Beachwood Historical Alliance – One Year On

Hello!

The Beachwood Historical Alliance hit its one-year mark this month, and so I wanted to thank the members and contributors that have helped make our organization – and this website – such a success over the past twelve months, as well as offer a quick assessment and word of my own about the future.

First – to our members, contributing past and current residents and borough officials: without your encouragement; attendance and participation in these early meetings; recollection of places, people and events since passed; and photographs, documents and other artifacts to offer historic visual ties to our borough, the Beachwood Historical Alliance would be nothing more than a failed good intention and empty website. A special mention also goes to my family and the families of all those who have given their time to this organization. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Next, a short assessment and recap of the year.

Found! Early Beachwood WWII Honor Roll

Courtesy of borough residents and BHA members Lynn and Tom Paro, the Beachwood Historical Alliance has digitized a series of photographs taken by Daily News NJ News Editor Ralph Sharpe between 1935 and the 1940s, a period when his family vacationed in Beachwood.

While the majority of these fantastic images will be saved for publication in the Beachwood centennial book and possibly other BHA publications, we’d like to share with you at least one photograph,  showing an early version of the Beachwood Honor Roll, which listed the names of borough servicemen off fighting World War II. As you can see, the list shown on that board carries less than half the names that would go on to appear on the final Honor Roll, seen today in Neilson Memorial Park. This Honor Roll was placed near the Beachwood Circle, adjacent our Borough Hall/Firehouse (demolished in the late 1990s and today Welsh Farms) and across from the Beachwood Circle Shop (today Carpetland) where Beachwood and Atlantic City boulevards intersect.

Three of the men on this Honor Roll – William Neilson, John Jerue and Richard Kavanaugh – were later killed in action, also reflected on the later version, produced after the war had ended. Neilson Park is named for William Neilson, who was the first casualty from Beachwood.

Listed in this early Honor Roll are, in order, 46 of the final 103 shown on the later memorial plaque:

Leon Smith
William Smith
Frank Gargan
Wallace Boud
Francis Ward
Peter DeMeige
John Jerue
Robert McDermott
George Grimm Jr.
Charles Sigrist Jr. (the Jr. is dropped from the later Honor Roll monument)
Richard Boutillette
William Perry
Louis Perry
Andrew Galatian
Edward Hilbert
Henry Perry
Milton Hall
Alfred Schmidt
Marshall Fellers
Charles Fellers
Earl Cummings
Harold Norris
William Norris
Pershing Randall
Harold Galatian
John Sprock
William Neilson
Fred Reeves
Earl Closson
Donald MacQueen
Hamilton Price
Buell Snyder
Thomas Spencer
Dudley Mill
Richard Kavanaugh
George Jerue
Lester Sigrest
Ernest Joy, M.D.
Richard Wagner
Wallace Hager
William Lockett
Jack Whittaker
Robert Hughes
George Hughes
Joseph Rioux
George Reynolds

In coming months and years, the Beachwood Historical Alliance will be producing a series of profiles of all those from Beachwood Borough that have fought in our nation’s wars, from World War I up to current day. Anyone with information, photos and contacts regarding borough service men and women are asked to write us at beachwoodhistoricalalliance@gmail.com

Snapshot of the Past – Beachwood Clubhouse from the Toms River

Today we just wanted to share a quick post of the Beachwood Clubhouse, as seen from on the Toms River, undated (though it would certainly have to be from between 1915 and the time of its burning, prior to World War II).

The site of the clubhouse today, a parking lot with stairs leading down to the water, sits directly across from the Mayo Park Playground on the bluff overlooking Windy Cove. It offers one of the best views in the borough, and includes a couple of picnic tables nearby.

Photo courtesy Joan Disbrow-Morris.

Winter Storm – Beachwood, December 19th & 20th, 2009 – Final

Today we have the last part of our photo set from last month’s winter storm that blanketed the borough with two feet of snow. Enjoy!

December 19th

December 20th

Photo Policy: All images Copyright (c) Beachwood Historical Alliance. Any use not explicitly permitted (ie – downloading and selling them) is strictly prohibited; violators will be prosecuted.

Winter Storm – Beachwood, December 19th & 20th, 2009 – Part II

Today we have the second part of our photo set from last week’s winter storm that blanketed the borough with two feet of snow. Enjoy!

December 19th

December 20th

Photo Policy: All images Copyright (c) Beachwood Historical Alliance. Any use not explicitly permitted (ie – downloading and selling them) is strictly prohibited; violators will be prosecuted.

Winter Storm – Beachwood, December 19th & 20th, 2009 – Part I

Today we have the first part of our photo set from last week’s winter storm that blanketed the borough with two feet of snow. Enjoy!

December 19th

A new-model Beetle, driven by a couple teenagers, arrives at the beach to give the new snow a whirl.

Initial success allows some snow driving in the parking lot at Beachwood Beach.

Victory is short lived and they get stuck in a snowdrift. One youth is seen here surveying the scene in a pair of summer shorts.

Unfazed by the winter weather, they decide to push out and live to drive another day.

December 20th

Photo Policy: All images Copyright (c) Beachwood Historical Alliance. Any use not explicitly permitted (ie – downloading and selling them) is strictly prohibited; violators will be prosecuted.

Building Beachwood: Ship Avenue, Circa 1921

Today we have the pleasure of presenting a rare photo of a Beachwood bungalow under construction, circa 1921, followed by its appearance right after completion and how it appears today.

These photos come from the family photo collection of Carolyn Campbell, life-long resident of Beachwood and official borough historian. Her contribution of these images (and many more to follow) highlights the importance and need for borough family photo albums to be digitized into the Beachwood Historical Alliance archive, whether they reach back to the early twentieth century or just the early 1990s. If you would like to learn more about digitizing some or all of your photographs taken in and around the borough, please send us an email at beachwoodhistoricalalliance@gmail.com.

In the above photo are (from left) Hattie Campbell (nee Widmaier), Lee Campbell, and Rose Widmaier (later, Garthwaite). Hattie and Lee are Ms. Campbell’s parents, Rose her aunt. The house seen here on Ship Avenue was built by Ms. Campbell’s maternal grandmother, Frieda Widmaier, on land adjacent to her original borough bungalow. Both homes stand to this day.

Check for future updates for more information on the Widmaier-Campbell family of Beachwood.

Hattie & Lee Campbell, circa 1921.

Rose Widmaier, circa 1921.

The above photo shows the home shortly after completion.

Ship Avenue, Fall 2009.

Photograph looking down Ship Avenue, facing north. In the foreground is the house with Frieda and Hattie sitting on the front steps. Circa 1924, taken from William Mill Butler's Beachwood Who's Who and Directory 1924.

Same view, 84 years later (taken December 2008 - the house is no longer for sale). Note the once-present walkway in front of the homes, now replaced with a widened roadway.

Anyone with photos taken in and around the borough who would like to see them digitized both for their personal use and our archive, please contact beachwoodhistoricalalliance@gmail.com

Beachwood Community Calendar, December 18th – December 24th, 2009

Any borough organization or local school wishing to make their events/meeting schedules/etc known here can send the information to beachwoodhistoricalalliance@gmail.com or to Beachwood Historical Alliance, ATTN: Borough Calendar, P.O. Box 3, Beachwood, N.J. 08722.

We reserve the right to reject any submission and will not post anything political in nature or taking place or based outside of Beachwood.

BEACHWOOD VOLUNTEER FIRE CO.

CHRISTMAS TREE SALE

The Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company is holding its annual Christmas tree sale fundraiser. Come down and support the fire company by purchasing your tree.

The Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company website can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Beachwood Diner Grand Opening and Fire

Today we’re going to take a look at the Beachwood Diner, present day site of the Sand Castle Diner, from its original grand opening in the mid-1960s to its fire in 1969.

Grand Opening photo courtesy Debbie Wiser; fire photo from the Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company website.

"Kenneth Young Norrington started a flag/decorating business, "Lokenor" after his retirement from Lakehurst in 1964. He'd decorated the Beachwood Diner." - Debbie Wiser

Beachwood Diner fire, 1969. From the Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company archives.

Anyone with further information on the Beachwood Diner/Sand Castle Diner or any other establishments on this site are welcome to write in to beachwoodhistoricalalliance@gmail.com. Thanks!

Snapshot of the Past: Beachwood Beach, Circa 1916-1930

Today we have two views of Beachwood Beach from the old yacht clubhouse pier (also used by the Beachwood Women’s Club for their functions and, later, the beach concession stand before burning down in the 1960s).

Though these postcards are unused and otherwise undated, we can place the first to be from about 1916 (as it correlates with a series of other postcards by the same company, the Hayrose Co.) and second about the early 1920s.

Circa 1916. Originally from Geoff Brown's collection.

Also of interest is how changed our beach is today. Once a wide stretch pointing out into Windy Cove (the point known as Spiles Point, where ships bound for New York once had charcoal loaded onto them from an early rail system out of the pine barrens), the current has blunted its eastern arm and pushed most of the sand west beneath the dock (once known as the diving dock, doing so today would result in nothing short of paralysis) and in front of the main section between the dock and where the rebuilt boardwalk to the boat docks and community center now stand.

According to former borough police chief Jack Moody, the borough for years would remove the extra frontal sand from beneath the dock and the middle of the beach and use it to replenish the eastern arm. At some point in the past twenty years this practice was discontinued and now appears disallowed under current environmental laws. The borough has since built bulkheading along the eastern edge of the beach and continues to fight the current from sweeping even more away with each successive storm.

Circa 1916. Originally from Geoff Brown's collection. Today the sailboat in the background would be run aground due to shifting sand over the years.

Check back over the next week for a series of photos from 2009 on how our waterfront has been flooded and battered by recent storms, including the one just this past week that submerged much of the beach and gave it an appearance of its earlier days.