
Fall cottages on Stockton Avenue in Ocean Grove. Near Allegria. People love the OG cottages. Blogfinger photo 11/7/17 © Re-post from 2017.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net
JOHN DONNE: “No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.”
There is something special about the Stockton Avenue neighborhood where these two identical twins live. It doesn’t seem Victorian. The architecture is variable, and the houses are mostly small in scale. They look like homes where families live and where pies are baked.
It has a quality of peacefulness and quaintness, as if it were posing for a book on small town America.
One would assume that the people who live nearby can’t bear the sight of that brick senior facility, but I think they must look there and see a park. And they also see elderly people who love living there. It is their home.
Around Stockton Avenue there is a neighborhood and it seems to be about kindness and comfort. It looks like all those who live there might share those sentiments.

Allegria residence for seniors. Stockton Avenue in OG. Click to see who lives there. Paul Goldfinger photo ©
HARRY JAMES AND HIS ORCHESTRA. From Hannah and Her Sisters
And here’s a link to a Blogfinger post where a cottage is featured. It’s worth a visit, and don’t miss the song by Sylvia Froos from the 1930’s. Does one have to be high to be happy?
The two cottages you have featured are my neighbors. They are former tents. The one on the left is still about the size of a tent while the one on the right was extended to the back of the property. A previous owner of the cottages decided to entirely replace a roof and found small remnants of tent fabric stuck underneath.
Francis Asbury, now Allergria, has large grassy areas that provide a park like setting. I often joke the imposing brick building makes a perfect neighbor – the residents are quiet and don’t have loud parties!
During Hurricane Sandy the Francis Asbury building actually helped shelter our block of Stockton. 1 block East and West of FAB on Stockton there were some homes that suffered signifcant damage (foundations damaged and 1st floors flooded). However the imposing building took the brunt of the storm surge that came from the ocean and overflowed across Fletcher Lake’s banks. No homes directly across the street from Francis Asbury incurred that type of loss.
My house is right behind those 2 little cottages . Yes a great neighborhood . Wide streets . Quiet . Little traffic . Relatively easy parking . Boswell park & Fletcher Lake . Cute walking bridge 2 minutes so one can walk over lake to BB easily . Francis Asbury Manor has always been a fine neighbor . Hopefully new owners will be too .