“Life is beautiful” at 125 Broadway near Whitefield Ave. c 1872. Paul Goldfinger photo. April 28, 2021. Click on image to see the details. ©
If the date is correct, this would have to be one of the first houses in the Grove. It has up and down porches, but not wrap-around. The siding in the peak is “fish scale.” This is what an OG house should look like, not like the ugly, massive condos proposed at the North End. No recent condo conversion in town looks authentic.
The new pseudo “Victorians” or Sea Shore vernacular designs proposed for new single family homes can be spotted a mile away. They may be impressive, but they cannot be mistaken for a real historic structure.
They are at best cosmetic, fooling only the tourists ambling by. If you want to see real antique homes, visit Williamsburg or seek out those OG homes that were built within 30 years of the 1869 founding.
–Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net
MICHELE GARRUTI “Once Upon a Time in America.” Garruti is the composer of the movie song ‘Life is Beautiful.”
There were several waves of construction in Ocean Grove. The 1882 Annual Report of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association noted:
“Many cottages have undergone large and important improvements; in many cases almost equal to new buildings. The small, cheap buildings of the early days, are fast disappearing, and will soon be out of sight, and held only in the dim memories of the past.”
Typically, the porch is the first thing to fail on a house, and the cottage in question has a replacement. I find the second floor porch suspect—it was likely present only in a smaller form or not at all originally. A tower would not have normally been obstructed by a porch. Otherwise, it is a typical Queen Anne, perhaps with its fish scales replaced.
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