Pool & Surf Swimming in the City … Times 3

The old Long Branch pier and boardwalk area — in all its guises — is still a fresh memory for many locals. But precious few will recall the pool clubs that flourished in that very same beachfront neighborhood for over 70 summers.

Distinctive and delightful, the city had a fabulous trifecta. Fronting on Ocean Avenue set by Chelsea and Laird Avenues were three large pool/surf bathing facilities — Cranmer’s Baths, Chelsea Baths and Columbia Baths. From the turn of 20th century to the mid-1970s these “pool clubs” were fabulously popular with city residents, families, locals, as well as with groups and organizations.

It was here, arguably, that the Jersey Shore’s first large public swimming pools were built. Along with underground beach access tunnels (both in 1901). All three clubs had their own. It’s also likely the first private lifeguards were hired by the clubs (in 1900). The number and size of the club’s bathhouse and locker offerings grew by the season. The clubs also rented swimsuits and towels to day-trippers and for the first time, beach umbrellas.

Throughout their existence the club’s sought to impress patrons — each boasting of having the first, biggest, best, finest, or most modern swimming pool over the seasons. Privately-owned but open to the public, daily passes were sold at the door. Stories about “sneak-ins” between the clubs were city summer lore.

As Long Branch grew (city population doubled from 1925 to 1975), all three clubs kept up with the times and growing patronage. It worked — as banner summer weekends prevailed. All three reveled from 1930s to 1960s summers. The friendly confines of their large pool decks brimming with happy and content bathers and sun worshipers — on some days beach chairs and towels nearly on top of each other. Plus, packed pools and full beaches.

Opened summers from June to September, from 7:30 am to 10 pm — seasonal, weekly and daily admission rates were available. A daily pass never cleared $1 — city parents and families loved the pool clubs. “Regardless of which of the ‘Three Cs’ on Ocean Avenue you went to, everyone had a great time,” was the general sentiment.

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“The end of labor is to gain leisure.”
—Aristotle

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The Cicalese family’s longtime business interests on the Long Branch oceanfront had started with the pool clubs. In September 1962, Pat Cicalese and his dad acquired Chelsea Baths. They also acquired Columbia Baths in 1964.

Pat Cicalese — by August 1964 the Long Branch Daily Record already thought he had “a mind for business and an imagination to ensure its success” — ran the pool clubs for many summers. Later on, he reconfigured the area – ultimately absorbing most of the property into a water-park with slide in July 1978 and then part of Kid’s World in 1984. The catastrophic June 1987 pier fire changed the city beachfront forever. Today, it’s all Pier Village — opened in 2005.

A relic of seaside leisure more than 50 summers past, each club was said to have its own persona — where members often formed close-knit connections and friendships passed down through generations. If spectacular summer days weren’t enough, family traditions, long-term satisfying relationships, and specific life moments tied to the clubs fostered an extra pride and sense of belonging.

Through observation and participation, I now realize that our local beach clubs (Long Branch, Monmouth Beach and Sea Bright) are all unalike — different people, different ways. Each with its own personal identity; yet all bound by one thing: a love for the beach.

A word about the term “baths.” As their construction grew nationally in the early 1900s, public pools were more about hygiene than recreation. Rich folks already had indoor plumbing and private baths. For the working-class and poor these were luxuries. So public pools became a bathing spot at the end of the workday or week. Not until the 1930s did public pools transform from bathing houses to beach clubs where all classes swam and socialized.

Lasting credit is due the families who owned the beach clubs and employees who worked there. I salute all — past and present. It requires tremendous hard work and dedication to succeed at the “beach club” business — basically for 12 weeks in a year. Beach staffers know a “day at the beach” isn’t always pleasant. Battling every element and personality imaginable, owners kept things pleasant for decades of summers and employees worked long, hot hours for low pay to serve. This should not be forgotten.

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• Cranmer’s Baths

Sun & Fun Pioneers

Isaac H. Cranmer — recalled as “Ocean Avenue’s bathing master” by the Long Branch Daily Record — started beach operations in the area about 1878 (making his one of the first businesses in town). He learned the trade running bathing operations at the old United States Hotel nearby (built in 1852, operated during resort glory years, it lasted 50 years on the Long Branch oceanfront).

His Cranmer’s Baths — called a “pioneering establishment on the North Jersey coast” — proved to be fabulously popular for some 75 glorious summer seasons.

Isaac set the example. Every summer you could be sure he was improving the club. It helped that the family owned a lumber yard on Chelsea Avenue. Called “a unique figure in seashore life,” Isaac’s involvement along the Long Branch oceanfront dated to late 19^th century. After his first ornate “bathhouse” on the east side of Ocean Avenue was “washed away” in the Great Storm of 1893 (there are no images), he moved operations across the street.

Beginning in 1901 he rented and then acquired (in 1921) land owned by Catholic University of America (a college in Washington, DC) for $30,000. There he started his new beach club. Also built was an underground walking tunnel — claimed to be the area’s first — safely connecting pool and ocean.

By summer 1903, he installed the area’s first “modern swimming pool” (80-feet x 37-feet in dimension). Not a real big deal, back in those days, Isaac admitted, “a bathing suit looked like an overcoat.” And that summer the club was “Open Nights.”

The very first lifeguards in Long Branch served here — with newspaper reports of “saves” at Cranmer’s as early as July 1908. Cornelius West was a longtime devoted lifeguard here. Cranmer’s also reportedly kept the city’s cleanest beaches and was one of the first to rent multi-colored sun umbrellas.

After calling the 1925 Long Branch summer “the largest turnout” in his 45+ seasons there, Issac opened a modern new pool for the following summer (built by Louis Sieling of Red Bank). In peak seasons, the pool was filled and drained of salt water daily.

A native of Barnegat, NJ, Isaac died in June 1931. His son, Ralph, ran the pool club until selling in 1948. A US Navy veteran from WW I, he died in August 1955. Both were remembered for being hard-working and modest citizens who loved Long Branch and were committed to serving their membership.

In March 1949, Benjamin C. Cittadino paid $75,000 for the club — by then it was thriving with 1,100 lockers and two swimming pools. A popular owner, “Bennie” kept the sun and fun going for some 20 summer season, until Fall 1979 when the club was torn down for redevelopment. A native of Oakhurst and the city’s Civil Defense director in the 1940s, Bennie passed away in January 1981.

His only child, daughter Doris Macaluso, worked there for many summers. A Star of the Sea graduate, mother of five, and RBC math teacher, she managed the club’s books. She died in Summer 2020.

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• Chelsea Baths

“Your bathhouse is ready”

First opened for beach club commerce 100 years ago — this summer — “no expense was spared” to make the establishment the state’s best. Founding owner-developers were Daniel Maher and Andrew Lustbaum. These two city business heavyweights went big.

In another nod to Long Branch’s willingness to try anything once, prior to Chelsea Baths part of the property housed amusements — featuring an arcade, carousel and roller-skating. Opened in July 1907, Robert W. Zimmerman built the structure for $7,500. The Chelsea Arcade Company included a merry-go-round and a penny arcade. Root Beer, candy, popcorn and souvenirs were also sold. Danish master carver Charles Looff, who built the first carousel at Coney Island in 1876 (and 40 others), did the work in Long Branch. It held 125 people and a ride cost 5 cents. Success was short-lived.

It became Chelsea Roller Skating Rink in January 1908. Raymond Disbrow and Henry Morris managed the operation; adding a $2,000 Boecker organ in 1909. The maple-floored rink, at 5,600-square-feet, could accommodate 200 skaters. Admission was 25 cents. Morris “Mott” Wood, a champion speed ice-skater and Long Branch native, gave lessons. Lyman Koch acquired the business in 1924 and the building was torn down in April 1928 to make way for the expanding Chelsea Baths.

At the corner of Ocean and Chelsea Avenues, the new baths opened in parts. Starting in July 1925 was beach only, with 750 lockers and 30 showers, refreshment stand, and laundry (capable of 250 suit/towel cleanings per hour), The club opened its own “tunnel to the beach” (7 1/2-feet high and 110-feet long) that summer too.

Things progressed quickly from there. By June 1927, an all-concrete pool (136 x 60 feet in dimension and 3- to 10-feet in depth) was opened. Thomas Procter built the 365,000-gallon swimming pool. Called the “Chelsea Natatorium” in an April 1927 Red Bank Daily Register story, the brick/steel structure also included a large restaurant and 12 storefronts. Adolph Schulz & Sons were the builders and Seymour & Braun was the architect on “the most modern equipped bathing plant on the coast.” Total cost was $250,000.

Night-time bathing started in July 1928, when Chelsea Baths manager, Walter Handley, started the practice accompanied by evening radio. By 1929, the club grew to 1,200 bathhouses. And 1930s Long Branch postcards boasted that Chelsea Baths had “the best swimming pool on the Jersey Coast.” A second pool was added in the 1940s.

Dan Maher is one of the most fascinating leaders — both civic and commercial — in all Long Branch history. An epic developer, promoter, manager, and politician, he ruled over Long Branch pier and boardwalk culture for 40 years. From its early development in the mid-1920s up until the late-1980s fire that ended it all, it was the Maher blueprint that prevailed on the city’s oceanfront. He also served as city mayor, housing authority chairman, chamber of commerce president.

Owner of Andy’s Garage on lower Broadway since 1904, Lustbaum was a pioneering city auto dealer and mechanic. He was also president of the NJ Auto Dealer’s Association and director of the local motor vehicle bureau. Born in Hungary, he died in August 1953.

The Procter family — then the city’s most respected big-ticket contracting firm — was involved at the Chelsea pool club by the 1930s. Louis H. Procter, who took full control of the club in 1949 and ran it for about a dozen summers, had acquired it from his brother J. William, who’d been club president since 1930. Louis, a lifelong city resident, was considered a man with “a great deal of civic pride and continuing hope for good fortune” for Long Branch, He died in August 1966. William died in 1958.

Tom Armstrong managed the Chelsea pool club and led its swim team for more than 25 summers. A prolific city businessman and WW II US Army vet, he died in July 1985. The club also had “Pauline’s” — a snackbar run by Pauline Manetti. Her family later opened the Cafe Bar on the boardwalk.

Anthony “Pistol Pete” Cicalese and his son Patsy acquired Chelsea Baths in September 1962 from Louis Procter. It was the family entry-point to make huge change at the city’s oceanfront. By 1969, they’d own most of the surrounding area. Anthony died in 1975. Also called the Chelsea Swim Club, the facility was reconfigured and absorbed into a water-park with slide that opened for Summer 1978. Then the pre-summer 1987 fire changed everything.

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• Columbia Baths

“Refreshing, invigorating, stimulating and comfortable”

When the club first opened its doors in June 1901, it was called the “finest bathing pavilion on the Jersey coast,” by the Long Branch Daily Record. The city’s master architect, Leon Cubberley, designed the two-story Colonial-revival structure on Ocean Avenue. The total cost was $15,000. Robert Tappin and Morris Burns were early proprietors.

Both men were connected — having been members of the city’s governing body, the Long Branch Council. Tappin, a leading local builder, had worked at “Grant Cottage” and became a presidential buddy. He also helped built the New York & Long Branch Railroad’s massive headquarters on Third Avenue in 1891. He died in 1928. “Mott” Burns, a successful city plumber, served on the first board of health. A Neptune company fireman and Long Branch Elks exalted ruler, he died in 1943.

Under busy Ocean Avenue a tunnel connecting the club to the beach was also built for that first summer season in 1901 — tiled and lighted. Biking to the beach was a big deal then too — with a large room in the basement for storing bicycles (called “silent steeds”).

The Columbia specialty was “hot saltwater baths” — said to treat rheumatism, gout, kidney disease, arthritis, stiffness, soreness and aches from aging. “Refreshing, invigorating, stimulating and comfortable,” according to the club’s doctor, these heated seawater dips were said to “improve the function of your skin and relieve the burden that hinders your eliminating organs (liver, kidneys, lungs, bowels, skin).” Treatment took place on the club’s second floor in “a row of numerous rooms all with marbleized tubs.” Employees were attentive — said to provide clean and careful service.

There also were rooms for massages, manicuring and hair-dressing – all staffed by expert and friendly employees. The new baths also offered a 90,000-gallon open-air pool. Made of cement, it could be heated with underground steampipes.

William Van Hise owned the baths from 1910 to 1917 — when swimming was “scientifically taught,” according a 1915 LRDR ad. A master carpenter, he also owned the Avenel beach club in North End. He died in 1926. Samuel Wolf, Russian-born and a devoted member of the city’s Jewish community, came to Long Branch in 1907 and acquired Columbia Baths in 1917. He ran the club until his death in 1933; that summer two new ocean-water fed pools (adult and child) were added along with high springboards.

Around this time another celebrated city family, Procter, took full of Columbia Baths. Brothers (William first and then Louis) already owned and ran next door’s Chelsea Baths club.

They were the sons of Thomas, who founded the Thomas Procter Construction Company in 1900. Born in London, Thomas came to Long Branch in 1877 and made hard work and success his mantra. Building most of the railroad lines, bridges, jetties, bulkheads and boardwalks along the shore, he left a “multi-million-dollar construction business to his children (six of them)” when he died in December 1943.

By the early-1960s the Cicalese family were owners; calling it Columbia Health Spa.

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Long Branch Community Pool