By Paul Goldfinger, Editor. Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, N.J. USA.
As I passed this young woman, she was watering the flowers along the edge of Tent Village in Ocean Grove, NJ, taking her time while her two small children played nearby. She and her family are here, occupying her best friend’s tent, during one of the loveliest times in the Grove—the end of August. They are from Pennsylvania, and they seemed so happy to be here.
Sometimes we have to look around through the eyes of visitors, especially those who get to stay here for awhile.
The temperate weather now is so pleasant: the light is soft, the breezes gentle, and there is no humidity. As we have pointed out, there is something ethereal about the Tent Village when it is occupied by soft spoken people, children, flowers, and, oftentimes, by the sweet sounds of the Hope-Jones organ or the voices lifted high coming from inside the Great Auditorium with glorious choral harmonies sometimes accompanied by symphonic ensembles.
But the effect is sustained mostly by the voices of those who are chatting on porches, kids on skateboards, or parents relaxing within the protective safe-zone of the Village.
When I went home and stood in my own garden near Heroes Park, a tiny boy, 3 years old, approached me and said hello. His name was Abraham, and as he stood there with me, his mom caught up. I invited them in to see our pond fish.
Abraham and his family are from Yonkers, NY, and he has been visiting the Grove for the last 3 years, while his parents have been coming for the last 7. His Mom is originally from Sweden, and aside from Abraham’s enthusiasm and a three year old’s natural cuteness, he is bilingual. He pointed to a flying insect and said, “Dragonfly.” He was correct, and his mom took it all in stride. Abraham and I conversed in Swedish/English for awhile , and then he went home to sleep.
So, a couple more visitors caught up in OG’s gentle end of summer.
THE BAND PERRY: “Gentle on My Mind” this version won a 2015 Grammy nomination. It also won Grammies in 1968 for the composer and for Glen Campbell.
“Ever smilin’ ever gentle on my mind
Gentle on my mind
You’re gentle on my mind.”
Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net Click once to enlarge.
2021 re-post (The original question posited in the headline is still valid.)
There are multiple factions in the small town of Ocean Grove (pop 3,700,) and these organized groups are largely isolated from each other. Woven into the fabric are homeowners and renters who live here but do not belong to any organizations, thus becoming, by default, a faction of their own.
According to social scientist Steve Valk, whose family has lived here for several generations, it would be important for these factions to find ways to appreciate and cooperate with each other. For example he cites the religious groups and the secular groups which ought to find common ground for the benefit of the town. One example of such cooperation is the recent interaction, since Sandy, between Ocean Grove United (OGU) and the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (CMA); however we have recently seen how tenuous that relationship is when we recall the recent clash about Sunday sermons.
The CMA ran the town from 1869 to 1980 as a tax paying part of Neptune Twp.—-111 years.
Neptune Township treated OG as a sort of gated community. The CMA made the rules and imposed blue laws until the N.J. Supreme Court put a stop to that in 1980 when Neptune took over active governance in the Grove (although the Neptuners were technically the governing body almost since the town’s founding.) Since 1980, the CMA has continued its mission and it has largely kept out of the way of Neptune Township.
But we now see the CMA and the Township working together on the North End Redevelopment Project, but suspicious elements have been revealed, and that project does not seem to be designed primarily with the town’s best interest at heart. By 2021, the CMA, OGNED, and the Neptunites seem to be on the verge of going ahead with the NERP.
As for the Neptune Township governance, you have seen the results of our recent poll which shows that 80% of respondents mistrust the Neptune Township Committee. Interestingly, over the years, there were times when the citizens rose up against Neptune control resulting in law suits and even a failed referendum to allow the Grove to become a separate town which it did for one year in 1925.
The other organizations here also tend to have their own agendas and to be run like private clubs. Such groups include the Homeowners Association, the Historical Society, Ocean Grove United, and the Chamber of Commerce.
They don’t work together very much for the good of the town. They are busy with their own agendas. For example, the Chamber of Commerce runs big events to try and drum up business for the merchants. But what do they do for the benefit of those who live here? We asked them to take over sponsorship of the Town-wide Yard Sale, but they refused.
When we introduced a new idea for the town—the Blogfinger Film Festival—a benefit for the boardwalk—-only a few of the members would be sponsors for the program, and hardly any attended the event.
When we think of factions in town, we can see the visible ones, but how about the invisible ones such as families that have lived here for generations and are part of networks that act in concert with each other, with the CMA, and with the Township governance, especially where land use, zoning, and parking are concerned. Let’s call that “the OG network of special interests.”
For them the town of Ocean Grove seems like a gift that keeps on giving. This network never speaks publicly, shows its face, or identifies itself, but what it does and has done will impact all of us and will determine what the town will be in the future. Take a look at all the Grovers who are involved with OGNED and will gain financially from that North End project; to the detriment of those of us who live here and pay taxes.
We have seen the results of favoritism for those special interests in the Greek Temple and Mary’s Place. The North End Redevelopment Project is a good example to keep an eye on. Who will be the winners, and who will be the losers?
Because of indifference by the public, organizations, and special interests, Ocean Grove may become an at-risk town which could end up a failed historic place without focus and character, such as is seen in other shore towns—unless the public pays attention and the organizations here begin to work together for the overall benefit of the town and not just on their narrow pet projects, like the Homeowners Association which is currently circulating a simple-minded parking survey while ignoring the improprieties and illegalities around town regarding land use issues. The HOA has teamed up with the Neptune Committee ever since 2008 when it supported 165 residential units, mostly condos, at the North End.
In 2002, a professor* at Monmouth University published an academic paper about OG history, emphasizing the powerful way that the activist HOA of 25-30 years ago fought for the town and saved its life. Below is a quote** from that research about that era.
Contrast the conclusion below with the current HOA which now is failing Ocean Grove through impotence, inaction, and lack of focus towards the issues which currently threaten our town the most.
The Home Groaners need to step up and save the town once again, but this version appears to so far be hopeless in that regard.
** 2002: “The HOA has maintained or reconstructed the carefully planned infrastructure of the founders, and even as Ocean Grove is being reborn as a contemporary tourist site, the HOA has worked with the CMA to preserve its sacred foundations. Just like the CMA, the HOA has been outstanding in its ability to secure what it wants and what it believes the community needs. Property values have risen, the community is again a safe place, tourism has been revived, an enormous amount of social capital has been generated, and the Victorian charm of the town has been restored.”
By Karen Schmelzkopf* in the Journal of Historical Geography, 2002
Historian Lyndell O’Hara explores women’s role in Ocean Grove from 1870 to 1900. Mary Walton photo, 2012.
By Mary Walton, Blogfinger.net reporter. 2012
The year is 1858. Margaret Coleman is awarded a medical degree, becoming one of the country’s tiny number of female physicians. But in Ocean Grove their numbers are swelling. By 1900 five of the town’s 10 doctors are women. Nationwide, the figure is just 5 percent.
And by 1880 one of those Ocean Grove doctors is Coleman, who has moved here after practicing 20 years in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She purchased what was known as “Block House” at 40 Pitman Avenue and turned it into a treatment center that offered “first class accommodations to patients.”
Block House likely featured the therapeutic salt baths spiked with electricity — sometimes too much electricity — that were popular in those days. “Occasionally they lost a few people,” Lyndell O’Hara tells a rapt audience of 29 people, who have signed up for her women’s history tour sponsored by the Historical Society of Ocean Grove. The group is standing in the shade of a stately sycamore across the street from 40 Pitman, now the Allenhurst apartments. O’Hara gleaned the news of salt bath casualties from the Ocean Grove Record for that period.
A history professor at the Manhattan campus of Nyack College and an Ocean Grove resident for the past decade, O’Hara has spent three years exploring the role of women in Ocean Grove from 1870 to 1900. From census records, newspapers, Camp Meeting Association yearbooks, biographies and other materials she has painstakingly assembled a surprising portrait of a feminist haven.
During those three decades the Grove was both a center of the Holiness movement, which allowed women to develop as religious leaders, and a stronghold of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. “Because of the Holiness movement and temperance, women gathered here every summer,” O’Hara said. By 1900, 64 percent of the Grove’s population was female. In Asbury Park it was 56 percent, in Long Branch 51 percent.
Among the boldface names who spent considerable time in Ocean Grove were Phoebe Palmer, known as “the Mother of Holiness;” Frances Willard, president of the WCTU, and Amanda Berry Smith, a world-famous African American evangelist.
Not only did women flock to the Grove, they put down roots and prospered in business. “Ninety percent of the tourist business was run by women,” O’Hara told the group. Many of them were single or widowed. They owned and operated boardinghouses and cottages, or they rented boardinghouses from owners and rented out rooms. The industrious Carolyn Sissom somehow managed to lease 14 lots from the Camp Meeting Association when two were the limit and turned herself into a real estate maven.
Women dominated the tourism business in the 19th century, O”Hara says. OG women were also active in important religious movements. Photos by Mary Walton
Forty Pitman was the first of nine stops on O’Hara’s recent tour. Another was the site of the Manchester on Ocean Pathway, which was destroyed by fire in 2010. It was owned in the 19th century by Kate Kellogg, who had lived in Pennsylvania with her husband and two daughters. After her husband’s death she moved to the Grove and supported herself by taking in boarders until she was in her early 90’s.
At 6 Atlantic (also 5 Surf), today’s four-story olive green Aurora is “exactly the same” as when the three Bull sisters ran it, O’Hara said. Raised in a family of 11 children in Bradford, Pennsylvania, the sisters later moved to Newark, where they did piecework in the textile industry. Around 1879, the eldest, Matilda, rented “Shadyside Cottage” in Ocean Grove. By 1884, she owned the Aurora. And some five years later the enterprising Matilda opened the first hotel in Dunedin on the west coast of Florida and ran it during the winters. One of her visitors was Camp Meeting Association president Ellwood H. Stokes, who was quoted in the Ocean Grove Record as saying that it was “a real joy to be greeted at our place of entertainment, the ‘Dunedin House,’ by the courteous proprietor Miss M. A. Bull and her sister Lydia.”
Throughout O’Hara’s tour, Esther Dajnowski of New York City took copious notes and photographs. “I knew this was a place where a lot of women movers and shakers were,” she said. “But I’m glad to get more information and specific examples.” She said she would “type it up and share it with people who have similar interests.”
Thus far this summer O’Hara has led two tours, with a third scheduled for 1 p.m. August 30. The cost is $8 and reservations are advised.
Gail Shaffer, president of the Historical Society, said O’Hara’s research will be the basis of an exhibit next year at the Society’s museum, and O’Hara says a book is in the works. She will continue to lead tours next summer to different addresses. Ocean Grove is so rich with stories of women’s accomplishments linked to various locations, she said, that “I can do it anywhere.”
LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY. On the Ocean Grove beach. 2015. Paul Goldfinger photo.
OG boards, 2023. Paul Goldfinger photo. Paul Goldfinger portrait. Click once to enlarge.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor, Blogfinger.net 2015. Re-post.
Ever since we first moved full-time to OG, 2002, I have been interested in the town’s demographics. The census produces dry data, so it doesn’t really wrap its numerical mitts around the actual life of a town.
I wanted to know who lives here, who are the newbies, and what trends are developing. Would it be possible to deduce what kinds of people are living here or even visiting here, and how is it all changing over time? Can we use indicators derived by just looking around ?
My first impression of the Grove was when I went to a medical conference at Jersey Shore Hospital around 1990. It was after they introduced heart surgery there, and Archie Roberts, MD, the former Columbia University quarterback-turned-cardiac surgeon, was presenting a seminar. I arrived early, so I drove due east to the ocean.
“What kind of place is this?” I thought. It was winter, and I didn’t see a soul. My ideas of the Jersey Shore were Seaside Heights and Long Beach Island.
The town seemed so gray and dreary. I parked facing the ocean and took a nap. Then I left, quickly forgetting the town called Ocean Grove.
When we bought a weekend place here in 1998, we did so because our son was renting in the Grove while he joined the photo staff of the Asbury Park Press, and we had been observing the town and could see a positive evolution.
Some of the early signs that I noticed included young men in boat shoes and no socks buying the NY Times at the newsstand on Sunday mornings. I also saw that more kids and teenagers were visible in the summer.
When we moved near Firemen’s Park, I watched the sorts of dogs that were being walked and by whom.
Even Grover dogs provide indicators. Today (11/2/24) we saw a German shepherd mixed with a Husky. Wow!
Young families appeared in the Park and played soccer and Wiffle ball. Girls did somersaults. Little boys and girls rode bikes and wore helmets. One dad, who had purchased a Victorian home for weekends, was running after his daughter, teaching her to ride a 2 wheeler.
And, read the labels: “Tommy Bahama” is on the beach chairs.
Racial varieties appeared. I met a Chinese family who own a 4-family home near me. And an Indian family came to enjoy our town in summer. African Americans were showing up more often, although I haven’t met one who owns here. And I met some Hasidic Jews strolling over from Bradley Beach.
I thought that money was coming into town, and you could see how new owners were improving their run-down homes. Many of the streets looked pretty crummy until, all over town, change was apparent.
Relax with Tommy Bahama on the OG beach. June 26, 2015. Blogfinger photo.
This all looked like a positive development, but it wasn’t just money–it was diversity.
I met all sorts of smart and interesting people moving here and I saw that even the tourists seemed to be more sophisticated as time went by. I met university professors, artists, Broadway stage directors, medical school faculty members, authors, actors, lawyers, newspaper editors, nursing instructors, book publishers, physicians including heads of departments, healthcare experts, radio personalities, tech innovators, and even a guy who used to be starring in the Fantasticks—Sullivan Street Playhouse in the Village—-and so many more.
Ocean Grove was growing in popularity every year, and the indicators pointed in the same direction. You really didn’t need a weather man to tell which way the wind was blowing.*
And there were other indicators to identify gentrification, and I believed that it was a good thing to a point, especially when no one , I thought, should be able to build a McMansion in the Grove, and the town had so much history, period architecture and cultural infrastructure that it couldn’t become the Hamptons which once had been mostly potato farms.
But I also enjoyed watching the cars. I can’t fix a car, but I love cars, and you could see the gradual upgrading of automobiles in the Grove. Around me are a bunch of ultimate driving machines: BMW’s. There are two Z-4’s on my block alone. Another second homer around the corner has a BMW M-3, a powerful racing sedan. A new red Porsche 911 convertible sailed down Main Avenue yesterday.
A Mercedes CLA 250 on Mt. Tabor Way last week. Blogfinger.net photo .
Such cars were rare in OG, but now you can find Corvettes, Jaguars, Lexus, Mercedes, and many other elegant and high performance vehicles parked on our narrow streets and without garages. There’s one Grover who drives a Rolls Royce, but that is truly rare.
Of course, most cars here are ordinary sorts of vehicles, but it’s fun to look at the indicators that reflect people. It seems like we have inevitable change in our town, but it is the kind that enriches and adds dimension to a place with a historic foundation that I believe most of us want to preserve.
But if we are not vigilant, the efforts to keep OG’s fragile roots and foundations alive could be lost.
Rev. Osborn, who founded OG went to Australia and founded another religious community called Ocean Grove. Today it is a haven for surfers.
As for the Camp Meeting Association, we knew about them and we enjoyed many of the elements which they brought including a spiritual sense of the town, church bells, pop entertainment at the Auditorium, classical and high-end religious music, and some practical matters such as ground rents.
But somehow the CMA didn’t want to admit that it is merely one component in the fabric of this unique small American town. And that continues to concern me as you can tell from many of our posts about OG cultural issues.
But now that OG continues to evolve with diversity, the CMA climbs out of its place and expands, seeking to transform the town into a” Christian Summer Resort” with newly planned winter events as well.
In 1869-1980 it was predictable, but now the Camp Meeting Association reveals itself to be an aggressive force clashing with the evolving LGBTQ+ community specifically and with the secular, residential community which is now the largest demographic in town.
The Neptune Committee at the mothership is run by politicians of one party, and they act as if they represent the bulk of the town while the CMA represents the Grove.
However although the CMA may have influence, it has no real power since they have been elected to nothing.
The only way that we can get representative government in the Grove is to bust up single party rule at election time for starters.
The Neptune form of government needs to change to one of districts representing parts of town such as OG and we need to have direct elections of a mayor who will represent we-the-people.
Kate Campbell and Dominic Hauser: Theme from the TV series Laverne and Shirley
Annie and Ken, from Inwood, New York City, are singers. They first met on the OG beach a few years ago when they came to town to sing in the Annual Choir Festival. But it turned out that they harmonized in ways that they hadn’t planned, and now they are married and they will soon leave NYC and move full time to Ocean Grove.
Our reporter Stephen struck up a conversation with Annie and Ken in Founders Park where they hit the right note with this spontaneous pose. (Re-posted from July, 2017)
Mr. Parekh Bharat, from Mumbai, India, is spending a month in the U.S. with his wife. They were in Maryland with their son and daughter-in-law and now they stopped in the Grove for the weekend as they head north to Boston where their daughter and her family live.
Mr. Bharat is from one of the largest cities in the world. He has a business of digitizing documents for schools, libraries, and businesses.
I asked him what the population of Mumbai is. He said, “What do you think? It’s 1 1/2 times the city of New York.”
“20 million,” I guessed.
“You are right,” he said. I checked it at home, and it is an impressive town of 22 million.
They found the house at 91 Mt. Hermon Way via the Internet. This was the first time they were visiting Ocean Grove, and Mr. Bharat said that they enjoyed their stay very much. They went to the beach, but it was cold and windy today. They also saw the Great Auditorium and other sights around town.
Mr. Bharat was outside with his grandchildren late this morning when they met Stephen Goldfinger, our number one son, who was walking his dog Pooja–a Hindu name. It means devotion or prayer, but some Indian families name children Pooja. In addition, Stephen had taken a course at NYU in Hinduism, so they had a nice discussion.
When Stephen returned to our house, one block away, he told me about the Indian family down the block. Ironically, this morning when Eileen and I were driving out of town, we spotted the Bharat family ; he was wearing a traditional Indian white suit. I commented to Eileen, “Isn’t this exciting. I love it when we have diversity in this town.” A few weeks ago a Korean family had rented a place on Delaware Avenue.
So I went down the block to meet Mr. Bharat and his family. They all were delighted to discuss their visit to the Grove. I couldn’t help but speculate that they might be the first Indian family to ever rent a place here. And I was curious, so I asked, “Did you make Indian food here?” thinking that no one probably ever did that in the Victorian home that they were renting.
“Yes,” he said. I asked where he bought the ingredients, and he replied that they brought them from India. Then I asked, “What did you have for dinner last night?”
He replied, “Thai.”
When Stephen told me about the Bharat family, I went into my archives and found an original print of mine, showing Gandhi walking in Union Square Park in New York City. I signed it and gave him a gift. He was surprised and pleased, showing the photo to his grandchildren
Below is the photo described above:
Paul Goldfinger photo. Gandhi in the Gandhi Gardens.
Finally the family assembled on the porch for a photo. One of the little boys asked for a Blogfinger card, since I already had given one to Mr. Bharat and his eldest granddaughter. So I gave him two. I said, “Hold up the card for everyone to see,” and both boys did just that. The Bharat son asked for the web address, and I said, “Blogfinger.net” and as I turned to walk away, one of the boys said, “WWW.blogfinger.net”
I love to post stories and photographs that illustrate the life styles and diversity of our historic town which, at one time, was monochrome but now is multi-media.
MYCHAEL DANNA (composer of this movie score Monsoon Wedding, my favorite Bollywood film) “Love and Marigolds.”
Steve Valk. 2013 in Ocean Grove. Paul Goldfinger photo.
Modern OG history—2015
Dear Paul and everyone at Blogfinger…
Thanks for doing this reporting. Main Avenue isn`t just private property. It is part of the Ocean Grove “commons”… I am sure the wider OG community (extending all the way to Frankfurt, Germany where I am writing from and beyond…) will come together to make the rebuilding of this part of town.. once again… “an example for others to follow… (as was the case with the boardwalk and further damage from hurricane Sandy”)
I am calling on everyone in the larger Ocean Grove Community to take up their roles as loving and active neighbors and friends as I am sure they will…
Your work Paul… is one powerful example of this indefatigable spirit and communitarian work ethic… Many thanks… Steve Valk
Steve Valk, Feb. 7, 2015.
Editor’s Note: Steve is a summer visitor to Ocean Grove. His family has been coming here for generations, so he has a Grovarian view of things. We have posted prior interviews with him. He is a social scientist with some unique opinions about our town and how it could work in the future. Here is a link to our last post about him. —Paul Goldfinger. Editor Blogfinger.net. 2015.
Condominiums at the Time Warner Center were found to have a number of hidden owners over a decade who had been the subjects of government investigations. Credit Edward Caruso for The New York Times. 2016
Ocean Grove by Paul Goldfinger. Imagine the Grove after OGNED gets done with the North End. Why won’t they reveal who they are??
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger Jan. 2016. Re-post 12/22
In a front page article in the NY Times*, it is reported that the Justice Department is looking into secret investors who are behind high end real estate deals. They are especially interested in professionals such as real estate agents, bankers, and lawyers who are involved in developing such entities.
Oftentimes shell companies are formed such as LLC’s** (limited liability corporations) that shield the identities of investors. Frequently foreign buyers are involved using cash payments as they seek real estate deals to hide or launder their money.
Currently the investigators are focusing on New York City and Miami.
There is an LLC that is involved in the North End Redevelopment Plan. It is called WAVE, and we posted an article about it in April, 2015.
Since 2007. the identities of the WAVE investors have been hidden, even though they have been doing business with Neptune Township, the governing entity that is in charge of the North End Area in Need of Redevelopment.
You would think that any group doing business with the Township would be required to disclose the identities of its investors, and if it refuses, the Township should open bidding for others to be redevelopers of the NERP. But the Township continues to be involved with WAVE.
This is not to say that there is any evidence that WAVE’s principles are doing anything illegal, but any entity doing business with the Township should be totally above board and transparent, or it should be excused from participating in this project. This is about appearances, and the Township ought to make sure that its business associates are squeaky clean. As far as we can tell, the Committee does not know whom it is dealing with.
**”Simply put, an LLC is the least complex business structure. Unlike an S corp or C corp, an LLC’s structure is flexible. It also gives you the perk of pass-through taxes, limited liability (obviously), and legal protection for your personal assets; plus the added benefit of looking more legit than the other guys.” ( Internet definition.)
Editor’s note: It is now nearly 7 years since we expressed concern about the identities of those who are part of WAVE, the “re-developers” at the OG North End.
The identities of every member of that secretive group should have been demanded by Neptune Township because such a re-development zone comes under the direction of the Township Committee according to Land Use Law in NJ. But amazingly, the curtain was never pulled back. What were they hiding?
We should have been informed of every name in order to know about conflicts of interest in the Grove and Neptune governance.
Recently the issue was once again raised here on Blogfinger, but this time the secretive group has been renamed OGNED—Ocean Grove North End Developers.
Before this project is allowed to place even one shovelful of Grovarian dirt onto a dump truck, an HOA lawyer, or the Attorney General, should make sure that all secrets are revealed to the public before the character of this town is allowed to be transformed by big-money interests.
Organ curator, John Shaw preparing the new harmonic flute pipes for installation at the Great Auditorium. Photo by Mary Walton
By Mary Walton, Blogfinger staff. 2012.
Back in the 1960s, in what organist Gordon Turk deplores as “an unfortunate attempt to modernize” the magnificent organ in the Great Auditorium, 44 large open wood pipes were removed, cut up and used for wind ducts.
Their absence robbed the organ of its heft and rich, deep-throated tone. The person responsible “claimed to be an organ specialist but really should have been a plumber,” said Ocean Grove’s organ curator, John Shaw.
But when Turk puts the pedal to the metal for the opening concert of the 2012 summer season at noon Saturday, the Auditorium will once again fill with the sound that organ designer and builder Robert Hope-Jones intended listeners to hear.
Earlier this month replacement pipes made of poplar, constructed by A.R. Schopp’s Sons of Ohio and ranging in size from four to sixteen feet, were shoehorned into the tight quarters behind the choir loft by a team of Philadelphia riggers. To gain access, a wall to the building superintendent’s office had to be removed and then replaced.
There’s more. For some years Turk had longed for a set of harmonic flute pipes such as those found in the organs of certain French cathedrals. The Ocean Grove organ has many flute pipes, but harmonic flute pipes are distinguished by a small hole which reinforces certain overtones, giving them a clear “ringing” quality.
Until recently Turk believed they would render superlative sound only if housed in stone cathedrals. That is, until he played the organs at halls in Zurich and Vienna with acoustics similar to the wood-lined Great Auditorium. Could such pipes be installed here?
Turk consulted, among others, Jean-Louis Coignet, the organ curator of the City of Paris, who had once visited Ocean Grove and pronounced the auditorium’s organ “magnifique.” Over the winter they worked via e-mail to establish specifications for 306 harmonic flute pipes ranging in size from one and three-fifths to eight feet, divided into five “ranks” played from the organ’s five keyboards. John Shaw installed them just this week.
The two installations bring the organ’s total pipe count to 11,558.
The cost of the additional pipes is $65,000, made possible by gifts from two donors, James G. Howes of Clearwater, Florida, a transportation consultant, and Dr. Liselotte Schmidt, a retired music professor who lives in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
Howes, the grandson of Methodist minister G.E. Lowman, a noted Baltimore radio evangelist, contributed $45,000 for the construction and installation of the open wood pipes in memory of his grandfather. “I thought this would be a wonderful way to memorialize my grandfather and make a contribution to Ocean Grove that everyone could enjoy,” he said in an interview.
Howes learned to play the organ in his grandfather’s church, the Baltimore Gospel Tabernacle, now an historic landmark. “I’m just good enough,” he said, “to know how much more I need to know.” He has also played and sung in the choir of the interdenominational Riverside Church in New York City.
Howes’ grandparents were frequent visitors to Ocean Grove, as was his mother. Howes himself has been coming here since childhood and never misses a Choir Festival. A pilot who forged a career in airport management, Howes is also the president of Atlas Communications, which offers a weekly radio program, Sacred Classics, and produces CDs and concerts.
One CD recorded in 2001 features Gordon Turk. Titled “Sacred Classics at Ocean Grove,” it has sold more than 3,000 copies, which Howes says is “very good for an organ record.”
He will be in the audience Saturday when Gordon Turk will debut the organ’s new additions.
Turk will also offer a July 4 recital (“Storms &Thunder, Stripes & Pipes”) and will play at a July 5 Summer Stars performance with the Philos Polished Brass Ensemble. And featuring, of course, the Auditorium organ.
One of the new 16-foot open wood pipes under construction earlier this year in Ohio
Editor’s note. September, 07, 2022. Below is a comment from OG historian David Fox dated today.
The Auditorium organ was purchased at a supposed discount in return for having, “Hope-Jones Organ Co. Elmira, N. Y.” emblazoned in gold on the base of the central display pipes. This ceased to appear on postcards in the 1920s.
While the company went out of business in 1910 and the present instrument is mostly not Hope-Jones, I feel it would be a nice historical touch if the name were restored.
It also had some now vanished “U”-shaped wooden ornaments running along the slanting tops of the pipe screens.
CANTILENE. This is a Gordon Turk recording on the Ocean Grove organ.
The OG summer tents are sought after by painters, photographers, tourists, renters, historians, strollers, bikers, and others. Our tents are unique. From a photographer’s point of view, we look for new ways of seeing the tents; we try to be creative with lighting and composition. It’s not easy to come up with something different, but that is what we require at this Ocean Grove website where photography is used more than words to describe our town.
When I submitted a “plain vanilla” portrait of the tents for the book “New Jersey 24/7” I was surprised that the image was one of the winners, but then I realized that those of us who live here are a bit jaded, like New Yorkers who take the Empire State Building for granted.
But for you OG photographers, Blogfinger will continue looking for fresh ways of seeing our historic and beautiful tents.
ADAM LEVINE “No One Else Like You .” From the film Begin Again
Here is a re-post of part I of our research about the Embury Arms Condominiums posted in September of 2015. Time to re-read it now in 2020. The dots between it and the current North End Plan can be connected.
Recently a reader wondered about the Embury Arms condominiums. Her concern came about in the midst of our real-time discussions of the North End Project and Mary’s Place zoning. She asked how that large condo project came about and whether there were issues then similar to the ones that we have been considering recently.
Embury Arms condominiums on Whitefield Avenue consist of 112 units. It was built in the 1980’s. Old OG newspaper reports say that the CMA approved the project in 1978, and then the ground breaking ceremony was held in 1980. Those news reports never mention approvals by Neptune Twp. nor do they mention any concerns about historic preservation. They do talk about energy conservation measures that won awards for the developer.
These condos are 1 and 2 bedroom apartments within four large 3 story buildings. The complex sits in the middle of the Grove, surrounded by Benson, Delaware, Heck and Abbott Avenues. Embury and Webb Avenues stop short as they go west to Delaware Avenue, right at the border of the Embury Arms condos, and Whitefield Avenue goes straight through the middle, with private parking spaces on the perimeter of a public street.
Ocean Grove Times, August 25, 1978.
An ad in a 1982 local newspaper describes “authentic Victorian designs.” The apartments were starting at $49,900.00.
The official 2015 CMA summer guidebook map shows Webb and Embury going straight through to Lawrence Avenue, but they do not and they never did because west of Delaware, where Embury Arms now sits, there were stables, used mostly for storage by the Camp Meeting Association. Apparently some of the buildings were rented out for parking, but it was not an area for public parking.
It is not our intention to review the detailed history of this condo project, but anyone walking by has to wonder how the heck the developer got permission to do this distinctly un-Grovian style condominium complex. It not only is contrary to the Master Plan as we know it, but it takes up space that could have been filled with single family Victorian style homes in order to match the appearance of the rest of the Grove.
Embury Arms provides PRIVATE parking by allowing head-on placement of vehicles on Whitefield Avenue that is partly on private property (using the theoretical front yards of those lots) but it also allows the cars to stick out over where the public sidewalks should be. In other words, that parking lot violates the public pedestrian right of way.
Normally the right of way along a public street is 40 feet wide, consisting of the road (auto right of way) and the sidewalks (pedestrian right of way) measured together.
Yes they put some recessed sidewalks there, but that is private property, and public access could theoretically be shut down at any time. The Whitefield Ave. auto right of way is intact for cars driving through, but is not inviting for autos to drive through, and warning signs threaten anyone who would dare park there.
In addition, the project deprived Ocean Grove of many potential public parking spaces if private homes had been built on streets. Instead, all those curb cuts created a giant parking lot. Where else in town is a public street (in this case Whitefield Avenue) used for private parking?
The property was originally used for stables, so no private homes were demolished to make room. Undoubtedly the CMA, the Township, and the developer were in collusion to create this massive mistake, but the history of the time* indicates that OG was not as proactive in historic preservation then. It was a time when governance here was in a state of flux**, and the public did not protest much. There was a suit that delayed completion, but eventually the Embury Arms condominiums were finished. At least the condo developer of Embury Arms provided parking, even though the law was stretched to make that happen.
We have no information as to how the zoning was finessed to allow this, nor do we know what the Planning Board had to say. At any rate, it is a done deal, and nothing can be done about it at this point.
It is interesting that there is an earlier precedent. In 1964, across from Days, a large hotel burned down, and in its place rose the Arlington Court Co-op. consisting of one bedroom apartments for which no mortgages were allowed. This was a new idea for the Grove, and evidently no one cared that single family Victorian homes were not built. The CMA was in charge then and they must have supported the idea. (? sound familiar)
However, now we are in a position to do something about the largest condominium development in the history of Ocean Grove—the North End Redevelopment Project. But there is concern that public apathy will once again allow a wrong-headed condo project to go ahead. We have seen this illegal process before. If no one takes legal action when work begins or sooner, then, as with other projects in town, nothing can be done after the fact.
The CMA and the Township are counting on public inaction. Will we let them do it again?
CREDITS:
Ted Bell*, Ocean Grove historian
Jack Bredin, Blogfinger researcher
Tom Constantino, Blogfinger researcher
** In 1980, governance of Ocean Grove was turned over to Neptune Township by the NJ Supreme Court. That transition must have taken years to work out, but the Embury Arms project took hold during that delicate time.
Here is a link to Part II of this Embury Arms historical review.
