Things to Do in Ocean Grove {Jersey Shore Getaway}
Weekend Getaway From NYC to Asbury Park One of the coolest things about living in NYC is the endless weekend travel opportunities! I highly recommend taking this weekend getaway from NYC to Asbury Park. In just under 2 hours you can completely transport yourself for some rest & relaxation on the beach, away from the
TaraJean from Yours Truly, TJ takes us on a quick tour of Ocean Grove and the authentic Victorian architecture of their hotels, B&B’s, shops and homes.
There are so many unique small towns in the world, it’s nearly impossible to choose just one for the designation of “most unique.” New Jersey alone has a
Ocean Grove is a beautiful, historic town on the New Jersey coast that's full of seaside charm.
No room at the inn. That was the answer I received from every hotel I called when I tried...
Inevitably, that question is the one most people ask when they visit us for the first time. And in honor of Hooked on Houses’ Hooked on House Tours day, I’m taking you on a tour of the tents. Ocean Grove was settled in the late 1800s by the Methodist Church as a “camp meeting ground”: At a large camp meeting, many came from over a large area, some out of sincere religious devotion or interest, others out of curiosity and a desire for a break from the arduous frontier routine, although many in this latter group often became sincere converts as well. (Wikipedia entry.) I don’t mean to be cynical, but the close proximity to the ocean and the lack of air conditioning at the time may have helped, too. :-) The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association was officially formed on March 3, 1870, and the first tents were erected. Today, 114 families are still braving the elements and spending their summers in tents. The Ocean Grove Historical Society offers this on the “tenters”: At one time, 660 tents were leased or owned on individual lots throughout Ocean Grove. Now only 114 tents remain, in a semi circle around the Great Auditorium. Each spring, by May 15th, the canvas tents are brought from their back room shed to be erected over the front wooden platform transforming it into a living room, to be furnished with couches, chairs, rugs, lamps and pictures. Meanwhile, outside along the walks, flowers are planted by the tenters, many of whom are proud to be fourth and fifth generation summer Ocean Grovers. The summer camp meeting then continues as it has over 130 years until the fall, when the tent canvases are taken down and stored until the next season. (Introduction to the History of Ocean Grove, New Jersey – Wayne "Ted" Bell) OK, enough with the impromptu history lesson…on to the tents! In the winter months, our neighborhood takes on a rather eerie, surreal feel with its landscape dotted with seemingly abandoned wooden frames: But in the early spring, they slowly come to life, one by one rising up: That “shed” you see in the back is the structure where the plumbing (praise be, indeed!) is housed, and is what the “tenters” use to store their furniture and knick-knacks in the off season: The fully modernized tents today have a wooden back room, with modern facilities including bathrooms, kitchens and sleeping space. The structure provides a place to store the canvass tents in the winter as well as providing the tenters a place to store their personal belongings. Then in the spring the tents are taken out and placed over their wood frames on the front of the platform. When the summer residents return to their tents they bring out their rugs, furniture and personal items and begin the process of decorating their canvas parlors. Many of the tenters plant gardens and individualize and personalize their tents by painting the porch rails, adding furniture and also decorative elements. Although living in a canvas tent for three months of the year provides little privacy from their neighbors at times, the tenters relish their unique community and return year after year. (Ocean Grove Historical Society) You lease the tent from the Association, and while they take care of construction (and leaks, apparently!) the resident is responsible for purchasing front doors. The first person to get their doors in place is rewarded handsomely: A couple of the tents were on the Ocean Grove House Tour this year, and I am thrilled to be able to give you a peek inside. ‘Cause this ain’t no standard issue pup tent, my friends. Take a look at what I found when I walked inside the first one: Notice the wall behind the beds is the outside of the shed you see in the off season. Behind the beds is a room that is used for eating, watching TV, and typically another bed, usually in the form of a futon or something convertible: The next tent I went in had a similar layout but the residents decided to upgrade their tent last year (since many folks return over generations’ worth of summers, it’s not unusual to see upgrades) and it was fun to see a brand new bathroom lurking behind the canvas walls: And a kitchen that’s frankly bigger (and nicer) than most New York City ones! I asked the amazingly friendly docents who were standing guard during the house tour about the sizes of the tents. I had noticed the sizes seemed quite different (I’ve seen one with a deluxe shed, which means deluxe plumbing. Sign me up for that size!), and was told they are different sizes –three basic sizes with some deviation in the floor plan -- and pricing is determined by the square foot. And cost is never discussed among neighbors, “because, you know,” offered one of my octogenarian hostesses. Which I interpreted as meaning that her years of tent squatting meant she lived in rent stabilized paradise. Good for her! (I loved her, and wanted to take her home with me.) By this time of year, gardens have grown in and the community starts to look almost like any other. Neatly trimmed hedges and flowers line the tentscapes: Here’s one of my favorites. It’s so tidy looking and I love the seashell path: And here’s a nighttime view of the tent tops from our widow’s walk. That’s the Great Auditorium in the background, the original Camp Meeting church that nowadays can best be described as a “mixed use” facility. See the glow of pink lights inside? That’s Abba. For reals! Even though the roots of Ocean Grove are obviously deeply steeped in the principals of the Methodist Church, the town has blossomed into a melting pot of ethnic, religious and cultural diversity. Think of it as a coastal Woodstock, or a P-Town South. That’s what attracted us. But before you get any ideas about spending next summer in a tent, get this: There’s a 10 year waiting list, “at least.” I hope you enjoyed the tour, and thanks for bearing with the history lesson (I can’t help myself!). Hop back over to Hooked on Houses for more house tour fabulousness.
Ocean Grove, NJ
New Jersey, The Garden State, sure has a lot of stunningly beautiful spots as the following pictures series proves! Although it is the fourth smallest state it has a lot ... Read more
TaraJean from Yours Truly, TJ takes us on a quick tour of Ocean Grove and the authentic Victorian architecture of their hotels, B&B’s, shops and homes.
This new action park is sure to get your heart racing!
Explore de-rock's 2346 photos on Flickr!
On Friday, my granddaughter Rebecca returned to Bethesda and her social life. Her father took this picture before they left. My weekend started Friday night with First Friday gallery-hopping in a nearby town. Saturday, lunch at a friend's and then a trip down the shore. Diana Krall, my favorite jazz singer and pianist was performing at the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, NJ, so that concert was our destination. Ocean Grove is a visually charming, Victorian square mile full of houses like these. It was founded by the Methodists as a religious community by the Ocean Group Camp Meeting Society. You can read another version of the town's unique history here. Religion is Ocean Grove's focus to this very day but they have non-sectarian events in their auditorium from time to time (hence, Diana Krall). Every summer, worshipers descend on this pristine beach town and set up tents to live in. It has been thus since the 19th century. Asbury Park, home of Bruce Springsteen and the Stone Pony, is the next town. I remember, as I was growing up, that there was a locked gate across the boardwalk between Ocean Grove and Asbury, so unless you were a resident of Ocean Grove, you could not enter. In 1980, the courts outlawed that as a violation of church and state, so now you can walk the boardwalk from one town to the other. In the left background is what remains of the Asbury Park Convention Center, above. It is apparently on the national register of historic places, but it doesn't look that way:-(. We passed these muscicians on the way into the shell of the old Casino. They were excellent and we stopped to give them a donation and chat. They're on tour. This is the shell of the famous Casino (above) which is supposedly being restored. I don't see much evidence of it, do you?? Nonetheless, the boardwalk in Asbury is coming back. It's crowded and noisy and Madame Marie is apparently still in business telling fortunes. We didn't have time to stop because we had to go eat dinner before the concert. A P.S. on the concert, which was terrific: there was a bad storm 1/2 hour before concert time and the electricity in the whole town of Ocean Grove went out. Through an heroic effort, authorities got service back for the Great Hall and the concert went on an hour late. Worth it! And the air cooled off considerably. Sunday, a spur of the moment invitation to meet friends at the movies. Another must-see picture: The Intouchables. Simply marvelous. See it!!
Ocean Grove is a beautiful, historic town on the New Jersey coast that's full of seaside charm.
Looking north to Asbury Park. View Large
photos & text by Saed Hindash/The Star-LedgerCyclists casually ride east along Ocean Pathway in Ocean Grove Saturday afternoon towards the boardwalk. As I set out on my first attempt to make photographs for the Star-Ledger's Shore Blog, I was stumped...
New Jersey, The Garden State, sure has a lot of stunningly beautiful spots as the following pictures series proves! Although it is the fourth smallest state it has a lot ... Read more
Ocean Grove,NJ.
Ocean Grove N.J. Tent Section. These tent are used each summer.
The above are some scenes from part one of our weekend: a surprise overnight stay in Ocean Grove. The boys had never spent the night there before, so they were excited when we revealed about an hour into our trip, that it wasn’t a day trip after all… we’d booked a room and would be staying! It […]
These beautiful summer "tent homes" in Ocean Grove, N.J., open on Memorial Day and close after Labor Day, says Joy Barrie, the photographer.