North End Hotel. Ocean Grove side (1911-1978) Submitted by Tom Pritchard of OG.
North End Hotel from the Asbury side of Wesley Lake. Note relationship of hotel, adjacent to the Lake. Submitted by Tom Pritchard of OG.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net
We have had some discussions this week regarding the old North End Hotel which was built in 1911 with stores, amusements, movie theater, restaurants, and shops. There were major fires in 1925 and 1938 and then it was demolished in 1978.
An 1876 CMA document* shows that there was an early suggestion that a “first class hotel” should be built at the North End, but the CMA was ambivalent, and that did not happen until much later. (1911) They were worried that such a hotel would attract sinners to town.
After the founding of OG, there was a tent village at the site. Maps, including one from 1881, show the North End property to be empty.
There was no zoning when the big hotel complex was built in 1911, but after it was demolished in 1978, the property remained barren. At one point, there was a plan to build senior housing there, but it never happened. It was zoned for single family homes until 2008 when the zoning was changed to a mixed usage/ “zone in need of redevelopment.”
We received the photos above from Tom Pritchard who said, “The North End Complex was opened in 1911 and even though it wasn’t The Carlyle or the York Motel in North Bergen it was quite something in the day. The attached photos will show you how close it was to Wesley Lake.”
It has been argued by CMA Pres. Badger that building a hotel at the North End now is justified by recalling the old “historic” North End Hotel. However, there is nothing historic about that North End 20th century hotel. Most of the historic structures in town are 19th century.
Another Grover, Art James, sent an email. He said, “I’m not supporting the North End project. But I believe you recently stated that the CMA never wanted a hotel at the North End.”
He sent us a portion (below) of an 1876 CMA Annual Report of the President. It indicates that there was early talk of putting up a hotel at that North End site. But talking about it is not the same as actually doing it, so there was no historic North End hotel in the Grove, unless you count the 1911 North End Hotel.
This is my email reply to Art James:
Art: Thank you. I never said that the CMA did not want a hotel at the North End. The construction of the North End Hotel in 1911 speaks for itself.
I don’t know if anyone proposed putting up a replacement hotel after the 1978 demolition, but the fact is that the land has remained empty since then, until along came the NERP in 2008.
When the North End Redevelopment Plan appeared in 2008, the zoning was single family. That is why the conspiracy to change the zoning happened, and the CMA and WAVE and Neptune conjured up the arguable idea that the property was a “zone in need of redevelopment.” Neptune agreed, even though that was prime land and could have undergone “general development” with single family homes, and we could have had a fine Grovarian neighborhood there since then instead of the roaring mess we have had over the last 13 years.
The 2008 plan included a hotel, and the CMA was totally behind the boutique hotel.
Benny Goodman played this song in 1942, a time when the North End Hotel was still standing. It’s “The Jersey Bounce” by the King Sisters who performed during that same era: