Days Ice Cream. 1998. Photo and silver gelatin darkroom print by Paul Goldfinger. ©. Copyright. Click once to turn a single dip into a double.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor @Blogfinger
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.
Days Asbury Park. 1878. Courtesy Virginia Tiger ©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.” **
Postcard 1908. OG. Courtesy Virginia Tiger©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.
Ocean Grove. Paul Goldfinger photo. ©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!”
Happiness at Days. Paul Goldfinger photo ©
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
- Asbury Park branch opens: Days opens in AP 2012 BF report
- Blogfinger photo August, 2013 Blogfinger photo link for Days 2013
- Days opens for the season 2013 Days reopens for season