The Wrecking Ball Looms Large

VP Richard Nixon was back at the shore, this time to campaign for Malcolm Forbes for Governor at the Sea Girt Inn.

Orange NJ Lawyer Frank Palmieri paid $400,000 for the Stockton Hotel and drew up plans to rebuild the aging structure. He also wanted to build a new hotel next to the Warren Hotel in Spring Lake. Both towns had other plans.

The Stockton had been renovated in the 1920s but used the shell of the original Stockton Beach House from the 1850s and the Beach House Hotel from 1875. The building had no insulation and was not winterized. Palmieri wanted it torn down and replaced with a new year-round hotel combined with apartments. He was willing to spend over $2 million for a mid-century modern structure.

The residents squawked. They did not want a new hotel as a neighbor all year long. The idea of apartments was also a non-starter. Rumors flew and the Real Estate Owners Association passed a motion to request the town offer no variances for the hotel. They demanded assurances nothing would be done.

In Spring Lake, Palmieri contracted to pay $82,000 for a large lot adjacent to the Warren Hotel from Jim McRoberts, with the condition he would be permitted to build a 9-story hotel.

Spring Lake had shrunk the hotel zones in town, and the Warren was left zoned as a hotel property, as was McRobert’s home at 909 Ocean. It had never been a hotel, but a home there was used as a rooming house. The Mercer and Warren blocks were not in either of the two remaining large hotel zones at the beach near the south part of town, (From Wreck Pond to the E&S, and along the lake), or 2) in the north (Where the Breakers and Grand Victorian are toda)y.

Spot zoning was subject to legal challenges, so the borough changed the two properties to fit in the surrounding residential zone. Fred Schock, owner of the E&S was on Spring Lake Council. Frank Palmieri and Jim McRoberts sued for the zoning change and the potential conflict of Schock (who never voted on the issue).

Palmieri, who owned a home in Spring Lake saw the odds of completing his 9-story modern hotel dwindle, dropped his suit, and concentrated his efforts on the Stockton. The Cosgroves who ran the Warren and McRoberts were unhappy. A real estate expert noted that McRoberts probably lost half the value of his property by losing the ability to put up a hotel. The change of zoning also set the 60-year-old Warren on a path to demolition, but it would hang on for another 40 years.

Change was hitting the area. The original beachfront house in Sea Girt, Avocado, built by Elliston P Morris in 1875 and willed to his daughter Bess came down. Cedar Mer, the other Morris home willed to Marriott Morris, also in the park on the ocean was demolished right behind it.

After 75 summers the first house on the ocean at Crescent Park came down (Marriott Morris Collection)

Martin Maloney’s daughter Margaret passed away, after not finding a buyer for Ballingary in Spring Lake. The upkeep for the palatial 1904 mansion was deemed too high. She spent her last summers across the street at her father’s old cottage and the house, one of the finest in New Jersey, and valued at over $1,000,000 in 1952 was demolished. The 1898 cottage still stands.

Maloney Mansion (Spring Lake Historical Society)

The gatehouse, wrought iron fence, and reflecting pond were part of a deed restriction, limiting buyer flexibility. The property sold for a paltry $80,000 and plans were made to break the block into building lots. In northern Spring Lake, Samuel Heilner’s mansion, Seawood was also torn down and his 11-acre estate was broken up for a large subdivision.

Given the fuss, Palmieri decided, (for the time being), to run the Sea Girt hotel as it had been. Mayor Doyle calmed the Sea Girters, noting that “Nothing was happening, and no variances were being discussed”.

The Sea Girt Lighthouse was purchased by the Boro for $11,000. Councilwoman Norma Howard thought to kill a couple of birds with this stone. The Coast Guard was selling off properties now deemed obsolete at 50% of market value. The town could keep part of its rich history, prevent two homes from further crowding an important part of the beachfront, and give the community some much-needed recreation and meeting space. The space was tight, but the old light would house a library and a kids’ recreation center. She would oversee the movement of the tiny kids library at Boro Hall and meet with the County Librarian for advice on setting up a real library at the lighthouse.

Norma had the experience to manage the lighthouse’s activity. She had taught at, owned, and operated the Miller Institute for Shorthand and Typing in New York, and after the war settled with her husband at their beach home at 302 New York Blvd. She had summered in town since 1918.

The first rec camp featured kite flying, bike riding, sand sculpture, fly casting for younger kids, and a teen’s canteen with dancing lessons in the evenings for the girls and any boys they could convince to join them.