History & Photos …

Shorelands — starting as a Gilded Age golf course has grown into a close-knit and comfortable community. Mostly, the folks who live there are water lovers. They enjoy the fishing, the boating, the swimming, and the water sights and sounds. Residents also respect it. They must, they’re pretty much surrounded.

The Gateway …

The first real development of this cozy river area began with Hugh J. Hastings, a rich NYC newspaper owner and national Republican Party activist, who came to America from Ireland in 1831. When he first arrived in Monmouth Beach, the area “was a barren wasteland … with a sand road winding through high dunes covered with wild sedge grass,” according to the Long Branch Daily Record.

In 1873, he paid $75,000 for 33 acres — mostly in and around Shorelands (then vacant riverfront property). After being thrown from a horse drawn carriage while on Broadway in Long Branch, he died in 1883 at age 63. Hastings Place is named for him.

In 1896, Gilded Age tycoons purchased all the land that is now the Shorelands area developed it into a nine-hole golf course. Perhaps the first in the shore area? (MB Golf Course story). The tenure of the Monmouth Beach Golf Club was popular but brief, lasting only until about 1904.

Long Development
In 1912, George Gale sold the golf course land to the Monmouth Beach Land Company, which began real development. In September 1914, the New-York Tribune reported that the sale of “Shorelands by J.W. Doolitle” was underway. By then only “two bungalows of artistic design” had been built. The plan called for bungalows costing $1,500 to $3,500 to be built.

By August 1925 Howard W. Scott Auctioneers was selling 230 waterfront lots: “just think of the pleasures, the health and happiness for your wife, your children and yourself, in owning a delightful home on the Shrewsbury River.” The properties — “sold for whatever they will bring” — were located on what is now the borough’s Shorelands part of town. It’s tough to imagine having to advertise and auction off waterfront lots in Monmouth Beach today.

According to the document, the NYC-based auction house sold the properties from a large tent along Monmouth Parkway. At the time, only two homes were up along this half-mile stretch of median-lined roadway. The town was called “an exceptional all year residential community having in excess of 48 trains daily.” The trains stopped rolling in town just after World War II.

“Do something good for Shorelands every day — and get up early to do it!”
—Shorelands Association, 1927

The auction flyer proclaims: “Since the great boom on Florida properties the man of vision, foresight, and intelligence begins to realize that if Florida homes for winter occupancy are worth fortunes, summer homes or all year homes of close proximity to the largest, fastest growing, wealthiest city in the world, New York, should be a much safer investment. Monmouth Beach — as far as natural beauty, fine homes and speculative or investment possibilities are concerned far surpasses Miami Beach, or, in fact, any beach in the country.”

The lots were ready for immediate development as all the water, gas, electric lines along with roads (Monmouth Parkway, North Road, Shrewsbury Drive, South Road and Center Road) were already laid out. A park and boat dock were also completed.

Priscilla I. Brower Park at Shorelands.

Can’t Give It Away
Most of the lots did not sell in that 1925 summer; the first deal was aeith Anne Tully that November. In 1927, developer-owner Allyn-Hall Realty donated land that would become Monmouth Parkway, the borough’s widest road. As late as Summer 1937, Allyn-Hall was having difficulty selling lots with area rules prohibiting homes built for less than $4,000.

Although a Shoreland’s Association was first incorporated in October 1927 (George Hardy, Richard Dodge, and Samuel Cooper were the first trustees), serious development of the area really didn’t get started until after World War II. At first the association had to petition the borough for area improvements; Monmouth Parkway wasn’t properly paved until 1944.

One person who did make Shorelands home was William Thomas, the son of the Rev. Norman Thomas, a  six-time US presidential candidate for the Socialist Party. In 1943 he lived on Navesink Drive; he died in 1988.

For more than half a century, Shorelands families have shared good times as friends and neighbors who loved the nearby Shrewsbury River. The association’s annual July 4th picnics were all the rage, and boating was so busy there was a paid dock master in the summer. Monthly meetings were spirited and many families were active. For many years, association members were responsible for covering the taxes and upkeep on various pieces of riverfront property in the area. Holdings included a large private park, dock, and other land off Navesink Drive.

A June 1965 blaze took the association’s old clubhouse at the foot of Shrewsbury Drive. Another clubhouse off Navesink Drive (the original golf clubhouse) also was lost to an early 1960s fire.

Most years association presidents had to push for a full gathering of club dues. A 1963 letter, pleading for $5 in annual dues, explained that if the borough took the property it would be “hard to imagine the commercial atmosphere that would prevail.”

The group fell behind in its property taxes in the early 1970s, and the town assumed control of the remaining property near North Road in 1978. Today, it’s a park named in honor of Priscilla I. Brower, a lifelong Shorelands resident and respected community activist who died in March 2015.

Hugh Hastings

Shorelands postcard, 1960s.

Shorelands — about where the old dock was located, 2023.

Shorelands Changed — The median at the top of Monmouth Parkway is being Belgium-blocked by the borough’s public works department, April 2023.

Shorelands Unchanged — The remaining Monmouth Parkway median looking north, April 2023.

Shorelands Start — The top of Monmouth Parkway, 1930s.

Shorelands Clubhouse, 1914.

Calm waters at Shorelands, 2009.

“Hastings Estate on Shorelands” by borough artist Gail Gannon. The three-story house included an observation tower for spectacular water views, according to the Long Branch Daily Record.

Brower home on Navesink Drive, 1920s. The family bought the house from the original Shorelands developers in 1925.

Shorelands’ Association official banner, 1927.

Shorelands aerial image, 1920.

“Crab Alley” at the foot of Borden Street — kid’s gateway to Shorelands, 2005.

Shorelands Clubhouse, 1930s.

Shorelands Clubhouse, 1930s. Also called the “Shorelands Boathouse” — it burned in June 1965.

Shorelands area near Shrewsbury Drive, 1914.

Shorelands clubhouse after a fire, June 1965.

Shorelands clubhouse surrounded by flood tides, 1950s.

Shorelands clubhouse after a fire, June 1965.

View of the Shorelands park and the Shrewsbury River seen from the old Murphy home on Monmouth Parkway, 2009.

Old “Murphy House” on Monmouth Parkway, 2009.

The northern tip of Shorelands/Monmouth Parkway, 2017.

Shorelands Park area, late 1990s.

Shorelands aerial image looking south, 2017.

Shorelands Park aerial image, 2005.

Shorelands Association dock survey map, 1931.

MB Golf Course clubhouse off Navesink Drive (once know as Olsen’s Hill) on Shorelands, early 1900s.

MB Golf clubhouse wrecked, Asbury Park Press, February 1901.

Golf golf entrance at Shorelands, 1912. Read the Monmouth Beach Golf Club history — HERE.

Shorelands auction sales brochure, August 1925.

“Shorelands Taxi,” 1925. A little touch of class to boost land sales in the area.

Monmouth Parkway on Shorelands, 1925.

Shorelands along Monmouth Parkway, 1920s.

Corner or North Road and Shrewsbury Drive in Shorelands, 2006.

Monmouth Sailing Center aerial image, 2019. Shorelands in the background.

Monmouth Parkway flooding, 1950s.

Heimbold twins (Joe and Jim) leaving their Monmouth Parkway home for RBC High School, 1950s. The family loved Shorelands. Read about their meaningful commitment and sacrifice to MB — HERE.

Superstorm Sandy had a devastating impact on Shorelands homes, 2012.

Shorelands area post Hurricane Sandy, 2012.

Shorelands under water duirng Superstorm Sandy, October 2012.

Monmouth Sailing Center (on the Shorelands boarder), 1960s. The locals called it “Ross’s Marina.”

Shorelands area map — shows the Salvation Army owned much of land along the borough’s north river shore. Land encompassing the Channel Club Tower, several marinas, and private homes — all the way to the river, Plat Book of Monmouth County, 1941. The property was sold in 1951.

Quite a group! Red Bank Register, Sept. 1970.

Asbury Park Press ad, July 1925.

Shorelands postcard, 1920s.