Ocean’s Heritage, Spring 2016
Ocean’s Heritage, Spring 2016
Ocean’s
1 to 4, Sunday, June 26 Exhibit Opening
Heritage
Presidents at the Shore
Richmond Gallery, Eden Woolley House The Eden Woolley House
The Eden Woolley House
The Township of Ocean Historical Museum
Home of the Township of Ocean Historical Museum
Vol. 32, No. 2, Spring 2016
New exhibit opens Sunday, June 26
Presidents at the Monmouth County Shore 703 Deal Road • Ocean, NJ 07712
(Mailing address: P.O. Box 516 • Oakhurst, NJ 07755) 732-531-2136 • oceanmuseum.org
Museum Hours
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 1 to 4 Thursday evening: 7 to 9 (April to November) 1st and 2nd Sundays of the month: 1 to 4 ‘The Twp. of Ocean Historical Museum received an operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.’
The Township of Ocean Historical Museum
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Mrs. Lincoln got the ball rolling
There’s a case to be made that it all started with Mary Todd Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln travelled to Long Branch in the summer of 1861, probably at the invitation of William Newell, family friend and then supervisor of the life-saving services in New Jersey. Long Branch was already a popular resort, and national coverage of the First Lady’s visit added immeasurably to its fame and appeal. That fame and appeal continued to draw the wealthy and influential—including the seven presidents who vaca-
The Asbury Park Press carried this caricature in its front-page coverage of the ceremony in W. Long Branch, Sept. 2, 1916, where Woodrow Wilson officially accepted the nomination of his party for a secondterm run for President. tioned in the popular resort city, starting with Ulysses Grant.
Seven Presidents in Long Branch
In 1870, a group of wealthy businessmen who summered in the Elberon section of Long
Branch presented President Grant with an oceanfront cottage where he vacationed for the next 15 years. When Grant died in 1885, city officials feared the resort might lose its cachet. They needn’t have worried. Six of the next ten Presidents--Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, McKinley, and Wilson--chose to spend time in Long Branch. The most tragic of these Presidential visits was James Garfield’s last. Mrs. Garfield was in Long Branch recuperating from illness, when, on July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot by an assassin in the Washington train station. He was taken to the White House, where his condition worsened. In hope that the sea air might help, Garfield was taken to Elberon. Famously, locals worked through the night to build the spur to carry the President’s railroad car from Elberon Station to the oceanside cottage. He died there 12 days later, September 19.
Beyond Long Branch
Long Branch was not the only Monmouth County destination of Presidents. Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and Richard Nixon visited our area, if only, in some cases, for a political rally. And then, of course, there’s Warren Harding, whose local connection was a bit less public and a good deal more scandalous. Join us June 26 to learn the full story. The new exhibit is on view through June 2017.
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One hundred years ago this September, 25,000 people gathered on the grounds of what is today Monmouth University—then a private estate called Shadow Lawn—to see Woodrow Wilson officially accept the nomination of the Democratic Party for a second Presidential run. Wilson was following a popular tradition among American Presidents to retreat to our slice of the Jersey Shore to escape the heat and hubbub of Washington. On Sunday, June 26, a major exhibit opens at the Eden Woolley House. It tells the wide-ranging stories of eleven Presidents who spent time here, at the Monmouth County shore.
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Opening
Presidents at the Shore 1 to 4, Sunday, June 26, 2016
The RIchmond Gallery of the Eden Woolley House