About

Welcome to Monmouth Beach Life.com

Greg Kelly

I have been a writer for over 35 years. Welcome to my digital forum. This website is my new e-connection with all those who love and care about our exceptional Monmouth Beach area. I’ll also be posting about our close neighbors — Sea Bright and Long Branch — because to get to Monmouth Beach, you must go thorough those places.

As a professional journalist — for newspapers, magazines and websites — my first instinct is to seek information and share what I know. With my curious nature I’m always seeking more knowledge about our area. Plus, I like to put things together historically. My pledge is to offer a reasonable and independent view of the our Jersey Shore. Please take time to read the web posts, look at images, visit often, and comment if the spirit moves you.


“The purpose of memory is to extract out from the past lessons to structure the future.”
—Jordan Peterson, PhD.


With plenty of nostalgia in my heart, I’ll try to capture a glimpse of some remarkable Jersey Shore communities. I was born here and lived here for some 60 years (I’m living in Sea Bright now), so I can appreciate and understand the rich and meaningful experience that is Monmouth Beach and its shore neighbors. Life here is enjoyable.

Monmouth Beach, NJ

Things have always been good around Monmouth Beach — a shore settlement dating backing to the 17th century. All the while it’s maintained a superb combination of extraordinary locale, thoughtful traditions and exceptional people. I’m blessed to have it be my “home town.” And I know so many others who feel that way too — where ever they may be today.

Through my digital commentary, I’ll seek to recognize the locals who had the courage and daring to build and grow things. That’s important, especially when so few know about it today. About local people and places deserving of recognition and honor, I’ll attempt to bring their essence back to life. These are things we should be talking about.

Finally, with so much negativity and inaccuracy on social media and the Internet in general — almost a miss-education — I’ve sought to build a website based on facts that people can trust. Something enduring — that’s positive and educational. Enjoy.

Greg Kelly
Publisher

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Some favorite quotes about Monmouth Beach:

• “Monmouth Beach isn’t just a place; it’s a state of mind.”
—Sidney B. Johnson

• “Monmouth Beach values endure.”
—James J. Maguire

• “Monmouth Beach is an aristocratic colony of aristocratic cottages inhabited by aristocratic people.”
New York Times, 1878

• “Monmouth Beach is distinguished for quiet elegance rather than for the excitement of fashionable hotel life.”
—Gustav Kobbe, New Jersey Coast & Pines, 1891

• “Nowhere along the Atlantic Coast is “exclusiveness” in its broadest sense enjoyed as it is at Monmouth Beach.”
New-York Tribune, June 1899

• “Monmouth Beach grows but it does not change its characteristics. It gets only more beautiful as time goes by.”
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 1899.

• “Monmouth Beach is popular with the wealthy.”
The Suburbanite magazine, June 1904.

• “During the summer months especially, Monmouth Beach comes into the spotlight as a rendezvous of the smart set.”
Asbury Park Press town promotional ad, December 1939.

• “The rich summer residents and the Scandinavian fishermen are both gone, but the memory lingers on as the sand, sun and surf offer the same attraction to those who have settled permanently in Monmouth Beach.”
Asbury Park Press, June 1962

• “If Eliakim Wardell could see his farm today, he would be astounded by the change but would also realize the spirit of neighborliness that he left behind is still there.”
—Rosemary O’Brien, Monmouth Beach: A Bicentennial Publication, 1975

• “It’s an American community at its best.”
—Bob Collister, New York Times reporter, July 1976

• “A Jersey Shore insider secret.”
Reader’s Digest, 2017

• “One of Monmouth County’s most luxurious and desirable year-round beach communities.”
—LoopNet.com

• “In Monmouth Beach the home is sanctuary where contentment and an enjoyable life is lived amidst quiet.”
Long Branch Daily Record, May 1941

 • “A mile strip of once sea-sand … the restless Atlantic east, the placid Shrewsbury west, cottages quaint and cottages palatial.”
—“Monmouth Beach Inn” profile, 1911 brochure


Be a Sponsor

MonmouthBeachLife.com offers a unique digital snapshot of an outstanding Jersey Shore community. The greater Monmouth Beach area presents exceptional advertising demographics — affluent, educated, young and tech-savvy. The publisher is seeking “Sponsors” to help deliver quality content to an eager audience.

Monmouth Beach Life.com Sponsor’s Program

 Sponsor gets:

  • Business ad on the homepage and run-of-site with link to their site.
  • A quality business promotional story every month on the site.
  • Weekly sponsored content.
  • Participation in special promotions (businesses provide gift certificate).

Flat rate: $100 per month

 Packages:

$1,000 (for 1-year sponsorship)

>  $700 (for 6-month sponsorship)

>  $350 (for 3-month sponsorship)

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For more information:

Greg Kelly

Publisher
732-221-3416
E-mail


Monmouth Beach police kiosk at Ocean Avenue and Beach Road, 1921.

Way Back — Henry Tanner map of Monmouth Beach area, 1868. This is just before the Monmouth Beach Association changed things.

Map of Monmouth Beach, 1861.

My children and me in Long Branch, Spring 2023.

Kelly Family siblings, 1963.

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