Asbury Park, NJ
Posted by: 
94RedRover
N 40° 13.411 W 073° 59.921
18T E 585193 N 4453046
Greetings from Asbury Park. This Jersey Shore town was once the resort area of the Jersey Shore. Offering the newest and best in technologies, arts and entertainment, this was the place to be in the "Glory Days."
Waymark Code: WM5K92
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 01/17/2009
Views: 8
"ASBURY PARK, 26 m. (15 alt., 14,981 pop.), is one of the best-known resorts in northern New Jersey. The streets are closely built with cottages, boarding houses, and hotels, some of them open all year.
In 1870, when this region was a wilderness, James A. Bradley, a New York businessman, visited the adjoining Ocean Grove camp meeting. He saw the possibilities of developing a large summer resort and bought 500 wooded acres...The city today reaches nearly 2 miles inland from the beach.
--- New Jersey: A Guide to its Present and Past, 1939"
A Renaissance known as the "Gilded Age" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was the heyday of Asbury Park. In 1870, New York industrialist and real estate developer James A. Bradley, began to bring year-round commercialism to this residential shore resort, attracting new merchants, businesses and prominant figures. By 1890, the town was experiencing unprecedented growth.
Travelers flocked to the boardwalk, a resort attraction rivaling Atlantic City's, and hotels and restaurants flourished with the influx of tourist dollars. The boardwalk was a main attraction, offering tourists the newest in "talkies", an intricatly carved carousel, ferris wheel, casinos and other amusements.
New York architect Whitney Warren designed the city's most enduring Landmark: the Paramount Theatre and Convention Hall complex. Here, visitors were treated to live entertainment, as they still are today.
Though the city has witnessed an economic decline in the past couple of decades, a new Renaissance is sweeping this town, and many of the historic buildings, such as the Convention Hall are undergoing restoration.