LAVALLETTE — The Upper Shores branch of Ocean County Library was a packed house Wednesday night when dozens of residents and local history enthusiasts turned out for a presentation on the early history of Lavallette.
Denise Wirth, chair of the Lavallette Heritage Committee, hosted the presentation, which began with her briefly covering the earliest settlements on Squan Beach — the tract of land on the barrier island on which Lavallette is built today.
“The Paleo-Indians (first inhabitants of the North American landmass) migrated thousands of years ago, and they were the predecessors of the Lenni Lenape,” she said, referring to the Native American tribe which was predominant in the land that would become New Jersey. “In the 1600s, these islands were first identified by Henry Hudson…They go up north, meet up with the Native Americans and have their first squabbles.”
The saga that kickstarted the area’s transformation into the Lavallette residents know today began in the 1800s, when Jacob S. Ortley auctioned off a property to turn into a luxury seaside resort, with the main hotel building located on the oceanfront between President and Reese avenues, to accommodate gunners and hunters in the winter, and for guests in the summer.
“They weren’t going to put money into a resort unless they had some evidence that a train would be coming through sooner or later,” said Wirth. “These guys made sure that a railroad was going to grow down here before they were going to buy any property. There was an auction sale from Jacob S. Ortley…Ortley sold to (Isaac) Guyer for whatever reason, and then Guyer sold it to the Barnegat Land and Improvement Company.
The company was spearheaded by its president Dr. George Kerr, who was also a Civil War surgeon, from Philadelphia. According to the June 6, 1878 edition of the New Jersey Courier, which comments on the goals of the group, “Early investors had lofty goals to accommodate hunters and gunners in fall-winter of 1878, and to accommodate summer guests (in) summer 1879.”
However, a storm — variously called the “Gale of 1878” and “Hurricane 11” — caused extreme damage to the barrier island, with the three-story unfinished hotel taking a severe beating. A contemporary account from the Oct. 24, 1878 edition of the New Jersey Courier told of the damage.
“After an extended season of very fine weather, a severe gale of wind mingled with rain set upon this place on Tuesday night,” it said. “The effort was quite apparent the next morning. Branches of trees and puddles of water lay all around the streets.”
More misfortune befell the resort project less than one year later, when in June 1879 another gale did even further damage, “during which the upper stories and cupola fell in with a crash. Fortunately, no one was in the building at the time, nor serious disaster to human life resulted,” according to a contemporary New Jersey Courier article.
The deed to the now-abandoned hotel was sold to Kerr personally, with the hotel property being divided up into residential-sized lots following its dismantling. Kerr would go on to become the first mayor of Lavallette in 1888, with he and the six-person council having been elected unanimously by the exceedingly small voting populace at the time. Those council members were: James G. Bryan, Charles J. Biddle, William W. Wallace, William D. Haines, George A. Wilt and Lawrence S. North.
Wirth’s presentation on the early period of the borough’s history goes into deep detail about the historical and geographical context, personal stories and human actors that shaped the formative years of Lavallette, the “City by the Sea.” Wirth said that history is a subject that keeps her endlessly intrigued due to the unexpected findings that are so often found in the course of study.
“I feel like, when you start to open up these little portals through time, you get fed all these little goodies to keep you going,” she said.
Due to the program’s popularity, a second date for “History of Lavallette: City by the Sea
(The Early Years from 1878-1887)” has been added, to be presented at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28, at the Upper Shores Branch, located at 112 Jersey City Ave. Registration opens July 31.
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