The Stockton was completed and the nicest spot on the coast.
The good times were rolling. Calvin Coolege, who became President in 1923 with the death of Warren Harding won a landslide. Stock market speculation was beginning to catch on with small investors. From 1920-1929 stock prices quadrupled.
The Sea Girt community was coming together. A women’s club was formed. They met on the second floor of Borough Hall. The winter and summer residents seemed very much in synch.
Bicycle advertisement from the Saturday Evening Post in the 20s. Card Parties were in fashion.
The Lawn of Frank Hutchens was used for an August card party. They played to raise money for the Sea Girt Community Club. Games of Bridge and Rummy 500, were played on 24 tables with 115 in attendance. Nora Subbs also allowed community members and their committees to gather at her now very luxurious Stockton in the Pines.
Charles Noble ended the lawsuit regarding building the pavilion on the west side of Ocean and Chicago. He donated the beachfront to the town, and they were free to build on the sand across from the Tremont.
The Borough passed an ordinance…”Whereas a temporary Improvement note in the amount of $10,000 has been issued as provided by law for the purpose of temporarily financing the purchase of said land, and Whereas, in the judgment of the Council of the Borough of Sea Girt, it is deemed necessary for the public good to fund such temporary improvement note to the extent of $9,000, and also to erect upon the said land a bathing pavilion, pool and bath house.”
The new Pavilion at Chicago and Ocean.
The suit from the neighbors over zoning rights was moot. But the Sisters were now not happy. They moved to enjoin the town. The pending pavilion and short boardwalk was going to obstruct their view, and the new parking along the beach would make getting to and from their house with decorum near impossible.
This new lawsuit went nowhere, and this time the town did not wait for an outcome. The growing tax base gave them more confidence and the council passed an ordinance to build jetties along the entire beachfront.
Coincidently (or not). as the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth sued the town, the borough challenged the tax-exempt status of their house. The Sisters challenged the new assessment in court, but they lost, and then again on appeal. It was a vacation home; lay and religious teachers used the facility. There were no religious services or charitable work being done there, so the town won the suit. The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth looked for a more remote location. They eventually sold and purchased a cottage on Long Beach Island.
The new $40,000 pavilion was a success. The community organizations praised the modern changing facility, concessions and the shaded deck above. Swimmers felt safer with two new rope lines and two lifeguards on the beach at all times. The Stockton was in full swing providing their own lifeguards further down the sand.
In 1925 the Community Club President Fox declared victory and passed the presidency on to J. Naylor but credited his neighbor’s collective action to bring the Pavilion into existence, “It served to make Sea Girt's beach one of the finest bathing beaches on the Jersey Coast and was not only a great convenience to the residents of the borough but was a wonderful advertisement. “
Noble also donated two triangular plots to the town. One was at the entrance to town at Sea Girt and Washington which had not been planted in some time. Former Postmistress and store owner Mary Blakey kept the entrance to town planted and weeded from the late 1800s, until around 1920 but she was ill and she passed away in April 1925.
The women of Sea Girt proudly beautified the space with flowers and plants from 1924 forward.