1944 — Vincent Dicks

The Allies invaded Normandy in June, making a beachhead in France. After victory in Africa, troops pushed their way into Italy. Russia pushed the German forces back to Poland in the east. The outcome of the war was not yet decided, but all signs pointed to Allied victory in Europe.

In September, one of the largest hurricanes to hit the Shore left a trail of destruction. The category 4 storm destroyed barrier islands, oceanfront structures and bridges from Wildwood to Cape May. In Sea Girt, the boardwalk south of New York Avenue was destroyed. Boards were everywhere.

Everard Strokes was an Englishman who sold fire insurance to Churches. He moved from Spring Lake after he purchased 212 Crescent Parkway from Frank Durand’s estate. Built for Charles Noble, it was the finest house in Sea Girt. Stokes was voted to Council in 1940. He worried about the economic practicality of restoring the boardwalk and suggested leaving the dunes in their natural state. He choked on the $46,000 estimate to repair one third of the boardwalk with new boards, while men walked off with the old timbers they salvaged along the beach. His opinion column printed in the Coast Star:

The situation seems to be this. The boardwalk was built some twelve years ago at a cost of $32.000. About one third of it was destroyed by the storm. The estimated cost to repair the damaged portion, about to be passed in its third reading before the council, was $46.000, an impressive sum. Fortunately, the final passage of the measure was defeated, due no doubt to the protests of the taxpayers present at the meeting.

The project resembled the re-soleing of an old pair of shoes that cost $3.20 for $4.60, if we consider the leather and workmanship in the sole as one third of the footwear.

The Barrer Islands were all severely damaged

Furthermore, the boardwalk of 1932 has not yet been fully paid for by Sea Girt. The increase in the cost of lumber and labor disclosed by these figures is astounding. And yet, why should it not be? We are engaged in prosecuting a great war, the greatest in our nation's history! Lumbermen have left our forests by thousands to take a swing at the enemy instead of at trees. Carpenters hammer the Hun now as soldiers or munition workers. Few are left to repair our leaking roofs. And yet our city fathers blithely debated this boardwalk project till we stopped them. In these days, there are more important things than boardwalks. And yet I have heard there are among us those who object to a few splinters from our aging promenade.

To these I say let them toughen the soles of their feet, and remember that the going is still harder across the ocean over which they gaze. and thornier across the Pacific. The Atlantic is a rough customer. We seem to live in an epoch or period of storms. Like meteorites, these storms appear in showers.

A single storm has wiped out our municipal surplus in the value of material destroyed. If we rebuild we do so at our peril. Buildings can be insured against fire. windstorm or even earthquake, but no underwriter would insure a boardwalk built on the open Atlantic against these great surges that beset our coast. The figures I give above would appear to show that at this time it is impossible for a borough, such as ours, with five or six hundred houses to build and maintain a boardwalk the entire length of an extensive shoreline. without a confiscatory raid on its treasury. Borrowed money has to be repaid. A boardwalk on the Atlantic is not a capital expense. but a recurring expense. We live in a changing world.

The days of "two maids and a seamstress" have gone with the wind. The big blow that hit our boardwalk was not only oceanic. It was also economic. Now its planks can be bought for 10 cents, in pretty good condition, from our municipality. They cost bout 80 cents each in 1932.

What would they cost today? No attempt was made to salvage them and use the high percentage of good planks for future repairs. It seemed so much simpler to borrow money and rebuild. I saw one man cart off 50 or so to build a hen house. He was jubilant about the bargain, but said it was a shame the taxpayers should be SO treated. Well, what is the solution? To my mind it is simple.

The storm has not done us a disservice altogether. It vented its wrath almost entirely on the ugly timber erection called a boardwalk that hid or blemished the natural beauty of the sand dunes between Trenton and Philadelphia boulevards. I have always admired these dunes with their long salt grass, so prettily plumed and their clumps of "semper virens," most beautiful of the golden-rods, each a facet of flower, a miniature sun of pure gold. These dunes to my mind should be left in their natural state, without the wooden structure that hides them, or did SO until Old Man Atlantic showed his disapproval so severely. They can really be considered an extension of Crescent Park, and a fitting frontage to this inviolate sanctuary of hollys and cedars.

Our wood is sacred from encroachment, why not the sand dunes? There are still many of us who love Sea Girt for its natural beauty. It is a mistake to imagine that a resort town can only be made desirable by the expenditure of money. I suggest that the boardwalk should not be rebuilt between Trenton and Philadelphia boulevards. If my suggestion is adopted two thirds of the boardwalk, the section north of Philadelphia Boulevard, will remain. This is easily accessible to all and will be enough for everybody, and certainly more than enough for our pockets in these days of such high prices and heavy federal taxes.

If it is not too late, I would suggest that Sea Girt salvage some of the planks or buy them back from chicken keepers and others at anything under a dollar. They will be useful for future repairs. Yours very sincerely. EVERARD C. STOKES 212 Crescent Parkway Sea Girt.