This is what the OG beach looks like today. Asbury Park Press photo 2021.
Services on the OG beach c. 1880.
Early view of beach life in Ocean Grove.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net
In 1869, a group of Methodist preachers finally found a site for their planned religious summer village. It was a wild place with trees, shrubs, lakes, and the beach/ocean. They found one family living there: Mr. and Mrs. George Rogers and their two children.
They thought the site was perfect being bounded by lakes to the north and the south. The ocean was to the east, and a “turnpike” was to the west.
On March 3, 1870 they received a charter from the NJ Legislature. This made their new organization, The Camp Meeting Association, official for the purpose of establishing Ocean Grove and governing there as a religious community.
But their problems were just beginning. They had to buy the land, 10 tracts of 260 acres from the 44 various owners.
They started out purchasing “six acres of land near the northern lake.” There was no mention of the beach. Later they acquired a total of 230 acres of “land” by 1872. The number of “lots” surveyed by then was 1,500, and 2/3 were already “sold.” There is no mention of leasing the lots. At that time there were already 300 “cottages.” And they don’t mention the beach and barely mention the ocean.
They raised the money for “land”, but the history books don’t mention if the beach and ocean were part of the planned purchase.
One original document said, “The eastern front of our grounds, half a mile in extent, is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, where the surf bathing is unsurpassed.” What does “bounded by ” mean? I guess it includes the beach but not the ocean.
They also said that “camp meetings were held exactly five hundred yards from the open sea.”
They do say that “some of the avenues stretch across the open beach-land approaching the sea.” But they don’t say if they own the beach or if they merely occupied it as needed for services and frolic.
However, they definitely did buy the “land,” and there must be deeds of ownership possessed by the CMA.
And if so, does the CMA have deeds that prove ownership of the beach and ocean near the shore?
And also how about explaining how lots in 1870 could be “sold” and then wind up as being leased by the CMA? There is no mention of leasing in either of the two earliest OG history books available.
THE DELL VIKINGS
Note that none of the homes for “sale” in OG mention a lease to this day in the ads
The two lots just “sold” on Inskip were leases
Maybe 150 years from now someone will look at today’s history and wonder about why we called them sales
In Morris Daniel’s book The Story of Ocean Grove he relates Stokes’ account of “The First Sales of Lots.” He tells how the founders got first choice on June 1, 1870: “On the 1st day of June there was a sale to the subscribers of the choice of one hundred lots at a fixed price of $50 each plus the premium for the choice.”
Then later the price went up, and by the end of 1870, 107 lots had been purchased by members of the Association for their personal use. After that the price of lots continued to rise further due to “heavy demand for lots”
Later, somehow, the sale of lots was changed to the sale of leases. Perhaps just a change in terminology, although the original descriptions did not include the word “lease.” Historian Ted Bell was not impressed by my questions—he simply said that it was “lease” from the beginning.
But Art my question is: When the founders bought the land from the 44 sellers, did the purchase papers mention the beach front? Is there documentation that those “land” purchases included the beach and/or the surf (water)?
And when the first purchasers of “lots” got them for $50 each (1870) or more, did any of those historic deeds mention the beach or the surf?
And, do all the original papers say “leasehold” or “lot?” Many of us have such papers and should review them for a variety of reasons.
Reading the original words of those involved, they seemed to be more concerned with having a fine piece of land on which to build a “cottage.” Only later was there much interest in exploiting the beach front with bath houses, fishing piers and huge religious services.
It is doubtful that the founders gave any thought to beach badges or their equivalents.
Stokes, speaking of Ocean Grove–tells us who really owns the Grove, the beach, and the ocean:
“Still let this place be held for God,
By him be blest, to him be given,
Its hearts and homes be his abode.
His, morning, noon and dewy ev’en;
My heart repeats it o’er and o’er,
His all the while, HIS EVERMORE.”
I believe you would buy the lease just as you do now
Our original owner paid $300 for our lease in 1894
With an annual rent of $10.50 for 99 years and renewable in perpetuity
You can imagine what we paid 4 years ago for the
assignment of that lease
You could use the example of Trump buying the lease of the DC post office to build the hotel
And recently selling the assignment of that lease all the improvements go with it