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Dock Road was the first thoroughfare in Beach Haven.
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The original Engleside Hotel was founded by Robert Engle in
1876 and was located at what is now Bicentennial Park.
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The first church on the Island was the Holy Innocents
Episcopal Church and was housed in the building that is presently The LBI
Historical Museum on Engleside Avenue.
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In 1869 a boardwalk was built in Beach Haven and then
widened in 1898, you were able to 'walk the boards' from 6th Street to
Marine Street . Gaslights were added in 1907. It was replaced in
1917 by an even wider and longer one extending from 7th Street to Holyoke
Avenue. It was destroyed in the 'Storm of 1944' and was found too
costly to replace. Today three pilings are still standing at the
water's edge of Berkeley Avenue.
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Legendary baseball player Roger 'Doc' Cramer was born in
Beach Haven, which has its own baseball team. He then went to the
Major Leagues and played for Boston in the late 1930's. He ended his
career with Detroit in the 1945 World Series.
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A wine ship named Francis, headed towards New York
from San Francisco, became stranded off Tucker's Beach (which was located
south of Holgate but is no longer there) on May 9th, 1897. It then
caught fire and burned to the water line. The whole cargo of rare
California wines, brandies, liquors, as well as hundreds of cases of Pacific
tinned Salmon washed into the chilly waters and drifted towards Beach
Haven. There in the water the whole town waited along the beach for
the catch of a lifetime. Men were said to be 'tipsy' for a week and
the women risked pneumonia fetching the precious cargo from the frigid
waters.
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The steel hull bark ship Fortuna washed ashore at
Ship Bottom during the winter of 1909 - 1910. Its anchor rests today
in front of the Ship Bottom Borough Hall. The rest of the ship was
sold as salvage.
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Brant Beach got its name from the flocks of Brant, a
type of duck, which gathered on the bay cove where the town was developed.
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Until 1952, the only traffic light on the entire Island was
located at the present Centre Street and Bay Avenue intersection.
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One Hundred Years Ago. . . .In 1904, the value of Long Beach Island (all
land and buildings) was $115,105. This is according to today's tax
assessor.
