The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.
The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.
Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.
Fern L. Nesson
One of the mysteries of the New Jersey Guide is the short shrift that it gave to the town of Asbury Park. Sited on a lovely stretch of the Atlantic Coast that provides a miles-long beach, a boardwalk filled with restaurants and amusement arcades, bookended by marvelous architecture, it was a major destination for summer vacationers from the late 19th Century until the 1970s—and it appears to have become one again.
The Guide had only this to say:
“ASBURY PARK, 26 m. (15 alt., 14,981 pop.), is one of the best-known resorts in northern New Jersey. The streets are closely built with cottages, boarding houses, and hotels, some of them open all year. In 1870, when this region was a wilderness, James A. Bradley, a New York businessman, visited the adjoining Ocean Grove camp meeting. He saw the possibilities of developing a large summer resort and bought 500 wooded acres, which he developed primarily as a summering place for temperance advocates…. The city today reaches nearly 2 miles inland from the beach. The long boardwalk is lined with eating places, a fishing pier, recreational attractions, solariums, and shops where [souvenirs] are sold.
The city has erected on the oceanside a CONVENTION HALL and an AUDITORIUM. The entire boardwalk and its facilities have been leased to an operating company.At the southern end of the boardwalk, swinging (R) past a PENNY ARCADE (L), the route passes WESLEY LAKE with its flotilla of bicycle- motored swan boats.”
New Jersey Guide, p. 682.
There’s much more to it that that.
Architecture first of all :
Asbury Park’s boardwalk was bookended by two spectacular buildings: A Casino and Carousel House on the southern end and the Paramount Theatre and Convention Hall at the north. All were designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Warren and Wetmore, the New York architects who designed Grand Central Station and built between1928-29.
Spectacularly beautiful in their day, they remain wonderful to visit today. While the main building of the Casino is in ruins (and its carousel relocated to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina), the Carousel House, Paramount Theatre and Convention Center have all been renovated and are now used as concert venues. Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, and the Rolling Stones performed there in years past and Ringo Starr is scheduled for next month.
The Boardwalk itself is a joy. Even in winter, it offers restaurants on one side and unlimited views of the Atlantic on the other.
One must-see destination is the Silver ball Museum—voted by New Jerseyites as “the number one tourist attraction in the state.” The Silverball houses collection of pinball machines dating from the 1930s to the present. Instead of using quarters, you pay an entry fee for an hour and can play any (or every) machine. Each pinball machine is labeled with the date and name of its manufacturer. There are hundreds, all chock-a-block, creating a riot of color and a room alive with the sounds of the flippers, balls, and bells.
One aspect that the Guide could not have foreseen was Asbury Park’s importance to music lovers. It is a town that loves rock and roll. The Stone Pony, opened in 1974 and still thriving today, anchors the music scene. Robert Santelli, music historian, called it “the greatest rock club of all time.”
Bruce Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt got their start at the Stone Pony and still return to play there from time to time. Other legendary performaners have included Bon Jovi , Stevie Ray Vaughn, Elvis Costello, The Ramones, Cheap Trick, Blondie, Meatloaf, Todd Rundgren, Jimmy Cliff, Joan Jett, Blue Oyster Cult, Gregg Allman, Kiss, Levon Helm, and Van Morrison.
A visit to Asbury Park in winter was a treat. In summer, when the water is warm and the crowds are partying, it can’t help but be even more fun!
April, 2022
