Howard Johnson's at Asbury Park. Courtesy Adrian Fine.

Since its beginnings in the 1870s, Asbury Park has changed considerably. From the turn of the century to the 1950s, Asbury Park was the leading seaside resort on the northern New Jersey coast, surpassed statewide only by Atlantic City, The Boardwalk, fully developed by the late 1920s, is the most tangible remains of this period.

The Convention Hall and the Casino, anchors of the Boardwalk, include a theater, two exhibition halls, two arcades through which the Boardwalk passes, and numerous shops. The 1920s-era Convention Hall and the Casino are significant examples of civic oceanfront planning.

From its decline starting in the 1960s and civil unrest in the 1970s, hundreds of historic buildings have been demolished. In the mid 1980s the City sold the redevelopment rights of the beach and Boardwalk zone to a Connecticut-based developer. That developer began work in the late 1980s but soon thereafter declared bankruptcy. The developer's right to the oceanfront was considered an asset by an out-of-state court and was tied up for the whole of the 1990s.

Today the area is characterized by its abandoned buildings, surface parking lots and an un-finished high-rise condominium. Despite its decline, Asbury Park is significant from a number of aspects. From a musical history standpoint, Asbury Park is the center and pilgrimage for rock n' roll fans from all over the world, who come to see where talents like Bruce Springsteen started their careers.

Asbury Park is equally important for its role as an historic amusement resort (now the last intact example of its kind along the Jersey shore), entertaining ten generations of visitors from all over the world. The "Asbury Park Beach Front Convention Hall and Casino Complex" is listed as an official project of Save America's Treasures.

A new waterfront redevelopment plan may potentially threaten some of the community's recent past resources. The Palace Amusements (state and National Register-listed), dating from the 1880s up to the 1950s, is most endangered with demolition likely at this point.

Web links:

http://www.kweevak.com/rd_art_070602_rising.htm

http://www.homestead.com/savetillie/home.html

http://asburypark.net/home.shtml

Submitted by Adrian Fine. Photographs of Palace Amusements, then and now, courtesy Adrian Fine.