By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger Re-post from 2016.
The Story of Ocean Grove, 1869-1919 by Morris S Daniels. Published in 1919 by the Methodist Book Concern in New York City:
“In a little old dingy tent, one of ten erected on the sand drifts of what was later to be known in Ocean Grove as Thompson Park but now called Founders’ Park, there occurred on the night of July 31, 1869 an event of immense significance.
“What happened was not unusual of itself, and the surroundings were not such as to impress one that history was making within the confines of the poor little tent, illumined, as it was, by a few tallow candles; but ‘Great oaks from little acorns grow.'”
Morris Daniels tells us that about 12 people gathered in the tent which belonged to Mrs. Joseph Thornley. They all had arrived the day before and pitched their tents there. There were no chairs, so they all sat on rough pine boards.
Daniels says, “The night was dark, save for the stars which twinkled brightly from overhead, while the few candles within cast a weird shadow upon the scene.
“Some had come directly from their own tents while others had preferred to wander over the yielding sands to the edge of the dune overlooking the sea to watch the moon rise from her briny bed.
“But shortly after nine o’clock all had gathered in the little dimly lighted tent for Ocean Grove’s first religious service—–a prayer meeting.”
WARREN VACHE´ “Stardust”. (He performed in the Great Auditorium.)
By Rich Amole, Blogfinger history reporter/researcher.
Paul:
“The best type of snow is the one that doesn’t need to be shoveled. Above is a real cool Snow Globe with the Great Auditorium inside. Snow Globes were designed to be paper weights but ended up being more of a collectible item of places visited.
Originally of European origin, they crossed the Atlantic in the 1920’s with the first patented one in the late 1920’s in the USA. Some of these marvelous items have music boxes attached. I could venture a guess on when this one was manufactured, but perhaps a reader may fill us in or even own one.
By Paul and Eileen (House and Garden Editor) Blogfinger.net
Our featured Ocean Grove home is an 1875 Victorian which was acquired by the current owners in 1994. At that time, it had been neglected, but many of the original features inside remained, including furnishings, pine floors, wood mouldings and trim, decorative fretwork, and vintage objects. The home had been built for a wealthy family, and in this tour, we are taking a close look at the maid’s quarters on the second floor.
In the maid’s kitchen was an old Vulcan stove and a fridge from the 1950’s. The kitchen table, perhaps from the ’40’s was left by the prior owner as were all the little accessories. The maid accessed the kitchen from her bedroom, so that was convenient for midnight snacks.
Her bedroom and living room were bright and cheerful. Hanging on the living room wall is a pictorial of the house which had been featured in a Victorian style magazine.
The bathroom was shared with the family and it opened into the maid’s bedroom; perhaps an awkward situation, but then again, maybe the master of the house appreciated this arrangement. In the corner of the bathroom is a cabinet full of product memorabilia. The owner reached in and pulled out a pamphlet which tells how a woman could improve the shape of her “bust.”
Kitchen table. Maid’s bedroom visible off the kitchen
Maid’s bedroom
Maid’s living room
Bathroom. Shared with the family. Door leads to maid’s bedroom
LEON REDBONE WITH VINCE GIORDANO AND THE NIGHTHAWKS (From the HBO series: Boardwalk Empire just released Volume 2 soundtrack album) “Baby, Won’t You Please Home.”
Walt Whitman from about 1869. Photo from the Library of Congress.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net
Walt Whitman (born 5/31/1819 in New York and died in Camden NJ 3/26/1892) was considered to be “America’s Poet” by Ezra Pound. He has had the most influence over American “free verse” along with Emily Dickinson. His most famous work is Leaves of Grass.
According to an expert source, Whitman loved the ocean:
“The sea, perhaps Whitman’s favorite metaphor, is mentioned over and over in all phases of his work, starting with the 1855 ‘Song of Myself’:
“You sea! I resign myself to you also / I am integral with you . . . I too am of one phase and of all phases.”
From a piece in the New Yorker: A quote from the writer and friend John Burroughs, “There is sea-salt in Whitman’s poetry, strongly realistic epithets and phrases, that had their birth upon the shore, and that perpetually recur to one as he saunters on the beach,” and that “No phase of nature seems to have impressed him so deeply as the sea, or recurs so often in his poems.” Burroughs even thought that his friend had “a look about him . . . of the gray, eternal sea that he so loved, near which he was born, and that had surely set its seal upon him.”
And here is another Whitman line, referring to the sea: “…proud music of the sea storm” (don’t know the source)
In late September, early October, 1883, Whitman checked into the Sheldon House in Ocean Grove with a colleague, naturalist John Borroughs, and they spent one or two weeks there. *
The Sheldon was one of Ocean Grove’s finest hotels with 300 rooms. It had views of Wesley Lake, the Ocean, and Founders’ Park.
The Sheldon House. Ocean Grove, NJ. Internet photo.
The landmark hotel was built in 1875 by Welcome Sheldon who turned it into the largest, most elegant, and best situated in the Grove. It was near the ocean at Central Ave. and Atlantic Ave.
From OG writer Perdita Buchan: By 1879, Ocean Grove had a newspaper, a post office, and two general stores, while the Sheldon House promised speaking tubes from bedroom to office, gas in all rooms, an elevator, and a “monster safe for the storage of valuables.”
While he was at the Sheldon House, Whitman began work on a new poem called “By Thine Own Lips, O Sea.” A copy of his earliest draft was written on Sheldon House stationery. Eventually the poem was completed and then published in Harpers Magazine in 1884 with the name of “With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea.”
Here is a reference card from the Whitman Archives:
The first draft of the poem is written on the back of this page. (below):
Sheldon stationery. From the Walt Whitman Archive
Whitman’s first draft written in Ocean Grove
This poem contained these lines:
“day and night I wander on the beach….
With undertone of muffled lion roar
And skreel of whistling wind,
and hiss of spray,
tale of elemental passion,
confided to me”
It was suspected that Whitman was a homosexual. But, those two men checking into the Sheldon did not create a furor because they were collaborating on a book, and Burroughs was well known as a confirmed heterosexual.
We * learned of Whitman’s visit from an anonymous Blogfinger fan who sent us the information from the Whitman Archives. Other papers of Whitman can be found in the Library of Congress, the University of North California, and Yale University.
In 1912 the new owner, impressed with the building’s location across from Founders Park, and with a great view of the FitzGerald Fountain (1907), changed the hotel’s name to the Fountain House.
So this does tell us the earliest name for Ocean Grove’s newly restored fountain. (2019)
In February, 1918, that grand hotel burned down to its brick foundation along with a number of other structures in the neighborhood including the Surf Avenue Hotel.
In the 1990’s, Kevin Chambers organized a Whitman Festival in Ocean Grove which became the largest and best known poetry festival in America. Unfortunately it was not renewed after 4 years.
GORDON TURK from a recording made in the Great Auditorium of Ocean Grove. “Sortie in Eb Major”
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@Blogfinger.net. This is a repost from 2017 updated in 2021.
Probably the biggest complaint about the Historic Preservation Commission relates to its inconsistencies. For example, a Grover couple owns a large Victorian home that they have tried to maintain with great attention to its historic attributes. It is actually a Victorian showplace. Up in back of their house there is a staircase ascending to an access at the second floor. They wanted to put a fairly small deck up there. It would be barely visible from the street and would improve the couple’s life-style. But the HPC refused the request on the grounds that such a structure was not historic.
Yet around the Grove there are all sorts of porches and decks that have been added. Just take a walk and you can see them. If you were a prospective home buyer here, you might look around and think that such decks are historic.
We had one on the second floor, in the rear, of our Centennial Home on Heck Avenue. If I tried to build that from scratch, it might (or might not) be approved. The HPC is unpredictable. Another person we know was given permission to put up a deck just like the rejected couple’s.
Double standards by the HPC (as with their parental group, the Township Committee) are toxic to good will and lifestyles in this town.
But if some of you are shocked, shocked that we might have double standards at the HPC, consider this:
And, speaking of astonishing double standards, consider the photo below:
The funny thing about this building is that locals and visitors find it to be amusing. So, thanks to the HPC, we have a giant conversation piece that is famous not for its Victorian architecture, but as a sort of joke; and the HPC has become the straight man for this humorous offering which does nothing for our town’s reputation and designation as an example of historic preservation. And rumor has it that the HPC allowed a historic roof top pool, something Rev. Stokes himself would have been shocked over.
One sport in town is to provide it with ironic nicknames. For example, one person in the Grove calls it “An Ode to Cement.” We call it the “Greek Temple.” Somebody else refers to it as “The Bank.” What do you call it?
2021 update: As many of you know, the North End Redevelopment Plan has been tied up in meetings with the HPC. The Township has failed to keep the citizens of Ocean Grove informed as to what’s going on, and the HPC is on mute.
As you know, the HPC only concerns itself with exterior design issues.
We have already seen preliminary drawings of the project, so for many of us, that project should not have been permitted in the first place, and I have no information as to what the HPC is fussing over, but we will probably be left with the same concerns: blocked views, blocked breezes, crowding, neighborhood congestion, environmental issues, and a significant change in the town’s character, appearance and mood.
It will be Asbury Park South. And the timing, now that the town is changing in a variety of ways, is unfortunate. This project will slither in silently under the door, while the rest of the town is concerning itself with COVID, many new citizens, many rentals including Airbnb and its problems, a striking sellers real estate market with great demands by buyers, a shortage of affordable rental housing, and rising prices for rentals and buys that have shut many out of the market. The town needs stores that provide services to those who live in town, and such down-home businesses will not be found at the new North End.
A lovely event was held on Saturday, September 22, 2018 on Ocean Avenue at Main and Heck. This single family house is doing just fine without being divided into condominiums. All that is required are owners who care about the town. Such owners could have been found for the Aurora. Blogfinger photo.
In August, Blogfinger questioned the decision by the Board of Adjustment to allow the single family zoned Aurora to be turned into a 4 condominium building.
In that article, we asked, “Why didn’t this Board insist on the single family zoning that was present when the owner bought the property? Do you think any promises were made to that owner, and who might have made those promises?” Zoning is supposed to protect the town and its citizens.
We know that the previous owner had trouble selling the property, presumably because of the single family zoning, but he bought it that way and lived with it that way, and this historically important building should have been left with its original zoning.
Some might argue that it is unfair to require that this old hotel be continued with single family zoning, because they say, “What can you do with such a big single family home?”
But you can visit any Jersey Shore town, including Ocean Grove, and find very large single family homes.
For example, on Ocean Avenue in OG are such buildings. Our photo shows a beautiful single family home which was happily occupied by 2 people before it was acquired by the current owners who left the zoning alone. You can see that it is often rented out for events, and none of its history has been compromised. It is located on Ocean Avenue, lovingly straddling Main Avenue and Heck Avenue, for all visitors and residents to enjoy.
Will you be able to say the same thing about the new Aurora?
It was April 20, 1900, when Mrs. Albert D. McCabe organized a whist card party at her Ocean Grove home to be attended by society women of Ocean Grove and Asbury Park as a fund raiser for the Monmouth Memorial Hospital of Long Branch. The women belonged to the hospital auxiliary.
But they ran into difficulty when the Camp Meeting Association learned of the event. It seems that the rules “forever prohibited” card playing and dancing in the Grove.
Mrs. McCabe was presented with an official letter from CMA Vice President A.E. Ballard and one from Chief of Police John Patterson. In it she was threatened with forfeiture of her land lease if she proceeded with the party.
According to the New York Times report, Mrs. McCabe returned to her house where the women had assembled and announced that “the preachers have prohibited the game.”
She suggested that the group go to Asbury Park where “Puritanism did not prevent card playing for charity.” So her group formed a line and marched to Asbury’s Winckler’s Hall.
The women were furious over the situation, but their defiance probably had a big impact on the men who viewed the situation as “a case which required heroic action”
—Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
This song dates back to 1929: First recorded by Ethel Waters. “Am I Blue?” Here she is:
Postcard. Courtesy of Rich Amole, Shawmont Hotel historian.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor. Blogfinger.net, Ocean Grove, NJ, USA. Re-post: 11/14/25
Notice that there were no lights on the OG Boardwalk in 1890. Edison invented the lightbulb in 1870. But, that summer in Ocean Grove, you could walk the boards at night, shuffle off to the beach, spread a blanket and count every star. And while you are at it, you could also count every firefly.
THE RIVIERAS
EDITOR’S NOTE: We have had some debate in the comments section about the pier in this postcard. We are told that the scene is from 1890, but that is not certain. We know from history that the North End pier came after the South End pier (constructed in 1891), so if this is the North End pier, where is the South End pier?
We also have a photo (below) from Rich Amole which shows both piers, and that image is dated 1904. It shows a large pavilion (? the Ross Pavilion) at the North End which isn’t visible in the postcard above. It seems like the North End pier was built between 1891 and 1904.
1904
Both piers were built in relationship to boardwalk pavilions: the Ross at the North End, and the Lillegard at the South End. The photo below shows the relationship of the north Pavilion to the north pier . It is looking south, and you can see the Embury Ave. pier in the distance.
Submitted by Ocean Grover Vincent Cannavo. Special to Blogfinger. Click to see more (or Seymour.)
Grover Vincent Cannavo found a number of Wesley Lake photographs on line which carry a copyright date of 1903, although the photos may have been taken earlier. In this image you are standing on the OG side of the Lake. We can see boats for hire as well as the A. Park amusements.
Vincent points out how different Asbury looked back then, although the OG side looks unchanged in other views. Notice how Lake Avenue was a walkway back then. No horse poop in sight.
That’s not surprising because the OG side managed to be a planned town, and the Victorian houses were somehow preserved even though there was no zoning, HPC or historical designations.
Thanks to Vincent for these images.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
ANDY FARBER AND HIS ORCHESTRA WITH JOHN HENDRICKSON AND TERRY DONGIAN
10 Main Avenue. 1896. Some questions are now answered. Photo courtesy of HSOG. Click left to see the details.
Detail: verso (back of the image)
10 Main Avenue today. 2013. Blogfinger photo
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger (Originally posted on BF November 2013)
The Historical Society of Ocean Grove was recently presented with a sepia-colored photograph of an OG house dated “1896”. The image was donated by relatives of a man who had settled the estate of a Dorothy Quinn.
The image shows “a two story stick-style house with Victorian trim including arches, square posts, shutters, a gull-wing roof, two wrap-around porches and a third floor balcony. Also shown in the photo are five people with bikes and a baby in a buggy, identified as possibly being a young Dorothy Quinn.”*
“On the right side, the building is cut off, but another gull-wing is suspected; although some houses in the Grove have a single-gull-wing. The square posts are said to be unusual.”*
The back of the photo is captioned in pencil with “House of La Vogt, Ocean Pathway. Mrs. PM Day (with buggy) and Dorothy in carriage. Ocean Grove Sept 1896.”
Ted Bell, HSOG historian, sent Blogfinger the photo for scanning and presentation on the blog. He said that his people would call my people when more research had been done regarding the image. Knowing that Ted took many years to complete his book on the Great Auditorium and knowing how meticulous he is, I thought that I should grow a beard and swear not to cut it off until I hear from him.
Well, la-dee-dah— a short while later I receive an email from someone I never heard of before: Roxanne Greco, “HSOG history intern.” It seems that Ms. Greco had done some original research on the photo with the encouragement of Mr. Bell. Voila! Ted had found a researcher to help him, and we thank Ms. Greco for the quick turn around.
She tells us that the building in the photo was probably at 10 Main Avenue rather than the Ocean Pathway and that it was likely a boarding house owned by Louis A. Vogt. Ms. Greco found old records that multiple families lived there “at once and in short periods throughout the late 19th century as found in the Ocean Grove House Occupancy Directory by David H. Fox.” She also found Mr. Vogt listed at 10 Main Avenue, when checking another source.
In 1939 the Pine Tree Inn was listed at 10 Main Avenue. Mrs. John Shafer proprietor. Greco’s research found nothing else about Louis A. Vogt, and one of the goals is to find out more about him. Ms. Greco says, “The mystery continues into the 20th century when the house was converted into the Pine Tree Inn (aka The Arsdale,) with many of the Victorian features removed.”* That building was recently changed from a small hotel into a private home.
The photo above doesn’t look much like the current structure at that Main Avenue location, but Ted and Roxanne see similarities in the windows and a suggestion that the earlier wrap around-porches had been removed. They would like to evaluate the interior of the building to check certain details such as the width of the floor boards. The idea that the building in the photo was on Main Avenue and not Ocean Pathway is strongly suggested by the information at hand, but it is not certain. The “Ocean Pathway” address on the back is not explainable so far.
Roxanne says that the history of 10 Main Avenue remains a mystery due to “several gaps in the timeline of our resources.” “Further investigation is necessary,”
She says, “Normally we prefer to confirm our research from more than one source. We need a solid timeline.” She and Ted will continue researching those gaps. “This photo is now part of the known history of 10 Main Avenue, and we look forward to filling in in the existing gaps.”
She says that the HSOG is “currently soliciting donations to install a word/phrase search feature on the recently completely digitized Ocean Grove Record/Times newspaper. This search feature will enable those interested to perform a more efficient and quicker inquiry as to their house’s history.” and the people who lived there.
Here is a link to the BF post about a wedding in 2014 at 10 Main Ave:
Blogfinger has been interested in OG history since the birth of the blog (which is after the birth of the blues) and we welcome information that helps our citizens understand the history of our town—religious and secular. Contact us if you have a story to tell.
*All quotes are by Roxanne Greco, HSOG history intern, who provided the research results for this article with the assistance of Ted Bell. You can see how tough the process can be. —PG
FRANK SINATRA (from the movie Pal Joey) Can you see that steeple?
*This page was scanned (with permission) from Wayne T. Bell’s book Images of America: Ocean Grove. This book can be purchased at the Historical Society of Ocean Grove; Pitman Avenue, next to Days Ice Cream.
Wilbur Fisk Day was born in New Providence, New Jersey on a farm, one of seven siblings. He learned the candy business in Jersey City and then returned to his family home where he made candy which his mother sold at the farm. In 1861, he opened a business in Morristown which was called W.F.Day, and the sign said, “Restaurant, Ice Cream and Caterer.”
Morristown store c.1889. Note the bicycle. All old photos courtesy of Virginia Tiger (Day family.)
The photograph of the Morristown store (1889 or 1890) has writing on the back. It names all the people in the image. Wilbur Day is forth from the left. A man named Sus is identified as “a French chef.” Several of the people are members of the Day family. There is a comment which says, “W.F. Day rode the bicycle to Washington in 2 days.” Another note says that W.F. Day was also a “confectioner.”
In 1876, in partnership with his brother Pennington, Wilbur opened the Day’s Ice Cream Garden at Auditorium Square, its present site in Ocean Grove. That was the year of America’s centennial.
Family notebooks** say that OG was an “infant camp meeting resort,” celebrating its 7th birthday. Those notes also say that there were 200 acres of grove in town along with “100 acres of beach land.”
Rev. Stokes believed in having many trees in town—he wanted the name “Grove” to mean something. It says that “only sand dunes and pines stretched from Day’s to the Ocean.” Also mentioned are “250 cottages built at that time along with forty larger buildings including boarding houses and stores.”
It goes on, “The vacationists here for the daily religious services and conferences by the sea preferred the tent colony, with over 500 tents then erected. The first auditorium was open air and nestled in a grove of pines directly opposite Day’s.” Note that the name had an apostrophe then, but lost it later in its history.
In 1878 they opened an ice cream garden at 291 Asbury Avenue in Asbury Park and then another branch on Broad Street in Newark (which closed in 1929 and was run by another brother Waters.) It is said that Paul Robeson, who was a friend of the Day family, was a singing waiter in the AP store.
According to the “Wilbur Day notebook” kept by a Day family descendent, “In 1882 Milton Hershey worked at the Morristown store (mainly learning to make caramel) before returning to Pennsylvania to start his own candy company.” **
Many celebrities came to Day’s in the early 20th century, including F.W.Woolworth who liked the variety of ice creams. Others included boxers Max Baer and James J. Corbett. In addition, Frank Hague, the mayor and political boss at Jersey City enjoyed his visits to Days.
We can imagine performers at the Great Auditorium such as Sousa and Caruso walking across for a treat.
The Morristown store stayed in the family until 1942. The Ocean Grove store was continued under Pennington’s daughter Agnes Day until 1950.
Two years ago the current Days team led by David Fernicola opened a branch on the Asbury Park Boardwalk, near the crossover to the Grove.
Currently the Days Ice Cream Garden at 48 Pitman Avenue in OG looks much as it did in the 19th century with its ornate decor, original bentwood chairs and walnut tables. It still faces the Great Auditorium and is only open “in season.”
Today, Days Ice Cream is the “oldest continuously operating business at one location in Ocean Grove.” * The building is owned by Phil and Karla Herr. The business belongs to Dave Fernicola and Tom Wilson.
Fast forward to 2014 on the Internet: A few days ago, a “Yelp” reviewer posted ” I live almost two hours away so I normally don’t get to have this ice cream, but whenever I come down the shore I make sure my group and I always get Days! —–best ice cream I’ve ever had!”
Ice cream at Days is happy time. And when you are there you can have happy talk. This song “Happy Talk” is performed from the original cast album of South Pacific by Irene Byatt:
References:
**Day Family Notebooks: One of the Day brothers, Stephen S. Day, was “an avid family historian, passing that interest to his daughter and granddaughter,” who was the mother of Virginia Tiger, who provided Blogfinger with much of the information used in this article. In an email to Blogfinger, Virginia said, “I am very pleased the name Day has continued to be associated with the business—-138 years!”
Prof. Ruth Kittner, PhD whom we interviewed during her recent visit to OG. She told us about the Morristown Day family connection and referred Blogfinger to Virginia Tiger.
*Wayne T. Bell and Christopher M. Flynn. Ocean Grove in Vintage Postcards. Arcadia Publishing. 2004
Ross Pavilion at the North End. Submitted by Rich Amole. Click once to enlarge.
From Rich Amole, staff–Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, NJ, USA
“Ross Pavilion north beach area———lots of beachers and bathers in their attire in the early 1900’s.
“How do they work on their tans? ”
Editor’s Note: There once was a pier as part of the OG Ross Pavilion which was a private north end bathing facility built in the late 1800’s. The North End pier was destroyed in a storm in the 1930’s and never rebuilt. The Ross Pavilion had some concessions and an auditorium and a bandstand. Later the North End Hotel ( 1911-1978) was built.
There was also a South End pavilion. The South End was earmarked for development, but citizens won that battle, and you can see the value of that resistance today (2025). —-Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net
CARLY SIMON : from her album Into White. Stephen Foster wrote “Oh Susannah” in 1848; It was one of the most popular songs ever written and it was probably played at the Ross Pavilion.
