News
A Century of Memories For Monmouth Beach
By Sherry Conohan
MONMOUTH BEACH - It was three years in the making, but well worth the wait.
That was the consensus of the early birds who arrived at the home of Mayor Sue Howard on Monday evening after they looked through the centennial book, "Monmouth Beach A Century of Memories," just hot off the press, that was delivered to her driveway earlier in the day - some 1,800 copies in all.
The centennial was in 2006, but nobody seemed to mind about that.
"It's fantastic. It's beautiful," enthused Andrew Cancaloci, a member for 24 years and former president of the Monmouth Beach Board of Education, after he lovingly fingered through a sample copy of the book. "It was worth the wait."
"It's fantastic," echoed Betty Heath, who works at Borough Hall and whose family has lived in the borough since the 1850s, as she paged through the book.
"It's a unique thing. It's a real memorabilia thing," chimed in Albert Benoist, president of the Monmouth Beach Historical Society, which took on the project, after thumbing through the finished product with satisfaction. "It's complete."
Howard had invited borough residents to the preview at her house and many took her up on the offer to stop in briefly and pick up their book, most of which were pre-ordered back in 2006. The broader distribution will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 19, at Borough Hall. The price of the book is $40.
At 336 pages with color on nearly every one of them, the book is a hefty lift. It spills over with close to 1,000 pictures, or maybe more. The count was lost.
The author of the book is Greg Kelly, of the Monmouth Beach Historical Society. His work is the product of 10 years of concerted research and goes back even further to 1993 when he started writing a column for the Atlanticville newspaper. He wrote the column, with snippets of history in most of them, for 12 years - 600 columns in all to call on. He has 25 years of editorial management experience - print and online - including his past service as editor of the Atlanticville.
The graphic designer of the book is Jean Norton Giordano. She laid out all of the pages. She has worked in advertising, publishing and graphic design for over 20 years.
Both Kelly and Giordano are borough residents.
Overseeing the project and shepherding it through to completion was Howard, the mayor. "Sue is a great executive," Kelly said in explaining her role.
Stories and historical photographs fill the first half of the book. Stories and photos about families in town make up the second half. The pages they are on were sold as ads and that paid for producing the centennial book.
Giordano said the most amazing story she came across was about Clinton King. The centennial book reports (page 33) how King, described as a "Broadway theatrical man," wanted to buy St. Peter's Church at Galilee in August 1950 to use as a summer theater, but the borough commissioners turned him down.
The vacant wooden Episcopal church later burned down in a spectacular fire in May of 1955.
Giordano, who with her husband Robert operates a computer servicing business, Shore Tech Team, said that in 2007 she received a business phone call from a man named Clinton King asking for help with his computer.
A little taken aback, she recalled asking him, "Are you by any chance the same Clinton King who tried to buy St. Peter's Church at Galilee in Monmouth Beach in 1950? And he said, 'Yes, I am.'" Floored, she continued the conversation and told him about the book she was working on and he volunteered some old pictures he had for it. One was of his uncle's house on the ocean side of Ocean Avenue that shows a boardwalk in front of it (page 21).
Not many people know Monmouth Beach ever had a boardwalk.
The house was located between the Monmouth Beach Bath and Tennis Club and the Monmouth Beach Bathing Pavilion, according to Giordano. She said the Chipper Rogers family bought it, but it has since been torn down.
Giordano took a centennial book out to show King his boardwalk picture on Tuesday and learned in their visit that he's 95 years old and writing plays. He lives in Shadow Lake Village in Middletown.
Kelly said one of the amazing things he found in his research was the connection he had long sought of President Abraham Lincoln to Monmouth Beach. A serious student of Lincoln, he has read at least 30 books about the former president and has scoured The New York Times for articles on him.
"I learned that in the late 1890s, Robert Todd Lincoln, the only son of Lincoln who survived to adulthood, summered in Monmouth Beach - twice - on Club Circle," he said. "So I found my Lincoln connection."
Kelly said that with the centennial book, people will know about Monmouth Beach forever.
"This book is never going to go away," Kelly said. "It will immortalize Monmouth Beach."
Added Giordano about the book: "I think you'll be fascinated by the history and how the town has evolved."
"It's a lifetime of memories," Howard, the mayor, said. "In going through the stories, some will bring a tear to your eye and others a smile to your face."
