Blogfinger

Paul Goldfinger photo. 2025. We will be observing those two car garages. But speaking of history, there were no cars in OG when this Queen Anne  property was first developed.     So for historic accuracy, no cars should be allowed here now.  And how do the neighbors feel about this project?

Re: 118 Main Avenue restoration.  Part IV:

Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net

There was an HPC meeting  September 2025  to obtain approvals for much of the current restoration.  Their  function is to approve any changes regarding the historic configuration  of the project. I have not seen the official report.

The owners, Jeffrey Rudell and Albert Wilcox of OG, want to bring the property back to its most historic accuracy.  Note that the home was constructed in 1880 but was renovated in 1894.   So which baseline is now being used as the roll model for 2026?

The HPC deals with exterior features such as doors, porches, windows, roof, columns, paint colors, siding and rails.

We understand that there has been no request to transform #118 into a hotel, but other residency considerations may appear.

We are told that the approvals so far are not complete.

This is all we have so far.   Please address any new information to Blogfinger@verizon.net.

MOZART QUARTET.   Recorded in the Great Auditorium in the 19th century; around 1890.

From the historic recordings “Waxing the Gospel.”

“Aftermath”. by Paul Goldfinger. Prize winning photo in New York City. Oceanfront hotel. 1963.

Don’t hang around. Go to “Jackson”  with Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.

Paul Goldfinger photo, Ft. Myers, Fla. 2018

KURT ELLING:   (The music of Coltrane and Hartman)

Visitors stroll by SeaGrass Restaurant. Ocean Grove.   August 2025. Paul Goldfinger photo.

BOB DYLAN

The Camp Meeting Association bought this land from William Osborn, the founder of Ocean Grove, in 1870.  Over the years there were at least 12 buyers/ leasers.  The language of property exchanges are a bit confusing, but the land was undeveloped for awhile until the first home was built.

The first structure that we know of  was built at 118 Main Avenue by Captain Lewis Rainear who obtained the property  from the CMA in 1880, and then in 1894 he  and his wife embarked on a major renovation to create the house as we know it. The turret and wrap-around porches were added then.

The Captain belonged to the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the New Jersey Volunteers.  He was wounded in Mississippi and eventually wound up imprisoned at Andersonville in Georgia.

When he returned to Ocean Grove, he was hired by the CMA as Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds.  From then until the 1960’s there were about 12 owners/leasers. In 1956 the house was converted to the Ocean Grove Memorial Home by William Walton.

There was a couple who worked with the Waltons, and they lived upstairs for 30 years.

In 2025, the OGMH owners sold to Albert Wilcox of Ocean Grove and he decided to create the changes which we see  developing now as revealed in our recent two pieces.

We have not seen the HPC documents  But this is our third installment  on this subject.  It’s headline news in town, but it’s currently hush-hush as to the future uses.  We will return tomorrow  with new information about approvals for now and future.

Paul Goldfinger  MD.  Blogfinger.net

GRACELAND.    Paul Simon

Paul Goldfinger photo. OG boards. 2026. Blogfinger.net.  Click once to enlarge these girls in their summer clothes.

JOHN COLTRANE:     “Central Park West”.  From the Village Gate album