Flashback: Ocean Grove Tries To Keep Old Charm In New Times

New York Times – by LEO H. CARNEY, June 29, 1986

OCEAN GROVE— THIS seaside hamlet is in transition, trying to incorporate century-old spiritual and civic patterns into the fabric being woven by newcomers.

In 1979, the State Supreme Court found Ocean Grove’s blue laws and form of government unconstitutional. People here called it the ”opening of the gates” and it was, literally and figuratively: A ban on Sunday vehicular traffic was lifted and the chains that had tried to keep the 20th century at bay were removed.  

Religious leaders from the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association of the United Methodist Church no longer govern; the community is under the jurisdiction of Neptune Township, its larger neighbor to the west. Yet this State and National Historic District, where Ulysses S. Grant spent his final days and Enrico Caruso sang in the Great Auditorium, retains much of the charm and feeling of its founding days in 1869.

At this time of year, Ocean Grove’s small-town character becomes more citylike. Thousands flock to the auditorium and shopping district and the population of the 0.76-square-mile resort jumps from 6,000 to 30,000.

Perhaps more than any other coastal community in New Jersey, Ocean Grove fosters a Victorian ambience: rows of gingerbread-style houses, valentine-like gazebos, rambling vines of ivy and rosebushes and, of course, the 7,000-seat auditorium, which has been in use continuously since 1894.

Although the beach and boardwalk areas have deteriorated, the seasonal wood and canvas tents of the 19th century still dot the auditorium area, and many ”tent cottagers” are third-generation occupants.

The grove of trees along Ocean Pathway – for which the community was named – is long gone, its place taken by a wide, three-block grassy mall from the ocean to the auditorium, where the sounds of Sousa still fill the air. (Sousa himself was declared persona non grata in 1926 because he played ”The Wets and Dries,” a tune unpopular with Prohibitionists.) Not all the waves of change have lapped gently on the shores here.

Inspired by what Mayor Anthony Molinaro of Neptune says is ”the most reasonably priced oceanfront property left in New Jersey or New York,” local and out-of-town developers and real-estate people have been converting historic guest houses and large hotels into apartments and condominiums.

Young professionals and other outsiders have been buying and improving old homes. A three-bedroom house in fairly good condition two or three blocks from the Atlantic can be bought for about $150,000; farther from the beach, prices are lower. A rare oceanfront property that could cost $500,000 or more in some wealthy coastal towns would be about $250,000 to $300,000 here.

William T. Kresge, retired publisher of The Ocean Grove and Neptune Times (where, after 40 years, he still works as a consultant), said in an interview that official censuses had never distinguished between Ocean Grove and Neptune Township, the municipality to which Ocean Grove has always paid taxes and from which it received some services. Thus, he said, it is impossible to gather precise demographics.

Sitting in the newsroom, with its pressed-tin ceiling, one morning, Mr. Kresge did, however, estimate that 25 percent, and perhaps a third, of all current property owners here had arrived since 1979.

Along the oceanfront alone are two proposed projects that would add 350 apartments and 52 condominium units.

”Where people once came down here to get a room,” said Mayor Molinaro, ”they’re now coming down to get a condominium.”

Resentment of the ”opening of the gates” can be found almost anywhere.

A citizens’ committee led by Benjamin C. Douglas, a retired merchant, wants Ocean Grove to secede from Neptune.

”The place is going downhill,” Mr. Douglas said, adding that since Neptune Township started running things, police protection had decreased, motor-vehicle offenses had increased, parking had become impossible and infrastructure needs had been neglected.

Of the $3 million a year in taxes collected in Ocean Grove, Mr. Douglas said, ”very little” has been put back into the community. The tax rate is $3.02 for each $1,000 of assessed valuation, based on a new assessment of almost 100 percent.

A measure calling for a referendum on secession has not met with enthusiasm in the Legislature in three attempts since 1980.

State Senator Frank J. Pallone Jr., a Democrat whose 11th District includes parts of Monmouth County, said that the latest measure, which he introduced in March, was designed to get a feeling for how much support it could gather. It gathered little, he said, and the secession movement is dormant.

Donald L. Beekman, a lawyer and the Neptune Township Police Commissioner, said that some of Mr. Douglas’s complaints might have been true before last January, when the Township Committee went from Democratic control to a 3-to-2 Republican majority.

The 37-year-old Mr. Beekman, who was born and grew up in Ocean Grove, said that more tax dollars were being put back into the community and that police protection was more than adequate.

Ocean Grove had a 12-member police force before 1980. Now it is patrolled by one to three cars from the 67-member Neptune Township department. Mr. Beekman said that a beach patrol would be added soon.

Mr. Molinaro and James W. Truitt, president of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association of the United Methodist Church, said that relations between the community and the township had improved considerably since the Republicans took control.

According to Mr. Truitt, all legal issues between the association and township have been ”amicably resolved.”

Senator Pallone agrees that Ocean Grove has begun receiving more attention from Neptune lately, but Mr. Douglas scoffs at that view.

”Nothing has changed a bit,” he said. ”We were second-class citizens when they opened the gates, and now I think we must be fourth-class citizens.”

Mr. Douglas said that most Ocean Grove residents favored secession, but Mr. Pallone and others asserted that, because secession must be approved by a majority of both Ocean Grove and Neptune Township residents, it was doubtful that a referendum would succeed any time soon.

In an interview not far from the gazebo that enshrines Ocean Grove’s first artesian well (it was sunk in 1870), Mr. Truitt explained that the Camp Meeting Association was not affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Over the years, he said, the program at the Great Auditorium had become public.

Last year, in fact, Irwin I. Kimmelman, then the state Attorney General, issued an opinion that the Camp Meeting Association was secular. He said, for example, that because the association had opened the auditorium to public, nondenominational events, such as commencement exercises for Neptune Township High School, it was eligible for state funds.

So far, this new eligibility has resulted in a $100,000 appropriation to clean up Wesley Lake, which separates Ocean Grove from Asbury Park (no work has begun yet), and a $250,000 grant toward replacement of the auditorium’s one-acre roof. All were obtained by Senator Pallone. (Wesley Lake is named for John Wesley, the English clergyman and evangelist, who founded Methodism.) The township, Mayor Molinaro said, has begun forming a beach commission so that, as a municipal agency, it can obtain Green Acres funds and state and Federal coastal restoration money.

The Camp Meeting Association is a private, nonprofit religious corporation, Mr. Molinaro said, and as such has been ineligible for such aid.

During the interview with Mr. Kresge, Bob Beechley, owner of Day’s Ice Cream Parlor, which has not changed much since it opened in 1876, approached Mr. Kresge with advertising copy. It showed a new menu, including Greek gyros, egg rolls and nachos.

Mr. Kresge smiled and suggested that it was indicative of new times and a younger generation.

Mr. Beekman acknowledged that Ocean Grove’s rapid transition had also brought new law-enforcement problems. There have been several marijuana and cocaine raids, he said, and a problem with apprehending speeders along the three main thoroughfares – Main Street, Broadway and Stockton Street. Mr. Beekman said that a pooper-scooper ordinance was needed because more people now had pets.

Even more needs to be done, Mr. Truitt said, to assure that some of the tranquillity of the old days remained as the community adjusted. He and township officials and local legislators have been discussing legislation that would restore some of the blue laws, but in a modified and, it is hoped, acceptable way.

Although the bills have not yet been drafted in final form, they would include a ban on construction during July and August and on Sundays, a stricter noise ordinance and a prohibition on hanging out laundry on weekends (many homes are only six feet apart and most backyards are shallow).

Although some people would agree that Ocean Grove is not what it used to be, selling or serving alcoholic beverages is still prohibited. And on Sundays, no one is allowed on the beach before final church services are over at 12:30 P.M.

Still, for what is said to be a majority of residents here, Ocean Grove is, as the association’s 1870 charter says, ”A portion of land skirting the sea, consecrated to sacred uses and with a single eye to the Divine Glory.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/29/nyregion/ocean-grove-tries-to-keep-old-charm-in-new-times.html