girls tease your hair up & boys grease it down, we’re going to the jersey shore for memorial day weekend, specifically asbury park, an 1870’s resort town with more ups & downs during its history than an oceanfront roller coaster. thankfully, its on an up again!

 

 

asbury park, nj (pop=17,930; size=1.3 sq mi; density=14,290.0/sq mi.; racial makeup= 15.77% White, 67.11% Black, 0.32% Native American, 0.70% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 6.49% from other races, and 5.53% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 18.58% of the population).

 

http://www.cityofasburypark.com/

 

 

 

the carousel, the casino & the power station anchor the southern end of the AP boardwalk

 

the casino (the actual casino was out over the beach & recently torn down, this is the walkway)

http://www.beyondthepalace.com/newjersey/casino.html

2006-ish pre-teardown shots of the oceanside casino section itself

back in the day -- very grand!!!

http://monmouthdailyphoto.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/casino/

 

 

 

the carousel building (1923-1980‘s) -- could use its carousel back!?

 

the power station

 

asbury lanes

http://www.asburylanes.com/index.htm

 

the baronet

 

the fastlane -- early springsteen, later bon jovi basically started here as the house band

the fastlane in 2000

AP4life -- young bon jovi & bruce together at the fastlane in 1980

 

the paramount theater at the convention hall (1927)

http://apboardwalk.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Theater_Asbury_Park

 

the convention hall

“a multi-purpose venue of two separate buildings joined by a Grand Arcade.”

 

beachside outside the convention center, now the beach club

 

s.s.morro castle disaster memorial

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Morro_Castle_(1930)

 

 

 

 

 

the wonder bar

http://www.wonderbarasburypark.com/

 

hope yr feelin better rawk guy!

 

the berkeley-carteret hotel (1923)

http://www.berkeleyhotelnj.com/

 

the 1950’s-era empress hotel, owned by 80’s super remixer producer shep pettibone

http://www.asburyempress.com/

 

 

the stone pony, long one of the most famous rock clubs in the usa

http://www.stoneponyonline.com/

 

 

school of rock at the stone pony

http://www.schoolofrock.com/index.php

 

 

symbol of 90’s corruption -- abandoned eyesore in the  middle of ocean ave

 

no more amusement rides, but lots of very recent new stuff along the boardwalk

http://apboardwalk.com/

 

 

silverball pinball museum = 100% awesome!!

http://silverballmuseum.com/

 

memorial day wkend

 

jersey shore !!!

 

madame marie’s -- she died recently, but her iconic boardwalk shop lives on:

Marie Castello (May 25, 1915 – June 27, 2008), who was known as Madam Marie, was an American fortune teller and psychic reader who worked on the Asbury Park, New Jersey, boardwalk from 1932 until 2008. Madam Marie was the longest running tenant on the Asbury Park boardwalk. Castello was a fixture in Asbury Park for decades, telling fortunes on and off at her tiny booth on the boardwalk which is nicknamed The Temple of Knowledge. She read the fortunes of celebrities ranging from Judy Garland to Bruce Springsteen. Castello reportedly told Springsteen that he would be a huge success. Springsteen later jokes that she told all her musician clients the same thing.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/17/entertainment/main630363.shtml

somewhere she lost an ‘e’ since the 70’s

 

easy & cheap -- ‘pop-up shop’ metal beach shacks…northern ohio beaches? bueller?

 

classic beachfront googie-era howard johnson’s. now mcloone’s

http://www.timmcloonessupperclub.com/index.php

 

time out for historic boardwalk postcards

former montery hotel

more:

http://www.asburyboardwalk.com/cards/c1.html

 

the beach

 

north of the convention center

 

downtown, cookman ave, main st, etc.

 

the roll gate used to be the entrance to the upstage club

http://www.beyondthepalace.com/newjersey/upstage.html

and thx to one of AP’s many declines…the upstage is still there!

step inside & take a video tour!

http://videos.nj.com/star-ledger/2009/06/the_upstage_club_in_asbury_par.html

 

 

“beyond the palace” -- sadly, my very favorite AP rundown/awesome beachy structure,

palace amusements, was torn down in 2004 for generic condos:

http://www.palaceamusements.com/

at least “tillie” was saved -- he’s in storage for now

 

shots from the 80’s

http://www.beyondthepalace.com/newjersey/asburypark.html

 

ap nj transit station -- north jersey coast line

http://www.njtransit.com/pdf/rail/R0080.pdf

 

*** that’s all from a beach day in AP, it’s an ongoing comeback story in progress***

 

Detroit-by-the-Sea

um......

Wow awesome thread!!!  I have never been there.  I know, what kind of person who grew up in Jersey has never been to Asbury Park?  Looks good though.  RIP Palace Amusements.  There's a skatepark in Flemington, NJ I used to go to and they had one of the original Tillies.  It's funny to see him all over the place now.

 

And MTS, get over it.  The place is legendary.

Wow awesome thread!!!  I have never been there.  I know, what kind of person who grew up in Jersey has never been to Asbury Park?  Looks good though.  RIP Palace Amusements.  There's a skatepark in Flemington, NJ I used to go to and they had one of the original Tillies.  It's funny to see him all over the place now.

 

And MTS, get over it.  The place is legendary.

 

It's New Jersey.  I'm well over it! :P

Nice thread, mrnyc... Asbury Park is just up the road from Philly and looks like an intersting place, even the seedier sides of it... I'll have to drop over the next time in Philly this summer.

... and thanks too for the hot babe photos, as well!

with this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing, the calliope crashed to the ground

if you're not very familiar with AP and one of the very recent utter rock bottom declines it had hit -- check out this 2002 ssp thread for some eye-popping contrast:

 

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=146180

 

:-o  right?!! wish i had a camera with me in my visits back then & in the 80's&90's  :whip:

 

^ although you would never guess it from those 2002 photos, actually gays had already started to move into downtown about five yrs prior and were slowly starting to fix that area up by then (btw i read that today AP has an openly gay mayor). after downtown, the boardwalk was later revived by promoters like the s.o.a.p. organization (sounds of asbury park), shep pettibone at the empress hotel and others who at least still cared or who took their chances on cheap oceanfront real estate.

 

"everything dies, baby that's a fact

they say everything that dies, someday comes back..."

 

 

Thanks MRNYC!!!!

 

A soundtrack suggestion 

Bruce Springsteen - Girls In Their Summer Clothes