No. 99 – “AN AERIAL VIEW OF 96TH STREET”                                      

This interesting circa 1956 photo was taken from atop the Stone Harbor water tower.  Here we have the downtown shopping district featuring numerous business establishments including the popular Burnleys Food Market in the foreground.  Certainly there are some of our readers/viewers who recognize and remember this grocery store.  Perhaps some of you may even have shopped at Burnleys.  Shopping locally here often saved the time of driving out to the larger ACME Store on the mainland.   

Look closely at this image and see how many places you  remember.  Across the street and progressing westward are some multipurpose, variety or souvenir/gift stores, the older Park Theatre and next door the well-known seafood eatery known as Hahn’s Restaurant.  Next  to Hahn’s is the relatively newer and considerably larger Harbor Theatre.  Crossing Third Avenue at the intersection is the iconic Shelter Haven Hotel anchoring the Shelter Haven Basin.

Obviously the roadway in the upper right hand corner of this photo is the entry way into Stone Harbor from the mainland and Cape May Court House.  Notice that vehicles are angle-parking on the street.  In addition, the partially visible old brick building in the lower right foreground behind Burnleys Food Market was the town or borough works building with access on 95th Street.  As you can readily see by the mid-1950s virtually all of the land in this general downtown area has been developed and businesses have filled both sides of the street.