'The Glad to See You' Tower. By Paul Goldfinger © The Casino is in the center of the photo.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
We've all walked by that peculiar-looking building on the left side of our photo above, adjacent to the Casino in Asbury Park, at the Ocean Grove North End.
Many of us wondered what that is/was. I've never heard a clear explanation until now upon reading a wonderful account, with photos, by Marlo Montanaro, a Jersey Shore photographer, who posted a piece on his blog called 'The Monolith of Asbury Park.'
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Marlo was able to get information and access inside of that mysterious place. He succinctly refers to it as 'the steam power plant,' a name known to many old-timers in this part of the Jersey Shore.
- The old casino building on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, New Jersey. OC 604x371 Close. Posted by 8 years ago.
- Built in 1929, the Casino building on Asbury Park's Boardwalk had been vacant for years.
- Download this stock image: Old Casino in Asbury Park, New Jersey - MCCEWJ from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors.
The central tower, seen from the roof. By Marlo Montanaro © Everbuild 901 black jack bitumen paint 5 litre.
The steam plant was built in 1930 in order to provide heat to boardwalk attractions so that Asbury Park could compete year-round for recreational business. It was designed by Warren and Wetmore from New York City who were responsible for other Beaux Arts structures nearby, including the Casino, Convention Hall, Paramount Theatre, and the Berkeley Carteret Hotel to the north.
Inside were three huge boilers that used oil to create steam for heat. The heat was pumped through pipes to the various buildings. Water may have been obtained from Wesley Lake or even dumped into the Lake. There is no information as to the success of the project, but evidently it wasn't used once WWII occurred.
Dramatic photograph inside the steam power plant, by Marlo Montanaro. © You can see more of these wonderful images by clicking on his link below. Marlo's photos posted here with his permission.
Since then it has stood as a monument of sorts to a utility that lost its purpose over 70 years ago. In the late c. 1960's we have a photo of Bruce Springsteen, another Asbury icon, standing north of the tower.
'Young Bruce' at the north end of the Asbury boards. Photo by Emil Salvini.
In 2003, a developer wanted to move the Stone Pony into that steam building, but, of course, that did not occur thanks to a lot of noise by the Cousin Brucie rock ‘n roll crowd.
The most original recent contribution to the known history of the steam power plant are the evocative interior photographs that Marlo Montanaro posted last April with his detailed review of the subject.
Here is what he said about the enigmas that remain, 'There are still mysteries here- what it really looked like when she was new… the men that worked here, what 1930 was really like… I can picture dark smoke and steam spewing from the top, the noises of banging steam pipes, and loud oil-fueled fires heating huge tanks of water, the smell of burning oil- steam power is a living, breathing thing. I can see some of the workmen taking a break, looking out over Wesley Lake as families took a ride on the paddle boats, while they toiled in a hot, nasty environment wearing soot-covered overalls. I wish I could have seen her in all her glory. But I can only imagine.'
Old Casino Building Asbury Park Nj Menu
Below are two links to Marlo's blogposts dated April, 2014. Thanks to Joel of OG for tipping us off to the Marlo post.
JANE LANIER from the album Fosse. It is from the 1954 Broadway musical 'The Pajama Game.'
Old Casino Building Asbury Park Nj Hotels
https://blogfinger.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/07-steam-heat.mp3From Kingsley Street to Main Street
A Few Blocks North of Cookman
Including Bond Street
Businesses and other non-residential places tended to congregate in the blocks just north of Cookman Avenue. Narrow Mattison Avenue, which leads from Main Street into Press Plaza, was home to the Asbury Park Press Building before the newspaper moved to its modern (and quite spectacular) headquarters in Neptune. Also on Mattison was the old police station and Walter Reade's Savoy Theater. Across from the Savoy was Rushton's, an old-fashioned stationary store. (Rushton's closed in 2001.)
Image 1.30.2. The old Asbury Park Press Building, just off Press Plaza. It was built
in 1916 after a fire destroyed the two-story building that stood in its place.
The Meistrich building is closed but is very much worth looking at. Built in 1917, it originally housed the First National Bank. It is on the NE corner of Mattison and Bond.
Image 3.30.2. The Meistrich Office Building, NE corner of Mattison and Bond.
On Bond Street (a block north of Mattison), there was Tustings piano and music store (now closed for years). Robert A. Tusting was the first person to open such an establishment on the Jersey Shore.
Image 2.30.2. Tustings, NW corner of Bangs Avenue and Bond.
In 2003, a developer wanted to move the Stone Pony into that steam building, but, of course, that did not occur thanks to a lot of noise by the Cousin Brucie rock ‘n roll crowd.
The most original recent contribution to the known history of the steam power plant are the evocative interior photographs that Marlo Montanaro posted last April with his detailed review of the subject.
Here is what he said about the enigmas that remain, 'There are still mysteries here- what it really looked like when she was new… the men that worked here, what 1930 was really like… I can picture dark smoke and steam spewing from the top, the noises of banging steam pipes, and loud oil-fueled fires heating huge tanks of water, the smell of burning oil- steam power is a living, breathing thing. I can see some of the workmen taking a break, looking out over Wesley Lake as families took a ride on the paddle boats, while they toiled in a hot, nasty environment wearing soot-covered overalls. I wish I could have seen her in all her glory. But I can only imagine.'
Old Casino Building Asbury Park Nj Menu
Below are two links to Marlo's blogposts dated April, 2014. Thanks to Joel of OG for tipping us off to the Marlo post.
JANE LANIER from the album Fosse. It is from the 1954 Broadway musical 'The Pajama Game.'
Old Casino Building Asbury Park Nj Hotels
https://blogfinger.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/07-steam-heat.mp3From Kingsley Street to Main Street
A Few Blocks North of Cookman
Including Bond Street
Businesses and other non-residential places tended to congregate in the blocks just north of Cookman Avenue. Narrow Mattison Avenue, which leads from Main Street into Press Plaza, was home to the Asbury Park Press Building before the newspaper moved to its modern (and quite spectacular) headquarters in Neptune. Also on Mattison was the old police station and Walter Reade's Savoy Theater. Across from the Savoy was Rushton's, an old-fashioned stationary store. (Rushton's closed in 2001.)
Image 1.30.2. The old Asbury Park Press Building, just off Press Plaza. It was built
in 1916 after a fire destroyed the two-story building that stood in its place.
The Meistrich building is closed but is very much worth looking at. Built in 1917, it originally housed the First National Bank. It is on the NE corner of Mattison and Bond.
Image 3.30.2. The Meistrich Office Building, NE corner of Mattison and Bond.
On Bond Street (a block north of Mattison), there was Tustings piano and music store (now closed for years). Robert A. Tusting was the first person to open such an establishment on the Jersey Shore.
Image 2.30.2. Tustings, NW corner of Bangs Avenue and Bond.
The old Bond Street School (built 1885) educated generations of students. In 1926 the last senior class was graduated from here. It was Asbury Park's high school before the present high school was built, in 1927. The Bond Street School was demolished in 1993-94. The Thurgood Marshall School, just down the block, School has replaced it.
Image 4.30.2. The old Bond Street School boarded up (1980s).
My family's church is Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in the west side of town. The other, and older, Roman Catholic church is Holy Spirit, on Second Avenue and Bond. Completed in 1910, it is a beautiful stone church of Romanesque design.
Image 5.30.2. Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church, Second Avenue and Bond Street.
It's interesting: Though I grew up in Asbury, my personal bicycle routes rarely took me onto certain streets. So it wasn't till later in life that I clearly knew where, for example, Bond Street School was (though I knew that my mother had attended that school). It's interesting how such a small city - otherwise intimately familiar - can remain 'unprocessed', in various respects, in a young mind. As a child on a bike, I never looked at street signs; so certain names like Sewell or Mattison Avenues were names I knew very well but could not quickly pinpoint (though I had been on these streets many times in a car). As a child, I did not have business on these avenues. I simply aimed my bike toward the beach and rode there, in various ways. To this day, wherever I am, I have the habit of not looking at signs. I point my car in the direction of my destination. Perhaps I unconsciously hope that I'll arrive back down the beach in Asbury Park.
***
You've already seen lots of photos of Wesley Lake, Asbury's southern border. Now get ready for an examination of Deal Lake, and Deal Lake Drive, which is the northern border. As I write these words, holed up in Beverly Hills, California, the thought of Deal Lake brings a burning tear to the corners of my computer-ruined eyes. Some of the loveliest views in the area are still available on Deal Lake Drive. Wait for me, dear Lake! Oh, how I long to see your sparkling wavelets! Flow on, Deal Lake, flow on!
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