Harlan’s History: “STONE HARBOR AND ITS OCEAN PARKWAY” 1912

Harlan’s History: “STONE HARBOR AND ITS OCEAN PARKWAY” 1912

“STONE HARBOR AND ITS OCEAN PARKWAY”

Issued by South Jersey Realty Company

915 Real Estate Trust Bldg.

Philadelphia

 

Included in a 1912 publication with the title as mentioned and shown above, the Risley brothers and the Publicity Department of the South Jersey Realty Company printed and widely distributed a comprehensive 110-page magazine edition promoting the many wonderful aspects and opportunities of the new seashore resort called Stone Harbor, located in southern New Jersey.

 

The purpose of this brief account is to present several interesting promotional advertisements and artist renderings contained in this particular magazine that serve, in my view, to be prime examples of the greatness of Stone Harbor in the year 1911.

 

Black-and-white advertisement with the headline “Try Out Your Car on Seven Mile!” showing an early open automobile carrying four passengers driving on the beach. The text promotes Stone Harbor as an accessible destination for motorists and advertises a free illustrated route map from Philadelphia.

 

The single photo image with a vintage automobile depicted here in the ad bears the headline promoting “Try Out Your Car on Seven Mile”! This advertisement, placed by the Stone Harbor Automobile Club of Philadelphia, was apparently designed to increase awareness of the ease of traveling to Stone Harbor via the newly built free boulevard or parkway connecting Cape Court House and the mainland with Stone Harbor by offering an illustrated route map to be sent free on request.

 

In addition, the ad is also trying to lure people to enjoy the beautiful Seven Mile Beach and its so-called “marvelous motoring strand.” In other words, automobilists can also enjoy driving or cruising on the broad, unobstructed beach. What a novel idea! This being said, there would even be, just a year hence, thrilling competitive automobile and motorcycle races conducted on the Stone Harbor beach. Clearly, “The Times They Are A-Changin”!

 

Black-and-white advertisement for the Harbor Inn in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. The image shows a large multi-story shingled hotel with broad verandas, dormers, chimneys, and a corner tower, presented as one of the most comfortable hotels on the New Jersey coast.

 

This advertisement shows the spacious and large 32-room, 5-story hotel called the “Harbor Inn.” The property was owned by the South Jersey Realty Company and the Risley brothers. This hotel, located on First Avenue, was facing the expansive beach, and aside from great views of the seascape, it was known for excellent cuisine. In addition, the Harbor Inn was conveniently situated just one block away from the bustling Pennsylvania Railroad Station.

 

Black-and-white advertisement titled “Wildwood to Stone Harbor” promoting an inland waterway motor boat ride from Anglesea to Stone Harbor for ten cents each way. The page includes travel directions, fares, and promotional text for souvenir books and route maps.

 

This third image is a schedule of sorts with specific information for traveling on Inland Waterway boat rides between Wildwood and Stone Harbor. During the previous summer season, over 80,000 people visited Stone Harbor on boats from Anglesea or Wildwood. Regularly scheduled boat trips were also provided to and from Atlantic City at reasonable cost.

 

Copies of brochures with up-to-date information about both Cape May County and Stone Harbor were available free upon request at two locations: one on the boardwalk in Wildwood and the other at the Stone Harbor Office at the Parkway Pier upon entering the town on 96th Street and the Shelter Haven Basin. At that pier, the Stone Harbor-Wildwood fleet of ferry boats docked at half-hour intervals, transporting thousands of coastwise tourists between those two points.

 

So very popular, the cost of such a beautiful boat ride was 10 cents a trip, and it can be said there was a period of time early on when far more people visited Stone Harbor by boat than by any other means of transport. But that was all about to change.

 

Black-and-white illustration of the Stone Harbor Yacht Club seen from the water. The long clubhouse sits beside the channel with sailboats in the foreground and people gathered along the porch and shoreline.

 

Next is a nice scene showing the season of 1911 during the second summer for the much-heralded Stone Harbor Yacht Club, which was over two years old. It was reported that the total valuation of the organization, not including several handsome motor boats, was $30,000. There were 175 members, and the yacht club was known for being one of the handsomest on the entire Atlantic Coast, located at a point on Sunset Drive between the Great Channel and Snug Harbor Yacht Basin. For the record, the yacht shown in the foreground of this image is Commodore James Thompson’s flagship, the “Albatross.”

 

Black-and-white illustration of the Stone Harbor Country Club, a large shingled clubhouse with a wide porch and central chimney. In the foreground, an early automobile with seated passengers arrives while several golfers stand on the lawn at right.

 

Above is the charming Stone Harbor Country Club, located on the mainland directly across the Parkway from Stone Harbor. It is the resort’s second successful club bid for public favor. Instituted in the spring of 1911 with 75 charter members, it sprang into instant popularity as an automobile stopping point on the state automobile highway and often for golf, tennis, and other outdoor sports.

 

Black-and-white advertisement titled “That’s It, Daddy! A Seashore Bungalow at Stone Harbor, N.J.” The central image shows a modest bungalow with a covered porch and decorative railing, promoted as an affordable summer home.

 

“That’s It, Daddy!” A Seashore Bungalow at Stone Harbor, N. J. “It’s the Very Thing!” In other words, this catchy phrase or headline is an idiomatic expression that means: “It is exactly what is needed or wanted”! Advertised here is a practical and modest bungalow built on the Great Channel Front Colony. Affordable housing with good terms, plans, literature, and a free inspection trip can be had by those interested simply by contacting the South Jersey Realty Company in Philadelphia. It couldn’t be any easier, according to the ad.

 

Black-and-white advertisement for the Stone Harbor Yacht Club with the headline “Speed Your Motor Boat at Stone Harbor, N.J., Under the Colors of the Stone Harbor Yacht Club!” The page features an illustration of the yacht club on the Great Channel and text promoting boating, club membership, and the inland waterway.

 

This last selected advertisement is designed to appeal to the motorboating enthusiast. Pictured here is the new Stone Harbor Yacht Club, built in 1911, sporting all types of boats, including large yachts, cabin cruisers, smaller racing motor boats, and a variety of different types of sailing craft. According to the ad, Stone Harbor was touted as an ideal spot for motorboat racing and cruising. The Great Channel at Stone Harbor was over one thousand feet wide and 4 to 5 miles long and was part of the very important New Jersey Inland Waterway.

 

Before the construction of the yacht club was even finished, it was hosting all kinds of boating regattas. Upon completion, the yacht club became known as one of the handsomest and most popular yacht clubs on the North Atlantic coast, located at a point on Sunset Drive between the Great Channel and Snug Harbor Yacht Basin, and it was visited by yachtsmen and yachts from Atlantic City to Cape May during the summer season.

 

In conclusion, it should be noted that the Stone Harbor of 1907 was confined to 83rd Street and only included half a dozen or so cottages, built and occupied, too, by summer sojourners and a family or two of permanent residents who, with the true pioneer spirit, had established the nucleus of a settlement on the beach.

 

An abandoned excursion house and a deserted hotel, formerly the Abbotsford Inn built in 1892, together with the arrival and departure of an occasional train at the tenantless little railroad station buried away among the picturesque sand hills of “Second Avenue,” served only to accentuate the fact that the tide of human interest had reached a low-water mark on Seven Mile Beach in the summer of 1907.

 

At the time the South Jersey Realty Company made its purchase of Stone Harbor, it took title to a section extending from ocean to channel, and from 80th Street to beyond 127th Street and Hereford Inlet.

 

Excepting a few scattered lots that had been previously sold, the property was intact, the boundaries including over 2 1/2 miles of beachfront and 2 1/2 miles of channel front, nearly six miles of magnificent waterfront in all.

 

It can be said that it was to the transformation of this expanse of sand hills and salt meadows into a modern seaside resort that the South Jersey Realty Company pledged itself, and it is upon the foundation that was laid during three years of unremitting effort, and through the expenditure of upward of one million dollars, that the “New” Stone Harbor really began taking shape.

 

Please Note: The Stone Harbor Museum houses a lot of information about the times and history of Stone Harbor. If you haven’t ever visited this “treasure trove,” or rich source of information, by all means, do so. Surely you will find it to be a very worthwhile experience!