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 7
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The people of Allenhurst observe the tenth of August as the anni- versary of the founding of the settlement, and a general celebration is held, the principal feature of which is a carriage parade during the day, fol- lowed by a ball in the evening.
ASBURY PARK.
As a summer resort, Asbury Park is absolutely unique and ideal, standing alone, without prototype or precedent. Its manifold advantages, beauties and attractions, together with admiration for and sympathy with
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the lofty moral sentiment which led to its founding and which has been a controlling force at every stage of its development, have won for it a fame that is world wide, bringing to it each year a host of most admira- ble people, who, in search of rest and recreation, draw the line short of excess and dissipation. Refinement is the prominent characteristic of the habitues. Representatives of the best families of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and other cities, whose tastes are cultivated and whose methods of enjoyment bear the stamp of their own high character, make its social life most charming.
BOARD WALK AT ASBURY PARK.
Asbury Park is situated upon the New Jersey coast, twenty miles south of Sandy Hook, and is not far from midway between Philadelphia and New York, being in a direct line about sixty-six miles from the former named city and thirty-eight from the latter. By rail, however, it is about eighty-five miles from Philadelphia and fifty-one miles from New York. The ground is high and dry, and there are no swamps or marshes. At- mospheric conditions are conducive to both comfort and health, and insect pests are unknown. Outside the city, within a radius of ten miles, are more than one hundred miles of well made roads passing through and reaching scenes of much beauty. Among the attractions in the near vicin- ity which may be reached by driving, are the New Jersey National Guard Encampment Grounds at Sea Girt, used for several weeks every year ; Spring Lake; Avon, the home of the Seaside Assembly and Summer School of Philosophy ; the pretty towns of Belmar and Interlaken (Loch Arbor) ; Elberon, made historic by Garfield's death; Long Branch. Sea- bright, the famous Highlands of Navesink and Atlantic Highlands. West
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of Asbury Park is a region of wonderful fertility, with well regulated farms dotted here and there, that makes a scene wonderfully picturesque, while in the center is the unique Sunset Lake, in which a dozen small islands can be seen. These islands are delightfully shaded, affording a pleasant retreat for boatmen during the heated hours of the day.
The city is handsomely laid out, with splendid driveways, some of the exceptional width of two hundred feet, and those near the beach are beauti-
THE BATHING HOUR" ASBURY PARK. N. J.
fied with mounds of flowers and ornamental shrubbery. The beach ter- minus of Sixth avenue is particularly noticeable for a memorial tablet erected by Mr. Bradley to mark the spot where nearly five hundred immi- grants came to their death in 1854 by the wrecking of the ship "New Era." Magnificent Ocean Avenue parallels the beach the entire length of the city. On the south it touches Wesley Lake, a beautiful sheet of water which is much frequented for boating, and is the scene of a great aquatic carnival on one day of the season. On the further shore, reached by means of a bridge, is Ocean Grove. In North Asbury Park, on the banks of Deal Lake, are the Athletic Grounds, upon which are a grand stand capa- ble of seating ten thousand people, and an ideal one-third mile track for wheelmen, one of the finest in the country. All outdoor sports are pro- vided for on the same grounds, during the summer, and attract great throngs of lovers of genteel amusements.
The splendid well kept beach of cleanest sand, on the ocean front of Asbury Park, affords the safest and pleasantest of bathing. Rules to govern the conduct of bathers were formulated by Mr. Bradley, and their purport appears in a sign upon all the bathing pavilions: "Modesty of apparel is as becoming to a lady in a bathing suit as it is to a lady dressed in silk and satin. A word to the wise is sufficient." There are more
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minute provisions, but only such as would be needed in the case of those regardless of modesty or of the conventionalities of ordinary life. At times, smart newspaper correspondents have ridiculed Mr. Bradley for what they held up to be his prudishness, but that his demands in the interest of decency and polite behavior were reasonable and proper is attested by the splendid class of people who frequent the place from year to year, pre- ferring it to all others. With a permanent population of 4,148, according to the best Federal census, the people who frequent the place during the summer swell the number to from sixty to seventy-five thousand, and it is estimated that the number of visitors during a single season, for long or short periods, has been as high as one hundred and fifty thousand. This is surely sufficient vindication.
For invalids too frail to enter the surf, and for the timid, there are, in connection with the bathing establishments on the beach, pools of sea water, replenished constantly and directly from the ocean. All the hotels of note, and many of but modest dimensions, provide hot and cold sea water in their public and private bathing rooms.
A much frequented spot is the famous fishing pier, at the foot of First Avenue, which was erected at an outlay of ten thousand dollars. This splendid piece of construction, projecting five hundred feet into the sea, in all permitting weather attracts great throngs of anglers of both sexes and of all ages. Striped bass are plentiful, and a twenty-two pound speci- men of this species has been taken, winning for its taker the prize which is offered from year to year. From and near this point, morning parties go by boat to the sea-bass, flounder and porgie grounds off shore, and at times fall in with a school of bluefish. In the the afternoons a favorite diversion is yachting, for which purpose safe and convenient craft are always available.
The famous board walk, which extends along the beach for the dis- tance of one mile, is the grand plaza for the entire populace, residential and visiting. This is provided with comfortable sittings at short intervals, and here and there are a multitude of objects for the diversion of children provided out of the kindheartedness of Mr. James A. Bradley, the founder of the city, ever an ardent friend of the little ones. At places are con- veniently arranged pavilions, from the larger of which a band of excellent musicians give concerts daily during the season. Extending along the side of the board walk are two well made paths constructed for the particular use of bicyclists, and which are devoted entirely to their use. The board walk and adjacent pathway are annually, on the second Saturday in August, the scene of a wonderfully picturesque and interesting event known as "the baby parade." The parade is made up of a great procession of
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
children, including those who are too young to walk, who are drawn in carriages decorated with flowers, ribbons and fancy papers, of every hue and in all possible combinations. The older children appear in all manner of fancy and grotesque costumes, some riding gaily decorated wheels, some drawing doll carriages, and others walking singly or in companies. A large number of prizes are distributed for particular excellence or novelty . in character, costume or decoration. So many as five hundred children have been seen in such a procession, and on one occasion every State in the Union save two had its charming little representatives.
Such, in brief, are pleasures provided in this ideal summer resort, which is also an admirable and well governed city, possessing all the ad- vantages which science and art have devised. The government is vested in a mayor presiding over a board of councilmen, and in this body Mr. Bradley has been a potent and, it might be truthfully said, a controlling factor, from the founding of the embryo village to the time of its present extent and importance. The business of administration is directed through various departments, including those of police, of fire, of sewerage and of health. A perfectly equipped electric railway belts the town and reaches contiguous places, and streets and buildings are lighted by arc and incan- descent electric lights. In this connection it is to be remarked that the first use of electricity for motive power and for illuminating purposes in Monmouth county was in these enterprises in Asbury Park. The water is of the purest, and distributed throughout the town by public water- works. The sewerage had its beginning in 1881 and was the first perfect system established in a seaside resort in New Jersey. The roads are well kept, and splendid stone sidewalks are maintained in the best possible condition. There is a handsome postoffice building, and the railway station property is the finest on this division of the Jersey Central Railroad.
The educational establishment is complete, and the principal school edifice is a beautiful specimen of architecture, erected at a cost of $65,000 in 1896. All the leading denominations possess handsome and commno- dious houses of worship. These are eleven in number, Presbyterian (two), Methodist Episcopal, Protestant Episcopal, Baptist, Reformed, Friends, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Methodist, colored. There are two public halls, Educational Hall, with a seating capacity for fifteen hundred people, and Asbury Park Auditorium, capable of seating twenty-five hundred peo- ple. These have been utilized frequently during each summer by large assemblages, the city having become a favorite place for religious, educa- tional and political conventions. In some instances so many as five thon- sand delegates have attended at such a time, coming from all portions of the United States, including the remotest regions. There are numerous
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private halls, among them an opera house capable of seating fifteen hundred people, and here have been given exceptionally excellent musical and dra- matic entermainments. All the principal fraternal and benevolent orders have large and influential memberships and occupy handsome lodge rooms ; that of the Masonic Lodge, erected by Allen R. Cook, was in 1897 the most convenient and elaborately furnished of its class in Monmouth county, and has not yet been surpassed, if equalled. A board of trade comprising the most prominent business men and other residents of the city safeguards public interests and fosters all worthy enterprises. Two banks and a
loan and trust company afford all needed opportunities for the transaction of financial business. Three daily newspapers are published, a public library is maintained, and there is ample telegraph and telephone service, and free mail delivery by carrier. Manufacturing establishments are a shirt factory employing four hundred people, a music box factory employ- ing eighty-four people, and two proprietary medicine factories.
The hotels of Asbury Park are myriad, and of all degrees in character of entertainment. Among the leading ones may be named, with their capacity for the entertainment of guests: The West End and Cottages, 1,200; the Ocean, Soo; the Howland, 500; the Brighton, 300; the Atlantic, 200; the Beach View, 200; and the Scarboro, 200. In addition there are more than a score of others having accommodations for an aggregate of more than twenty-five hundred guests. There are, besides, one thousand cottages open to visitors, of various character, ranging from the sumptuous and the costly to the modest and comparatively inexpensive.
The institution of this beautiful and favorite residential and summer resort city is due to Mr. James A. Bradley, and he has told the story well in a little monograph entitled "History of Asbury Park," from which are made the following extracts :
"One afternoon in May, 1870, I was walking down Broadway, New York, and suddenly ran against my friend, David H. Brown, Esq., Treas- urer of the Ocean Grove Association. 'How is Ocean Grove getting along?' I asked. 'Very fairly,' said he, 'why don't you buy a lot? Those who have their names put down now have first choice.' 'Well put me down for two,' said I. A few days after, in company with some friends 'we started for Ocean Grove. We took the boat for Port Monmouth, thence by railroad to Eatontown. The sea-shore route was opened a few days afterwards. After dining at Mr. Brown's country house at Eatontown, we drove to Ocean Grove in carriages. The turnpike company had just commenced operations, and from Great Pond to Ocean Grove was one of the worst roads that could be imagined. I was completely taken with Ocean Grove and its surroundings-so much so that I purchased the first lot ever sold there, the premium being $85.
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HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
"Having for some time previous been in bad health, I concluded to try what I had been recommended-sea air. Too close application to busi- ness had made inroads on my constitution and my nervous system was seriously affected. So a few days after purchasing the lots, taking two horses, carriage and tent, and John Baker, my colored man, I left the hum of the city behind, to become an inhabitant of the wild woods, where my wearied body and brain might rest, lulled to sleep by the murmuring sea at night, and awakened in the morning by the songs of birds in the pine . trees surrounding my couch.
"John and I arrived at Ocean Grove just at nightfall, and having got our horses under shelter in a barn belonging to Charles Rogers, near the present Ocean Grove school house, we entered the woods and about a mile off erected out tent. It was too dark to get poles, so we hung the tent on the beams of what was afterwards the Association office, the first building ever erected in Ocean Grove. (This building stood near the Audi- torium and was afterward torn down or removed). The building at that time was without roof. (We were without light, and soon after lunching on some crackers we lay down to sleep, our heads resting on the carriage cushions, and our covering being carriage blankets. So we spent our first night in Ocean Grove, and began an entire change in my mode of life, and which led eventually to an almost complete restoration to health.
"In the morning Baker sighed and said, 'Mr. B., this is a wilderness place.' He was homesick; for, let the reader, who perhaps has been on the same place during the busy season, and heard the continuous click of the telegraph instrument and seen the vast throng of men and maidens call for their letters when the mail arrives, remember it was far different on the morning of which we are writing; although it was the 10th of June. not a soul was within hearing distance of us. I cheered him by say- ing : 'Oh! don't be cast down,' and soon we were eating our morning lunch. That finished, we proceeded to my lots on the lake, and pitched our small tent on the ground now built upon and owned by Rev. Alfred Cookman's widow. My large tent was erected, and so we began our Crusoe life. During the day we occasionally saw Foreman Franklin's men who worked about the grounds, and at night we were left to our solitude. Mr. Frank- lin's men tented on the lots now covered by the Hayward cottage, but on Sundays went to their homes in the interior of the township.
"Baker was my steward, housekeeper and cook. I procured a box and dug a hole in the ground and put it in, and that was our ice house. We would sometimes drive to Long Branch, six miles away, and procure food, principally canned goods. Mr. Franklin's men indulged more in fresh meats than Baker and I, so I would trade canned goods for old fashioned savory stew that gave muscle to the men who first removed briars and brush from Ocean Grove and made its streets.
"One evening Baker and I took a stroll along the Ocean, and I pro- posed a bath. Baker smiled and said 'No, no.' 'But remember, John, cleanliness is next to godliness.' I took an ocean bath ; how different from the way bathers usually enjoy the surf, the waves dashing over their heads. I laid down on the soft sand and allowed the water to just touch my body,
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and I can tell you, reader, it is somewhat lonely to trust yourself in the great ocean in the twilight and alone. After I had been lying on the beach for a little while, I looked around to see what had become of Baker. He had plucked up courage by my example and had really divested himself of his clothes, and, coward, like myself, barely allowed the water to touch him. His dusky skin was somewhat in contrast with the white sand, and the whole scene forcibly reminded me of Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday.
"I have often met persons since the time I first camped out at Ocean Grove whose nerves were shattered by too close application to their pro- fession, studies, or their chase for the 'almighty dollar.' I was familiar with their sufferings which, alas, strong men look upon with contempt. Some were taking this or that 'nervine cure-all,' but the best nervine for a man who is not absolutely past repair is to break away entirely from his calling or greed and camp out on the seashore, White Mountains, Adirond- acks, or in some other healthy locality; or travel in Europe, and patiently wait for the return of the greatest boon God has ever given to man-good health.
"During the camp-meeting that took place in August, we often heard the inquiry, 'Who owns the land on the other side of the lake?' One day Rev. Wm. B. Osborne and myself went over, and at the risk of having our clothes torn off, worked our way through the briars until we reached Sunset Lake. And, like the red man of whom we read in tradition, we could say 'Alabama-here we rest ;' for we stood on the banks of as beauti- ful a sheet of water as can be found anywhere. We returned to the Grove by way of the beach, and soon set to work to make up a company to pur- chase the land. We learned the owner would not sell the land in parceis, but the purchaser must take the whole or none. Here was a difficulty; five hundred acres ;- wilderness and barren sand-waste, without a house or inhabitant, and not a foot of cultivated soil in the whole tract. 'Never mind,' said some, 'the more land we have the more profit we will have.' Our company was to consist of eight persons, some of whom were very enthusiastic ; but, when the cool nights of autumn came along, it chilled their enthusiasm, and their example had its chilling effect on me. But I often thought of the matter, and as soon as I heard that Bishop Simpson, of the M. E. Church, urged the Ocean Grove Association to purchase it, to prevent its falling into the hands of some one who was not in sympathy with the enterprise they had in their hands, I called on David Brown and proposed he should join me in the purchase by taking one-eighth, the price asked being $90,000. 'No,' said he, 'I am determined to have nothing to do with any enterprise in that neighborhood that would seem to place me in an inconsistent position, as I am now Treasurer of the Ocean Grove As- sociation. This will I do; I will write to every member of the Association, and if they say buy it, I. am inclined to think I shall not oppose it, although I think we have enough land now. But if they do not buy it, you can. And as you wish me to negotiate the purchase, I will do so, on condition that you advance the requisite amount to secure the property, and if the Asso- ciation decide to take it, your money to be refunded. We are to have a
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week's option to consider the matter.' A majority of the Association de- cided not to purchase the land, although some urged it very strongly; so the property became mine-I, at the same time assuring them that the property would be resold only to such parties as would appreciate the situa- tion of the place."
Mr. Bradley at once devoted all his energies to the accomplishment of his self-appointed task of building up a town, and, with his entire fortune at stake, he bore the entire burden at every stage of effort and progress. He expended several thousand dollars in clearing off the ground, which he then platted in lots of fifty by one hundred and fifty feet, fronting on ave- nues from seventy-five to one hundred feet in width, reserving suitable park locations. To this site he gave the name of Asbury Park in honor of the eminent Methodist divine, Bishop Francis Asbury. From the be- ginning, whenever offering property for sale, or listening to overtures looking to purchase, he never once deviated from his determination to exclude saloons and dramshops by the insertion of a prohibitory clause in the deed. At the first it seemed a Quixotic undertaking. There was not, to his knowledge, a seaside resort, an incorporated town, on the American continent or in Europe, where in the deeds the sale of intoxicating liquor was prohibited. "With your restriction you can never make a seaside resort a success so near New York," said the timid ones and the croakers, but the founder of Asbury Park, with an intense and lifelong hatred of the liquor traffic, scorned the derision of enemies and smiled at the expostulations of his friends. As a result of his determination, there is not a saloon in Asbury Park to this day, and there is, as a consequence, an entire absence of those classes whose disorderly conduct is so glaringly obnoxious at many otherwise desirable resorts. At a few of the hotels wines are served on the table or in rooms of permanent guests, out of their own private stores, but this is the limit of indulgence.
When the town was platted, and for some years afterward, the only means of reaching New York from Ocean Grove and what is now Asbury Park was by stage to Long Branch, which was then the nearest railroad station, thence by railroad to Sandy Hook and by steamer across the bay to New York. The travel between Long Branch and what is now Asbury Park was so light that daily trips could not be sustained. To keep up daily trips, Mr. Bradley gave the use of his rockaway, with a horse, to William Poland, Jr., as a subsidy. Poland added his own horse. The horse donated was used up in the service, but the old carriage remains, and has since been used as a plaything to amuse the children who were born since the time of the historic. facts here recorded.
The first building erected was Mr. Bradley's Park Hall, a two-story
5*
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frame edifice, which was the headquarters of all the early business enter- prises of the place, and in which nearly all religious, society and business enterprises had their beginnings. In 1872 the first school was opened by Miss M. Crowell, a niece of Mr. Bradley, who provided for the pur- pose a room in Park Hall, which was occupied until 1877, when a school building was erected at a cost of $10,000. In 1872, the same year in which the school was instituted, the first church edifice was erected, that of Trinity Protestant Episcopal church. In all instances of the erection of buildings for religious and educational uses, at the founding of the town and subsequently, the building lots were donated by Mr. Bradley.
The first store building erected was by Washington White. and this was enlarged in 1873 and became the Lake View Hotel, the first hotel opened in the place, and this was followed the same year by two other hotels, the Grand Avenue and the Hotel Brunswick. In 1874 a post- office was established with Mr. Bradley as the first postmaster. In 1876 Mr. Bradley established the first newspaper, the "Asbury Park Journal," primarily for the purpose of advertising the advantages of the village and attracting the attention of home-seekers. For nearly two years the paper was printed in Brooklyn. In 1878 a printing outfit was procured, and the first home-printed issue appeared June Ist. Mr. Bradley enlisted the services of schoolboys as subscription agents, offering a premium to the most successful among them. It is narrated that when the winner came for his reward, Mr. Bradley asked him to make a choice between a pair of pigeons and a town lot. The lad preferred the former. Had he chosen the latter he would now be able to sell it for three thousand dollars were it a residential lot, or for twenty thousand dollars were it a business lot. Mr. Bradley terminated his connection with the newspaper in 1882, when john L. Coffin, who had been connected with it from the beginning, became editor and proprietor.
Other enterprises of Mr. Bradley in the upbuilding of the city are well worthy of mention. In 1877 he purchased the great Educational Hall, then standing in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, which had been erected for use during the Centennial Exposition in the preceding year, and re-erected it on Grand Avenue, in Asbury Park. In 1881 he began the creation of a system of sewerage, entirely as a private enterprise, and in 1884 he aided in the establishment of water and gas works. In 1880, according to the "Asbury Park Journal," the assessed valuation of property in the city was $1.500,000, so great had been the advancement of the place in less than ten years.
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