What a great way to advertise the new Stone Harbor-Anglesea ferry boat service. For a fare of just 10-cents each way, “Fast, Staunch Power Boats leave Parkway Pier, Stone Harbor, and Mace’s Wharf, Anglesea, every half hour”. Furthermore, this particular advertisement provided information about additional ferry services connecting Atlantic City to Cape May, via Stone Harbor for the round-trip fare of $2.25. This ad was placed by land developers known as the Risley brothers and their South Jersey Realty Co. (SJRC) Philadelphia Office located at 915 Real Estate Trust Bldg. (S.E. Cor. Broad and Chestnut Sts.), Philadelphia, Pa. According to the ad, schedules and rates as well as illustrated literature and maps were also available and mention was made of two other SJRC locations including the Wildwood Office, Boardwalk and Schellenger Avenue and the Stone Harbor Office, Harbor Inn.
Thanks to picture post cards of the 1910 era, we can illustrate and see for ourselves some very interesting scenes in connection with the title of this very article. This next array of 6 post cards with brief descriptions are pertinent and directly related to our ongoing story.
Here we introduce two post cards showing early 1900 scenes of the Wildwood, N. J. boardwalk. The first is a daytime scene and the second was taken at nighttime. Both capture signage pertaining to a storefront on the Wildwood boardwalk announcing the South Jersey Realty Company’s “STONE HARBOR OFFICE”. Here we can see additional evidence of just how the Risley brothers of Philadelphia were indeed clever promoters of their new and emerging seashore resort called Stone Harbor. All one needed to do was to take a trolley to Mace’s Pier at Anglesea just north of Wildwood and then catch a short ferry boat ride to Stone Harbor and what would in 1910 become known as the convenient Shelter Haven Basin located at 96th Street and the entrance to town.
These next two early post card scenes depict the wharfs located at Anglesea and Stone Harbor. The first image showing tourists and folks disembarking from a ferry reveals the caption “Arrival of Boat from Stone Harbor, at Anglesea, N. J.” The second image showing another ferry loaded with passengers is titled “Landing of the Anglesea-Stone Harbor Ferry Boat at Stone Harbor, N. J.” Kindly remember that automobile access to Stone Harbor was not available at first and would only exist when the Stone Harbor Ocean Parkway linking Stone Harbor and Cape May Court House was opened in early July of 1911.
Shown here is the iconic and well-known Harbor Inn that was owned and operated by the South Jersey Realty Company and the Risley brothers. This was the site of another Stone Harbor Office where promotional efforts were directed at enticing and catering to prospective buyers of land in the up and coming seashore resort called Stone Harbor.
Lastly, and illustrated here, is a post card view that depicts the “Parkway Pier, Stone Harbor, N. J.” The purpose of including this image is that at one time the Risley’s also conducted business out of a part of this pier that was conveniently located at the Shelter Haven Basin at the point where the drawbridge was situated for entering Stone Harbor on 96th Street. Magnification of this particular image enabled us to better distinguish an important detail related to the theme of this account. If you look very closely you might be able to see the large advertising banner displayed on the second story railing near the front of the building on the pier. That banner reads as follows: “STONE HARBOR OFFICE / FOR ALL INQUIRY / APPLY HERE”. As Stone Harbor became a more popular vacation destination and as more and more visitors and families were heading to Stone Harbor, increased ferry operations were placed into service. Three such ferry boats in particular, the Nellie Bly, the Florence W. II, and the Lottie W. II, would also provide the much needed service to and from Stone Harbor. You should also be able to see an example of one such ferry boat docked at the ferry slip preparing to shuttle yet another group of passengers back to Anglesea. I am unable to distinguish the name appearing on the bow of the boat just mentioned, but most likely it bears the name of one of the three ferries that I just referenced above.
Therefore, understanding the various ways of getting to Stone Harbor during these formative years speaks to the many changes that transportation underwent to accommodate the growing interest and popularity of this marvelous town with such a promising future. The rest we shall say is history!