“RUMMEL’S STORE & POST OFFICE”: NOW KNOWN AS “THE SASSAFRAS HOUSE” LOCATED AT 8300 SECOND AVENUE, STONE HARBOR, N.J.

The Sassafras House (originally known as Rummel’s Stores and Apartments) at 83rd Street and Second Avenue is one of the oldest houses on the island, dating back to before 1900. It can be seen in this very old panoramic or wide-angle photo view of Stone Harbor taken from the Avalon border, when there were only eight or so buildings on the southern half of the island and all were in what is today the 80th to 83rd Street area. In other words, what we are looking at in this photo represents the “original” resort.

Our knowledge about this photo is basically sketchy at best. Therefore, the structures we are able to see in the above circa-1896 photo, going from left to right, are as follows: the earliest known bathing pavilion with a small cupola is right on the beach; the next house is unknown; then there is the Abbotsford Inn, which was the first permanent structure in Stone Harbor, built and opened in July 1892, with its windmill providing drinking water exclusively to the inn at the rear of this impressive First Avenue property; next are two more unidentified properties side by side; then there is Rummel’s Store and Post Office in the center; and continuing westward toward the Great Channel are three more houses (one of which also has a windmill installed for drawing drinking water from underground) that are yet to be identified.

So little documentation exists at this point regarding the identification of all of these original buildings shown in the elongated or stretched-out photo presented above. Before moving on, however, one more feature shown in the photo should be pointed out to our viewers. Start by looking in the lower right corner of this image. Your attention is drawn to what was in all likelihood a gravel road and most likely the right-of-way, with a single set of railroad tracks extending southward to a station built at 87th Street in 1892. That rail link would run parallel to Second Avenue, serving to connect the lower part of Seven Mile Island—the “new” Stone Harbor—with Peermont and Avalon to the north end of the island.

Now let us move on to this second image, which is a vintage postcard published and sold in the very early 1900s. We know that it was known as “Rummel’s Store and Post Office,” and that George Rummel was appointed Stone Harbor’s first postmaster in 1894, when the island had a population of 200 during that summer. It may also have been the site of the very first school, as we have seen photos showing a class on the front porch. Notice the Abbotsford Inn in the background and that there is nothing to the south.

We know that in 1914 there were two stores at Rummel’s (each measuring 18’ x 45’), with the corner store renting at $250 for the summer season and the store on the ocean side renting for $200, also for the entire summer. There were also two apartments available at Rummel’s at that time, fully furnished and consisting of a total of 10 rooms and a bath. In addition, there were front and rear porches, and a laundry was provided. The entire summer season rent for the corner apartment was set at $350, while the apartment with the ocean view rented for $400.

Here’s what the old Rummel’s establishment looks like today. The third and fourth images displayed here were taken by this author on a recent Stone Harbor visit in June 2024.

We have learned that Rummel’s has changed ownership and purpose through the years. At one time a fire altered the roofline of the house, and more recently, in 1994, it was completely renovated and converted into what is now called The Sassafras House Condominiums. This old but rejuvenated and renovated house has endured and weathered all of the storms that passed over Stone Harbor—including those of 1917, 1944, and 1962, just to mention a few—and suffered only minor damage in Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Of all the very early structures built in Stone Harbor, the Sassafras House Condominiums, as it is now called, is among the few buildings that remain intact and are still standing today. Now that is quite remarkable!