Albatross as it appeared in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. Paul Goldfinger photo from the video.
Rumor mill reports sale of the Albatross on Ocean Pathway in the Grove. Await confirmation. More condos without parking? Paul Goldfinger photo undated.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net September 21, 2021. Scoop de jour.
The Albatross has been in sad shape for some time. There was talk in recent years that it was a habitat for vagrants while others said that it was still being rented to guests who didn’t mind the rough interior. Residents of the area told us that renters continued to stay there since they may have found the derelict situation to be charming and/or just plain affordable.
A couple of years ago we heard that the owner wanted to convert to condos. And then, most recently, we heard that the owner was hanging on but wanting to sell.
The news headline above was passed onto us by a resident of Ocean Pathway. If any of you have more information, please share with Blogfinger. Anonymity is guaranteed.
A few years ago we had this to say on Blogfinger:
“Why can’t these old hotels succeed as they did in the past? The Manchester Inn seemed successful, but the owner wanted condos….and then it burned down. Single family homes resulted.
Other hotels in town just deteriorated like the Whitfield which was demolished and became single family homes.
One hotel on Ocean Avenue recently tried to become a drug rehab center, but that wasn’t going to happen. And yet others have become condominiums with pseudo-Victorian facades and no parking, increased congestion, and no character.
We don’t know what is in store for the Albatross, but Neptune’s elected officials should owe their allegiance to the citizens of the “historic district” and not to developers.
The ideal should be a historic town that brings comfort and beauty to the residents and the visitors. It should be a place with honesty, light and air. It should attract art, music, children, flowers, teenagers, yard sales, dinner on the porches, bicyclists, film festivals, ice cream, theater, girls in summer clothes, good eateries, diversity, and more….not trash and scum in Wesley Lake, not politicians in the shadows, and not cigarette butts on the ground.
Too bad for the owners, but the dying old hotels should revert to single family homes. Why did the Township bother to write a master plan?
And what will happen to Ocean Grove in the future—maybe it will become like Ocean Grove, Australia, which now bears no resemblance to Osborne’s dream. It’s a surfers’ town now.
Maybe that’s OK. Some wouldn’t care if our Grove were to drift away to become something else. At least let’s hope for quiet nights on the Pathway.
BLOSSOM DEARIE:
It might be of interest to know that the Albatross appeared on insurance maps as a 2.5 story building as late as 1930. Many early OG commercial buildings had “cottage fronts” with ornamented gables such as the Aurora.
The desire for more floors eliminated these, indeed, the new floors frequently extended over the front porch. Today’s Albatross facade might date from the 1950s when Colonial styles were popular.
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Here is a link to our first (2013) post about the Albatross appearing in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. The producers showed up and got permission from the owner to allow them to create a mockup of a 1924 shore hotel by using the Albatross and setting it in Atlantic City.
https://wp.me/pqmj2-m4x
Below is a link to our second piece on the subject:
https://wp.me/pqmj2-mud
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I need to make a correction to my previous post. Apparently, the 1930 insurance map was incorrect as dated postcards from the 1920s show the Albatross in its present form.
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Rumors are swirling that it has been purchased by Hasidic Jews whose plans are to make it a Jewish School.
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I spoke to the owner recently who denied that the Albatross has been sold . He said that he is in discussions with a shopper.
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