, of Atlantic City, became interested in Longport and made large
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VIEW FROM BAY LANDING
purchases of property for himself as well as for his friends, and has done much to improve the property he pur- chased. The beautiful residence he erected for his own use, and the one for Mr. R. M. Elliott are handsome additions to Longport. In addition to the cottages already named, others have been built by Elizabeth Newport, Philip M. Sharples, David Scott, Anna B. Hunter, Aaron B. Steelman, M. McCoy, Thos. S. Butler, Wilton D. Jackson, Mrs. James Sampson, Thos. C. Pearson, John R. Minnick, Samuel Stetzer, Bolton E. Steelman, Mrs. Henry Disston and M. S. Mccullough.
The United States Government also erected a Life-Saving Station at the corner of 23rd and Atlantic avenues.
The pavilion at the foot of 16th avenue was built by the railroad company, and the restaurant connected with it has for some years been leased by Capt. James B. Townsend, who built a residence for himself, purchased the property at the corner of 17th and Atlantic avenues, and opened a store, which has been a great convenience to the residents.
Che ferry
Longport and its neighbor, Ocean City, have been connected with the mainland at Somers' Point for many years by a ferry. The service which was formerly desultory, and at times rather nerve-trying, is now about as safe, speedy and comfortable as money and enterprise can make it. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which controls the trolley line between Longport and Atlantic City, maintains a service of fast steam yachts upon this route which are models of their kind. They are beamy and supplied with large seating capacity, being open all around the sides in fair
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weather, affording an unrestricted view. In wet, or cold weather, the sides are curtained. As elsewhere described, they form a part of a charming local round tour, the continuation from Somers' Point being by dummy train through Pleasantville and across the meadows back to Atlantic City.
In 1895 the Longport Water and Light Company was formed. Water is obtained in abundance from an artesian well. The flow is so abundant that for nine months in the year the surplus is utilized as power for pumping.
Much attention has been given to the important question of sanita- tion, and at the present time it is not too much to say that the BBoronab Officials
drainage is nearly perfect.
The borough of Longport was created by act of Legislature, March 7th, 1898, and the following officers were elected April 5th, 1898 : Mayor, M. Simpson Mccullough ; Councilmen, Arvine H. Phillips, Joseph P. Rem- ington, Samuel Stetzer, Wm. H. Bartlett and John R. Minnick ; Assessor, Robert M. Elliott ; Collector, James B. Townsend; Justice of the Peace, J. P. Remington, Jr. ; Commissioners of Appeals in Cases of Taxation, Wilmer W. Lamborn, Bolton E. Steelman and J. P. Remington, Jr. Mr. Wilmer W. Lamborn was appointed Borough Clerk ; Carlton Godfrey, Borough Attorney ; John P. Ashmead, Borough Engineer ; M. McCoy, Superintendent of Highways, and Daniel Yates, Marshal.
More hotels and homes are to be the order of the early future. Broad areas still unoccupied will soon be well covered with pleasant avenues of cottages. New neighbors will bring new stimulus and still greater am- bitions for the beautifying and comfort of this ideal spot. Nothing can halt the impetus of its steady progress. The fashion of a sojourn by the sea,
THE YACHT CLUB
once reserved for the wealthy, is now the privilege of all classes of citi- zens. It has become a necessity in the lives of vast numbers. To own and occupy a cottage by the ocean not only lends a wonderful zest to the otherwise monotonous lines of workers in the great cities, but is actually with many a real matter of economy. Longport is but an hour and a Scasborc half from Philadelphia. Govs
The dweller by the sea knows a multitude of minor joys to which the people of the great cities are strangers. It is for him that the splendors of dawn gild the tossing blue expanse of the deep. For him only there is the quick appetizing walk along the beach before breakfast, the rare finds among the mass of flotsam and jetsam tossed up by the last high tide; for him the sea-bird's cry and the twitter of the meadow lark ; for his appre- ciative eye the creamy sails along the bay, just spread to catch the first faint puff of the coming breeze, and his alone the romance of the ships that grow upon the far horizon and fade toward distant lands-the silent mer- chants of the deep. Neither mountains, inland lakes or broad rivers can give that ecstatic sense of life and happiness which is the daily stimulus of those who live upon the sands where the salt billows break and the breezes sing through the cedars.
The coming and going of the sun is brilliant and spectacular-a wondrous burst of color. The rise and decline of Luna is chaste and poeti- cal. Taken together they form one of the grandest phases of nature, and nowhere are they seen more frequently in the perfection of their golden and silver drapery than at Longport.
In Spring
The vast majority of city people know the sea only in its midsummer aspects, but in every season it has its special charms. In the springtime there is the pleasure of watching nature as she responds to the soft bland- ishments of the balmy winds and ardent sunshine. The wide reaches of young marsh grass are of the most delicate green. Even the neglected sand dunes take on an emerald tinge. Everywhere is heard the cheerful
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WHERE THE SE.\ WAVES BREAK "
echo of the hammer and the rasp of the saw. Everywhere the painter spreads fresh color upon storm-worn surfaces. Everybody is busy making ready for the business of the summer. It is like youth when all the good things of life are yet in anticipation.
Autumn Autumn has its own votaries. Then the gunner takes his innings. The myriads of wild fowl that swarm the creeks and thoroughfares of great Egg Harbor Bay have no rest. From skiff and blind and sneak-box the bang! bang! of the shot-gun is constant; and then, later, when the birds are gone, snow flurries sweep across the brown landscape and indigo sea, driving the all-the-year-round residents into the recesses of their cottages, and a new chapter in the life of the year begins. It is the holiday time of winter.
Winter Winter no longer stalks hand-in- hand with desolation through the empty avenues of a deserted city of pleasure. The great permanent population of Atlantic City has been elsewhere detailed. There is a brighter showing of stir and life there and at Longport than in most inland towns. The temperature as a rule is higher, and the temptations to healthful, joyous out-of- door life are more constant than in inland cities. Longport faces almost directly toward the south, and that accounts for much of its well-established reputation as a winter refuge.
It is certain that there is a large class of semi-rural people whose affairs drag them into the cities but now and then, and who have nothing in common with the farmer except to buy his surplus. These are the people who should be caught up by a beneficent fate and set down for the balance of their lives by the seashore, to write stories, paint, delve in hobbies or cut coupons, as the case may be, in a climate wonderfully exempt from those
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COTTAGE OF PROF. JOSEPH P. REMINGTON
128
ills which make life in this latitude, between November and May, ordin- arily a prolonged struggle for con- tinued existence.
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One of the most enthusiastic summer residents of Longport is Mr. P. M. Sharples, of West Chester, Pa .; a gentleman who, with his family, de- votes the warmer half of the year about equally to the seashore and the Thousand Islands. At the request of the editor he has penned the following
COTTAGE OF MR. P. M. SHARPLES
Joys of entertaining description of the joys of life upon the sands :
Lonaport
"It is feared that a description of the advantages and pleasures of Summer life at Longport will lead to the impression that the writer is either a hotel owner with a desire to boom that resort, or is the owner of property there which he is trying to sell. So let me preface these remarks with the statement that I am neither, but on the contrary would personally prefer to see the village remain just as it is.
An increase in population means less freedom, more conventionality, less sociability and more cosmopolitan surroundings.
At present the little town is just the right size, and each inhabitant has the feeling that he owns the whole place and can do in it as he would in his own back yard.
It is rare, indeed. that a home-like little seashore town should have such complete railroad facilities and the best markets in the land right at hand. Its proximity to Atlantic City, however, and the fact that every five minutes all day and well into the night a swift trolley car pulls right up at the back door gives Longport both.
In front of the house where this is written, not one hundred feet away, is the full unobstructed stretch of the finest bathing beach on the Atlantic coast, while but three hundred yards in the rear is a long and
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AN AFTERNOON VIEW ON THE BAY
substantial fishing and sailing pier extending well out into the deep waters of the thoroughfare.
Che Chorouabfare
This thoroughfare, swarming in season with sea bass, black fish and weak fish, with an occasional sheepshead and plenty of small blue fish, opens at one extremity into Great Egg Harbor, as fine a sheet of inland yachting water as the coast affords, and in another direction leads to miles of smooth, safe water where crabbing and fishing can be indulged in with per- fect safety during the roughest weather.
Miles of sailing in almost every direction from our pier can be indulged in by the fortunate owner of one of the beautiful, obedient and con- venient, though illy named, " cat boats." Half an hour's sail in one direc- tion brings us to oyster beds and oyster houses where the finest bivalves can be purchased for seventy-five cents per bushel, while in another direc- tion the best fishing or crabbing is found.
Atlantic City is within sailing distance, while Ocean City is but one and a half miles in the opposite direction, and close alongside are Somers' Point and Pleasantville-all reached over inland waters safe to sail on at any time.
Che Lower înlet
Before reaching Ocean City, and less than a mile from our pier, is the "Inlet," opening right out into the broad ocean, so that when sea fish- ing and sailing are at their best no time is lost in getting right on to the fishing grounds with least delay.
This latter feature, lost sight of by many sojourners at the seaside, is one of the leading attractions to the writer when he is at Longport. The ocean fishing is at its best in September and October, and if I may be excused for expressing my opinion I will state that there are no other months half so enjoyable at the shore as those of September and October. The best bathing can be enjoyed throughout September, while, as stated, fishing and sailing are at their finest ; mosquitoes have departed, or are less rabid in their attacks ; the gunning is beginning to get interesting for those
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who indulge. The fishing and sailing continue into October and Novem- ber ; the air is something delightful, and the woods at Longport become beautiful. 1 know that even some of the inhabitants of Longport will exclaim that there are no woods, but nevertheless, within five or ten min- ute's walk from our house there is a beautiful stretch of woods, composed of holly trees with trunks a foot or more in diameter, large evergreens and aged oak trees. A walk through this woods in October is a treat. Bushels of luscious wild fox grapes and sprightly chicken grapes can be had for the
LIFE-SAVING CREW
pulling, while great trees, covered with the red holly-berries or oaks with the drooping bitter-sweet, are at every side.
Before the end of September nearly all the Summer residents of Longport have departed, but " our house " is only a stone's throw from the United States life-saving crew, so we would never get lonely even in the middle of winter. These brave and experienced men of the ocean are kind and obliging to a degree. Rubber boots, gum coats, guns, and other requi- sites are gladly loaned to any of us who may be short of such supplies, and
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MARINE ALGAL ( LONGPORT )
133
advice regarding the weather, as well as help in sailing or fishing make things especially interesting. Twice a week the life-saving apparatus is
In Late brought out and a most interesting drill takes place, including the
Autumn throwing of a line to an imaginary wreck, and the saving of some one in the breeches buoy, besides practice in the breakers with the life-saving boat.
Now you think I have been all over the special attractions of Long- port, but I have not, for there are yet to be extolled the cool breezes which always blow at Longport, though Atlantic City may be suffering with the heat ; the purest artesian water, the bathing beach which slopes so gradu- ally into the ocean and as hard as a board ; the fleet of steamers sailing every few minutes, and for ten cents will take you a long cruise over Great Egg Harbor ; besides the shell beach, the sand dunes, and the only sandy bay beach to be found on the coast. But it would require a volume to describe all these and others. "
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Atlantic City. Chapter TUTTI.
The numerous sea-coast beacons established and maintained by the national government along our coasts form both the most conspicuous and picturesque features of the immediate ocean front. Perched often upon lofty Light=bouscs promontories or reared upon tempest-battered reefs, they attract the eye and appeal to the imagination with a force only exceeded by the senti- ment awakened upon passing one of those restless outer guards of our land, the solitary light-ships. The models upon which our light-houses are constructed are of almost infinite variety, conforming to the location and desired range of light, as well as to the personal ideas of the engineers and board in charge.
Light-houses for the guidance and warning of mariners are nearly as old as civilization. The first recorded light-house was the tower of Pharaoh, of Alexandria, built nearly three centuries before Christ. The oldest existing light-house is at Cor- unna, Spain. It was built in the reign of Trojan and reconstructed in 1634.
Antiquity of Beacons
The first beacon light upon our shores was main- tained by the merchants of Boston at Allerton Point, where "fier-bales " were burned in an iron basket upon the top of a stone tower. In Boston harbor, too, was placed the first real light-house of the Atlantic coast in 1715-16 upon Little Brewster Island. It was erected at the expense of the Province.
The control of the light-houses was assumed by the general gov- ernment in 1789. At that time but one light, that of Sandy Hook, was
ABSECON LIGHT
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maintained within the State of New Jersey. This was established in the year 1762. The lights now maintained within the limits of Atlantic county are at Tucker Beach and Atlantic City (Absecon Light). The former guards the entrance into Little Egg harbor. It is distinguished by a black tower forty-six feet high upon top of a white dwelling with lead-colored trimmings and green shutters. Its location is eighteen miles southwest from Barnegat light and ten miles northeast from Absecon light. It shows a fixed white light varied by red flashes, the light showing white for one minute followed by six red flashes at intervals of ten seconds, visible twelve and one half miles.
A moble
Beacon
Absecon light, which is probably familiar to more people than any other light-house upon the Atlantic coast south of the Highlands, is set upon a shapely brick tower 159 feet high, having a broad, red band in the centre, the balance above and below being white. At its base are two white dwell- ings with lead-colored trimmings and green shutters facing upon Rhode Island Avenue. It shows a fixed white light, visible nineteen miles. It is dis- tant from Barnegat light twenty-eight miles, and from Cape May light thirty-seven miles. This light was built in 1853 at a cost of $50,000. View from the Tower
Thousands of visitors annually toil up its winding iron stairway
to be rewarded at the top by a magnificent panorama of land and sea, all of the once desolate strips of sandy beach being dotted with a chain of beautiful summer resorts of more or less note, while in the foreground is peerless Atlantic City with its mile upon mile of beautiful streets and avenues ; its hundreds of hotels, countless stores, public buildings and private homes ; its unrivalled beach and magnificent Boardwalk ; its trio of railroads, and numerous heavy trains hurrying to and fro laden with pleasuring humanity ; its fleets of fairy-sail craft, and its great, happy population, temporary and permanent together, enlivening all of its open spaces, a scene which every old resident must gaze upon with a thrill of pride and every stranger view with wonder. The venturer who toils up the two hundred and twenty-
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eight steps of Absecon tower is interested, too, in the beautiful mechanism of the great lamp set in the midst of its prismatic Fresnel lantern. Just beneath and upon the level with the exterior gallery is the little watch- room in which the keeper holds nightly vigil. The post of light-house keeper was held for many years by genial Major "Abe " Wolf, long a familiar figure in the town. Many a stormy winter's night has the writer shared his watch and listened to his yarns, while the howling gale outside shook and swayed the great structure in which we sat, and the roar of the surf was incessant. The Major maintained intimate relations with scientists and sportsmen in the city, to whom he frequently sent fine specimens of aquatic fowl, and sometimes very rare birds which, flying with great force against the glass prisms, were easily picked up in a stunned condition upon the gallery or at the foot of the light-tower. The cats of the town were aware, with true feline intuition, just when the fat and toothsome birds were likely to fall, and very often deprived the Major of coveted specimens, and such was his antipathy for these nocturnal hordes that he sometimes snared them and sent them home minus their caudals; and it is estimated that during his incumbency the majority of the cats in Atlantic City possessed tails more or less abbreviated, and their descendants might well make claim to consanguinity with the famous cats of Manx. Fine specimens of brant and other strong flyers were to be seen domesticated among the Major's flocks of chickens and ducks.
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