The tiny community of Lake Como is celebrating 100 years since the incorporation of the town. It was carved out of Wall Township in 1924 with a vote of 152-115 as the town of South Belmar. The independence movement was started in late 1922, by a group of concerned citizens led by a large land-owner Clarence Birdsall. He enlisted his son Claude, a civil engineer to get the area annexed to Belmar. In classic NJ fashion, old Clarence did not think he was getting any value for his real estate taxes.
As the mostly bungalow community was built out, citizens wanted better drainage, garbage service (most garbage was burned), paved roads and a more favorable school levy. The land is just 1/3 square mile is set between 16th Ave & 22nd, the railway, Lake Como, and Ave B. between Belmar to the North and Spring Lake to the South. It still only has a population of 1,700.
The lake forms as Pollypod Brook drains to the Atlantic Ocean. On most early maps it was called Tri-Cornered Pond.
William Force and Henry H. Yard were both surveyors for the Proprietors of East Jersey, the oldest surviving corporation in the New World. The Proprietors once owned all the land in East Jersey, from a diagonal line drawn by George Keith in 1657 splitting the holdings granted to Lords Berkely and Carteret by King James of England.
Keith / Como
By the late 1800s, most of the land in East Jersey was spoken for, but Force and Yard kept finding unclaimed land, or at least challenging deeds and frightening some property owners into making payments. One of those parcels in 1880 was the shoreline of Tri-Cornered Pond which was likely shifting in its natural state. Once they controlled the pond, the pair planned a resort development around its borders, acquiring the land to the south and northwest of the pond.
1889 map shows the boundaries of Como and the land held by Yard and Force both to the north and south of the lake.
The resort was initially named Keith, after the original surveyor in the Jerseys. Force and Yard purchased the land which included a densely forested area to the south near Vroom Ave., down to the beach, and scrub pines to the Ocean Beach (Belmar) line in the north.
They changed the resort name to Como when Yard had renamed the pond after the picturesque lake in Italy as a marketing ploy. They convinced the Central NJ Railroad to place a station named Como at 4th Ave and Wall Rd. Henry Yard’s wife had a role in its attractive design.
The stone Como rail station from a postcard image
The plan was to build a resort hotel, to sell plots for large cottages near the ocean by North Spring Lake’s pavilion and less expensive bungalows on small plots the northwest side of the pond.
Part of North Spring Lake for 4 years
William Force died in 1891. The resort’s hotel was unbuilt. Henry Yard became mired in litigation over the Sea Girt and Spring Lake projects. In 1899, the town of North Spring Lake annexed all of Como from Wall. There were discussions about changing the station name to North Spring Lake Station, but Como stuck.
In 1903, O.H. Brown, former mayor of Spring Lake, and State Senator, introduced a bill in Trenton to consolidate North Spring Lake into Spring Lake, as well as taking the eastern section of Wreck Pond from Wall Township.
Back to Wall
In exchange, Brown returned part of the former Como north of Lake Como and the brook back to Wall Township. Millionaires built mansions near the North Spring Lake border. They included Robert Cheesebrough inventor of Vaseline, Roger’s Lowlands, which was purchased by Ferdinand Roebling, wire manufacturer and Brooklyn Bridge builder, and Samuel Heilner, coal merchant who purchased Seawood, the large forested tract in the old Como.
These elaborate estates were in stark contrast to the planned bungalows to the north which did not fit neatly into Brown’s vision for Spring Lake.
The remainder of old Como was an orphan, now with no oceanfront, and they were one of a few areas along the coast east of the railroad not separated out of Wall Township.
The community’s needs were different. Wall was a farming community, with low population density and self-sufficient permanent residents. As more bungalows were built, owners wanted similar services to Belmar’s.
It took until the 1920s for Clarence Birdsall and his supporters to get a bill in Trenton to gain their independence from Wall Township while courting Belmar as their intended destination. They established themselves as “South Belmar” in March of 1924 but did not get annexed. The Asbury Park Press joked, “Goodbye to Wall with your old he-haw”
South Belmar
Their lack of improvements got in the way. Little South Belmar had no money, and Belmar wanted assessments as the price of admission to share theirs. Claude Birdsall was elected mayor for his efforts. By the mid-1930s the town provided the services residents had wanted from Wall Township without Belmar’s help.
The Como rail station saw a loss in traffic and the depot was decommissioned in 1934.
South Belmar eventually came to regret the association with the Belmar name. The 1980s and 1990s saw Belmar’s reputation emerge as a party place for kids sharing summer rentals. Despite reducing bar closing times from 2:00 AM-12:00 AM, 50,000 people still descended on the town each summer weekend; mostly young and excited to party at D’jais, Reggies, Tropical, Montego Bay or Key Largo.
Belmar inspired a Fox sitcom “Down the Shore” about a share house in 1992-93. Mary’s Husband’s Pub and Bar Anticipation in South Belmar were happy to share in the party atmosphere.
Bar-Anticipation loves Lake Como
Belmar slowly reversed its rowdy reputation, but by the early 2000’s the South Belmar residents, led by BOE President Robert Kirk, moved to change the name. Business leaders supported the name change to Lake Como, leaving behind the misperception the town was somehow part of Belmar. This included Bar A’s owner Reginald Hyde, who offered $18,000 to offset the transition cost. In a 2004 election referendum, 58% of the voters supported the name change.
So here’s to 20 years as Lake Como, and 100 years as an independent municipality.
The Lake Como side of the Lake at the Polypod Brook