Arts & Cultural Center Celebrates All Things Long Branch

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The diversity of Long Branch — its citizens gift for mixing — is an essential part of city heritage, its success, and its future. Recognition and respect for Long Branch culture, art, history and performance does honor to city values.

Now the popular and professional Long Branch Arts & Cultural Center (LBACC) is showing the way. Their handsome home — in a classic Broadway stone building — only adds to its lofty mission. Located at Broadway and Branchport Avenue, Mayor John Pallone has pledged to make the center a focal point for regional art and culture. The 100-year-old building was gifted to the city about five years ago.

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Originally, it was the Long Branch Banking Company when first opened on Broadway in July 1872 (backed with $50,000 in capital). William Maps was the first bank president and President US Grant was one of the first bank directors. In July 1922, the bank celebrated its 50^th year of business with a big party at Green Gables in Pleasure Bay — more than 400 guests enjoyed a “Shore Dinner.” Harry Sherman was bank president then. The original bank was replaced in 1924 with the current building — constructed on the footprint of the original

This “pioneer bank of the Jersey coast,” according to the 1951 Long Branch Daily Record, and “granddaddy of local financial institutions” would struggle some — becoming a number of other banking-financial institutions over the years. In June 1959, it merged with the Freehold Trust Company to form the Central Jersey Bank & Trust Company. It was also a NatWest Bank and at the end a Bank of America branch. In 2019, the building was donated to the city by BoA and the Pallone administration converted it into the LBACC and the city’s Office of Community & Economic Development. 

“Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.”
—Thomas Wolfe

This past summer the LBACC hosted Tides of Change: Lifeguard & Surf Culture in Long Branch, an exhibit that explored the local legacy of lifeguard and surf culture. Looking ahead, the LBACC will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in September, followed by an October exhibit focused on the history of Italian immigrants in Long Branch, and a November exhibit highlighting food-themed art. Each exhibit reflects the vision of creating a space where art, community and history intersect.

LBACC is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Admission is free. Visit the website or call 732-222-7000 x 2050 for more details. The LBACC also has a newsletter, sign-up — HERE.

Able Artist

LBACC Art Director Margaret “Maggie” Fischer is a multi-talented artist in her own right. Ever dedicated to strengthening the arts community — through curating exhibits and organizing events — she brings diverse artistic experiences to Long Branch. Maggie holds a degree in Studio Art and Art History from Marymount Manhattan College and is also a practicing visual artist who has been living and working at the Jersey Shore most of her life.

Her work, consisting of abstract textured paintings, is inspired by nature. With a passion for scavenging and repurposing materials in her work, Maggie reflects her belief in sustainability and the transformative power of art. She is committed to expanding the role of art in society, believing that the world needs not only more art but also more thriving art communities. An Oakhurst native, she also teaches young art students (offering “a fun and positive environment to explore their creative skills and express their imagination”). Have a look at her off-duty work — HERE.

• Images of Long Branch … HERE

Sand Culture — Long Branch Arts & Cultural Center — “Tides of Change: Lifeguard & Surf Culture” Exhibit, Summer 2024.

Way Back — The first Long Branch Banking Company building, early 1900s. This Red Bank Daily Register image shows the original bank on Broadway at the run of the turn of the century. It was replaced with the existing bank in 1924.

Old Money — Inside the Long Branch Banking Company on Broadway, early 1900s. In April 1923, John N. Pierson & Son, a Perth Amboy architect and builder, broke ground on a new $50,000 bank expansion. It included interiors with “marble countertops,” and a “mahogany finish” and the exterior made of “stone and terra cotta.”

City Property — The old Bank of America building on Broadway and Branchport Avenue, 2019.

Back Then — Long Branch Banking Company on Broadway, 1951. Now the Long Branch Arts & Cultural Center and Office of Community & Economic Development — MORE INFO.

Long Branch Baking Company container. Horatio Alger, Jr. was a bank depositor and also a resident, according to the Red Bank Daily Register.