Summer tents in 21st century Ocean Grove. By Paul Goldfinger © Re-post 2018.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
The founders of Ocean Grove had the first religious service at the current location of Founders’ Park. They stayed over, erecting tents. The custom of staying in tents each summer was enjoyed by early visitors to the town. People could rent tents in the 1870’s, and families would often hire a grouping of tents. Some people bought lots and placed tents on them for their own use or rentals. There were many shaded areas within groves of trees where the tenters could congregate, and by 1870, there ware 700 tents. It was probably fun for those city people to take the train to the Grove and stay in a tent.
But as OG historian Ted Bell points out in the second chapter of his book (Images of America: Ocean Grove), “Tents gave way to cottages.” The first cottage was built in 1870.
Early OG summer guests (1870’s) enjoyed the shade from the many trees in town. From Ted Bell’s book on OG , Images in America series. By permission of Ted Bell.
Tent life summer 2013. Guests listen to a concert outside the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, NJ. Tenters sit on their porches and hear the music for free. It’s not exactly Tanglewood, but Sousa and Mozart live here too. Paul Goldfinger photo ©
140 years ago, the town was quickly coming alive as a summer resort in many ways including the construction of religious buildings, homes, hotels, boarding houses, beach pavilions, eateries and shops. Some people who had bought lots with tents, converted the tents to cottages, and those architectural features can still be recognized today, and those cute OG cottages are much in demand.
Today, about 100 tents remain, owned by the OGCMA, and those tents are quaint tourist attractions which intrigue modern-day visitors and are still sought after for summer vacations. Ocean Grove wasn’t the only Campground in America—there were many.
From Wikipedia: “In the aftermath of the American Civil War, such evangelical camp meetings gained wide recognition and a substantial increase in popularity as a result of the first holiness movement camp meeting in Vineland, New Jersey, in 1867. In the mid-Atlantic states, the Methodist Church led many of these camp meetings and established semi-permanent sites for summer seasons.”
Rev Osborne, the founder of Ocean Grove, received his orders at the Vineland meeting to seek out a site for a Campground on the Jersey Shore. Founded in 1869, Ocean Grove has been called the “Queen of the Victorian Methodist Camp Meetings.”
JERRY DEER “Country Fiddler”