Resorts and recreation: an historic theme study of the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route: the Atlantic shore: Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Atlantic and Cape May Counties

Allaback, Sarah; Milliken, Chuck

During the summer of 1991, the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER), a division of the National Park Service (NPS), commenced its research on the Atlantic Coast areas within the designated New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route (Frontispiece, above). Three HABS historians were assigned to the project—covering an area stretching 275 miles from Perth Amboy and Sandy Hook, south to Cape May and east of the Garden State Parkway, which lies within Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Atlantic, and Cape May counties. Initially, this project was intended to consider a variety of themes and resource types previously studied in the "Delsea" area, and serve as a companion document to the book, Historic Themes and Resources within the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail, Southern New Jersey and the Delaware Bay: Cape May, Cumberland, and Salem Counties (1991). As fieldwork and research progressed, however, the theme of recreation and resorts clearly surfaced as the outstanding motive for development of this coastal strip—within which transportation, religion, architecture, and industry are all subservient themes. Beach-based tourism has been the attraction of this area throughout its history. Unlike the relatively undeveloped wetland-dominated South Jersey and Delaware Bay counties, the Atlantic shore portion of the Trail consists of a string of communities that are generally quiet except for the summer months, when they are more densely populated. The extent of the territory and the diversity of growth between Cape May and Perth Amboy make countywide generalizations impossible, but the number of towns—of more than 100, approximately forty were documented—surveyed in the three-month period of fieldwork demanded broad thematic treatment. HABS historians attempted to provide both a basic, historical overview and more detailed information unique to each locality. As the town histories illustrate, improvements in transportation brought more people to the shore, expanded markets for coastal products, and created new destinations for an emerging leisure class. The relationship among these themes became increasingly apparent as work on the project progressed. Over a three-month period, HABS historians visited regional sites, performed fieldwork, and took photographs. Local historians and directors of historical societies were consulted for guidance in site selection and archival research. The Monmouth and Ocean County "sites inventories" supplied valuable background information; primary source material offered nineteenth-century observations, secondary sources were more useful for examining broader patterns of settlement and growth within each county. This survey phase was followed up in summer 1992 with more intensive research on a small number of significant and representative sites exemplifying the unique cultural heritage of the Jersey shore. Individual reports were written, for instance, on sporting clubs, convention centers, bathing pavilions, and hotels. In addition to architectural and physical descriptions of these structures, the reports explore the social context in which they functioned. Both the town histories and the building reports written over the past two summers have been incorporated into the following history, prepared in summer 1993. This study focuses on the growth and development of a resort industry that remains a dynamic part of New Jersey's economy and a significant cultural experience in the twentieth century.