Highland Beach — Grand Playground of the Past

by Greg Kelly · Published February 14, 2021 · Updated February 23, 2021

Originally part of “Wardell’s Beach,” the beginnings of Highland Beach as an iconic shore resort date to Gilded Age times. Located on the barrier beach were it seems Sandy Hook, Sea Bright and Highlands converge, it was the first ocean access spot along the NJ Shore.

The area’s key developer/owner, William Sandlass, Jr., first got involved in 1888, and the family built up and ran the popular resort for 75 summers. The location was annexed by Sea Bright in 1909.

Highland Beach offered ocean and river swimming, boating and fishing, a restaurant and nightclub, a movie theater, roller-coaster and merry-go-round, a hotel, bathhouses and private cottages. Most of the buildings were in the Victorian style of architecture and access to the resort could be had by train, boat or auto.

The Surf House Hotel/Basket Pavilion was host to 1,000 meals a day in the Highland Beach excursion resort’s heyday. Mrs. Sandlass’ “$1 Shrewsbury Dinner,” full of seafood choices, rivaled the best.

Also have a look at the Navesink Studio’s video Destinations Past: Highland Beach which explains why “time, technology and politics washed away one of the first tourist destinations on the Jersey Shore.” Also, a member of the Sandlass family, Susan Gardiner, is out with a new book on the area, Sandy Hook’s Lost Highland Beach Resort ($21.99; Arcadia Publishing). ORDER HERE.

Navesink Beach and Highland Beach Improvement Company promo sketch, 1889.

Asbury Park Press story on the beginnings of Highland Beach, July 1888. “No Coney Island about this place.”

Highland Beach letterhead, 1888.

Highland Beach, early 1900s.

Train wreck at Highland Beach, 1889.

Highland Beach, early 1910.

Sandlass Beach Club, 1915. Opened in 1887.

Sandlass Beach Club, 1905.

Sandlass Pavilion at Highland Beach, late 1800s.

Sandless Bamboo Garden at Highland Beach during winter, early 1900s.

Highland Beach — turn of the century shore scene.

Highland Beach candy store, early 1900s.

Great Switchback Railroad (roller coaster) at Highland Beach, 1890.

Great Switchback Railroad at Highland Beach, 1890.

Highland Beach bridge, 1906.

Highland Beach, 1932.

Highland Beach: Surf House Pavilion, early 1900s. Opened in 1890.

The Oracle, a Highland Beach resort newsletter, Sept. 1895.

Highland Beach, 1910s.

Highland Beach Surf House, 1910.

Sandlass Baths, 1950s.

Highland Beach post card, 1905.

Fruit & Cigar Store at Highland Beach, 1893.

Highland Beach bathers, 1890s.

Highland Beach post card, 1910.

Highland Beach post card, 1914.

View from the Sandlass Beach Club of Twin Lights, 1920s.

Bridge connection to Highland Beach, early 1900s.

Summer Sunday morning at Highland Beach, early 1900s.

Highland Beach: Traffic backups even then, early 1900s.

Sandlass Pavilion at Highland Beach, 1915.

Bamboo Room bar at Sandlass-Highland Beach resort, 1940s.

Bamboo Bar, 1950s.

Bamboo Bar outdoor seating, 1940s.

Highland Beach, 1910s.

Sandlass Beach Club, 1950s.

Sandlass Beach, 1920s.

Highland Beach merry-go-round, 1910.

Bamboo Garden airdrome, 1917.

Twins Lights seen from Highland Beach, 1940s.

Ocean bathing at Highland Beach, 1905.

“The Visionary” — William Sandlass, Jr., 1912. Known as Will to his family, he was born in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania in March 1862. He died in November 1938.

William Sandlass wedding announcement.

Mother & Son: Helen and Henry Sandlass at Highland Beach, 1932.

Henry Sandlass with his wife Midge (Sheehan). The couple married just before he when to war in 1942. They guided the resort during important post war seasons making for super summers for generations of families.