The Lagoon* at Shell Point, a private contained religious-owned community in Fort Myers, Florida Paul Goldfinger photo. Jan, 2020. “Forever Friends.”
The Arbor at Shell Point. Internet photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor. Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, NJ. 2020.
Is the Camp Meeting Association’s unique status in Ocean Grove so unusual that there is no other town exactly like it? We would be interested to find another for historical and comparison purposes.
After all, the OGCMA is a religious organization with its own goals within the larger universe of Neptune Township and Ocean Grove. They own 99% of the land in OG and they have political leverage in Neptune Township even though they no longer have official power. When they governed the town—1869 to 1980, everyone had to follow their rules.
They functioned like a gated community. They would interview prospective residents and explain that all who were accepted had to follow those rules, many of which were religious based, such as the constraints on many activities on Sundays.
But OG is no longer like a gated community. No one can make laws for Ocean Grove except the elected officials in Neptune. Of course the CMA can make rules for its own buildings (like no food in the Great Auditorium and no gay weddings in its chapel.)
Some would say that the CMA can make rules for its public parks and for the beachfront (eg no admittance on Sunday morning.) But that is questionable since the CMA has officially opened such thoroughfares to the public.
We discovered a place similar to the OGCMA within the city of Fort Myers, Florida, called Shell Point. This is a 700 acre community that provides homes and life styles for retirees. Everything within its boundaries is owned by the CMA—the Christian Missionary Alliance.
Unlike the OGCMA, the Alliance owns both the land and all the residences (homes, condos, apartments.) And, unlike with the OGCMA, everyone who lives in Shell Point has signed a contract to follow all the rules. So if they say “no alcohol” within their boundaries, then that is what happens, and rule breakers can be forced out, and the city of Ft. Myers stays out of it.
The OGCMA insists on no alcohol sales in town by convincing Neptune to have an ordinance—an actual law, but only in the OG part of town. So the way that power is exerted, in this regard, is different for these two religious-based communities when compared to each other. In OG people have alcohol in their homes, on their porches and in restaurants if they are BYOB. They just can’t sell it.
Like OG, Shell Point is bordered by water on 3 sides and they have a large central auditorium where religious events are held. They also have parking problems.
Governance is by a board that has a mixture of religious and lay people. Residents do pay some property taxes, but the amount is small and shared with management. Everything is leased.
Unlike Ocean Grove, Shell Point does resemble a gated community but without gates. And it is different in other ways as well.
Geographically, the OGCMA is woven into the fabric of life in the Grove, whereas Shell Point’s properties, physical and otherwise, are clearly demarcated by boundaries and this characteristic reduces the chances of clashes within the community at large, as sometimes occur in Ocean Grove.
Overall, we would be hard pressed to find any towns in New Jersey that are comparable to OG, especially the way we have the CMA which is part and yet not part of our town at the same time. So, unlike Shell Point, we do not have a singular sense of community.
At a person-to-person level, an important difference is that there is considerable overlap of the OGCMA with the secular and diverse residents of Ocean Grove. And that is where conflicts may occur, as we saw in 2007 during the gay civil ceremony angry exchanges and the fight over Kirk Cameron’s appearance in the Great Auditorium. And now we have the Parking Wars.
In Shell Point, the residents are all on the same page and rarely overlap in important ways with those who live outside their invisible borders.
And unlike with many gated communities and unlike Shell Point, our CMA isn’t able to exert its powers of persuasion within a geographically demarcated zone as it did pre-1980, and the demographics in OG are now quite diverse. We are sometimes stepping on each others’ toes, priorities, and life styles.
So Shell Point does resemble Ocean Grove’s CMA in some ways, and that is interesting, but there are differences.
We are still looking for another community where a religious presence like the CMA coexists in a comfortable way with others in town. We have found no nearly identical community to compare with.
So we are on our own in OG, trying to find solutions to certain issues, and sometimes that seems insurmountable as with parking. And that is why parking is about more than parking.
* “Forever Friends” is a 1500 pound stainless steel structure by Douglas Hayes (b. 1968) and donated by a Shell Point benefactor. The birds have a 10 foot wing span. The lagoon features manatees which visit regularly. Shell Point is open to the public and has various races and religions among its residents.
PAUL MOTIAN: “I Remember You”
[/audio
I’m not interested in if there are towns which are religious with all the people being alike, as OG was after its founding; or like Shell Point which is a sort-of gated religious community.
Instead I want to know about towns with a conflicting mix of people as is Ocean Grove now where the religious community clashes with the lifestyles of secular others and perhaps with the Constitution.
It is the uncompromising diversity that promotes issues. So how do such places, if they exist, deal with those clashes? Can we find one town just like Ocean Grove and then learn from it, but finding such a place is doubtful.
Tom Constantino : Pitman is no longer a dry towne . Started allowing drinking & bars a few years ago . ASBURY GROVE which is north of Boston is still an active Camp Meeting Towne . Per their website they are quite religious and appear to want residents to be so too..
Joanne:
The Campgrounds in Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard is a cute cottage community. It is very touristy, and you can take tours, attend religious events, hear concerts, see movies, etc. It is like a museum piece, and those cottages sell for over $1 million and more. They celebrate their history, and it is fun to visit as we did for their annual Illumination night.(below) It is not like Ocean Grove because it is not a regular town in of itself with issues like we have.
https://wp.me/pqmj2-ltp
Hi Paul, Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard has.Camp Meeting Association. I wasn’t able to figure out if it operates similar to ours.
Jack Bredin – How smart. Too bad. The new development is infuriating.
If only the founders of OG had a crystal ball back in 1869 to see how the State and Federal laws, and their campground, would evolve over the years; they could have and they should have issued one (1) share of voting stock for each lot leased or owned by the CMA.
Then the stockholders and not Neptune would have the Constitutional right to vote if they wanted to become a gated community of single family homes.
The decision would be ours; instead, developers decide what’s best for us.
Thanks Art. The Chautaqua Institute in New York State is nothing like the Ocean Grove of today in terms of the socioeconomic, political , demographic and religious issues which we face in the Grove.
But it is an amazing place and it could be a sort of role model for the Grove of the future.
As for the future of OG, there is a wild card. If the CMA goes broke, then all bets are off as to how OG might evolve. They are chronically worried about funding.
We spent time last summer in Chautauqua NY:
While not actually a camp meeting town it was established on property that originally was a camp meeting.
It was started as a “Normal School” or school for teachers in this case Sunday school teachers.
Anyway parking is only available for residents or employees
Even hotel guest check in and have their cars valet parked
Visitors pay at gates to enter the property
Interesting the streets are named for Methodist luminaries like Clark Cookman etc
Pretty much the same size as OG but many religions have offices there.
Many homes reminiscent of OG and Mt Tabor
Many privately held homes hotels and B and B’s, but whole town shuts down
In winter
Some of these former camp meeting sites still have religious meetings in the summer. These tend to be small down-home get-togethers.
Lakeside Ohio is of interest, but they call themselves a “gated community” which means that they can do as they please within their borders–a lot different than Ocean Grove. It’s easier for a community to establish its own values when it is a “gated community” That’s how it was between 1869-1980 in the Grove, a time when the CMA was in tight control. Now it’s different.
In addition, Lakeside is not only about religion. It is a place of culture and the arts –this is from their web site:
“Lakeside is a unique and exciting place to vacation and visit. A wide variety of arts programs are offered nightly at 8:15 p.m. in it’s historic 80 year old theatre, Hoover Auditorium. The likes of Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart have graced the stage.
“The 2009 schedule includes Melissa Manchester, the Celtic group Leahy, the comedy of Fred Travalena, Debbie Boone, an evening with John McCutcheon & Tom Chapin, as well as a combined evening celebrating the Christian music of Phil Keaggy & Fernando Ortega. And don’t forget our very own Lakeside Symphony Orchestra and yes, even Elvis!”
But the OGCMA remains unique in Neptune Township. It is a year-round presence with a multi-million dollar budget whose main activities revolve around bringing large numbers of religious tourists into the small historic town of OG. They are “big business” as religious organizations go.
And they do have a large impact on the town and they are involved with city politics and policies .
So that would be the sort of comparable that we are seeking on Blogfinger.
But thanks Kevin and Tom: Pitman and Lakeside are good examples of how a Camp Meeting beginning evolves into something else for the 21st century.
Lakeside camp meeting in Ohio is as close to OG in size and with religious programs. There is a fee to enter, even for full year round residents. The fee pays for their programming.
Kevin: I can find no documentation to verify that Malaga, NJ and Seaville, NJ are “the same as OG just smaller.”
Malaga’s population is only 1,400 and only a small percent are Methodist. Wiki makes no reference to anything there that can be compared to OG.
So please provide us with more information to know if Malaga’s religious, socioeconomic, demographic and political life can be compared in a useful way to the Grove’s.
The same applies to Seaville which is a mere speck on the map.
The whole point of our article is to find places, if possible, that we can compare to as we figure out the roll of the Camp Meeting Association as part of our community in 2020.
It is not to find places with the same sort of history in the past.
Of those “hundreds” of camp meetings across the country that you mention, do you know of any that still has such a powerful religious and physical presence in their towns that we could study to learn how they work today compared to OG?
Tom: Pitman today is only an echo of its original religious self. We wrote a flattering post about it. Here is the link:
https://wp.me/pqmj2-zaE
There is nothing there like the significant religious and active role of today’s Ocean Grove CMA. It is a place that could be a role model for OG’s future.
Paul, I recently read about Pitman, NJ in Gloucester County (south jersey). They have an auditorium and cottages where the tents used to be – situated in a hub and spoke setup. Also, no bars or liquor stores. If you haven’t visited – we should plan a road trip in the spring. Its about 90 mins away from OG.
There are hundreds of camp meetings across the US. OG is the largest of the three in NJ. Malaga and Seaville camp meetings are the same as OG just smaller.
The problem with OG is the value of its real estate. It has become the cash cow of Neptune and Neptune will rape it for every last penny it can drain out of it.