“A Miracle In Rapid Growth”
NEW STONE HARBOR
Seven Mile Beach New Jersey
STONE HARBOR – 1908
Perhaps an apt title for this written account might very well be “A Gem In The Rough”. By this I mean that we will be presenting information that refers to something whose good qualities, values and/or potential are hidden and that almost no one had noticed in the decade of the 1890s. We know that Stone Harbor would become the last incorporated town that would be built on the Cape May County barrier islands. In many ways this advance or progression demonstrated and embodied the larger settlement pattern and development of the earlier barrier island towns.
BACKGROUND: The Stone Harbor Museum recently received an extraordinary donation (see image above) of 2 fascinating and very scarce postcards. These 2 highly collectible items are practically as “scarce as hen’s teeth”! Part of a very large holding consisting of thousands of Stone Harbor postcards, brochures, photographic images and much more were gifted to the museum’s archives section in 2024, thanks to a most generous benefactor. As the writer of these articles, I am indebted and grateful to that donor because such items have provided me with a multitude of new opportunities to discover, research and learn more things about Stone Harbor for me to write about.
In order to provide vital details about these 2 incredibly rare, non-postally used or un-mailed postcards, some important background information needs to be provided to our readers.
Illustrated here are 2 very interesting advertising postcards with moving or sliding parts – often called interactive or slider mailers – utilizing mechanisms like pull-tabs as shown. During the early 1900s such innovative postcards were produced to increase recipient engagement. These tactile, high-impact pieces were effective for product launches, special offers or event announcements, thereby ensuring higher engagement rates than the so-called ordinary, single piece or static mail that most of us ordinarily think about regarding post cards.
Such panels with pull-tabs were a card designed in such a manner where pulling the tab literally transposed or transferred a key scene being depicted which really was the basis for such mailings. As you can probably imagine, such mailers were usually more expensive per piece to produce and mail, but often justified the added cost with a higher return on investment due to the better engagement. Therefore such cards with moving parts also were more complex to design and produce than standard postcards. Nevertheless, the so-called “name of the game” was to garner the addressee’s or recipient’s attention to a given subject being presented on the postcard.
PROMOTING STONE HARBOR: So the question that comes to mind is: “Just who was actually responsible for creating this aforementioned example of most interesting advertising?” The short answer to the question is: the “South Jersey Realty Company” (SJRC).
The longer answer finds us examining the methods and tools employed by the three famous Risley brothers, namely Reese, David and Howard who created the SJRC by incorporating in 1897, taking title to the Stone Harbor area in 1907, and developing a marvelous plan to build and develop the seashore resort that has become known as Stone Harbor. That story of early development has been thoroughly presented in some of my previous articles published by the Stone Harbor Museum and so I will not churn through that subject in detail again.
However, I would like to draw your attention at this point to the actual 2 paper artifacts that are featured in this brief article.
The highlight of this report is contained in the first 2 postal items shown above, side by side, each however with a different pictorial scene. The hidden value of this type of mailer postcard is just what you see when you pull on the tab which results in the sudden or almost magical emergence and changed appearance of a scene in Stone Harbor.
Cleary, two scenes are highlighted and outlined with a red border: (1) an undeveloped beach showing only sand dunes and natural vegetation and (2) a new scene showing a view of the initial and ongoing construction of several houses along with streets, sidewalks and other related infrastructure including necessary utilities. Interestingly, the viewer is prompted to consider the short phrase located at the upper or top part of the 2 different scenes: “1908 – FIGURE IT OUT – 1909” or in other words, the viewer is asked to note the big difference that has occurred in Stone Harbor in just one short year of time!
Contained on the face of these postcards we see the Risley’s efforts directed at promoting the issuance of Beach Front Improvement Bonds for potential investors receiving fully improved lots free in the year 1909. This type of solicitation was the stepping stone so to speak for a very clever plan of attracting investors to become aware of this planned town and agree to commit to building a new house and thus participate in the beginning elements of the “New” Stone Harbor.
This final dual image shows the flip side of each of the 2 postcard mailers. This view is about the so-called “working side” of the 2 cards and includes an inviting and lovely scene of the beach and the ocean surf with the inscription “THE BEACH THAT MADE STONE HARBOR FAMOUS”. You will also notice there are spaces provided for (1) affixing the necessary postage stamp which you will see required a “One Cent” stamp at that time as well as (2) space for the recipient’s name and mailing address. Also in red ink can be seen both the manufacturer’s name, address, and patent number along with the reference to the card being a complimentary “Souvenir of the South Jersey Realty Company” along with their Philadelphia office mailing address.
It can be said that these 2 pieces of history are actually portals to the rich history of the seashore resort known as Stone Harbor. The days of such quaint and rudimentary advertising methods like the one featured in this article are long gone. Strikingly, modern technology available today has been not only revolutionary but has indeed changed the advertising game so to speak.
Hopefully you have enjoyed seeing these important pieces of early Stone Harbor history. Please know that there will be subsequent articles depicting and describing more special promotional postcards used by the South Jersey Realty Company to promote Stone Harbor. Stay tuned for yet more stories!