Rev. W.B. Osborn was the founder of Ocean Grove. This bio was written by his wife. Let’s see if she writes about a commercial North End.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net (Re-post from 2018)
Speaking at the Home Groaners meeting on August 6, 2018, CMA President Michael Badger said, ” The maps of Ocean Grove from the 1880’s contained a plan for the North End hotel and it will be excellent to have the founders’ vision fulfilled again,”
This quote is from the Coaster which reported on that meeting.
Here is a CMA map from about 1879 when Stokes and other founders were in charge, so you know that it is very early:
Ocean Grove from about 1879. Map commissioned by Dr. Stokes, President of the CMA. Click on map for details. North End has 26 lots for single family homes. See Jack Bredin’s comment below about this map.
Ocean Grove 1889 map. It shows 12 lots at the North End property. Those lots were for single family houses for Methodist clergy. No sign of a planned hotel there.
1881 Library of Congress map. Detail below this map.
Detail. Library of Congress map of OG and A. Park 1881. No North End hotel. There is the Ross bathing pavilion located there, by the ocean. The North End is otherwise shown as a barren lot. Click to enlarge.
Click on these maps to see the details. If you look carefully near the Ocean at the North End you will not find a “plan for the North End Hotel.”
Obviously CMA President Badger would like to find a historic precedent for a “very early” North End Hotel plan to back up his latest (2018) new North End plan. He says that there are maps that reveal “the founders’ vision” for a North End hotel.
We have never seen such a map, so it would be good if President Badger could back up his statement with at least one of his 1880’s maps, and we would be pleased to post it on Blogfinger.
We have reviewed Elwood Stoke’s biography as well as the book about early Ocean Grove written by Mrs. W.B. Osborn. Neither of these books mention a hotel.
In fact Mrs. Osborn tells us that James Bradley, who developed Asbury Park, saw that the two cities might compliment each other, so he offered Osborn a chance to partner with him and make some money. But Osborn refused, saying that he founded Ocean Grove not for money but for the “glory of God.”
The Grand Ocean Grove North End Hotel complex opened in 1911, about 40 years after the founding—hardly a good historic precedent for 2018 justifications.
Besides, even if that founders’ vision can be verified, who’s to say that it justifies the CMA’s 2018 North End Plan to build a hotel? OG’s history is full of hotels, but zoning normally would not allow one to be built from scratch now.
ELVIS PRESLEY
Stokes may have mentioned this in 1879, but it was just talk then–There was still no precedent for a hotel at the North End until, as you say, 30 years later–hardly a historic precedent.
Paul Goldfinger. Blogfinger Editor in Chief. 10/30/23
DAvid H. Fox comment.
In the course of doing other research, I came across this.
“The triangle of land west of Ross’ bathing houses [North End], between Wesley Lake and Spray Ave., which from the beginning has been in an unimproved state, has been leveled and depressions filled…This plot of land, which up to this time has not been taken up, though frequently sought after, is one of the finest we know along the Atlantic coast, for a first-class large Hotel.”— E. H. Stokes, OGCMA 10th Annual Report (1879).
Of course, this was not carried out for three decades.
David H. Fox
What your showing of the early Ocean Grove maps establishes is that every aspect of the North End Redevelopment Plan was created through fraud.
A ruling by the Supreme Court found, in Loechner v. Compoli, that an owner of two or more lots shown on an old filed map, may not sell less than the whole number of such lots without obtaining subdivision approval from the Neptune Planning Board.
The lots are considered to be merged, and the old lot lines must be ignored.
The OGCMA never filed their map of development in Freehold prior to the time of adoption of a land subdivision ordinance pursuant to the Municipal Planning Act of 1953, now the MLUL (Municipal Land Use Law of 1975.)
In other words, the North End was and is still legally merged with all of the beach front.
The courts also denied the use of a tax map, which the Zoning Boards of Adjustment were using.
All the North End hearings, testimony, reports, and evidence presented by Neptune Township, knowing that all were in violation of law, establish therefore that the “Area in need of Re-Development at the North End of Ocean Grove” is invalid.
Kevin Chambers
The original 1870 OG prospectus map (Library of Congress website) shows the town to be largely north of Main Ave. and east of Central Ave. Apparently, a second congregational area called the “Tabernacle” was envisioned for the North End, but this was never built.
The 1890 Sanborn Insurance Map shows a triangular arrangement of tents with cabins on the north end site in addition to the bathing facility. Their 1905 map showed nothing at all except for the bathing facility.
The 1930 map showed a cafeteria (opened 1932) on the former tent site and the North End Hotel and Pavilion.
In 1978, the Aldersgate project, a combination residence, assisted living, and nursing home facility, was announced, and the North End Hotel demolished for it. The swimming pool and cafeteria building lingered for a time, but were eventually also demolished.
There was local opposition to Aldersgate (people resented a place they could not afford,) and the general decline of the area
likely killed the project.
David H. Fox
Sufferingsurfer;
in 1879 there were 26 CMA Trustees and 26 large lots.
My above comment says’ SOME of the large lot owners got together and built the North End Hotel Complex’, not ALL of them.
Look closely at the top (1879) map. Really, there are only 19 lots north of Spray Ave. This is the area that is now in question.
The number 26 comes from the additional 7 lots that are west of Beach Ave, where there are already some houses and where the Warrington burned down and LaPierre was badly damaged a few years ago.
Reblogged this on Blogfinger and commented:
This is an important article from September 2018 about the historic North End of Ocean Grove. Lately it has been linked on a number of occasions, so, given the recent flurry of North End talk by the Township, OGNED, and the CMA, let’s repost it for some historical perspective. Just click on Blogfinger below this paragraph. —Paul @Blogfinger
The “founders vision” of Ocean Grove as shown on a 1878-1879 map that was prepared by Dr. Elwood Stokes was for 2,000 30×60, 1800 sq ft. lots for rentable summer tents .
As far as the North End is concerned, Dr. Stokes reserved 26 large lots, one for each of the CMA clergy. Each lot could accommodate a large year round single family house with off-street parking.
Dr Stokes served in OG for about 30 years. After he died, some of the large lot owners got together and built the North End Hotel Complex in 1910.
Here’s a suggestion for OG planners: Make sure that your decisions consistently match the visions of 26 men from 149 years ago.