Blogfinger

Historic 1905 Sanborn map segment of Ocean Grove. Note the corner of Central and Main and the location of  #39 Main Avenue.  The corner lot is empty.  Submitted by Rosemary Salow. ©

Sanborn Map

By Paul Goldfinger,  Editor  Blogfinger.net  Ocean Grove, NJ  Oct. 31, 2021.

Just when you thought that our coverage of Quaker Inn history was over, another chapter emerges.  Rosemary Salow is a Grover who is an expert regarding OG real estate and she decided to dig into the Quaker controversy.

Rosemary sent us the relevant Sanborn Maps  (1905) shown above, accompanied by her description of the situation:

“Hi Paul: I was intrigued by your text post on the Quaker Inn, so I looked at the Sanborn Maps of OG to investigate. This 1905 map depicts the intersection of Main and Central Aves. The corner lot where the Quaker Inn is now located appears to be vacant in 1905, but the adjacent lot is labeled “The Waterbury.”

“FYI, Sanborn Maps were published in the 19th and early 20th century in order to facilitate fire insurance companies in assessing their potential liability in a particular town. So they are an early form of fire insurance risk management.

“NJ Sanborn Maps of OG are available in-line from Princeton University which is my source.

“So perhaps The Waterbury became the Ocean Grove Hotel.”

Editor’s Note:  The plot thickens:  We know that the Quaker sits at the corner of Central and Main and that the number #39  there goes back at least to 1939.  We also know that the Ocean Grove Hotel and the Quaker are one and the same.

Yet the Sanborn Map shows that corner to be empty in 1905 and that the next lot in has #39  and shows “the Waterbury”  (presumably a hotel)  We also know that the Waterbury does not appear on the 1939 list of hotels.

My conclusion now is that the Quaker Inn was not built until after 1905  (although it is said to be earlier)  and that the number 39 was then reassigned to that corner lot. It’s similar to Rosemary’s analysis below.

I used to live at #12 Chesterbrook Road in Chester, so we had a beautiful hand made enameled metal house number plaque created in England. Then Chester  changed our house to #18.

Ironically, our first OG house was #12 Heck. So we mounted that  #12 sign on our “Heck house ” 2nd floor.  It is still there today looking as beautiful as it did about 30 years ago—a tribute to hand-made quality. Go look at it now that you know its history.

Rosemary Salow, a formidable Grovarian history investigator, now concludes that “the map may be wrong or that the lots were legally combined at some point and the already established street address of #39 Main Avenue where the extant building was located was designated for the entire combined property.

“Such a combination might well have occurred in the boom times of 1920s because my ventures into OG history seem to indicate a lot of re-development (combining of adjacent structures to form larger inns/guest houses/hotels) in that era.  I’m thinking that the prosperity (Roaring Twenties) that followed WWI and the flu epidemic likely fueled a lot of demand and led to the updating of many of the guest houses that would have been 30-40 years old or thereabouts at that time.”

Any other ideas?  I’m inclined to believe the Sanborn Maps which R.S. shared with us.

Thanks to Lee Morgan and Rosemary Salow for providing a history/mystery discussion worthy of PBS-

Tune in 100 years from today for part III.

JERRY ORBACH:  This song by Richard Rodgers  (music) and Lorenz Hart (lyrics) was written in 1936 for a Broadway show called On Your Toes.  Later it was featured in the movie Pal Joey.