USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. II > Part 6
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
of architecture in every land, are surrounded by spacious, well grassed grounds, guarded by carefully trimmed hedges, and adorned with the most luxuriant shrubbery and artistically constructed beds with the choicest flowers. Particularly noticeable among these is the home of Mr. Edward D. Adams, and among its interior adornments is a masterly panel painting representing the famous "Sovereign of the Sea" under full sail-a piece of work so superb that it has been reproduced on a smaller scale in the highest style of chromo-lithography. Particularly handsome is the Rum- son Inn, two miles from the ocean, standing forty feet above the roadway. on a plateau so heavily timbered as to almost conceal the building. . Upon the grounds are gardens bearing flowers in all the months from the earliest spring to the latest autumn, and during June and July the rose gardens are particularly attractive with their multitude of varieties. A short distance from the Inn are the grounds of the Rumson Polo Club, organized in the year 1900 by Mr. M. W. Strothers Jones. Not far distant is the pretty club house of the Seabright Tennis and Cricket Club, and beyond it the grounds of the Seabright Golf Club, a tract of nearly one hundred acres, beautifully laid out, and upon it a fine course of eighteen holes.
Low; Moor is the designation of the collection of elegant mansions and beautiful cottages which line the road stretching away southward from Seabright. The course of this splendid avenue is as straight as an arrow, and in breadth and smoothness it is remindful of a driveway in the Central Park of New York. This leads through Galilee, but a mile distant.
Galilee is the name of another little assemblage of beautiful residences similar in character to those of other hamlets mentioned. It is well known for its Protestant Episcopal church of Peter of Galilee, a picturesque arch- itectural conception, situated high up on the plateau overlooking the ocean. During the summer months services are conducted by some of the most eminent clergymen of the denomination to which it belongs. A life saving station is located here, and near by are the huts of many fishermen. Galilee was the point where the French steamship "L'Amerique" grounded years ago, and where the "Russland" stranded and went to pieces.
Monmouth Beach, a single mile farther south, is the home of one of the most exclusive little communities on the coast. It has no public hotel, but a well appointed club house is maintained, and the residents own a few dwellings additional to their own, which are only open to those approved by the permanent residential circle. A casino contains a hall and stage for private theatrical performances and for hops, a billiard room and a bowling alley. The railroad station, erected jointly by the railroad company and the residents, is a beautiful specimen of architecture. In 1871 the spot was wholly uninhabited, and there were but two buildings in the three-mile
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stretch between Seabright and North Long Branch, where now are a dozen or more cottages in nearly every hundred yards. The great change and the building up of the present settlement is due to the Monmouth Beach Asso- ciation.
Within the narrow: stretch of land reaching southward from Sandy Hook, upon which are built the towns written of above, are a number of beautiful villages on and adjacent to the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers. Among these is Oceanic, on the northern extremity of the penin- sula between the two streams named; Fair Haven, to the the southwest of Oceanic, on the Navesink, and Branchport on the south branch of the Shrewsbury-all most desirable spots for boating, fishing and bathing.
Pleasure Bay, two miles farther below, on the Shrewsbury River, and on the outskirts of Long Branch, with its five hotels, has for its principal feature a great park, beautifully laid out, with ample accommodations for seating large assemblages. Near by is witnessed each season one of the most unique entertainments ever brought before the amusement loving public. In 1899 the comic opera "Pinafore" was given from the deck of a barge anchored in the stream, and made to represent a man-of-war, and the realism of the performance marked it as a complete success. After a run of six weeks the "Mikado" was presented, and this was fully as suc- cessful as was the first opera. The novelty and picturesqueness of the surroundings, and the indescribable charm of melody floating over the water, delighted all hearers, and this form of entertainment was at once recognized as destined to become one of the most attractive features that could be designed for a summer resort, and an eleven weeks' season of light . opera is now given each year, beginning in the last week in June. The accommodations for both performers and audience have been greatly in- creased. The present stage is built out in the water, about ten feet from the shore, facing a great stand on the bank, capable of seating ten thousand people.
LONG BRANCH.
Long Branch was the first distinctively summer resort of the New Jer- sey coast to win the favor of the pleasure-seeking public, and for many years it was the only one known to society at home and to travelers from abroad. About it cluster countless reminiscences of the past, which in such a work as this can be spoken of only too briefly, where the theme would require a volume in itself.
The Long Branch of the present day is scarcely to be identified withi that of the early part of the past century, which was then a mile inland from the present city of the same name. 4*
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In 1792 Herbert & Chandler were conducting a hotel at Long Branch (then called Shrewsbury) and erected bathing houses on the beach. In 1806 the property was sold to Joshua Bennett, who enlarged the building so as to accommodate two hundred and fifty guests. In 1815 Bennett sold to another, and three days later the property was destroyed by fire. The land upon which the hotel stood was waslied away by the ocean years ago. In 1819 the place had become somewhat of a resort, and according to "Niles' Register" of that year, "the company at this salubrious retreat is represented to be very numerous and respectable this season." The same publication quotes the "New York Advocate" to the effect that "there is a kind of regulation there which strangers often con- travene from ignorance; that is, when the stipulated time for ladies' bathing arrives, a white flag is hoisted on the bank, when it is high treason for gentlemen to be seen there; and when the estab- LONG BRANCH VIEW. lished time for gentlemen arrives, the red flag is run up, which is sometimes done by mistake, and produces rather ludicrous misunderstandings."
"Gordon's Gazetteer," in 1834, mentions Long Branch as "a mill- stream and tributary of Shrewsbury. There is a small village of twelve or fifteen houses." In that year there was steamboat communication with New York ( probably established in 1828, when a steamboat company was formed) and there was carriage travel between the place and Philadelphia.
Senator John P. Stockton, in a paper written in 1880, described Long Branch as he saw it in 1840. He wrote at considerable length, and pre- sumably from diary entries made at the time. He said :
"I wonder how many who now visit Long Branch realize the change that forty years have brought. My first sight of the sea was from there in 1840. My brother and I had driven down from Princeton, stopping on the way at Colt's Neck, where my father had a racing stable, and where "Fashion" was trained. Then one little steamer made the trip from New York, rounding the Hook and making her way into the Shrewsbury through an inlet at Seabright, almost at the spot where the Octagon Hotel now
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
stands. The water rushed through it as in a mill race, and the passage through was an event of the day. From the little dock inside, stages with the tires of their wheels eight inches broad toiled slowly along the sands to a farm, the borders of which is now Monmouth Beach, and thence to the upper end of Long Branch and to a low tavern known as the Fish House, at about the point where the telegraph office now is. The foun- dations of this house are now almost washed by the sea. The Fish House was then several hundred yards from the beach. There were but two other hotels-the Bath House, about halfway between the present West End and Ocean, and the Conover House, still standing and occupied by the musicians employed by the West End Hotel. There was a bowling alley on the beach, opposite the Bath House, the site of which is now three hundred yards out in the ocean. Then all who came here drove from Philadelphia or Trenton or Princeton in their own carriages; few came from New York. The fare was plain. Great dishes of boiled hard-shelled crabs and lobsters were on every table. There were beef, mutton and vegetables from New Jersey farms, and rich cream and milk, and in the kitchen were colored cooks from the south. People came here for their health, and after supper every one LONG BRANCH VIEW. went to the beach and there stayed until ten or eleven o'clock, unless a couple of fiddlers enticed the young people to dance in the parlors. Every one bathed in the sea. A white flag (showing that there had been a change in this respect since Niles' day) gave notice that it was ladies' hour, and no man except a husband then ventured to the beach. When the red flag was up the men crowded the surf, and there was no pretense of bathing suits. The hotels were then so far back that the bluff concealed the bathers. Now, what with French dishes in the dining-room, a pretentious band in the parlor, and the desire for display in dress and carriages, Long Branch is hardly any longer a place sought for health, but rather only for the opportunity it gives to exhibit new costumes and the ability to spend money."
In 1844, according to an advertisement which appeared in the "Mon- mouth Democrat," Samuel Cooper was conducting a hotel at Long Branch and providing accommodations for bathers. In 1846 Jacob W. Morris built the Mansion House, which was partially destroyed by fire in 1884, involving a loss of $60,000. In 1848 the Monmouth House was built by Abner H. Reed, but the encroachments of the sea compelled its removal farther inland, and its former site is now far out beneath the waves.
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
About 1850 wealthy people of New York began to pay great atten- tion to Long Branch as a place for summer residence and recreation, and thronged there in great numbers. Immense hotels were erected on Ocean avenue, and beautiful cottages sprang up on every side. But it was not until the latter days of the Civil war period that the place began to take on the grandeur for which it came to be noted. The conditions were ripe for the wonderful change which was to soon come over it. The artificial excitement of the war period had unfitted many of those possessed of wealth to live in modest fashion; money was seemingly inexhaustible, and all classes were prodigal in their expenditures. The presence of the re- nowned General U. S. Grant, then President of the United States, con- tributed largely to making the spot the home of a great colony of wealth and fashion. Near his cottage George W. Childs and William E. Drexel erected handsome and spacious residences, and John Hoey built on Cedar avenue his splendid mansion with its ample grounds and capacious con- servatories and greenhouses, filled with their treasures of rare flowers, orchids and palms. In all these palatial homes were entertained! almost constantly brilliant companies of the most eminent men of the day, of all nations-statesmen, soldiers, scientists, men of letters and princes of the financial and commercial world. Colonel James Fisk, then in the height of his power, with money which he dispensed as though it were valueless, made his gaudy display, and was followed by a host of spendthrift associ- ates and dependents. The stars of the dramatic firmanent shone resplend- ently in social circles. Here were Edwin Booth, Lester Wallack, Oliver Doud Byron, Maggie Mitchell and others, who maintained charming estab- lishments. Mary Anderson, then queen of the stage in her high sphere, who kept up a delightful home, was a graceful and often seen equestrienne, and Lily Langtry, who occupied a quaint old residence, was an attractive figure on the thronged boulevards, with her splendid equipages and her magnificent costumes. Here, too, was seen in the glitter of society, a young girl who won her way to the hearts of the people of the nation by her charming grace and youthful simplicity-Nellie Grant-driving her beautiful ponies to her phaeton along the ocean side with the deft skill and unpretentious assurance that marks the real horsewoman.
The Long Branch of to-day, not so garish as in that wonderfully glit- tering past, yet a favorite summer resort, is also desirable as a city for resi- dence throughout the year, and in recent years it has even been sought by many visitors during the winter months. With breezes from the ocean in front, and from the balsam laden pine forests inland, favored with a cli- mate notable for its equability, the healthfulness of the region is manifest. Much cooler in summer than any of the great cities in near proximity, it is
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
asserted on good authority that Long Branch in winter is warmer than New York or Philadelphia by five to ten degrees. In an average year, in December the weather is dry and bracing ; the light snows in January melt quickly in the sea air; February is pleasantly suggestive of approaching spring, and the only really winter-like days are those of March, with their blustering gales from the sea.
The city, with a fixed population of 8,872, possesses a complete and efficient local government, founded upon. liberal legislation enacted by the State Legislature at various times, as necessity seemed to demand. In 1867 was incorporated the Long Branch Sanitary and Improvement Com- mission, which, by the provisions of its creation, was to consist of three commissioners to be styled the Long Branch Commissioners, whose appoint- ment was to be made by a justice of the supreme court. These were em- powered to establish all necessary ordinances and regulations for the preser- vation of the peace and the protection of the morals of the community. Supplementary acts were subsequently passed, in 1868 and 1872, ex- tending the territorial jurisdiction of the commissioners, and in 1875 for the establishment of a board of health. The water supply is from Green Pond and Whale Pond Brook, and streets and buildings are illuminated by electricity and gas. The schools, in buildings, equipment and conduct are not surpassed in any city of like size in the State. The various lead- ing denominations are represented by large congregations maintaining ele- gant and commodious houses of worship. Two weekly newspapers are published, the "Long Branch Record" and the "Long Branch Times-News." A bank, and excellent markets and stores of every description, supply ali business wants of the community. There are several factories for manu- facturing doors, blinds and sash, and a number of boat building shops.
Hotels, boarding houses and cottages afford a sufficiently diversified entertainment to meet the wants of all classes. Chief among the former are the West End Hotel and Cottages, located at the southern end of Long Branch, known commonly as West End. This hotel stands within two hundred feet of the beach and commands a magnificent view of the ocean from all points, and it is the largest house on the northern shore. It is furnished with all the modern conveniences, and the sanitary arrangements. are perfect in every detail. Sea water, hot and cold, is provided on the premises for bathing purposes. A large ball room and theatre are con- nected with the hotel, in which is located also a bowling alley and billiard room. One of the most attractive features of the hotel is the sea pavilion, reached only from the upper balcony, and which is reserved exclusively for the use of the guests and their friends. Morning concerts are given daily. There is dancing every evening, and dress balls every Saturday night.
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The cuisine of the West End has long been favorably known to its many patrons, and, in addition to the regular dining room, there is a finely equipped restaurant located in the Cottages.
The Ocean House is located at the northern section of Long Branch, overlooking the ocean opposite the iron pier. It has been completely re- decorated and refurnished throughout, and a bathing establishment, with hot and cold baths, has been added. With these improvements, the Ocean House has become one of the best equipped of the great hotels on the shore. There are daily concerts and regular evening dances. An excellent livery stable is attached to the hotel, with accommodations for fifty horses, in ad- dition to the regular livery.
The Hotel Brighton, at the northern end of the Branch, has one of the finest locations at the resort, standing directly on the edge of the bluff, a few hundred feet from the ocean. The bathing at this point is considered the best in Long Branch. Several years ago $10,000 was expended in new: furnishings and interior decorations, and the house is handsome, con- plete and modern in every detail. The rooms are arranged singly or en suite, as required ; are light, airy, pleasant and well furnished, and are con- nected with the office by electric bells. There are morning and afternoon concerts and dancing every evening throughout the season.
There are probably a thousand bathing pavilions and houses along the beach, and when the white flag is hoisted on the hotel flagstaffs to announce flood tide, the scene in the water is one quite too animated for the mind to correctly picture.
In 1893 was organized the Monmouth County Open-Air Horse Show Association, which holds a meeting each year on the old Hoey estate, pur- chased by the association, and now known as Hollywood. The manage- ment expects to soon institute a series of military and athletic tournaments in addition to the horse display. The old Hoey mansion is now conducted as a hotel, which is the headquarters of the Hollywood Golf Club, an ex- clusive organization of wealthy men.
Elberon, adjoining .Long Branch, will ever be remembered as the place of a pitiful scene-Garfield, hurt to his death by the act of an assas- sin, slowly sinking away into the great beyond of which the ocean ever in his sight was type of wondrous import.
The village is perhaps the most exclusive residential settlement on the coast, and its natural beauty has been greatly enhanced by landscape gardening of the highest order of artistic excellence. 'The only hotel is the Elberon, and the company which built it also expended $50,000 in the erection of a casino, which was subsequently transformed into a private residence. The Episcopal church building is another beautiful structure
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
that is cherished and carefully looked after by the summer colony. The Moses Taylor Memorial Presbyterian church on Park avenue is the most costly structure here, and its founder, the late Moses Taylor, erected it at an expense of $165,000. Great improvements have been made on Ocean avenue during the past year. It has been curbed and gravelled all the way to the West End at an expense of $15,000, which the residents subscribed. Gas, electric light and water are supplied from Long Branch. Elberon has its own sewerage system. The bathing facilities on the beach are private. A handsome new railway station of stone and wood, the most artistic and costly on the road, was completed in the summer of 1899 and stands in the midst of a grassy lawn containing flowering shrubs and plants and a broad driveway.
The Deal Beach of 1693, by which name it was then known as a small fishing settlement, gave little indication of change until two centuries and more later, for it was not until 1894 that the beginning as a residen- tial spot was made by the Atlantic Coast Realty Company. The land pur- chase made by that association, which included the town and much land extending to Elberon, was noted as the largest real estate transaction ever made on the coast of New Jersey. Nathan F. Barrett, unsurpassed as a landscape artist, was entrusted with designing and executing such plans of his own as would most suitably supplement the natural advantages of the spot, and his success was pronounced.
The railway station affords, in itself, introduction to the beauties which have grown out under the master hand of Mr. Barrett. This has all the quaint homelike effect of a well kept country home, and the idea is fully carried out in the interior, with its open fireplace, hard wood floors with dainty rugs here and there, its easy chairs and rocking chairs, and many of the adornments which are becoming to a family sitting room.
The principal feature of the land adornment of Deal Beach is a broad esplanade reaching down to the ocean. The garden at the entrance is hedged with privet. The pathways meander among beds of flowers, and large palms and pieces of statuary occupy convenient intervals. The path opens into a garden with white gravel walks, box hedges, and beds of variegated flowers. Another section is paved with bricks and cement, and is set with shrubbery and adorned with vases of flowers. Farther, the patl: and driveway come together in an open court, at considerable eleva- tion-a beautiful view point for the ocean lying below. By night the grounds appear to splendid advantage under myriad electric lights.
Hathaway Inn, one of the most favorite hostelries on the coast, and the cozy club house of the Deal Country Club, afford excellent entertain- ment, and are the scenes of many social gatherings.
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
The beautiful expanse of water known as Deal Lake is the first break in the mainland south from the Atlantic Highlands. On account of its great length as compared with its width, the name Long Pond was first applied to it, and this was later on changed to Deal Lake. Originally a neck or inlet from the ocean, the water was salt, but, when James A. Brad- ley, the founder of Asbury Park, instituted his vast improvements in this vicinity, he caused a dike to be built near the ocean, which prevented the further flow of salt water by the use of gates. The lake is about three miles long, and is fed by small streams that flow from the hills along its western
DEAL LAKE.
boundary, and supply water of absolute freshness and purity. The width ranges all the way from six hundred feet to a half-mile, and a few narrow arms give it a most beautiful appearance. Portions of the lake are very deep and others shallow. Pike, perch and sunfish are caught in these waters. Drummond Pond and Romaine Pond are at the eastern end, and are pretty little sheets of water. A short time ago fish wardens were appointed to stock both ponds with black bass, and they will be closed against fishing for three years, when the fish will be turned into Deal Lake.
Deal Park, named from the lake, which it touches on one of its sides, comprises a tract of nearly four hundred acres of land, a part of which
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
was formerly owned by Thomas Murphy, for many years collector of the port of New York, and here were frequently entertained his warm personal friend, General U. S. Grant, and other notable men of the same notable times. The tract was opened to settlement by the Continental Investment Company, headed by Mr. George W. Young, who remodeled the Murphy mansion and made it his own residence.
The principal attraction of Deal Park lies in the splendid establishment maintained by the Deal Golf Club. The club house is a structure of the colonial type, with great front columns rising to the full height of the build- ing. The interior is finished in hard woods, and contains all the conveniences known to club life. Upon the grounds, which have been pronounced to be the finest in the country, are a full course of eighteen holes and a small nine-hole course for ladies. The club is notable as the largest and most successful on the northern shore, comprising more than five hundred mem- bers, drawn from the cottagers of Deal, Allenhurst, Elberon, Norwood, Asbury Park and Spring Lake. The Deal Golf Club team has three years successfully won the cup for the championship of the North Jersey clubs, and the medal for the individual championship of the members of the com- peting teams has always been won by a Deal man.
Allenhurst was but a tract of farm land until 1896, when the Coast Land Company was organized under the presidency of Mr. Edwin P. Benjamin, which attracted to the place many men of wealth and position, and it was soon transformed into a pleasant village. The settlement is under a borough' organization, with a system of waterworks, adequate sewerage and electric light. The hotel, which has grown up about the old Allen homestead as a nucleus, is provided with all modern conveniences, including amusement halls for both children and adults. The lower floor is so arranged that it can be opened out into one great apartment for special assemblages. A fine esplanade extends along the entire ocean front of the village, and its center is a spacious pavilion which is the meeting point for all summer sojourners.
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