Settling the Deeds in the Park

The land in Crescent Park became a point of contention.

Richard Ottomar Venino, an attorney in solo practice in town since 1955, studied the history of the deeds in Crescent Park. He went back to Richard Stockton’s accumulation of the Bell Farm and Shearman farm, then the sale to Thurlow and the formation of the Sea Girt Land Improvement Company, to the Sea Girt and Sea Girt Land Improvement Company, to the Coast Company, and The Sea Girt Company before the town was Incorporated in 1917.

Dick Venino, Lawyer and Borough Historian

He noted that Charles Noble, the last owner of the land companies, had sold the beach out of his holdings to the town, but he had never disposed of the Crescent Park property.

Dick was a former Naval Lt. and fought in the Battle of Okinawa in WWII. He liked detail and order, and while he knew the 1884 court ruling had designated the land in the park a perpetual parkland, it was not all owned by the borough. His research earned him designation as borough historian.

He identified two other potential issues. The 1875 maps for the resort had established a Kursaal at the center of the park at the ocean. This would have been a pavilion or casino. The town had no intention on building it; the suggested building was dropped from maps since 1877, and there were homes on the site. He wanted to clean up their deeds so that the borough would never be able to take back that property.

The never built Kursaal noted on the original map of the Sea Girt Resort

Dick, who lived on Beacon Blvd with his wife Sigrid, “Honey” and family liked to dig into the old deed books at the county seat in Freehold.

He identified another small strip of land, cutting through the park that was unclaimed by either the land company or the borough. It may have been a utility right of way or path at one point, but Dick personally procured the deed to protect it from any other claimant. He noted he would donate it to the town.

He hunted down Charles Noble’s heir, his daughter Evelyn Stevens in New Hampshire, who also held title to a plot along Wreck Pond. The borough offered her $5,000 but also looked for a quit claim deed for the park. She would not sell, nor would she provide the clarity on the park, but Venino took her to Superior Court and resolved the deed for the town. The court noted that the case should be settled out of court amicably. Members of the Real Estate Owners group complained that they wanted an impartial lawyer other than Venino to negotiate, but he represented the town in the action as he was most familiar with the land history of the township. The town paid Mrs. Stevens $750 to get her signature and pay her lawyer to secure the title to the park.

The 1888 home of Margaret Oglesby burned down in 1963. It damaged the 1896 house of Phebe Wright next door, owned by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary, also known as the Marymount Convent. The Sea Girt Fire Company saved the forest from the fire. Margaret’s son Joseph Oglesby had died in the house at age 81 earlier in the year. He never married and lived quietly in the huge home alone. He supported Fitkin Hospital. He left his estate to Saint Uriel’s, the church his mother had built in 1907.

In the empty house, investigators noticed the gas was still connected, and a kerosene tank was still full in the basement. Teenagers were playing in the house before it caught fire. Dick Venino argued that the town should acquire the lot at 607 and turn it into an oceanfront public pool as part of Crescent Park. The town had passed an early ordinance to build one with the original pavilion, but the funding was not there. They also requested WPA funds for one in the late 1930s, but it never came.

The board denied his request as too expensive, and St. Uriel sold the lot.

Dick Venino lived until 98 on Beacon Blvd, and passed away in 2023.