Beachwood Fall – 2009 Photo Essay

Today marks the first of our extensive Beachwood Fall – 2009 Photo Essay. You’ll notice some Halloween homes snuck into this first set as all photos were taken on October 30, 2009.

Enjoy!

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.

Haunted Homes of Beachwood – 2009 – Part II

And here’s the second half of our special Haunted Homes of Beachwood Photo Collage 2009!

Since they don’t yet receive as much exposure on this site as they’re the newer half of town, we decided to focus much of this series on the southern end of the borough between Route 9 and the current borough hall on Pinewald Road.

We hope you enjoy this broader look at Beachwood and its strong spirit of Halloween, and invite anyone whose home did not make it in this collage to submit their own photo(s) at beachwoodhistoricalalliance@gmail.com or by physical mail at PO Box 3, Beachwood. Costume photos also welcome.

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Cable Avenue.

Longboat Avenue.

Forecastle Avenue.

Neptune Avenue.

Longboat Avenue.

Leeward Avenue.

Longboat Avenue.

Longboat Avenue.

Chestnut Street.

Anchor Avenue.

Longboat Avenue.

Longboat Avenue.

Haunted Homes of Beachwood – 2009

Today we have the first part of our special Haunted Homes of Beachwood Photo Collage 2009!

Since they don’t yet receive as much exposure on this site as they’re the newer half of town, we decided to focus much of this series on the southern end of the borough between Route 9 and the current borough hall on Pinewald Road.

We hope you enjoy this broader look at Beachwood and its strong spirit of Halloween, and invite anyone whose home did not make it in this collage to submit their own photo(s) at beachwoodhistoricalalliance@gmail.com or by physical mail at PO Box 3, Beachwood. Costume photos also welcome.

Enjoy!

Ship Avenue.

Ship Avenue.

Leeward Avenue

Pacific Avenue.

House unintentionally in the Halloween spirit, Mermaid Avenue.

House unintentionally in the Halloween spirit, Mermaid Avenue.

Pacific Avenue.

Pacific Avenue.

Ship Avenue.

Berkeley Avenue.

Oak Street.

Windward Avenue.

Mizzen Avenue.

Ship Avenue.

Leeward Avenue.

Wave Street.

Ship Avenue.

Ship Avenue.

Local Founders Profile: Edward and Annie Robinson

From the pages of his own 1924 Beachwood Directory and Who’s Who, here is what William Mill Butler wrote about original residents Dr. and Mrs. Edward Percy Robinson. Click on all the embedded links for a broader understanding of their lives and background:

Circa 1924.

Robinson, Edward Percy, M.D., west corner Beachwood and Barnegat Blvds., Block D-40. Other address, 420 Nuber Avenue, Mt. Vernon, N.Y.

Born in the parish of St. James, Island of Barbadoes, of English parents, his father being  planter. Educated in private schools there and in the Coleridge School, an academy. Heard much about the United States and at the age of seventeen came to this country, and became a drug clerk in Philadelphia. He had studied the British Pharmacopoea before leaving home and now applied himself also to the study of American Pharmacopoea. In 1892 he was registered as a pharmacist in New York City, where he remained several years and became chief apothecary of the Presbyterian Hospital before he had attained his majority, being technically put on “probation” a year on this account. About 1903 he entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, graduating in 1897 [ 2009 BHA Ed. note: it can be assumed that these dates are reversed; Robinson likely entered in 1897 and graduated in 1903].

Robinson home, circa 1924.

Engaged in general practice for several years and then entered the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital in New York, and studied diseases of the nose and throat. For a time he was assistant to the chief of clinic in rhinology and laryngology at this institution, and he also served as assistant in the genito-urinary clinic at the Presbyterian Hospital Dispensary. His practice having reached a point requiring all his time, he gave up hospital and dispensary work.

Robinson home, Winter 2009.

For the past eighteen years or more Dr. Robinson has devoted his studies to the nature of the cell, and from these researches he wrote the epoch-making hypothesis on the cause of cancer and his reasons for the use of potassium nitrate in its treatment. His contributions to medical publications include: Use of Paraffin in Surgery, New York State Journal of Surgery, May, 1902; Artificial Cell Proliferation with Horse Serum in the Treatment of Burns, Annals of Surgery, March, 1917; A Plea for Potassium Nitrate in Cancer, Medical Record, May 4, 1918; Does Analogy Exist Between Animal and Vegetable Tumor? Medical Times, August, 1918; Does the Cure of Cancer Depend Upon Oxidation of the Tissues? Medical Record, July 5, 1919; The Influence of Potassium Nitrate in Nephritis, Medical Council, May, 1919; Is the Endamoeba Buccalis the Real Cause of Pyorrhea? Dental Cosmos, October, 1919; Electrochemism in the Etiology and Therapeusis of Cancer, Medical Record, July 24, 1920. Other important contributions since.

Dr. Robinson was married to Miss Annie Reinacher in New York, 26 years ago. They have one son, Beverly Kerr Robinson, who served in the infantry overseas during the war, as a runner, carrying messages in the thickest of battles, without being harmed. Dr. Robinson is a member of the College of Pharmacy in New York. Is a charter member of the Polyhue Yacht Club, at present serving his second term as Commodore. Also a member of the Property Owners’ Assn. His son is also a charter member of the Polyhue Yacht Club.

Original Polyhue Yacht Clubhouse.

Case Study: Long Branch Seeks Better Future through Historic Preservation

As Beachwood Borough researches the development of a historic preservation ordinance and commission, we are going to begin tracking how one municipality to our north, the city of Long Branch, begins the process of introducing a long-sought after preservation ordinance of their own. It is our hope that by reading about their drive to sustained devlopment through preservation, our residents and borough officials will be aided by example.

L.B. Council Introduces Preservation Ordinance

Public hearing set for May 26 council meeting

Kenny Walter
Staff Writer
Atlanticville
Greater Media Newspapers

LONG BRANCH — The City Council has finally introduced a historical preservation ordinance after almost two years of delays.

The council unanimously voted 5-0 to introduce the ordinance at the May 12 meeting and scheduled a public hearing and final vote for the next meeting on May 26.

Long Branch Councilman Brian Unger has been pushing for approval of the ordinance since August 2007 and said he is confident that the council will endorse the ordinance.

“I believe it will be approved,” Unger said.

The ordinance aims to protect historical structures in the city by creating a Historic Preservation Advisory Commission that would review the potential effect of development and permit applications on designated historical sites.

The commission would review the potential effect of development and permit applications on designated historical sites and work with and advise the Planning and Zoning boards and individual property owners.

The ordinance will regulate only designated sites that require a permit and application for development.

The ordinance has the endorsement of the local historical society.

Beth Woolley, a trustee for the Long Branch Historical Society, said, “The only way to really protect private historical buildings is to have a local historical preservation ordinance.

“Most may not know this, but Long Branch is an extremely historic town,” Woolley added. “Long Branch has the potential to look like other towns that have embraced their historical buildings.”

The ordinance was expected to be on the agenda for the April 28 meeting but was ultimately pushed back until May 12 when the council agreed they needed more time to work on it

At the April 28 workshop, the council decided to push back the ordinance to clarify some of the language in it. According to Unger, there are no changes in the version of the ordinance introduced last week.

Dr. Frank Esposito, Kean University distinguished professor, suggested at the April 28 workshop that some of the ordinance should be rewritten.

“It is a step in the right direction, but it needs some revision,” Esposito said, “including downsizing and elimination of reference to a historic district. At this point, it may attempt to do too much.”

Esposito added that much of the ordinance is useful and that he supports the creation of a commission.

“The creation of the commission would keep a watchful eye on this issue,” Esposito said. The ordinance was expected to be introduced back on Feb. 24, but Unger requested that certain sections be rewritten to strengthen the role of the Historic Preservation Advisory Commission.

“Someone … put in language taking away from the Historic Preservation Advisory Commission the ability to adopt and utilize their own best-practice professional guidelines for designation of historic properties,” Unger said at the time.

The commission would compile an inventory of historical sites and structures in the city that could qualify for historical preservation. The commission will consist of seven members and two alternate members, with alternates appointed by the mayor.

Of the seven members, three must be either knowledgeable in building design and construction or architectural history or have a demonstrated interest in local history.

The remaining four members will be residentswho do not hold any other municipal office, position or employment but may be members of the Planning or Zoning boards.

The ordinance defines the goals of the advisory committee.

“Maintaining, preserving, and rehabilitating these visual links to the past is an important function of government, not only to provide a sense of stability and continuity for future generations, but to provide impetus for the revitalization of the city’s economic base and for the resulting increase in property values,” the ordinance reads.

The ordinance lists specific goals, which include safeguarding the heritage of Long Branch, encouraging the continued use of historical landmarks, and maintaining and developing a “harmonious setting” for the historical and architecturally significant buildings.

Other goals listed are: to stabilize and improve property values, to promote appreciation of historical landmarks, to encourage the beautification of and reinvestment in historical sites, and to discourage demolition of historical resources.

The responsibilities of the commission include preparing and maintaining preservation guidelines, reviewing applications that affect the historical properties, recommendations on designs, and preparing an inventory of historical sites and landmarks.

It also states that new construction on or near a historical site should not necessarily duplicate the exact style of the site but should not detract from the historical site.

According to Woolley, one of the obstacles to preserving historical structures in Long Branch is that until now, the city has had total autonomy of control over historical landmarks.

“Historical preservation only encourages owners to keep their land,” Woolley said. “You can’t do anything to protect the buildings without a local preservation ordinance. Even if it’s listed by the state as a historic structure, it can be knocked down if it is privately owned,” she added.

Snapshot: A Beachwood Bungalow, 1916 and Today

Today we have the pleasure of presenting to you the image of an original Beachwood bungalow, found on a postcard sent in 1916, and how that same model looks today.

This postcard appears one in a series printed to promote our early resort community. Of interest is that the back of the card states our name to be “Beachwood Club”, matching the name of the resort B.C. Mayo developed right before Beachwood, “Lakewood Club” (Michigan). Both Beachwood Club and Lakewood Club dropped their ’surnames’ in subsequent years.

Enjoy!

Back of the original postcard, sent 1916.

July 3 – 1916

Dear Ma,

Thought you would enjoy seeing the style of bungalow they are building in Beachwood. The Bauers’ is similar to the one in the picture. Mother and I have been enjoying it for a couple of weeks. We will be home Saturday.

Lovingly, Aimee

[side note - any help deciphering the handwriting in any of these postcards is very appreciated]

Addressed to:

Mrs. Wm. Verrinder
102 Clinton Ave.
Clifton, N.J.

Small Scale New Urbanism – The Future of Beachwood?

In today’s entry we’re going to begin to examine the concept of New Urbanism and how it can relate to the future of our borough. This will be the first part in a series studying how, with Beachwood nearly 100 percent built out to its borders, our borough officials and property owners can begin focusing their energy to meet the needs and goals of the coming years.

A.D. Nickerson home, today.

PART I: BACKGROUND

What is New Urbanism?

“New Urbanism is an urban design movement that arose in the United States in the early 1980s. Its goal is to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning, from urban retrofits to suburban infill. New urbanist neighborhoods are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs, and to be walkable.

New Urbanism can include (neo)traditional neighborhood design, transit-oriented development, and New Pedestrianism. New Urbanism is the re-invention of the old urbanism, commonly seen before the advent of the automobile age, while New Pedestrianism is a further elaboration of less common, pedestrian-oriented, urban design experiments that date to the early 20th century.”*

As New Urbanists can trace the history of this contemporary movement back to early 20th Century development, so can we in our own borough.

Beachwood 1930.

Beachwood, begun in 1914 as a newspaper subscription promotion, was cut from a tract originally part of Berkeley Township and focused almost entirely on our waterfront, criss-crossing train lines and their station point, with a downtown constructed connecting the two. Starting out as a resort community for the upper working class of New York City, its early homes consisted largely of summer bungalows and evolving to more year-round cape-style homes through World War II. Original residents relied mainly on the trains to take them to and from their regular neighborhoods in the New York City area, and the waterfront for recreation and the nautical access of the bustling county seat, Toms River. Cars, while prevalent in some of the more well off family homes, were largely absent or left behind at home in the bedroom communities of northern New Jersey, New York State and Long Island.

Beachwood’s population in those early years hovered well under one thousand, and the southern ‘heights’ portion of the borough was an undeveloped pine forest. Boy Scout troops, including Beachwood’s own Pack 14 (now 114), would camp out where today there are many modern homes and paved streets.

Our center of town handled much of early pedestrian residents’ needs: an A&P, American Store and Disbrow’s Market for groceries; an independent butcher shop and a butcher counter in Disbrow’s for meats; Greene’s Economy Store for hardware, gifts and sundries; the Beachwood Library for borrowing reading material; and the Beachwood Circle Shop, for socializing, dancing and fast dining that catered to residents not just of Beachwood but also the greater Toms River and Berkeley Township area.

All of this changed with the advent of World War II and the coming of both the baby boom and automobile age. The latter cut a physical presence in the borough, as the Garden State Parkway, built in the early 1950s, sliced off the tail end of Beachwood from the rest. The combination of Americans living high on one income through the post-war economic boom with the advent of a clean, fast highway linking northern New Jersey to south drove families by the thousands down to Ocean County and Beachwood.

The borough population and the number of homes built near-doubled every decade from 1940 to 1980. This booming growth quickly usurped the previous small sleepy shore town atmosphere and replaced it with a thriving community sprawling out from the old town center before encroaching the parkway boundary itself, once thought a feat unimaginable. With Americans’ new thirst for the convenience of the automobile over what they perceived to be the slow, turgid crawl of a train, passenger service through the borough quickly ended and residents had no other choice but to fill their streets, side yards, front yards and newly built detached garages with cars of their own. While one car was at first considered the norm, multiple cars soon appeared on the curbs and drives around the borough as children became teenagers and multiple incomes became necessary, and garages and carports developed into a regular sight incorporated in the postwar ranch-style home designs.

As the borough grew, so did residents’ accessibility to resources beyond its borders. Grocery stores, general stores, butchers and consumer-friendly luxury goods retail establishments began filling strip malls, such as the Beachwood Plaza, built in 1959 (it resides in Berkeley Township; period newspapers reported owner Jimmy Johnson named it after our borough to spite Berkeley officials whom he said were giving him headaches over his various projects).

Beachwood 2002.

The past thirty years only increased the desirability of our area, a result of both buildable open space having become near non-existent in communities to the north, and the growing faction of amenity-driven building and location seekers, peaking with the advent of the “McMansion” over the past dozen or so years. Developers snapped up many of the remaining lots in the borough and filled them with large-style homes maxing out almost to the property line on most sides, pushing trees and green space out while adding more cars to the tinier front and side setbacks and streets. Similarly, our town center transformed from the actual center of residents’ activity to that of a periphery entity often viewed from the safety of a car with curiosity or disdain at its fraying, old-style buildings and general lack of sprawling parking. Beachwood residents no longer had the train-downtown-waterfront connection their predecessors enjoyed; the very concept which united the borough and fostered its community spirit blurred into the background. As if symbolizing the final pullout from our downtown area after years of diminishing pedestrian traffic, the original borough hall/firehouse, located right at the heart of town, was demolished and its property sold for the construction of a new, larger borough hall at the southernmost – and almost exclusively automobile accessible – parkway end of town, in the mid to late 1990s.

“Although conventional suburban development has been popular, it carries a significant price. Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, conventional suburban development spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for the great majority of household and commuter trips.

Those who cannot drive are significantly restricted in their mobility. The working poor living in suburbia spend a large portion of their incomes on cars. Meanwhile, the American landscape where most people live and work is dominated by strip malls, auto-oriented civic and commercial buildings, and subdivisions without much individuality or character.”**

Utilizing the New Urbanism approach by latching onto the approaching county rail trail connection as a downtown and waterfront stimulus project, the Borough of Beachwood could become both a thriving auto-accessed suburb and pedestrian-friendly economic attraction, restoring its founders’ downtown structures, raising borough revenue through increased sales in beach access badges and general heightened property value and prosperity via regular downtown solicitation, enticing the proliferation of health-conscious activities among residents, and overall improving life in the borough through sustainable development:

“There are some common elements of new urbanist design. New urbanist neighborhoods are walkable, and are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs. New urbanists support regional planning for open space, appropriate architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe these strategies are the best way to reduce the time people spend in traffic, to increase the supply of affordable housing, and to rein in urban sprawl. Many other issues, such as historic preservation, safe streets, green building, and the renovation of brownfield land are also covered in the Charter of the New Urbanism, the movement’s seminal document. Because new urbanist designs include many of the features (like mixed use and emphasis on walkability) which characterized urban areas in the pre-automobile age, the movement is sometimes known as Traditional neighborhood design.”**

NEXT IN THE SERIES: TRENDS & DEFINING ELEMENTS

* = Taken from Wikipedia entry on New Urbanism

** – Courtesy the New Urban Trust

Rail Trails Provide Local Economic Engine

Beachwood Train Depot, July 21, 1950 by Edward Weber

In today’s entry, we’re going to take a look at two railroad right of ways that have been successfully converted into rail trails, how town officials prepared for the arrival of thousands of pedestrians and cyclists, and the subsequent positive impact on local businesses adjacent to the trail.

These examples are very important to our borough, as our own Central Railroad of New Jersey right-of-way will be connected to the greater Ocean County - Barnegat to Toms River Rail Trail in the very near future, providing our downtown businesses the potential for an economic and cultural revival not seen since early 20th Century residents relied primarily on pedestrian-friendly businesses.

This resurgence of the downtown corridor’s economy will come not only from the 16 miles of communities suddenly within easy and safe recreational access to downtown Beachwood, but also through the hundreds and thousands of other visitors and tourists the trail will attract and drive through town. Our borough in particular has the potential to shine as a knockout trail patron destination, as it is currently the only municipality that can offer a town center with its original structures intact, public docks, public beachfront, and public park overlooking the Toms River and Barnegat Bay within short walking or cycling distance of the trail.

Trail’s Opening Eyed as Path to Revival

Written by Candus Thomson for the Baltimore Sun
Originally published December 13, 2006 in the Baltimore Sun

CUMBERLAND [MARYLAND] – Once known for being at the end of a famous canal, this city is ready to open a new pathway, one that civic leaders hope will make it a recreation destination and infuse downtown businesses with cash.

Interior of the American Store, undated. This later became Clancy's Pharmacy, and is now home to the Clutter shop.

Feet – hundreds of thousands of them – are expected to pedal and hike the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile converted railroad corridor that connects here with the C&O Canal Towpath, providing a link between Washington and Pittsburgh.

Trail advocates and government officials will celebrate completion of the East Coast’s longest rail trail tomorrow with a ribbon-cutting along the banks of the Potomac River, where the trail and the towpath meet.

Over the past two decades, Marylanders have come to embrace gently undulating rail trails as family-friendly recreation, where walkers and those taking leisurely bike rides feel safe and comfortable because amenities are never far away.

The state has two of the top 10 most popular rail trails in the nation. The 14-mile Baltimore and Annapolis Trail and the 22-mile Northern Central Railroad Trail in Baltimore County each attract 1 million users annually.

This original bungalow, dated here 1916, later became and is today the Beachwood Library.

Supporters of the Great Allegheny Passage believe that the history and culture along Maryland’s 20-mile portion of the trail will be a magnet for families looking for a different kind of weekend adventure.

The new trail, says David Lillard, former president of the American Hiking Society and author of trail guides, “is a great conservation story … and destined to become one of the best-loved multi-use trails in America.”

A City’s Revival

Even in its incomplete state, the rail trail was used last year by about 400,000 people, a number that is projected to triple with the completion, and that’s music to the ears of Cumberland officials.

“The revival of the city is driven, in part, by the trail,” says Mayor Lee Fiedler, who ordered bike racks installed on downtown street corners. “No one thought people with bikes would spend money, but they were wrong. Business is spreading back from the trail.”

Beachwood Library, 2009.

Two bed-and-breakfasts have opened with trail users in mind. The National Park Service is reviewing plans for a riverside campground. Wi-fi blankets the city’s core. A historic railroad hauls bikes up the steepest trail grade to Frostburg. Last summer, weekend nights were filled with outdoor concerts and people eating at sidewalk cafes. A hotel with a bike repair shop is in the works.

“That’s a sizable chunk of tourism for families, building a critical mass of things to do,” says Richard Pfefferkorn, executive director of the Canal Place Preservation and Development Authority in Cumberland.

This city of 21,000 has long been known as the terminus of the 185-mile Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, built from 1828 to 1850 to ferry goods and passengers. But civic leaders acknowledge that that distinction hardly made their community a destination.

“In Cumberland, you have to have more than where people start and people stop. Before the trail, visitors would come in Friday afternoon for a matter of 20 minutes and be off on the towpath. The economic benefit was rather small,” says Fiedler, a retired business executive in his second term.

City officials and merchants began to see a change last fall, when the Great Allegheny Passage closed to within a few miles of downtown. Although detours on local roads from Frostburg were hard and dangerous, people began making the effort.

Disbrow's Market, 1947. This became Clancy's Video after closing in 1988, and now sits vacant waiting for a new life.

Two years ago, Gail Shofer Hall, a former Baltimore resident, began booking upscale bicycle tours for middle-age weekend warriors “who want to be spoiled.” In October, she opened The Inn on Decatur, four blocks from Mile Marker One, the trail’s beginning.

“We’re at the quasi-half point between Pittsburgh and Washington,” she says. “You’ve pedaled more than 100 miles, you want a little downtime.”

Outsiders took notice. Two regional hiker-biker guidebooks included the trail this year, and the Web site BikeWashington.org dubbed it “the crown jewel of the Mid-Atlantic rail trails.”

Building Trails

Railroad Avenue, Beachwood.

The move to convert never-used or abandoned railroad corridors began in the 1960s, as people began to look for places to walk or bike away from motorized traffic.

Today, there are more than 13,000 miles of rail trails, with another 14,000 miles in the planning stages, according to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Maryland has 21 rail trails that cover 115 miles, with another 24 trails totaling 264 miles in the planning stages.

When the first section of the Great Allegheny Passage – a nine-mile stretch at Ohiopyle, Pa. – opened 20 years ago, “it showed that if you build these trails, they will be used by locals but also attract tourists,” says Linda McKenna Boxx, president of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, an umbrella for seven trail groups.

Momentum gathered. In fall 2002, Maryland officials spent $875,000 for 4.8 miles of right of way from the Mason-Dixon line to Frostburg.

Disbrow's Market building, 2009.

But as they stitched the pieces together, trail advocates knew they’d have to deal with a gaping maw: the 3,300-foot Big Savage Tunnel, one mile north of the Maryland line. Built in 1911 and abandoned in 1975, the tunnel was dank and riddled with water damage, but it provided a vital bypass across the Eastern Continental Divide and through 2,375-foot- high Savage Mountain.

It took five years for the trail groups to raise $12 million to restore the tunnel, which opened in May. It is to be closed from December to April every year to keep the elements from destroying the walls, lighting and drainage system.

Trail work remains near Pittsburgh and McKeesport, and there’s more to do to help towns create a smooth-running economic engine, Boxx says.

Towns along the trail are being encouraged to think of it as a second Main Street, and to begin improving hospitality and other services to take advantage of new business. Boxx envisions hiring a “circuit rider” to help communities develop marketing plans and plan joint events.

Fiedler says he can hardly wait until spring.

“It ties into the other things we’re doing,” says the mayor, sitting at a downtown coffee shop. “We’re not a place you’ll go to stay for a week, but if we can get you to stay two or three days, we’ll be very happy.”

The Economic and Social Benefit of Trails

Trails are an important part of community well-being in many areas.

By Gary Sjoquist

Photos of World War II Servicemen from Beachwood, as they originally hung in the Beachwood Circle Shop, now Carpet Land. In the center is then-mayor Joseph Jerue.

During warm weather months in Minnesota, nearly 1.5 million cyclists, inline skaters, and walkers use our nationally-recognized city, county, and state trails. In fact, these trails are a quality of life issue for residents, as well as luring tourists from neighboring states who don’t have access to the number and variety of trails we have in Minnesota. Other than a quality of life issue, our trails are an economic boon to the state as well.

Lanesboro, on the Root River Trail in Southeastern Minnesota, is an often-cited example of the economic impact a trail can have. Pre- and post-trail Lanesboro, a town of about 800 residents, differ dramatically. Post-trail Lanesboro boasts 12 B&Bs (with year-long waiting lists), 8 restaurants, an art gallery, a museum, and a thriving community theater well-off enough to offer housing to its actors. Economically speaking, the Root River Trail has been very, very good for Lanesboro.

A specific example from Lanesboro can provide further insight. The bike shop in Lanesboro, a small “mom and pop” kind of a place, sold 60 tandem bicycles in a single year (more than the Twin Cities largest multi-store bike retailer that same year). Now, few people would go to Lanesboro to specifically purchase a not-inexpensive tandem bicycle. Rather, this is an indication of people who are having a good time, want it to continue, and are willing to spend the money to spend quality time on the trail. This kind of “impulse” purchase bodes well for retailers along our trails.

Nationally, trail-related expenditures range from less than $1 per day to more than $75 per day, depending on mileage covered. Generally, it’s been found a trail can bring at least one million dollars annually to a community, depending on how well the town embraces the trail. For a town like Lanesboro, a trail can mean an annual economic impact of more than five million dollars.

Greene's Economy Store, circa 1921. Today it is threatened to be demolished as part of the Rite Aid proposal, along with the former Beachwood Circle Shop and a half dozen other structures.

Another aspect has to do with how trails affect property values and the general attractiveness of an area. Studies have shown that 70% of landowners felt that overall, an adjacent trail was a good “neighbor,” with positive impacts including 1) getting in touch with nature (64%), 2) recreational opportunity (53%), and 3) health benefits (24%).

Furthermore, 70% of real estate agents use trails as a selling feature when selling homes near trails. 80.5% of them feel the trail would make it easier to sell. In Minnesota, 87% of home owners believe trails either increased the value of their homes or had no impact. On Seattle’s most popular trail, homeowners with properties near, but not adjacent to the trail, sold for an average of 6% more than comparable property elsewhere. Additionally, the U.S. National Parks Service notes that increases in property values range from 5 to 32% when adjacent to trails and greenways.

To better estimate potential economic impact, it’s important to understand a demographic profile. Overall, trail users average about 48 years of age, are more likely to be male, have completed college, with annual household incomes between $35,000 and $75,000. In Minnesota, trail users have median incomes $10,000 higher than average; good news for the communities along the trail.

With trail users relatively affluent, mobile, and interested in spending quality time with families, trails provide a perfect “getaway” adventure. Having access to trails has changed how families recreate, with people taking shorter but more frequent “vacations” closer to home and with a more family-oriented focus.

Trails have also allowed these escapes to include a wider variety of family members. Thanks to our mostly paved trails, and the advent of bicycle trailers, “trail-a-bikes,” and comfort bikes, it’s not uncommon to see an entire extended family – children, teens, parents, and grandparents sharing an outdoor recreational activity. While not an “economic” benefit, necessarily, this is still an important “value added” component trails bring to our state.

For more information, contact the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota at: 651-726-2457 or 1-800-944-0707 (outside Minnesota) 275 E. 4th Street #642, St. Paul MN 55101-1651 — e-mail: info@parksandtrails.org

Beachwood Spring Fog 2009, Part I

Lately it’s been quiet here at the BHA, but today’s post, the first part of a quick photo essay showing Beachwood during last week’s fog, will kick off a fresh week of updates.

Enjoy!

Downtown Beachwood Rite Aid Proposal: Site Plan Maps

Posted below are the twenty-one pages of site plans and maps submitted to the borough by the developers of the downtown Rite Aid proposal. They have been posted here to enlighten borough residents and enhance their visual understanding of the size and scope of this proposal.