'Lost Monmouth County:' Book recounts tragic, nostalgic and weird landmarks gone bye-bye

Imagine being Fannie Hunt, a former actress who fell on hard times in her later years at the Jersey Shore at the turn of the 20th century. Once a member of high society said to have been a flower girl to Queen Victoria, Hunt experienced the harsh reality of America before the safety nets of Social Security and Medicare.

At age 90, she was sent to the “poor farm” in Neptune known as Shark River. Incarceration at the 700-acre spread for the indigent, which operated from 1834 to 1911, was practically a death sentence. She died a few months after entering in 1909.

The disturbing anecdote is related in historian Randall Gabrielan's new book, “Lost Monmouth County,” published last month by The History Press.

“Newspapers provided occasional glimpses of the dismal existence of inmates, many of whom were old and helpless or in poor mental condition,” Gabrielan wrote. “One reporter observed in a brief article in the January-March 1845 volume of Littell’s Living Age that there, ‘as everywhere, cells, chains and bolts were the accommodations for the insane.’”

In 1911, the poor farm’s land was converted into a golf course and housing known today as Shark River Hills.

“Many think poorly of our predecessors for warehousing the indigent on poor farms,” Gabrielan wrote. “However, what will future generations think of our society, in which too many needy are forced onto the streets?”

Such biting social commentary is mixed in with old-fashioned archival digging and, in some cases, a big dollop of nostalgia as Gabrielan spotlights several dozen vanished Monmouth County landmarks over 159 pages (photos included). In a couple of cases the landmark is still around, but its true backstory has been flat-out twisted.

“I would call that history that needs to be corrected,” Gabrielan, a longtime Middletown resident and member of the Monmouth County Historical Commission, said via phone.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the book’s notable entries.

Spy House, Middletown

Yes, the reputed Revolutionary War spy haven is still standing. Gabrielan’s entry begins with a pointed barb.

“Can a place be lost, in the sense that the so-called spy house was not utilized for spying?” he wrote.

Everything about this landmark, including its year of origin, is seemingly in dispute.

“The venerable house that was begun in the first quarter of the eighteenth century and was one of the oldest on the Raritan Bayshore became widely known as the residence of the leading businessman and clergyman, Reverend William V. Wilson,” Gabrielan wrote. “Its later incarnations included occupancy as a bar, a speakeasy and a house of ill repute. The place was known as the White House Tavern when acquired by the Township of Middletown in the late 1960s. The Middletown Township Historical Society, organized to help preserve and interpret the property, believed that a snappier name was needed, so the group coined from whole cloth the term spy house and formed an imaginative history for the place as a central location for observing enemy forces during the American Revolution.”

Another flourish, ghost tours, “proved a monetary success but became the unraveling of the operation,” Gabrielan wrote.

Yet, he notes with the slightest hint of admiration, the old house is still standing and firmly lodged in the memories of local schoolkids who visited by the droves.

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Francklyn Cottage, Long Branch

The place where U.S. President James Garfield died on Sept. 19, 1881 — two-and-a-half months after being shot by an assassin — “became a veritable shrine” before it was damaged by fire and subsequently razed in 1920.

As he does in other entries, Gabrielan raises doubts about the legitimacy of the fire and notes the financial difficulties that preceded it.

“It’s not like it was a large house,” Gabrielan said. “It could have been maintained.”

Circus Drive-In, Wall

Opened in 1954 and shuttered in 2018, “this eatery conveyed the ambiance of Happy Days,” Gabrielan wrote.

He also puts its origins into perspective.

“The proliferation of drive-ins was aided by the post–World War II boom in consumer spending, prolific sales of newly available automobiles and the movement to suburbia,” he wrote. “The drive-in represented not only a low-cost option for the growing trend of families eating out, but it also obviated the need for diners to dress up.”

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Willow Tree Tavern, Millstone

The colonial-era roadside inn stood until 1948, but not until 1999 did researchers identify it as the Robins Tavern, which is noted in the historical record as a temporary headquarters for British General Henry Clinton as his army of redcoats marched toward the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778.

Aberdeen Pirate Ship

From 1921 to the early 1960s, a real estate agent’s office constructed as a 77-foot-long pirate ship adorned the Route 35 roadside in Cliffwood Beach. It even survived Hurricane Donna in 1960 before being relocated to Old Bridge. It was destroyed by a fire in 1993.

Julian Mitchell House, West Long Branch

The homestead of one of the most accomplished directors in American musical theater history was destroyed by fire in 2019 — much to the author’s ire.

“Some things go for reasons that are understandable, but with the Julian Mitchell House you almost see it disappear step by step,” he said. “Demolition by neglect.”

Cowboy City, Howell

From 1956-66 there was an old-west theme park on a 120-acre tract on the south side of Route 33.

“The genuine verisimilitude had one girl recalling six decades later that she was so frightened during a stagecoach “hold-up” that on seeing the guns she cried out, ‘Don’t shoot!’” Gabrielan wrote.

Grant’s Cottage, Long Branch

As U.S. President, Ulysses Grant spent summers vacationing in Long Branch — and not sequestered, either. He was deeply involved in the community.

As the book notes, “the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace bought the place in 1963, absent any need for the property, in order to prevent its use for a nightclub.”

So fears of a nightclub resulted in the bulldozing of what had become known as the Jersey Shore’s summer White House.

Oof.

“That was a bad one,” Gabrielan said.

"Lost Monmouth County" can be ordered via Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: 'Lost Monmouth County:' Book recounts landmarks gone bye-bye