Building Beachwood, Part Three

On December 16^th, 1914, an article in the New York Tribune headlined, “Beachwood Just Laughs at Storms” recounted a recent winter storm which “caused such havoc and property loss [in the surrounding area, yet] left no traces… along Beachwood’s mile of water frontage.”

The paper attributed this to its position away from the Barnegat Bay, and went on to describe all the safety features and recreation amenities, stating that construction officially began the day before, placing this official first date of construction in Beachwood at December 15th, 1914.

Two weeks later, on December 30^th, the Tribune ran another article under the headline “Rapid Progress in Beachwood Work”.

It described that work “is progressing despite ice and snow, by leaps and bounds” and that a letter written by a group of men who distributed tires for the Packard automobile company along the eastern United States was received stating that they had purchased a site in Beachwood on which to build “an up-to-date garage for the accommodation of the residents,” of whom they would be part, having also purchased lots for their bungalows from the Tribune promotion.

The article ran on to describe more of Nickerson’s work, including that “about seventy men were now at work laying out streets, putting up street signs and block numbers, numbering lots, cutting through and improving roadways and building tennis courts. If necessary, to have things in readiness for next summer the force will be increased.”

A week later, January 8^th, 1915, the New Jersey Courier ran with an article titled, “Start Several Buildings at Spiles Point, Beachwood”. In it was heavily detailed the first buildings constructed by the Tribune under supervision of Nickerson.

“The Beachwood tract is the busiest along shore just now. Besides laying out streets and avenue, cutting off timber on these avenues, blasting stumps and cleaning out underbrush, the New Year was marked by the starting of at least four new buildings. Three of these are at the Spiles Point, the other, a union railroad depot, at the crossing of the Central and Pennsylvania railroads.”

The Dining Hall, later borough hall, constructed approximately on what today is the Mayo Park Playground.

“On the high bluff, just above the point of the Spiles, a dining room has been built, in the shape of a one-story bungalow, 30×60 feet, and a kitchen annex in the rear. This will have a view down the river.”

The Lodge's patio, circa 1920.

The Lodge's patio area, Winter 2010. The fountain has been turned into a planter for the borough.

“In front of it, to the north, has been started a hotel or rooming house, 73×100 feet in size, built in the old Spanish style, one story high, and, with a patio, or courtyard, in the centre. This will contain thirty-seven sleeping rooms, and will be run in connection with the dining room. From its point of vantage on the brow of the bluff the eye can sweep up the river to Toms River village, or down the stream to Island Heights. The location is superb.”

Beachwood Bathhouses, Beachwood Beach, circa 1915.

“On the lower ground, at the foot of the bluff, in the filled in spot where the pond was, and where Toms River boys for generations have waded to pick water lilies and kill water snakes, the bathhouses are started. There will be three rows of them, covering a space 32×46 feet.

“The building of the bathhouses here is particularly satisfactory to Toms River people, who had been fearing that the development of Spiles Point meant that their ancient bathing privilege would be taken from them, and the point become hedged in as private property. It is understood that the beach front at the Beachwood tract is to be kept open to the public and that all lot owners will have an equal share in its use. With bathhouses there many Toms River people will avail themselves of the convenience.”

“The depot will be 20×40 feet in size, and will be used by both railroads. It is located at the crossing of the two roads and also of the main north and south avenue of Beachwood.”

“Plans are prepared for a large clubhouse, which is also to be started in the spring on the bluff overlooking the river.

“The station is expected to be built very soon. None of these buildings is to be pretentious or costly. They are being built to supply present day needs, and as the resort grows probably be displaced with more permanent structures. But they go to show that Beachwood means business and that something is coming of the new development. The work is also giving jobs to many local people who would otherwise be sitting around stoves and wondering how they could get through the winter.”

Spring Street, circa 1915.

“Scores of streets are being laid out on the tract. So far about all that is done to this line is to clear up the street of all traces of underbrush and remove the stumps with dynamite and stake off the lots. Some grading has been done, however, and more is contemplated. The Beachwood proposition, backed by a big daily paper, is making quite a furore in New York, and it is said by New Yorkers who come down this way that the lots are going fast.”

The progress in Beachwood did not go unnoted in other local papers and municipalities. On January 29^th, the Ocean County Review printed beneath its Pine Beach section that, “It is pretty quiet here this winter, but we can hear the dynamite charges exploding at Beachwood without paying admission.”

Indeed, Nickerson and his crew weren’t the only ones busy that winter. February 1915 saw the release and distribution of a 38-page pamphlet very modestly titled, “The Greatest Subscription Premium Ever Offered and the Reason Why”.

Interspersed between pages of ad copy determined to make the average reader jump at investing were a number of photographs depicting the natural waterfront, sailboats both on the Toms River and docked at Huddy Park, cleared roads, the Central Railroad of New Jersey Toms River Station, and the Atlantic City Boulevard completely devoid of any development.

Promotion booklet for Mayo's Lakewood Club resort through the Chicago Evening Post, 1912.

Fox Lake, as depicted in Mayo's 1912 promotional booklet for his earlier resort at Lakewood Club, Muskegon County, Michigan.

As we can see, it wasn’t the first of such pamphlets, borrowing heavily on Mayo’s earlier land promotion of Lakewood Club, Michigan.

William Randolph Hearst, owner of the New York American, among others.

Meanwhile, Watson and the postal inspectors were themselves hard at work questioning those who wrote letters of endorsement for the Tribune promotion which had appeared in subsequent materials.

One of these letters came from E.P. Robinson, M.D., later profiled in Butler’s 1924 Beachwood Directory as being born of English parents on St. James Island in Barbados, who later followed his dream of coming to America as a teenager, working first a pharmacist in Philadelphia before continuing his career and education in New York City. By the time of the Tribune promotion, he was married and had a son in his late teens.

In the letter he wrote, which was published by the Tribune as part of its promotion campaign, the accomplished doctor praised the newspaper in detail for the advantages of the Beachwood tract and stated that not only did he plan an extensive summer residence but that his wife and son purchased their own lots, as well.

Testifying about this letter and Robinson’s later statements regarding it, Watson admitted he could not find his original notes and instead recounted the conversation from memory:

“I visited Dr. Robinson myself, in company with one of my investigators, and interviewed him, and I swear that endorsement is not on the level. The doctor said – I have a report which I made within an hour after the interview, and I will stand on that report rather than on what I say now, but I will try to recall what he said. It was to the effect that he did not know where these lots were, and he had changed his mind, and he did not think he would ever build there, and he gave this endorsement to the Tribune, but he had not expected that people would come running in there and asking him about it, and that he had since requested the Tribune to take it out of the booklet, and that he might some time use his lots for a public garage down there; and he told me where they were, and I asked him if he realized that that was about a mile off the main road and that you could not drive an automobile in there unless it was equipped with an aeroplane on top of it to lift it over the roads. In other words, it was too ridiculous for consideration.”

Oddly, on a later day of testimony following statements by the postal inspectors themselves, Watson recanted and requested that this statement and all matter of the letters be removed from the record as he could not find his records on the matter and it had been over a year from the conversation so his memory may be incorrect.

Neither postal investigator had any testimony regarding these letters.

Stranger still is the fact that the lots Dr. Robinson ultimately built upon is just one block from the waterfront and on Beachwood Boulevard, the original resort’s main road. It is unclear at this point of research whether this was the original plot of land purchased through the initial Tribune promotion, or if he purchased it at a later date from a second party, or some other event we are unaware of.

Adding to this odd matter is the fact that the New York Tribune made a point to specifically advertise Dr. Robinson’s building plans in early March 1915 with an article titled, “To Build at Beachwood – Plans Being Prepared for New Cottage at Resort”:

“Architects’ plans for the erection of one of the first bungalows to be built at Beachwood, N.J., are being prepared for Dr. E.P. Robinson, of 116 West Thirty-ninth Street, New York. Dr. Robinson, who was one of the first to obtain lots at the new beach resort which the Tribune is establishing, will build a cottage for occupancy throughout the entire year.

“The new cottage will stand back from the beach some little distance and will be artistic in its surroundings. Construction work on the house is contemplated with the coming of warm weather. It is planned to have the cottage ready for occupancy this summer.

“In addition to Dr. Robinson, lots are held at Beachwood by his wife and son.”

We may never know the true events surrounding Dr. Robinson’s lots or his involvement with the Tribune promotional campaign, but what cannot be denied is that the doctor had a very well built, attractive bungalow constructed at the corner of Barnegat Avenue and Beachwood Boulevard, which stands to this day.

Dr. Robinson's home, Winter 2009.

Next:

Read about investigator’s secret trip to the incomplete resort, alleged scandal within the Tribune offices and the road to the Memorial Day opening, in the next edition of the Building Beachwood series.

Building Beachwood, Part Two

February 13, 1914 cover of the New Jersey Courier.

On February 13, 1914, the front page headline of the Toms River/Ocean County weekly, the New Jersey Courier, announced “Pine Bay Tract is Sold for $90,000/Said to Be a Record-Making Price”. Curiously, these new purchasers are never mentioned by name.

Part of the bluffs at Cold Spring, Winter 2010.

The article goes on to describe the land as it was before any work had been completed: “The tract has a mile and a quarter river frontage, including the

Spiles Point area, Fall 2009.

Squally Cove, today Windy Cove, Spring 2009.

bluff at Cold Spring, the point of the Spiles [both later part of Beachwood Beach], and the bluff on the west shore of Squally Cove [renamed Windy Cove], the river frontage, running from Cedar Point [at today’s South Toms River] to the head of Squally Cove, where it meets the Buhler property, now a part of the Pine Beach tract [Pine Beach not having been incorporated until 1925; the land then was mainly known to visitors for the railroad that extended across the Toms River to Island Heights]. It extends back across both railroads and west to the Dover road [later, South Toms River], while on the south it abuts the Barnegat Park tract [in Berkeley Township, later the site of yet another notorious land promotion named Pinewald, through which was built the Royal Pines Hotel that stands today as Crystal Lake Healthcare. It’s interesting to consider that Pinewald could have incorporated itself as a borough separate from Berkeley Township as Beachwood, Pine Beach and Ocean Gate had if it succeeded in its time].

The Nickerson family home, built directly across from the entrance to Beachwood Beach, Winter 2009.

The land then changed hands from Nickerson to Mayo to Stanley D. Brown, trustee of the New York Tribune. Mystery still surrounds these transactions as no money ever changed hands between the sheriff’s sale to Nickerson, Nickerson to Mayo, and Mayo to the Tribune, yet Nickerson had already

The "hinterland" that Mayo sold at original Tribune promotion prices to the newly incorporated Beachwood Borough, in December 1917, would later become the site of today's Jakes Branch County Park. Shown here is the groundbreaking on September 26, 2006. Photo by Jason Hoger.

begun surveying the land well before a deal was set, setting aside a few choice plots, including the site where he would eventually build his family home across from the entrance to Cold Spring and Spiles Point, later Beachwood Beach; Mayo wound up owning virtually all of the waterfront area property and 5,000 lots in the tract’s southernmost “hinterland”, all of which would eventually be sold in perpetuity in December 1917 to the newly incorporated Borough of Beachwood for the original per-lot price of $19.60 for public and municipal use.

But that wouldn’t be for a while. Mayo, Nickerson and the Tribune would first face the threat of charges brought by the U.S. District Attorney’s office and U.S. Postal Service at the behest and urging of the Hearst company and its reporter, even while Nickerson was busy directing workmen to cut and blast his grid of streets out of the knotty, dense pine forest.

William Randolph Hearst, whose newspaper, the New York American, attacked the New York Tribune Beachwood land promotion as a "scheme" and sent a reporter out to drum up interest within the federal government to potentially bring Mayo and Nickerson up on charges of fraud.

Over the next eight months, while Nickerson busied himself with the land survey and subsequent layout of the new streets and avenues, Mayo, in his office at the Tribune Building in New York, worked out the details of the promotion. An item in the October 23rd. 1914 New Jersey Courier stated:

“The Berkeley Township committee at its meeting last week abandoned a number of roads where they cross over the Beachwood (formerly known as Pine Bay) tract… the roads abandoned are: the old Double Trouble road; part of the old Cedar Creek highway; Buhler’s road; a branch of Buhler’s road; and the old road running into the old Double Trouble road, beginning where the county road crosses the [Pennsylvania Railroad].

“As part of the agreement for vacating these roads, Mr. Nickerson, who represents the new owners of the property, has announced that the tract will be laid out in streets, so that these roads will be unnecessary.”

November 1914 promotional "extra" edition insert for the New York Tribune subscription/Beachwood land promotion.

One week later, October 30th, the Tribune announced to the Toms River area its plans in the pages of the Courier, likely when the land officially changed hands from Nickerson and Mayo to their ownership. Its headline proclaimed, “New York Tribune to Develop the Beachwood Tract at Spiles Point”. This announcement predated any such notice posted in their own newspaper, as well as any official promotional materials.

“One of the largest real estate deals that has been made in Toms River in many years was concluded this week, when the two thousand acre tract adjoining the town and known as Pine Bay tract was acquired by representatives of the New York Tribune. This will mean much to the future prosperity of Toms River, for the Tribune intends to improve the property and make of it a large summer resort. A club house will be erected on the shore of the river, also a yacht club building, bathing pavilion, bathing wharves, etc. The tract will be known as Beachwood, and it is expected that it will be the future summer home of many well known New York people, who will have their cottages there. The project is under the direct supervision of B.C. Mayo of the New York Tribune and the local work is in charge of A.D. Nickerson.”

An early survey map of the Beachwood tract of land, by A.D. Nickerson.

Here we can pick up Butler’s 1924 Beachwood Directory, who compiled the largest section, “A Chronological History of Beachwood”, stated to be “Pictures, in Brief Paragraphs, of the Rise and Progress of the Beautiful Resort in the Pines on Barnegat Bay, and the Social, Economic and Political Life of its Summer Population of 1,500 or More People”.

According to Butler, “the first official map of the Beachwood tract, comprising 1,763 acres, 18 lots to the acre, was filed November 11th [1914].”

November is also the month that the Tribune issued a special advertisement, dressed up to appear as an extra edition of its regular publication, “containing many illustrations and the… announcement, in large letters, on its first page: “Subscribe for the New York Tribune and secure a lot at Beautiful Beachwood. Greatest subscription premium ever offered by a newspaper – nothing equal to it was ever attempted in the United States. Act at once – secure your lot in this Summer Paradise now.” On another page came [the] assurance [that] “The Tribune does not do things halfway. A fortune has been put behind this offer. Already plans are being made to start a building company.” The price of lots was placed at $19.60 apiece, each lot carrying with it a six months’ subscription to the paper.”

New York Tribune's "Road Map" from New York City to Beachwood, as printed in the December 1, 1914 edition of the paper and reproduced in Butler's 1924 directory, but absent from the 2005 reprint. Note the "C.R.R." and "P.R.R." rail lines criscrossing the state, standing for the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Pennsylvania Railroad, which crossed at what is today roughly Route 9 (Garden State Parkway access road) and Beachwood Boulevard

On December 1st, the Mayo-Tribune promotions rolled out further, this time in a Tribune article titled “Roads to Beachwood” and depicting a large illustration of the auto routes between Manhattan and Beachwood, as well as the Central and Pennsylvania railroad lines.

The Dining Hall, later borough hall, constructed approximately on what today is the Mayo Park Playground.

Ten days later, the New Jersey Courier and New York Tribune ran articles on the burgeoning resort. The Courier’s, headlined “Marine Names for Beachwood Avenues”, recounted a Tribune article that “Nautical terms prevail in the selecting of street nomenclature adopted for Beachwood… the street signs will also bear out the meaning of the town’s name by a series denoting a variety of trees… Plans for the construction of the buildings which are to be erected on the waterfront, such as the yacht club, dining hall, club building, etc., are already under way. It is expected that the railroad station… will be completed in January.”

The rail depot, shown here c.1920, built by the New York Tribune under direction of A.D. Nickerson. Standing in roughly this spot today would place you at the intersection of Beachwood Boulevard and Route 9 (Garden State Parkway access road), facing southeast down Route 9. The station sits on what is now the small, landscaped park with a gazebo known as Robert Guilmore Park.

The Tribune’s article, titled “Fine Railroad Station for Beachwood”, verified the Courier account. “Residents of Beachwood… are to have a railroad station of their own. Plans for the building have been made and its site chosen. It will be ready for occupancy in January. The building will have the excellent accommodations of a typical suburban union railroad station… the structure itself is to be of attractive design and calculated to meet all the requirements of Beachwood residents.”

It is around this time that Victor A. Watson, a New York City native living on the Lower East Side who had made his living for the previous 17 years as a newspaper reporter with Hearst’s New York American, claimed to receive “complaints from a number of persons who wrote letters… to the effect that the New York Tribune… was backing a notorious real-estate swindle. In the course of office business the matter was turned over to me to investigate.”

The New York Tribune building, undated, shown as the center of the three late-19th century skyscrapers.

Looking into the matter, Watson noted that the Tribune was claiming to be making absolutely no profit off the land deal, opting instead to run the promotion purely as an act of friendship in an effort to boost its circulation. Skeptical, Watson looked at the numbers and found this to not be the case. After consulting with his peers, he took the information to the office of United States District Attorney H. Snowden Marshall. The case was soon assigned to two United States Postal Inspectors, [Hugh] McQuillan and [Oliver] Schaeffer.

Together with the inspectors, Watson produced what he claimed to be direct evidence of mail fraud. This consisted of mailed materials produced by the newspaper that stated they were making no money off the land deal but wished instead for good friendship by increasing their readership. Watson insisted that the Tribune was committing mail fraud because a survey of the money paid for the land tract versus what they were charging showed a high degree of profitability set to flow into Tribune coffers should the promotion be successful.

In laying out these calculations, Watson said the land was drawn out to encompass thirty to thirty-five thousand 20×100 lots to be sold at $19.60 each. Adhering to the original plat map of 1,763 acres and 18 lots to an acre, that number was exactly 31,734 lots. $19.60 multiplied by 31,734 becomes $621,986.40. He estimated that between the purchase of the property at $90,000 and adding another approximately $35,000 to developing it for the lot owners, they would have invested only $125,000 total, meaning they stood to reap an estimated profit of $496,986.40. At the time, Inspector McQuillan estimated it lower, at $300,000.

About four of these plus four six month subscriptions to the New York Tribune would get you a 80'x100' buildable lot in Beachwood in 1914.

Suspicions were raised further when Watson stated salesmen working the promotion for the Tribune would take “them down to the beach, and [then turn around] and sell [them] something back in the woods that is almost like Africa.” Watson later reflected that Beachwood was so remote that it would be still be an undeveloped and undesirable patch of land one hundred years in the future. He was so sure of this that he told the judiciary committee he would make a bet on it if he could.

The "African woods" of Beachwood, shown here in 2009 at what is now Jakes Branch County Park.

As a result, Watson and the postal inspectors began a series of covert visits to the Beachwood tract while it was under development in early 1915. Secretly, Watson also conscripted a number of men to work within the Tribune offices as spies, quietly writing up daily reports for the New York American reporter. Meanwhile, Bertram Mayo and Addison Nickerson moved forward with their work, unaware how dangerously close they were to being arrested and brought up on charges of mail fraud.

Next:

Read about the first resort buildings, reaction from a nearby community, and the further investigation of Watson and the postal inspectors, focusing in particular on one Dr. E.P. Robinson, whose home stands today at the southwest corner of Beachwood Boulevard and Barnegat Boulevard, in the next edition of the Building Beachwood series.

Building Beachwood, Part One

Undated, from Carolyn Mae Campbell's personal family photograph collection. It is unknown at this time whether any of the men present here is Addison Doane Nickerson, though an educated guess would place him as the man in the suit with the pipe if he were. If this is true, this photograph represents the only known existing image of A.D. Nickerson, land purchaser, civil engineer and bungalow builder of Beachwood.

Today we begin the first in a running series on how Beachwood was built. Specifically, we’ll be looking at the period beginning at the start of the New York Tribune’s land promotion attempt in 1912 up through the original club buildings’ completion in time for opening day, 1915.

This period was chosen to accommodate the incredibly large amount of information found between the archives at the New York Public Library, microfilm records in the Ocean County Library, and court papers related to the promotion that produced a mountain of information through testimony.

Referenced within this series will be articles from the New York Tribune, the New Jersey Courier, and the Ocean County Review as well as William Mill Butler’s Beachwood Directory and Who’s Who 1924, reprinted in 2005 by Carolyn Campbell and the Ocean County Historical Society, 1916 court testimony made during hearings before the judiciary committee to investigate U.S. District Attorney H. Snowden Marshall and other varied sources.

The information used to build this series represents our the most current known information; as we continue to research more may become known that could alter or enhance our knowledge and a future edition of this account will be present in the Beachwood Centennial book, due later this decade.

It is our goal that after the series is complete you have a very clear picture of how the tract of land that became Beachwood was acquired, designed, and built upon by the New York Tribune in anticipation of the thousands of residents that would come to plant their bungalows along its streets.

Enjoy!

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Any discussion of Beachwood would be incomplete without first looking at the two men who made it possible: Bertram Chapman Mayo and Addison Doane Nickerson.

Old North Church.

Bertram Chapman Mayo was born in the last month of the Civil War, March 23^rd, 1865, near Boston’s Old North Church, itself famous for displaying the lanterns that alerted Paul Revere of the path the British took to the fateful first battle of the American Revolution, Lexington and Concord, less than a hundred years earlier. The oldest of Noah Mayo, a fish trader on the Boston wharves, and his wife Evaline, Bertram’s home life included the upper middle class culture comfort of employing a regular, live-in servant to help his mother keep house and tend Bertram and two sisters, Daisy and Blanche, who came later. It was here, in his youth, that a series of cherished experiences in the form of regular family holidays to seaside resorts via the trolley system later became the basis for his future pursuit of success.

Seaside trolley, date/location unknown.

Addison Doane Nickerson was born two years after his future business partner, on December 12, 1867, in Harwich, Massachusetts, located at the far end of Cape Cod. The son of Thomas Nickerson and his wife, Eglentine, Addison, like Mayo, had a home life centered around the shore. His father, having grown up as the latest in a long line of sailors, earned the title master mariner when Addison was less than a year old. It would be the profession he followed all through Addison’s upbringing and those of his three other children – Thomas, Ambrose and Eglantine – of which Addison was the oldest.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, contemporary photo.

It isn’t clearly stated where Mayo and Nickerson first met, but we can assume with almost certainty that it was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was here that Mayo, according to Butler’s 1924 biography of him, “gave up a contemplated course” in order to pursue a career in the wholesale clothing business, while Nickerson went on to graduate in 1888 with a thesis titled, “A Study of the Question of a Tunnel in East Boston.”

A competitive streak that appeared to run strong in Mayo, causing him to leave M.I.T., apparently also made him restless.

Aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco quake.

Quickly bored of the clothing world, he next gravitated west to become general manager for a San Francisco-area newspaper that first published and instituted an immediate emergency aid center following the devastating earthquake of 1906. At that paper, the Oakland Enquirer, he established a newspaper premium of a candy giveaway that would quickly snowball into his ultimate career path of land giveaways and community building starting in the redwoods of Northern California called Cazadero Woods, and further progressing to a canyon section of Los Angeles called Beverly Glen that would later be absorbed by that city’s rapid growth later in the century and become part of Beverly Hills.

Casadero Woods, California.

Franklin Canyon at Beverly Glen, California.

During these promotions he brought his young son, Geoffrey, on board to help run the whole operation. Moving northeast toward Chicago, he honed and improved his idea for a resort in Michigan called Lakewood Club, which would for the first time incorporate a small reminder of home: a lake for sailing, fishing and swimming.

Lakewood Club, Michigan. Its clubhouse and train station closely mirrored Beachwood's.

Nickerson, meanwhile, had settled into the life of a civil engineer, and by 1910 was living in the Hudson River town of Ulster, New York, with his wife, Mary Lillian, and their two sons, Holland and Robert. Two or three years later, a meeting in California between Nickerson and Mayo would change all that.

Famous covered bridge at Ulster, New York.

Almost before he was finished in Michigan, Mayo was already moving on, this time searching for a spot along the Atlantic coast that better reminded him of his family holidays at his childhood seaside resorts.

Undeveloped Beachwood shore area, likely Windy Cove.

Lucky for us, he found it on the southern bank of the Toms River at the edge of a pristine pine forest crisscrossed by the Pennsylvania and Jersey Central railroads and cut through by a state highway between New York and Atlantic City. Contacting Nickerson and reminding him of their California meeting, it was decided that Nickerson would head up the planning and construction of the new resort, to be called Beachwood (and sometimes referred to as Beachwood Club or Beachwood-in-the-Pines), while Mayo and his son would run things out of his new position and office within the New York Tribune building in New York.

The New York Tribune building, undated. Torn down in the 1950s to allow widening of Brooklyn Bridge entrance.

1883 edition of the Tribune.

Besides facing similar challenges in this new project as the previous three, an added pressure came in the form of an investigation spearheaded by a reporter of a competing New York daily newspaper, William Randolph Hearst’s New York American. Even while Mayo and Nickerson were busy setting up what would become the most successful paper-backed community in Mayo’s career, the competition was equally busy building a federal case against the two that could halt construction of the new resort and imprison its two managers, destroying their lives and careers.

William Randolph Hearst, owner of the New York American, among others.

But first, let’s take a look back at the history of the land that would later become Beachwood.

In Pine Beach Yesterdays, a publication issued by the borough of Pine Beach to celebrate its 50^th anniversary of incorporation as a borough in 1975, author Stanley Heatley recounts activity along the Beachwood tract in the mid-nineteenth century:

“A mule-powered railway was built to haul charcoal from the hinterlands to a loading pier on the south shore of the Toms River where coasting vessels took on cargo for Philadelphia and New York. The industry died at the end of the century and the rotted piles or spiles, all that remained of the once busy pier, gave rise to the name of “The Spiles”, present-day Beachwood.

Charcoaling, as shown in Pine Beach Yesterdays, pub. 1975 by Stanley Heatley and the Borough of Pine Beach.

“In colonial times, charcoal was the fuel used to fire many bog-iron blast furnaces. Its use continued for many years until the production of iron in our area succumbed to the competition of Pennsylvania. That charcoaling was a long ago in Pine Beach was brought to light in 1954 when ground was cleared for the Pine Beach School playground. Some mothers may still remember their children coming home from school, before the playground was completed, with clothing and shoes black from old charcoal pits.”

Sometime after that, we can find evidence of the Beachwood waterfront area being popular among local residents primarily from Toms River, who used the undeveloped shore for cool recreation on hot summer days. This led to a tragic account on one such afternoon, June 20^th, 1911, when eleven-year old Toms River resident Ella Cranmer drowned while bathing with friends at Spiles Point.

June 22, 1911 cover of the New Jersey Courier, an Ocean County weekly established in 1850 as the Ocean Signal, Ocean County's first newspaper (Ocean County was formed in 1850 from the southern portion of what was then Monmouth County).

Following the cessation of shipping activity (due in large part to the closing of the Cranberry Inlet, where Ortley Beach stands today) and the turn of the century, according to Marshall hearing testimony, the land that would become Beachwood was involved in a real estate scandal where it had been sold by a company called the Pittsburgh Company to a number of Pennsylvania residents in pieces, and was to be called Hobart City, named after New Jersey native Garret Hobart, who died in late 1899 while in office as Vice President of the United States under President William McKinley.

Garret Hobart, undated.

It has also been stated from different sources that part of the land was set aside for a cemetery, but that the land was then too remote for such a use.

At some later date, the Pennsylvanian owners contracted a man named Reece Carpenter, and the Pine Bay Hotel, Land and Improvement Company was formed to replace the Pittsburgh Company, with Carpenter as company owner and the Pennsylvania residents as shareholders.

At this point everything gets even more incredibly convoluted, with Carpenter turning over to his wife a claim of $79,896 against the Pine Bay Company and a relative of his wife’s bringing suit against the Pine Bay Company for $79,000, then changed hands to an Ernest F. Griffith for $4,750 until a previous owner, Henry L. Hall, of Pittsburgh, holding an old mortgage for $8,000 turned up and everything was forced into a foreclosure and sheriff’s sale for the amount of $4,750 plus the $80,000 claims against it.

In mid-1912, at the center of these land disputes, Reece Carpenter’s son, O.T. Carpenter, said that his father got a letter from B.C. Mayo asking if he would sell the land directly to Mayo and at what cost. The elder Carpenter never responded nor took any action to sell the land to Mayo, and eventually Mayo sent a man named M. Edgar Smith to approach him about it. Through negotiations between Carpenter and the Mayo/Smith team, an amount of $75,000 was agreed upon for the sale, but not before the contract was altered with a number of exceptions and changed several times. Three days after the contract was finalized, Reece Carpenter died, his wife left the house the day after the funeral with various letters and papers related to the land, and Mayo and the Tribune couldn’t get a bank to issue a policy as the original ownership by the Pennsylvanian shareholders hadn’t been part of the agreement, and everything was up in the air until Henry Hall surfaced with the old mortgage and a sheriff’s sale was held.

February 13, 1914 cover of the New Jersey Courier.

Finally, in February 1914, Addison Nickerson gained ownership to the property for the amount of $90,000.

The race to carve Beachwood out of the primitive scrub pine forest in time for a 1915 gala Decoration Day weekend opening was on.

Next:

Read about the early features of the Beachwood tract, A.D. Nickerson’s efforts to cut a resort community from the rough terrain, and the beginning of the Hearst-influenced investigations into Mayo, Nickerson and the Tribune by the federal government in the next edition of the Building Beachwood series.

Beachwood Yacht Club To Go Solar

Beachwood Yacht Clubhouse on Compass Avenue, 2009.

Today’s entry is a contemporary event we feel captures a part of the times we live in and should be recorded into our borough history.

The Beachwood Yacht Club has been harnessing the power of the wind for almost century on the southern shores of the Toms River. Close to a hundred years of sailors have come through their doors since it was first opened in 1915, each one knowing the sheer delight of catching the wind in their sails. Starting the 2010 season and continuing through their second century, BYC will also begin harnessing the power of the sun.

The BYC will be the first yacht club on the river to go solar. “It makes perfect sense for us, as we have been educating young people on the benefits of sailing,” said Brigitte Hoey, Commodore and past student of BYC. “Sailing builds confidence through competition, reinforces a sense of independence, and also teaches environmental responsibility all while having a lot of fun. Now we can reinforce this very important environmental message with the next generation by having kids and their families spend an  entire day of fun just using the wind and the sun.”

The Beachwood Yacht Club anticipates the construction to be in full swing just after Thanksgiving, with its completion prior to Christmas.  Updates, photos and information on its progress and solar power conversion will be found here on the Beachwood Historical Alliance’s newssite as a way to record for future generations our current era and the growing worldwide clean energy movement as it grows to reach the Borough of Beachwood.

Linked History: Toms River Community Theatre Built by Beachwood Man

Today we spotlight the work of Beachwood man Joseph Jerue, who was a builder, World War II veteran (along with both of his sons – one of whom, John, was lost during battle) and mayor of the borough.

Joseph Jerue in his official World War II service photo. This photo originally hung along those of other Beachwood servicemen in the Beachwood Circle Shop during the war.

In 1937, Mayor Jerue, then 41 years old, was named the builder of a prominent cultural site on Washington Street in downtown Toms River, the Community Theatre. To our benefit, its construction and featured amenities were detailed in an issue of Box Office Magazine in August of that year. Below you’ll find that article in full. We hope you enjoy this look back to an era and its architecture that one particularly prolific Beachwood resident helped make possible.

Reprinted material courtesy Ken Bacon and Box Office Magazine.

A MODERN THEATRE IN THE COLONIAL MANNER

Toms River Community Theatre as it appeared after its construction, in 1937. Today it has been renovated into shops and eateries.

A new modern theatre with a seating capacity of 1,000 persons was recently erected on Washington Street in Toms River, New Jersey. Definitely out of the ordinary in design and decor, the new edifice reflects the most contemporary expressions of architectural composition.

It is operated by the American Community Theatres, Inc.

Unlike most modern theatres, with their brilliantly lighted marquees and  electric signs over the entrance, this theatre with its simple Colonial front presents a decidedly novel appearance. Its architectural simplicity is pronounced.

The theatre is set back 30 feet from the sidewalk and the intervening portion of the property in front of the theatre is beautifully landscaped and circumvented by a flagged walk of unique design which serves as a delightful approach to and departure from the theatre.

The Washington Street facade is of red facebrick with white joints, in front of which is a beautifully designed Colonial portico done in wood and painted white.

The ticket booth is situated in the center of the entrance screen of doors. Lattice work above the entrance doors and the circular windows above the lattice work are constructed of wood and glass. All portico in wood and painted white, against the masterly executed red and white masonry background presents a simple but beautiful facade.

In the evening this facade is illuminated by flood lights which increase the beauty and interest of the architectural simplicity to a spectacular degree. The same simplicity of design is followed throughout the interior of the auditorium.

The sidewalls are of acoustical plaster integrally colored to a neutral shade. Subtly concealed vertical lighting troughs along the sidewalks are provided with varied colored lamps, lending a beautiful and variable color scheme to the interior.

The foyer, promenade, ladies’ cosmetic room and the men’s room are also of simple modern design, the beauty of which is greatly enhanced by exquisite lighting fixtures, carpets and furnishings.

The auditorium is provided with exceptionally wide chairs spaced to provide the maximum comfort for the patrons. The floors are carpeted with rich, heavy, exquisite carpet which helps to promote finer acoustical treatment for sound reception.

Particular attention was given to the gradient of the auditorium floor to insure every patron a perfect view of the screen, no matter where he is seated.

A new modern ventilating system was installed to assure the occupants of a healthful and comfortable atmosphere while they are being entertained. The projection room and sound equipment in this theatre are of the finest known to modern science.

The Toms River Community Theatre is a delightful example of the modern functionally furnished theatre. It was designed and erected under the supervision of Thomas W. Lamb, Inc., architects. The builder was Joseph E. Jerue, of Beachwood, N. J.

The Community Theatre's billing was found in this photograph taken in Disbrow's Market, on Beachwood Boulevard, one year after the above article was written - August 1938.

“Boy and Girl Scouts, their Leaders and Parents” named 2010 Beachwood Citizens of the Year

Last Wednesday evening, scouts, parents and their leaders crowded borough hall when the Beachwood Council officially named them 2010′s ‘Citizens of the Year’ in honor of the numerous volunteer projects undertaken over the years. Boy Scouts, in particular, have dated nearly as far back as Beachwood’s existence, beginning with Troop 14.

Today we share with you photos and thoughts on this recognition, courtesy the Beachwood Council.

From Councilwoman Beverly Clayton:

“Though our borough has seen profound changes over the past decades, the heart of this community remains persistent and preserved. Beachwood shines, not because of our beaches or woodlands, but because of the people who inhabit it. Our citizenry shares a vibrant history of vision and volunteerism, of care and concern, of energy and entrepreneurship.

“There is simply no better example of this legacy, no brighter promise for our future, than our Boy and Girl Scout volunteers. It is in this spirit that I respectfully submit the Boy and Girl Scouts of Beachwood, their Leaders, and Parents for Beachwood’s 2010 Citizen of the Year.

“The reasons for this nomination are many. Our lovely community owes, in no small part, a deep gratitude to the Scout volunteers. These young citizens consistently donate time, effort and ingenuity to projects that make our town run safer, more beautiful, and infinitely more enjoyable. Below is a listing of only a few of the recent Scout projects that have directly affected the citizens of Beachwood:

• Annual Clearing, Weeding, Replanting of Community Sites throughout town
• Initiated: Construction of Public Restrooms at Eagles Point
• Project: Create Mile Markers on Public Walking Path – Mayo Park and Little League Field
• Project: Encourage Visual Home Numbering to Assist Emergency Response
• Built and Installed Parking Bumpers at Mayo Park
• Built Volleyball Court at Mayo Park
• Refurbished Bocce Court at Mayo Park
• Built New Lifeguard Benches for Beachwood Beach
• Installed New Public Bench Seating at Beachwood Beach
• Built and Installed Bait Station, Garbage Cans, New Benches at T-Dock

“The citizens of Beachwood are indeed indebted to these neighborhood youths. Naming these Scouts, their Leaders, and their Parents as Beachwood’s Citizen of the Year helps to remind us of the importance of teaching each generation about the need for and the rewards of community service. The Boy and Girl Scouts of Beachwood, their Leaders, and their Parents make our everyday lives safer, more beautiful, and… simply better.

“It is a privilege to nominate these model citizens, our Boy and Girl Scouts, their Leaders, and Parents. Our community is grateful for all that you do.”

Additionally that evening, Council President Ronald Roma swore in new Beachwood police officer Philip Schena, also a former boy scout troop member. Borough Police Chief William Cairns stated that Officer Schena set his sights on becoming a fulltime officer in the borough for a long time, and he was glad to see it come to fruition.

Severe Storm Hits Beachwood, Surrounding Area

Downed trees on Beachwood Boulevard between Nautilus Avenue and Oak Street took the nearby power lines with them.

A severe thunderstorm, backed by tornado and flash flood warnings, struck the borough and surrounding area late this afternoon.

Producing gusts of winds estimated at up to 50mph with scattershot bolts of lighting and driving rain, the storm downed branches and trees, knocked out utility lines, ripped out porch screens, threw lawn furniture and garbage bins across lawns and streets, and caused  minor flooding on borough roadways and along the beachfront.

Emergency services sprang into immediate action, with fire sirens sounding mere moments after the storm erupted.

Residents across the region also whipped into action, calling children in, closing windows and doors, locking screens and tuning in to their radios while, outside, trees bent to unnatural angles, bushes flapped back and forth, and rain shot out from every direction on the compass.

A short while later, it was all over, but many were unsure whether it was merely a small break.

Don Wiesner, directing traffic at the corner of Nautilus Avenue and Beachwood Boulevard.

Don Wiesner, a longtime member of the Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company, stood directing traffic at the intersection of Beachwood Boulevard and Nautilus Avenue. Behind him, the boulevard was blocked off to Oak Street, the result of two large trees blown over across the road. He said they had taken down adjacent power and communication lines, resulting in interrupted service for some residents.

Farther up the road, Fire Chief David Petracca and assorted fire company members were seen patrolling the area of another downed tree, this one in the backyard of a resident on parallel Seaman Avenue, on the same block as the firehouse.

Many other residents left their homes to walk, bike or drive to the areas of damage, and before long a crowd gathered at the intersection of Oak Street and Beachwood Boulevard, where they asked one another about who had lost power, or cable, or telephone, or all three. Adding to the sense of mild and unexpected excitement, drivers in slow moving cars craned their necks to get a good look at the  closed road and fallen trees.

Emergency responders on Beacon Avenue at the site of the large branch downed in the storm.

On the northern side of the borough, near the waterfront, downed large branches were seen lying across the roadways at Forepeak Avenue between Harpoon and Larboard, and at Beacon Avenue almost directly across from the beach entrance next to the historic Nickerson home. Police Chief William Cairns surveyed the Beacon Avenue site with an unidentified public works employee after having checked the boats docked along the water at the community center.

The sailboat in the foreground received damage to its sail cover during the storm.

Directly on the waterfront, an anchored sailboat off Windy Cove displayed a torn sail cover, while the area immediately behind the bulkheads was flooded. Bobbing in the water of the cove was some debris, including the long wooden “No Diving” sign from the Beachwood Beach swimming dock. The beach itself was partially flooded.

Nearby, the Pine Beach Borough waterfront appeared largely unscathed while work was seen ongoing behind emergency personnel and fire trucks on East Bayside Avenue in Ocean Gate and at the intersection of Washington and Main streets in downtown Toms River. Roads were closed and vehicles detoured in both cases. The storm also appeared to have damaged one of the long line radio antennas behind the now-defunct AT&T ship-to-shore radio station at Good Luck Point in Ocean Gate.

In all, the fast-moving storm was met locally with an equally rapid response by borough emergency crews and the Beachwood Public Works. Before long, the Beachwood First Aid Company ambulances were garaged, the orange cones disappeared and the buzz of of chainsaws ceased, leaving only the summer night- its chirping crickets, rustling wind, and cooler temperature – to pass softly into the borough.

MORE PHOTOS CAN BE SEEN HERE

The sign from the Beachwood Beach swimming dock was found floating off the shore in Windy Cove.

The Eagle Has Landed! Man Arrives on the Moon, Beachwood Tunes In

Today we bring you a very special edition of our newscasts, this one on the 40th anniversary of man first landing on the moon.

The moon landing, an epic high water mark set by President Kennedy nearly a decade before, transfixed the world in awe around the soft glow of their mostly black and white television sets that night, July 20, 1969, with images until then imagined only in dreams.

Longtime resident Geoff Brown remembered watching it as a graduate student on a trip to New England:

“With a small group of friends went up to Newport, Rhode Island for the jazz festival and then on to Putney, Vermont for another week’s vacation. The landing took place while there, and our friend’s house had one of the few TVs on the street. It turned into a party (it WAS the 60′s). It was wonderful to share the experience with friends and strangers alike. I felt very patriotic for the United States and all mankind for such an outstanding accomplishment.

“The following week we returned to Beachwood to find that we had had a common experience with so many Americans.”

Current Beachwood Mayor Ron Jones recalled the experience as a youth growing up in Brick Township:

“At the time of the moon landing I was twelve years old.

“Summer seemed hotter and more carefree… I recall going up on the roof of my parents home to adjust the antenna. If you don’t know, an antenna is a piece of metal designed to bring 13 channels, if you’re lucky, to your television set. We were one of a few families in the neighborhood that had the luxury of owning a color television set.

“My friends all came over, my mom made snacks and we sat in awe viewing history in the making. I think we all wanted to abandon our plans to become firemen in pursuit of a stint as an astronaut. That day was kind of bittersweet for me. Although a great accomplishment had been achieved, the constant rebroadcast of the pledge of President John F. Kennedy brought back a sad memory of November 22, 1963. Another day I will never forget.”

A group of children watched the televised broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing in Central Park.

Resident Lynn Pancza recalled that day spent among friends:

“I remember waiting for hours for the moonwalk to be televised. A group of us sat in a friend’s living room in Island Heights, around a very tiny television, watching the event.

“It was surreal to think that we were viewing something that would become a part of history, and personally I know I’ll never experience anything that thrilling and new again.

Don Wiesner, a fifty-plus year member of the Beachwood Volunteer Fire Company:

“I was working out of Toms River Chemical then, and it was just casually mentioned that they landed [they touched down at about 4pm Eastern Standard Time]. Then when I came at home I watched it on television [Neil Armstrong stepped out of the spacecraft about 10pm Eastern Standard Time].

“We talked about it down at the firehouse; it was really a great thing. An excellent thing, we never thought it would happen.”

An infant left to watch the countdown to the landing. Unknown location/source.

Resident Lynn Paro recalled the event alongside her soon-to-be husband, Tom:

“I was off from work and Tom and I were sitting on my cousin’s porch on Ship Avenue watching the landing. [We] were newly engaged and I believe that I worked for the First National Bank of Toms River, downtown next to Woolworth’s on Main Street… It was incredible.

“My cousin… Rich Schiller, [who was] 19… was working at the Beachwood bakery which was called The Town and Country Bakery at the time. He asked for the day off to watch the landing. His boss said no so my cousin quit the job. As he was riding his bike home from the bakery, he got hit by a car. He came home anyway just to see the landing.”

Edna Moody, wife of then-police chief John Moody, cited the technological breakthrough it represented as the most amazing:

“I remember being in awe of the accomplishment of this, and of course we all stared at the TV in disbelief. Our oldest children were eight and four, and we were so proud of that mission.

“Maybe more than the landing itself, I asked my husband, how in the world can we get television reception from the moon?”

Mr. Moody also commented on the historic event:

“We loved the idea that we were able to be in our own living room and watch such an event occurring. The moon was one of those places that was an untouchable. It was there, but nobody would ever arrive on it.”

He also recalled the police scanner to be particularly quiet that night, with most residents assumed to be tuned in and not doing much that would require police assistance.

Experience audio and visual elements of the Apollo 11 mission at www.WeChooseTheMoon.com

Carpetland/Circle Shop building featured on National Trust for Historic Preservation Newssite

Downtown Beachwood and the Carpetland/Circle Shop building got a bit of national press this week from the National Trust for Historic Preservation website:

After Fire, New Jersey Inn’s Future Remains Uncertain

By Margaret Foster | Online Only | July 16, 2009

A month after a devastating fire, the owner of the most visible historic building in Beachwood, N.J., is considering tearing it down. But at least one resident wants to find a new buyer for the curved structure that has anchored the town’s main intersection since the 1920s.

On June 12, a fire gutted the second floor of the former Beachwood Circle Inn, used most recently as a carpet store and apartment house.

“It was an accidental fire. We attributed it to careless cooking,” says Robert Cook, deputy fire marshal of Ocean County, N.J. One firefighter suffered minor injuries in the blaze, he says.

The fire left the exterior and first floor intact. This month, the carpet store on the first floor is open for business—but for how long? “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I might even tear it down,” says building owner Bruce Barrett.

The Beachwood Historical Alliance wants to reshape the future of the Circle Inn building, the “main cultural social gathering for our entire area,” according to director Erik Weber.

He hopes to help Barrett find an investor to buy the building and restore it as a meeting place. “The timing could not be better, as our downtown is about to be reconnected with the rest of the county to a 17-mile uninterrupted rail trail,” he says. “It could be a smash hit.”

Would Barrett be willing to sell the building? “Once they got the money, sure,” he says.

Last year the Circle Inn building was slated to be torn down for a Rite Aid pharmacy, but plans remain on hold because the developer has not paid a required application fee. “They would need to post the fees to continue,” says Jeanette Larrison, secretary of Beachwood’s planning board. “Their application hasn’t even been close to being completed.”

Rite Aid Corporate spokeswoman Cheryl Slavinsky emphasizes that Rite Aid is not the developer of the site. (The developer did not return phone calls from Preservation.) The Rite Aid store was originally scheduled to open in November 2010. “We do not control matters of the developers. We honestly can’t tell you the status of the project.”

Beachwood Carpet Land / Circle Shop Fire: Before and After

Posted below you’ll find photos our organization took prior to the fire at the Carpet Land / Circle Shop building, alongside similarly positioned ones afterward. Following that is today’s Asbury Park Press article on the fire. The BHA will keep you posted on any new developments and information on how our residents can help the property owners and tenants recover from this unfortunate event.

Beachwood Fire Being Probed

Chelsea Michels
Toms River Bureau
Asbury Park Press – June 15, 2009

BEACHWOOD — Authorities are investigating the cause of a fire that damaged a historical landmark on Route 9 Saturday night.

The Beachwood Volunteer Fire Department responded to the blaze at Carpetland shortly after 9 p.m., according to Chief David Petracca.

The fire spread through the top floor, which contains apartments, fire officials said. Two families were displaced, according to Petracca, who said he believed the the business, on the bottom floor, is currently closed.

Petracca said the cause of the fire is under investigation by the Ocean County Fire Marshal, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Beachwood Police Department.

“Everybody did an excellent job and the damage was kept to a minimum,” he said, adding that one firefighter suffered minor injuries but the residents were unharmed.

He said due to the type of occupancy, several fire companies from the surrounding area responded to the fire.

According to members of the Beachwood Historical Alliance, the structure was built in the late 1920s and was originally the Beachwood Circle Inn, which formed a circular intersection with the other buildings on each corner.

It became the Beachwood Circle Shop in the 1930s, and “enjoyed prominence as the cultural hub of the local community, from Berkeley to Beachwood to Toms River,” according to the Alliance.

During World War II, many servicemen gave their military photographs to then-proprietors, F. Steven and Florence Demor, who hung them in the window for passing residents to see.

The Circle Shop changed hands in the 1950s, and continued operation until the late 1960s when it became Carpetland.

On Dec. 26, Rite Aid had submitted a proposal to the borough Planning Board to build a Rite Aid Pharmacy over the Beachwood Circle Shop/Carpetland site and surrounding area. According to the historical alliance, application fees were never paid by Rite Aid, causing speculation that the corporation has discontinued their interest in the site.