To the Editor:Hello Paul:
I’ve followed with interest the real estate listing of the Aurora and its recent pending sale. A web search turned up an article appearing in a now defunct weekly Ocean Grove newspaper which reported the 1974 sale of the Aurora. Reading this weekly shows how much Ocean Grove has changed in the ensuing years but also how much has remained the same.
Best Wishes,
Rosemary Salow
January 28, 2018
Ms. Salow is a resident of Ocean Grove who often comments on Blogfinger
Here is a link to the Ocean Grove Times of July 11, 1974.
The OG Times newspaper, founded in 1896, closed around 1998. They used to be located on Pilgrim Pathway across from the market. The Historical Society of Ocean Grove has digitized that newspaper.
The issue of the Times sent by Ms. Salow has, as she said , some interesting items offering perspective. Here are just a few:
a. Businesses in town: a book store, cleaners with pickup and delivery, a coffee shop, and a cafeteria (the Sampler.) The latter offered breakfast from 7:45- 1o, “dinner” from 11:30 to 1:15, and “supper” from 4:15-7:30.
b. The OG Times has nothing controversial on its pages in this issue.
c. A 5 room house with one bath was for sale at $16.000. Another home was described as having a first floor apartment and “5 renting rooms” on the second floor. the price was $23,500.
d. An organization of business people in the Grove sponsored a show in the summer (“the Follies” ) with free admission.
e. Bike tours of Ocean Grove were advertised along with The Strand movie theater at the North End.
f. Ted Bell, OG historian and environmentalist, has a column called “Ecology” which, this time, was about the birds of OG.
g. There was a restaurant advertised called “the Sign of the Fish.” It was on the boardwalk at the South End where there used to be businesses.
—Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
From a concert honoring Alan Jay Lerner. This ensemble performance is from My Fair Lady: (the big round of applause was for Placido Domingo)
Thx Jack. Great observation
Grover 13,
Looking past this particular property to the Periodic Review of the Master Plan and Zoning Ordinance, the Planning Board must recommend that the permitted uses in any district reflect what is already existing within that district.
With over 300 Condo units already existing in our Historic district, we are close to the ‘tipping point’, that with one vote of the Committee, the size of the Historic District could be reduced to include the Great Auditorium and the tents only.
If you look at the property as is, there is plenty of off-street parking space on the driveway, in the garage and, being 4 lots street to street, that gives 4 on-street parking spaces. Tear down and convert to condos, they will use every inch possible for living space, not parking. Let them keep the historic structure, illegally convert to 4 condos, and create owner parking on-site.
If someone puts up 4 large homes with a basement they will have plenty of friends and family visiting in the summer, but so would condo owners….and all would use on- street parking.
Personally, I think there is historical value in maintaining the streetscapes in OG, which includes the Aurora. It’s a magnificent structure.
I am very interested in what happens to the Aurora. If the 4 condos would preserve the outward appearance and therefore maintain the landscape, I would think that would be better than watching an oversized single family home (with exorbitant taxes) decay or become a fire hazard. Please keep us posted !
Editor’s note: As both Jack and Kevin have pointed out, there is another option which would be legal: Tear down the building and replace it with two (or?4) single family Victorian-style homes; offering amnesty—ie do not insist on off street parking for these single family homes.
This would be a winning plan as far as Ocean Grove’s people are concerned. The only ones who would not support such a legal plan would be those who stand to make a financial windfall from illegal condos and those who are (inappropriately in this case) historic purists.
But single family homes can also be profitable.
Thank you, Ms. Salow, for sharing this.
The sale mentions the Bull family, owners of the Aurora since Victorian times. Sisters Matilda and Lydia Bull owned and managed this large hotel around 1900. They are examples of independent women who made their living primarily on summer tourists coming to OG.
On page 6 of the paper “OG: a square mile of health and happiness” (not “God’s square mile”) there were listings for hotels and guest houses in OG (including Aurora). It is significant that today more than half of these are non-existent or have been converted to condos.