House of Heroes: Monmouth Beach Cultural Center History:

It has survived fires and floods. Withstood a century of storms, salt air and wicked winds. It sat rotting for eight years — unused and unloved. The state wanted to make it a parking lot for beach-goers. And yet, it still stands.

The spot is a shining beacon — in wooden grandeur — in our very fine coastal town. The town’s oldest public building (since 1896) — just driving past the place brings me joy and pride in having played a part with so many others in seeing that it endures. Situated in the borough’s Galilee section, there’s nothing quite like it on the Jersey Shore.

Preserving this building and making it into what it is today represents one of the borough’s finest displays of teamwork and dedication. In important ways the building is the “heartbeat of the town.”

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Building #1

In March 1849, Henry Wardell, descendant of the first settler of Monmouth Beach, deeded a lot on the beach (across from today’s Park Road) to the US government. An informal lifesaving society built a one-room beach structure, it was 28-feet by 16-feet.

Building #2

In 1874, a new two-story Galilee station (across from today’s Seacrest Road was built). A 1871-type design, it was often called a "Red House" station due to its red paint. The building was 42-feet by 18-feet and was stationed by six surfmen.

Building #3 (the current building)

After a brutal Spring 1894 storm, life-saving operations were moved to land donated by wealthy industrialists George Fisher Baker and Edward Walton. This new Duluth-style station was designed by George Tolman.

In January 1895, Francis H. Smith of New York won the bid to build a new station in Galilee (for $5,849). Smith constructed several US life-saving stations and lighthouses, as well as the foundation for the Statue of Liberty. His work endures – 130 years later.

When completed in 1896, it was “without doubt the finest station along the Jersey coast.” The Monmouth Beach station, known as #4 at Galilee, then had a territory extending north to Sea Bright and south to the Brighton Hotel in West End, Long Branch.

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US Life-Saving Service Notes:

“America’s Greatest “Peacetime Heroes”

In the mid-1800s along the US coastline — between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras — there was a most terrible record of shipwrecks. Of this region, the New Jersey shore was notoriously the worst — known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

Back then a growing American population and demand for goods increased the need for shipping vessels, both American and European. Between 1880 and 1900, the coast off Monmouth Beach alone had 10 recorded shipwrecks.

During those times transatlantic shipping was at a record high and all sorts of vessels traversed the waters off New Jersey. Sailors then navigated by the sun, stars, moon, and horizon. Thousands of passenger and commercial ships moved up and down the coast and naturally an alarming number of shipwrecks occurred.

An informal life-saving service was organized after the infamous wreck of the New Era off Asbury Park in November 1854; nearly 300 German immigrants drown in that nor’easter. In 1871, the service was reorganized and the first station was built on Sandy Hook and then one every 5 miles down the coast. By 1878, the US Life Saving Service became official. The state of New Jersey had the most stations (41).

“The Surfmen” -- Revered as heroes of the Atlantic Coast — members of the United States Life-Saving Service had a code: “you have to go out, but nothing says you have to come back.” Talk about tough work?

Their deeds of valor were remembered in story and song back then. Sadly, society has forgotten about the amazing bravery and dedication of these men. Today, we know them as the United States Coast Guard.

Working day and night, in all weather, using oddly-named equipment (like the beach-apparatus cart, lifeboat, Lyle Gun and breeches buo), life-saving crews often risked their own lives in dangerous maritime rescues. The true measure of their daring performance is amazing — from 1871 to 1914, they aided 28,000+ vessels, rescued 178,000+ persons, and had under 1,500 casualties. That’s real “life-saving.”

Crews of six (called “surfmen”) worked the station and were required to drill regularly, maintain the equipment, and patrol the beach at least three times a night. As a verification, surfmen exchanged brass tokens (called “checks”) on the beach. It wasn’t until 1891 that NJ stations had wired communications.

The life-saving service was the first American governmental unit to adopt anything near “civil service” regulations. An 1882 law removed politics from hiring considerations and made job fitness the main qualification. By 1886, the feds were in charge and agreed to man all the stations and pay the crews. Uniforms were added in 1889.

In later years, after the invention of the Marconi wireless telegraph and more reliable steamships, wrecks were less common. Still, for 60 years, shipwrecks and the US Life Saving Station shaped the history of the state’s coastline.

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US Life-Saving Leaders

Major Edward Wardell was a US Life-Saving Service life-saving pioneer -- serving as the first Station Keeper at Galilee from 1849 to 1875. Born in Monmouth Beach (when it was called “Fresh Pond”) in 1826, he died in March 1912. Charles H. Valentine was Station Keeper from 1875-1884, and Captain James H. Mulligan was Keeper for over 20 years, serving from 1884 to 1905. In the beginning, Keepers were paid $700 per year and surfmen earned $40 per month.

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Gold Medal Men

They exhibited astonishing bravery when called on to do so. Putting service above self — always. It’s hard to believe that these courageous men go unremembered today. Then again, it’s hard to believe their acts of heroism too.

One late-19th century effort epitomized their valor: During an epic winter blizzard in February 1880, the US Life-Saving Service crew at the Galilee dealt with two major shipwrecks in one-day. Over a 12-hour period -- facing 85-mph winds, furious surf, and freezing cold -- surfmen from Sandy Hook to Takanassee Lake were called on to rescue 5 shipwrecks. A total of 26 Gold Life-Saving Medals (the service’s highest honor for valor) were awarded for that single day’s rescuing work.

Station Keep Charles H. Valentine led the team in Galilee that earned the illustrious honor. Also decorated for their “display of indomitable courage” were: Nelson Lockwood, Garrett White, Benjamin Potter, William Ferguson, and John Van Brunt. Combating a double shipwreck off the Monmouth Beach coast in horrendous weather conditions, the crew saved the E.C. Babcock (a 288-ton, three-masted schooner) and the Augustina (a 300-ton brig).

According to US Life-Saving Service inspector reports, the crew’s actions were a “gallant and conspicuous devotion to the service and the cause of humanity.” In some cases, surfmen “literally dove into furious and freezing ocean surf — thick with an undertow and strewn with wreckage debris — to save drowning passengers or ensure a lifeline got through.”

One of America’s oldest service medals, the decoration was first authorized in June 1874 by the US Congress. Designed by Anthony Paquet and struck at the Philadelphia Mint (99.9% purity). In a hand-written note, US Treasury Secretary John Sherman (brother of famed Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman) recognized the acts and awarded the medals.

In 1880 the Jersey Shore recorded 49 shipwrecks, but so skilled were the surfmen, only 2 people died. Today, the Gold Lifesaving Medal is still awarded by the USCG and remains one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on its service members.

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Dr. William A. Newell

In August 1848, Dr. Newell wrote the law creating a life-saving service (this was after 120+ shipwrecks just along the NJ coast the past two years). Then a US congressman, representing the NJ shore area from Sandy Hook to Little Egg Harbor, Newell is the true founder of the US Life-Saving Service (or today’s US Coast Guard),

The good doctor had been jaded. Shortly after graduating the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1839, he had watched helplessly from an LBI beach (only 300 yards away) as the Count Teresto was wrecked and all hands lost during a brutal summer northeast gale. Seeing the dead bodies washed ashore had a profound impact him.

Born in September 1817 in Franklin, Ohio and a Rutgers College grad, Newell built quite the life résumé — US Representative (1847-51 and 1865-67), Governor of New Jersey (1857-60) and Washington Territory (1880-84), and White House physician (1865). A physician and father of four. Later he was superintendent of the US Life-Saving Association, NJ District.

Wired and wise all his life, among Newell’s very notable congressional colleagues were: Abraham Lincoln (served just one term, 1847-49, but was an early supporter of Newell’s life-saving bill), John Quincy Adams (the only former president to serve in the US House, who died at the Capitol with Newell caring for him in his final hours) Henry Clay (“The Great Compromiser”), and Andrew Johnson (the nation’s 17th president).

It was the Lincoln connection that was most meaningful though. The men had adjoining seats in Congress and lived in the same Washington, DC, boarding house in the 1840s. Newell, like Lincoln, was a member of the Whig Party when he entered politics and later joined the Republican Party.

First Lady Mary Lincoln was particularly fond of him -- calling him “a most estimable gentleman” and “our particular friend” – and liked having him around. In 1864, with the President directing a Civil War and seeking re-election, Newell was a White House attending physician. At this time, he is credited with treating and saving the life of the president’s son, Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, who had Typhoid Fever. That was huge -- the couple had already lost two young sons to illness: Eddy (in 1850 at age 4) and Willie (in 1862 at age 12), Tad wouldn’t live much longer either, dying in 1871 at age 18.

The respect was mutual. According to Entertaining a Nation (the 1940 Long Branch bio-book) during her celebrated trip to Long Branch in August 1861, Rep. Newell arranged for life-saving techniques to be demonstrated right on the beach for Mary and her two sons.

A November 1863 photo of Lincoln on the podium during the Gettysburg Address was recently found and enhanced in Nat Geo. On the dais that day in Western Pennsylvania during the most celebrated moment of the president’s life was Dr. Newell. So devoted to the Lincoln family was Newell that he accompanied Mary with the president's body on the long ceremonial train ride back to Springfield, IL after the April 1865 assassination.

Newell was still seeing patients when he died in August 1901 in Allentown, NJ.

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USCG Notes:

The US Coast Guard has a long history of bravery and sacrifice — even in Monmouth Beach. In January 1915, the US Life-Saving Service was incorporated into the United States Coast Guard. This included the large property and 4,200-square-foot building in Monmouth Beach on Ocean Avenue (it would be called Station #100).

The USCG kept the serious duty going. Indeed, such was the generational dedication; it wasn’t unusual to see a surfman-father and a coast guard-son.

Alexander Hamilton founded America’s coast guard in August 1790. As the nation’s first treasury secretary, he had concerns about smuggling on the seas. And news reports show the USCG Galilee guys nailing a fair share of Prohibition bootleggers. Two busts in 1924 alone yielded nearly 200 cases of booze (there was gunfire in one confiscation).

The first steel observation tower on the Jersey Shore was at USCG Galilee station in 1925. The 120-foot-high structure, with small hut on top, offered coastal visibility up to 25 miles. The watch was 24/7.

Among the station commanders (called a Chief Boatswain’s Mate) through the years were: George W. Green, Carroll A. Osborne, John Salter, John J. O’Neil, George L. Everingham, and Frank L. Bernhard

When the USCG first tried to shut the Monmouth Beach station in 1951, eight men were stationed there. Area US Representative James Auchincloss was opposed – saying the closure would leave 20 miles of unprotected coast between Sandy Hook and Shark River.

He also cited “the Shrewsbury Rocks” fishing area (a mile out to sea and dead center of Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach), which at summer has “the greatest concentration of party and sports fishing boats from Maine to Florida.” Plus, the MB location was the perfect spot to quickly launch marine aid on both river and ocean.

Thanks to his efforts in Washington and ongoing local pressure, the station was reopened. Rep. Auchincloss was a congressman out of central casting -- Yale-educated, Rumson mayor, WW I intelligence officer, and prosperous Wall Street stockbroker. Seasoned, successful, serious, and sober, he was the Jersey Shore congressman for 11 terms beginning in 1943. He died in 1976.

No matter — with the Sea Bright, Long Branch, Deal and Spring Lake stations all closing (down from 8 USCG stations in Monmouth County in 1936), the writing was on the wall. The Galilee station was officially deactivated in 1957 and the USCG finally walked away from the “Monmouth Beach Lifeboat station” in 1964 — part of Johnson Administration budget cuts (Auchincloss and his clout retired from politics that year).

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NJ Marine Police Notes:

In 1965, the NJ State Marine Police acquired the building and property through a Green Acres grant and remained there for nearly 30 years.

Sg. Walter Planer was the first station commandant serving until the early 1970s. A Irvington, NJ native and father of five, he lived in Wall Twp. for nearly 50 years; he died 2016. He as was stickler for boating rules and regulations. Other station leaders were: John Mooney and Robert Little.

In those days the station was manned for 16 hours a day (8 am to 12 midnight). The sea cop’s jurisdiction -- all boating accidents, deaths, crimes and regulations -- covered up to 3 miles off the NJ coastline. The station’s sea-worthiness included a 30-foot rescue vessel, 19-foot dory and 17-foot whaler.

In May 1983, the MB marine police, led by Sgt. Steven Zwarych, seized 6,000 pounds of marijuana and an illegal automatic gun during a routine boat patrol of the Shrewsbury River.

Before Summer 1992, state police officials, fed up dealing with an aging building ($130,000 in roof repairs was only a start), sought to close the unit. After a brutal December 1992 nor’easter (when waters rose 9+ feet above the mean low tide level) ruined the building, the marine police (with a 17 person full- and part-time crew) left for good.

When state officials floated a $2.5 million price-tag on a new station in Feb. 1993, state police superintendent Col. Justin Dintino ordered the unit shutdown. The building and grounds stood dormant and decaying for 6 years.

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MBCC Notes:

In April 1999 the newly-reconstituted Monmouth Beach Historical Society sought to save the old station. As the group’s president, they looked to me for leadership. During discussions with family and friends, I got the feeling that if the borough’s most historic building was torn down on my watch, the Monmouth Beach fates might never forgive me.

Inspired by the brave work of the men who served there -- three separate “sentinels of the shore” (US Life-Saving Association, the US Coast Guard and the NJ State Marine Police) -- our group helped build awareness and provided encouragement to save this “home of heroes.” (GJK made APP front page in April 2000).

In truth, the building would certainly haven fallen to the wrecker’s ball if not for the philanthropy of Jay W. Ross. No doubt. A borough hall presentation on our efforts had attached 250+ people and built momentum. That night he said to me — “Kelly, I’m gonna help you on this one” — was one of the happiness days in my entire life as a Monmouth Beach person.

Jay donated $110,000 to the project. Even with his money, it still needed a person of action to do rehab correctly and a person of order to run it properly. In further evidence that Monmouth Beach is blessed, a couple of wise borough lawmen stepped up to help big-time — Chief Patrick J. McConville and Chief Richard L. Keller.

Pat (police chief 1995-2002) recognized the building’s symbolic importance when it was just days away from meeting its doom. Taking charge, he managed the renovation project with great care. I watched as he held together a fragile coalition of supporters, while doing much of the physical renovation work himself. Thanks to him and his all-volunteer team, an ambitious 6-month-long renovation project changed a decaying century-old building into a grand coastal showplace. Regarding the project’s success, he once explained to me that “the planets all aligned on this one.” I saw it as magic too.

Next came Dick Keller (the town’s longest serving police chief, 1972-1993), who became the first cultural center director in May 2000. A borough history buff, right away he set high standards and insisted on the same from others. His ability to build and lead a team of volunteers set things on a steady path. When he retired again in 2009, he gave me one of the finest complements I ever received in thanking me for my “friendship and support” during the time we served together on the center’s Board of Trustees. Chief Keller died in July 2011

Inspired by his father, Dickie Keller got deeply involved in the cultural center in 2010. Employing patience, persistence and an awesome networking coalition, he helped preserve the building in the face of two serious complications. After Superstorm Sandy wrecked the building in October 2012, his team quickly restored it. After a major fire in September 2016 and subsequent bureaucracy kept the building closed for 18 months, he got it opened once again. His dad would be proud of his efforts.

Thanks are in order for Lois Geyer and James and Betty Heath for their devotion and love for the property in the decades past. The new Monmouth Beach Historical Committee now manages the center.

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Jay W. Ross (1915-2006)

One of the most remarkable men I ever met. Jay was strong and serious, hard-working and honest, principled and opinionated. He knew what he wanted. Thankfully he wanted to help Monmouth Beach.

He didn’t mind at all when I called him the borough’s “philanthropist-in-residence.” For he is the supreme Monmouth Beach giver -- of his age and all others. A guy who walked the talk. His shared his bounty fabulously through the years --- his donations exceeding $600,000.

Born in Brooklyn in July 1915, Ross came to Monmouth Beach in 1932. Starting in 1941 he got involved in developing the Shrewsbury River boat-basin acquiring borough land for $400. He first opened “Monmouth Marina” in 1964 and rebranded it “Monmouth Sailing Center” in 1966.

The business offered boat sales, repairs, rentals, storage and sailing lessons. The 1970s decade proved to be boom boat times. “Back then boating was a popular, family-oriented activity,” Ross explained. By 1975, he was selling 300+ sailboats annually and the business was grossing $700,000+.

The marina is now run by his longtime business partner James Brower and still prosperous today. Jay’s sisters, Elinore Wenzel and Margaret Shippy (she passed in January 2012), were also involved in the business.

During his building career in town, Ross constructed nearly 40 homes and developed Margaret Place near the school. In the 1930s and 1940s, during hard financial times, he purchased several large abandoned houses in town to get them back on the tax rolls, maintained, and rented. Borough leaders counted on him too. “Jay always put his money where his mouth was — everyone else just talked,” said Mayor Sidney Johnson and Mayor Jim McConville called him “the town’s best friend.”

Deeds:

• Funded first aid squad building (1974); dedicated to his mother, Margaret,

• Funded new fire company museum (1989),

• Funded new police station (1990),

• Funded new wing at Sidney B. Johnson Library (1990),

• Funded new municipal library in Sea Bright (1993).

• Funded cultural center project (2000).

Jay Ross died in June 2006 at age 90. Two of this determined man’s formulas to success — “always keep your word” and “always pay your bills” — should be posted in every schoolroom in the country.