Beach Haven

Beach Haven

Beach Haven, founded in 1874, was designed as one of the first summer seashore resorts in New Jersey for wealthy Philadelphians. Beach Haven's boardwalk extended from Seventh Street to Holyoke Avenue, one and a quarter miles long. Wool bathing costumes were the rage: women "fanny dunked" while men and children swam in the Atlantic. An 1883 Philadelphia Inquirer advertisement stated that the hotel opened for the season "with thorough sanitary arrangements." A steamboat, connected with the Tuckerton Railroad, carried many visitors to the island. Robert Barclay Engle, with financial help from his cousin Samuel Engle, built the Engleside Hotel with materials barged across Little Egg Harbor Bay from the mainland by wide catboats, and the majestic hotel opened in 1876. It had room to accommodate 350 guests and offered numerous amenities, such as running fresh and salt water, tennis courts, and fresh milk.

The Jersey Shore

In The Jersey Shore, Dominick Mazzagetti provides a modern re-telling of the history, culture, and landscapes of this famous region, from the 1600s to the present. The Shore, from Sandy Hook to Cape May, became a national resort in the late 1800s and contributes enormously to New Jersey’s economy today. The devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 underscored the area’s central place in the state’s identity and the rebuilding efforts after the storm restored its economic health. Divided into chronological and thematic sections, this book will attract general readers interested in the history of the Shore: how it appeared to early European explorers; how the earliest settlers came to the beaches for the whaling trade; the first attractions for tourists in the nineteenth century; and how the coming of railroads, and ultimately automobiles, transformed the Shore into a major vacation destination over a century later. Mazzagetti also explores how the impact of changing national mores on development, race relations, and the environment, impacted the Shore in recent decades and will into the future. Ultimately, this book is an enthusiastic and comprehensive portrait by a native son, whose passion for the region is shared by millions of beachgoers throughout the Northeast.

New Jersey Geographic Names