Ocean Grove: History meets Designer Life circa 2009
Greetings from Ocean Grove, NJ!
Ocean Grove, New Jersey is important in the history of the Jersey shore: a town carved out of mountain-like dunes and wild beach plum groves a few years after the Civil War. Ocean Grove was one of the first vacation resorts in this area founded by a band of Methodists who were seeking to re-create themselves through healthful rest and relaxation. It was the American Camp Meeting Movement for Holiness people.
Tents were the first accommodations, and amazingly, tents are still a part of the town's summer attractions. Ocean Grove's "tent community" surrounds the Auditorium of 1894. With their colorful awnings and comfy front rooms, these tents are more like summer cottages with fabric walls. Flower boxes adorn their mini porches, and people nod to curious passers-bys. Ocean Grove has been compared to a time capsule. Throughout this very pretty town are the remnants of a bygone age. Look closely, and learn.
The Ocean Grove Historical Society has its own museum, and also, a house museum. Nagles Pharmacy is now a beautifully restored soda shop,and along its walls is a museum of well-preserved apothecary shop remedies for all the ailments of 19th century life. Salvaged and saved from the basement of the store, this permanent exhibit of bottles and prescriptions offer a unique window to the past. But that's Ocean Grove.
Not too long ago, a vacation house in Ocean Grove with rooms for rent advertised "hot and cold running water." But now modernization is evident in almost any vacation rental listing here on these pages. Beautifully restored vacation houses, Victorian homes, cottages, apartments - many with a kitchen that anyone would envy - are now a new standard. Professional designers have bought these houses and made them showplaces.
And for those who love a quaint vacation rental - don't despair. Ocean Grove has such a variety of choices that you will find exactly what you are looking for in a home-away-from home.
