Swimwear from “Victorians’ Secrets.” *
By Paul Goldfinger, history editor @Blogfinger
In 1869, the Founding Fathers founded Ocean Grove in Larry’s Park (later, the name was changed to Founders’ Park.) Soon thereafter, many visitors came to this popular resort. Some people wanted to live here, but sleeping in tents began to wear thin, so a building boom began, and along with that came realtors in 1872.
They opened an office on Main Avenue and called it Century 19. Many of the realtors were young ladies who wore billowing dresses with hoops and crinolines that made them extra wide. It was fun watching 2 or 3 of them squeeze inside a tent. They drove their clients around in shiny buggies that said “20% down” on the back.
The sales pitch for selling houses here must have been a challenge because of all the limitations: no horses in town on Sunday, no alcoholic drinks, no tossing pie pans on Sunday, no carousing on Saturday night, and no hanky panky.
Well, that last one was quickly tossed out due to overwhelming opposition by the folks in the choir, especially the basses and the sopranos. Besides, Grovers did need something else to do on Sunday.
Another reason why there was no “blue law” for sex was that a baby was conceived in the tent colony, and that is where the term “Founding Father” was born.
One of the problems was that Rev. Stokes had organized a lot sale. People came from New York City and Philadelphia to buy land in this unique town. Then, somehow, it turned out that they had purchased a lease. “What the heck avenue?” they complained.
But even today, no one knows why their house is sitting on somebody else’s land. Luckily, lawyers followed the realtors into town and they made it all official.
It should be noted that you couldn’t go to Asbury Park for fun back then, because it was a sedate place having just been founded in 1871. The Asburians tried to emulate the example of Ocean Grove, but good luck with that idea.
Watch for our next installment of “OG Historical Snapshots” when we will tell the story of Jewish Grovers and how they introduced bagels with cream cheese to God’s Square Mile.
*One of the girls in the picture is April Cornell. She eventually opened a beautiful shop on Main Avenue in the Grove, but she was forced out by some creepy developer from New York. After that she opened in Spring Lake where the locals appreciate her despite her baggy “cover your butt” fashions.
And now that Stokes is gone we hear that some new women’s fashions will debut this summer in the Grove. This photo reveals an example of a California style miniskirt. Who says that miniskirts cannot get any minier?
This photo from Santa Barbara is by SBCFireinfo/twitter. Their crowds are almost as big as ours in Ocean Grove, sponsored by the Chamber of Commercials and the OGCMA. Will the CMA object when she shows up in the Grove for Bridgefest ?
And here is Dinah Washington, who knows what to do on Sunday:
Actually, the huge “Gone with the Wind” dresses had fallen out of fashion by the 1870s. The New York Times of 20 Aug. 1874 reported:
“Wherefore ladies and gentlemen can disport themselves in their old clothes with impunity, and, indeed, the habit of most people is to wear just what suits them best. Gentlemen, on arriving at the Grove, generally lay aside their ‘store clothes’ and don a flannel shirt, coarse pants, and immense bathing hat; while the ladies are rarely seen in fabrics more costly than calico or tarlatan, trimmed to suit the taste and complexion of the wearer.”
However, the immense bustle would appear in the 1880s giving women a centaur-like appearance.