Photo by Ed Wyzykowski

What’s pictured above is not what happened in Ocean Grove on Friday. It’s what happened exactly one year ago — March 13, 2010 — on Bath Avenue and Ocean Pathway. Today, at the site of that earlier but equally devastating fire, new houses are rising. The following story describes what is there already and what is soon to come.

By Mary Walton and Charles Layton

One year after a pre-dawn fire on Ocean Pathway destroyed the Manchester Inn and five homes, and severely damaged two others, the future of the site is taking shape. Three new homes are already rising from the ashes and plans for a fourth await approval by the Zoning Board of Adjustment. The fate of the fifth home remains uncertain. One of the two damaged homes has been restored and work on the other is almost complete. In addition, three single family homes are slated to replace the Manchester.

This picture, taken early this month, shows (at right) the Rasmussen home on Bath Avenue all framed out. Behind it, the new Derrico home is nearly done. The Tugentman home is on the left. The hole in the ground is where a leaking oil tank was removed. Photo by Mary Walton

The first family to move back was Marc and Deb Marini and their three children, who lived at 23 Ocean Pathway. On the morning of the fire, Marc Marini was awakened by a noise. When Deb got up to check on the kids, she smelled smoke. By then the flames from the Manchester were lighting up the sky outside their window.  It was 5:01 a.m. The couple roused the children and three house guests, and Deb called 911.  Theirs was the first house to catch fire, at 5:13. At 5:20 it was gone.

“We were the only family to lose two houses,” Deb Marini said in an interview. They also owned the severely damaged house at 24 Bath, directly behind their Ocean Pathway home.  In less than four months, they renovated it and moved in, then began making plans to rebuild on the Pathway.

As with a death, Deb said, her recovery moved through stages.  “At first you’re in a euphoric stage because everybody made it out.” Then came anger as the magnitude of the loss sank in.  The Marinis had just finished a renovation of their Pathway home in time for the Christmas 2009 house tour.  “We had literally hung the last curtain,” said Deb. Now everything was gone. When her son Nicholas, 11, started fifth grade in September, he was asked to bring in a baby photo. “We didn’t have it.” Moreover, in 2007 they had gone through another devastating fire when the fireplace in their previous home in West Windsor malfunctioned. Said Deb, “You think, ‘Why me?  Lord, what are you trying to tell me?’ ” After four or five months, she said, you accept reality and move on.

Their temporary home at 24 Bath has just three bedrooms. That meant that their older daughter Sarah, 17, a senior in high school, would occupy a room with Rachel, 16. But Rachel and Nicholas were upset that their older sister would not have her own room for her final year before going off to college. The pair took a vote. They agreed to share a room.

The morning after the fire Sarah was scheduled to take the SATs. It would be, she thought, the most important day to date in her academic life. She ended up writing a moving essay as part of her college application, about how the day turned out to be important for a different reason.

The Marinis have yet to break ground on Ocean Pathway. Their house, like all the others, will be narrower than before because a new regulation requires more space between structures. To compensate for lost footage, Deb said, they are seeking a zoning variance to top their home with a full third story rather than the two-and-a-half stories permitted by law. The application is scheduled for a hearing March 16.

THE MANCHESTER SITE

Prior to the fire, Hans Kretschman, owner of the Laingdon Hotel, had concluded an agreement to purchase the Manchester Inn from owners Clark and Margaret Cate and was seeking a controversial variance to build 14 condos. The assessed value of the property before the fire was $1,213,000. Last September Kretschman bought the property for $484,749, according to county records. He has since filed papers with Neptune Township subdividing the property into three lots. Kretschman did not respond to phone messages but a family member at the Laingdon Hotel confirmed that he no longer intends to try to build condos there, only three single family homes.

Kretschman’s company, PH Distinctive Properties, is leaving its footprint on Ocean Grove. According to county records, he purchased the Laingdon at 8 Ocean Avenue in 2001 for $985,000 and subsequently converted it to a luxury hotel. In 2008 he paid $695,000 for 4 Atlantic Avenue, gutted and renovated it, and sold it last year for $1,135,250. In 2003, according to records, he purchased the Silver Sands Hotel at 6 Ocean for $1,050,000 and made it his private residence. He had also recently bought the old hotel at 27 Surf Avenue from Heinz Weck and was converting it to nine condos when it burned on Friday along with seven adjacent homes.

As for Clark and Margaret Cate, they are no longer in the hotel business. Clark started work in November as marketing director of the Jersey Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau, promoting Monmouth and Ocean counties. “Even though I don’t have a business here,” Clark says, “I want people to come and enjoy the area.”

OTHER PROPERTIES

A question mark hangs over 29 Ocean Pathway, which is marked by a huge hole where an oil tank was found to be leaking last May and had to be removed. The owner, Regina Stewart, who lives in Manhattan and owns an art gallery there, did not respond to telephone messages asking about her plans.

Among the three properties under construction, the 30 Bath Avenue home belonging to long-time Grovers Martha and Joseph Derrico, who are wintering in Florida, is farthest along.  Martha said they hope to move in by May. At 12 feet in width, the new house is a foot narrower than the already skinny Derrico home that perished. That house was white. The new one will be green with burgundy trim. “Something a little different,” Martha said.

Houses belonging to Scott and Laura Rasmussen at 28 Bath and to Steven and Madeline Tugentman at 31 Ocean Pathway are also under construction. The Tugentmans, who live in Maplewood, fell in love with Ocean Grove several years ago when they won a weekend at a bed and breakfast in town. They bought their two-story home in 2009 and spent a summer there before the fire struck.  “My heart was broken,” Madeline said. “It was such a sweet little house.  It was like a piece of history was lost.” Their new house will have an additional half story to compensate for lost space. After the fire, the area “looked like a war zone,” Madeline said.  “We wanted to rebuild as soon as possible.”

Jan and Bill Knight, who own the Sandpiper Guest House at 19 Ocean Pathway, are optimistically taking reservations for July 4 and afterward. The inn, which is also their residence, was completely gutted owing to smoke and water damage after firemen punched a hole through the roof and soaked the structure to prevent the fire from spreading eastward.  Last week Jan was in town from her winter home in Florida, choosing paint colors. While it’s good to have new plumbing and wiring in the wake of the fire, she said, “I don’t recommend it as a way to get a new house.”