ocean grove house tour

Historical Society of Ocean Grove

Ocean grove, new jersey, save the date, 50th annual house tour historical society of ocean grove,                       , friday, august 3, 2018 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. rain or shine.

Outstanding renovations, ocean views, and fantastic kitchens are featured on this acclaimed house tour.   To celebrate our 50th anniversary, we will feature some of the unique homes found in Ocean Grove.  The all-day, self-guided tour includes historic homes as well as a tent home, an inn, and other historic buildings.

  Tickets will go on sale in early June.  You may purchase tickets at the Historical Society of Ocean Grove’s museum at 50 Pitman Avenue.                  

                                                                                     Please note:

                                                                Children under 12 are not admitted.

  Most homes have stairs and are not generally accessible for those with mobility impairment.

                                        Questions?  Call the Historical Society: (732) 774-1869

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Historical Society of Ocean Grove Museum

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Historical Society of Ocean Grove Museum - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Walk through a tent home in Ocean Grove

The Historical Society of Ocean Grove is holding its annual House and Garden Tour 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 18.

“The tour is a self-guided walking tour within this Victorian community,” a news release states. “The tour will include six to eight of the most beautiful and/or historic homes in Ocean Grove as well as one of our famous tent homes.”

Also included in the tour will be a historic inn, the Historical Society of Ocean Grove Museum, Centennial Cottage and the Great Auditorium. Several of the sites have received the Beersheba Award for Historic Preservation, according to the release.

Transportation to the tour stops will be available, according to the release.

Admission is a $25 donation in advance or $30 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 18 at the Historical Society of Ocean Grove Museum. Children younger than 12 are not permitted.

Tickets can be purchased at Gingerbreads Tees & Treasures, 49 Main Ave.; Smugglers Cove, 50 Main Ave.; and the Historical Society of Ocean Grove Museum, 50 Pitman Ave. They are also available for purchase on the organization’s website.

The tour is rain or shine and will run until 4:30 p.m.

For more information, call 732-774-1869 or visit www.oceangrovehistory.org .

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Home    /    Design Blog    /    Inside Ocean Grove

Inside Ocean Grove

By designnjadmin, annual house tour opens the doors to a community’s history as well as its present..

The moment you step into the district of Ocean Grove, the charm of a proud community is evident. Whether you stroll through town on a summer day or attend one of the many locally sponsored events, a day in Ocean Grove promises design inspiration and clever ideas for relaxed summer living. The Design NJ staff was fortunate to be in town during the 48th Annual Historical Society House Tour, sponsored by the Historical Society of Ocean Grove. We enjoyed the day taking in the charm of this historic community nestled in Monmouth County. Here we share a few of the many inspired takeaways from a day well spent.

Historical Architecture

The Great Auditorium built in 1894 takes center stage. This grand building totals 32,225 square feet. The ceiling and stainless steel roof are supported by seven 161-foot trusses and 18 secondary angled trusses built in just 92 days. The auditorium is well known for its extraordinary acoustics.

Photos By Patricia Burke

The Bishop Janes Memorial Tabernacle — located in the middle of town and used for smaller religious meetings — features original, fully functional windows that are opened most of the summer, allowing for cool breezes to keep temperatures comfortable inside.

Drew and Nina Saunders purchased this 1890s cottage in 2014. The ornate gingerbread trim is painted white, allowing the detail work to take center stage.

When homeowners Keith and Cathy Reiner rescued this property in 2014, the foundation was crumbling and the wood was rotting throughout. While renovating for modern-day comfort, they were careful to salvage and restore many fine details. These arched double doors date to the Italianate era of the late 1800s; the mailbox is also original to the home.

Privacy Solutions

Many residents chose Ocean Grove for the camaraderie of a strong community. Homeowners take careful steps to maintain the community spirit but also take clever steps to achieve privacy when and where needed.

David and Arlene Philo have created a secret garden off the back of their award winning Queen Anne-style home. This lovely garden was carefully planned to provide a special place to socialize and relax.

This gorgeous leaded-glass window is suspended on a second story porch at the home of Drew and Nina Saunders. The window allows sunlight to filter through and also gives the owners and guests privacy to enjoy their morning coffee or to relax after a long day.

Summer Sleeping

Friends, children, grandchildren and other family members are frequent guests at many summer homes. Ocean Grove homeowners take special steps to make visits special with clever uses of space and casual décor.

Historic homes frequently have rooms with unusual shapes and sizes. This can present a challenge for furniture placement. Kathy Maher placed twin beds foot to foot in a guest room to maximize the floor space.

Each guest room is adorned with a chalkboard indicating weekend room assignments at the home of Paul Orefice and Ron Veltri. This personal touch makes everyone feel at home.

This adorable bunk is tucked on a landing as you go up the stairs from the first to the second floor of Philip and Colleen Stofanak’s vacation home. He made the sides and ladder himself.

Decorating Details

Professional designers know the importance of including clever details and thoughtful touches throughout a home. During our day in Ocean Grove we were impressed with many small details that helped turn houses into homes.

The frame of this historic photo of Ocean Grove circa 1926 displays a family’s growing collection of beach badges. Philip Stofanak made the frame for wife Colleen’s home office. Memories of summers well spent.

Tasteful small details such as the small shell trim on the sheer curtain and dried starfish hanging from raffia next to the window in the tent home of sisters Carol Bicknell and Marilyn Gill are reminders of the informal lifestyle associated with summers in many New Jersey towns. The starfish above the window is actually painted tin.

A relic of architectural salvage stenciled with 1891 anchors the space in this casual beach inspired space in the Stofanak home. An old window, original to the house, displays treasured family photos.

The Stofanaks also renovated their kitchen to offer 21st century comforts. An original brick wall was left exposed and small shelves were built to make use of the space for display. The exposed wall is a great conversation starter that adds history, texture and depth to the newly renovated space.

Tent Living

Ocean Grove was initially a camp community for families coming for religious services in erected tents. Today, only 114 tents remain in a semicircle around the Great Auditorium.

Each spring, the tent area transforms as canvas is erected and “tenters” create unique and wonderful homes complete with front porches and lovely gardens.

On the porch, a post is marked with the names and heights of three grandchildren as they grew. It’s a fond reflection on the passage of time.

Carol Wilusz waited 16 years for the tent she shares with husband Bill. “Living here is like living in the 1950s,” she says. “There is laundry drying on the line, bells ring out the time and we have no air conditioning.” A previous owner painted the front door and interior door lime green and purple. It’s now Carol’s favorite color combination.

Canvas is erected over wood platforms in front of the tents, expanding the living area under a tented space. Behind this is a self-contained wood room containing the kitchen and a bathroom.

Thank you to the Historical Society of Ocean Grove, its Annual House Tour Committee and the owners who shared their homes with us. The 50th Annual Ocean Grove House Tour will be held August 3, 2018. For information about the tour or the society, oceangrovehistory.org .

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Stick Style Houses by the Sea

The decorated gable on this little Victorian charmer is typical of Ocean Grove.

Architecturally speaking, Ocean Grove, New Jersey, is to the northern part of the state what Victorian Cape May is to the south—and maybe then some.

Ocean Grove houses, large and small, flaunt spectacularly lighthearted Victorian Stick Style ornament. On multistory porches and front-facing gables, an explosion of jigsawn and lathe-turned wooden decoration creates a celebratory display that makes every day in Ocean Grove seem like the Fourth of July. Buildings are painted in the natural hues preferred by Victorian-era tastemakers—subdued earth tones, darkish greens and blues, and, of course, the ever-popular seaside white or ivory. The colors are enhanced by residents’ penchant for blooming vines, shrubs, and trees.

Even without the Victorian frippery, the little resort town has all the usual ingredients of a great seaside getaway—ocean views, sandy beach and tranquil boardwalk, landscaped parks, and close-by lakes, plus attractive shops and restaurants and a slew of special events—more than enough to keep a body busy. But for old-house aficionados, Ocean Grove has much more to love.

From Bare to Rare

The architecture wasn’t always so showy, of course. In 1869, the unspoiled rustic setting caught the eye of William E. Osborne, an evangelist looking for an oceanfront camp meeting site where Methodist families could seek spiritual and physical renewal far from the distractions of urban life. Although much has changed since that time, Methodists from communities across the eastern United States still flock to Ocean Grove for the same reasons. The town’s signature aggregation of canvas tents encircling the massive 1894 Stick Style edifice known as the Great Auditorium still stands at the heart of the community.

Ocean Grove’s unique canvas camp meeting tents are highly sought-after living spaces.

The original summer tent settlement soon grew to include small frame kitchens behind the tents and wooden “sitting” porches in front of them. In 1875, commuter rail service to New York and Newark replaced arduous trips to the beach by wagon or boat, the summer population boomed, and the tents were quickly supplemented (though never entirely replaced) with simple frame cottages, then larger cottages and private houses, boarding houses, and hotels.

Well-conceived from its beginning, Ocean Grove has now earned a place in the National Register of Historic Places as a distinctive, planned 19th-century development; it is also a New Jersey landmark. In addition to an unusually adaptive street layout, it is amply equipped with small parks and walking paths, including the Ladies’ Walk and the Gentlemen’s Walk. In an admirable show of seashore manners, houses in the two blocks nearest the ocean were built with progressively deeper setbacks so that each house has a view of the beach.

What’s a Stick Style House?

A third-story balcony perches above the main porch on a classic Stick Style house.

Stick Style is a descriptive term that arose in the mid-20th century to describe houses built a hundred years earlier. It is generally credited to architectural historian Vincent Scully in his 1973 book The Shingle Style and the Stick Style .

Informal frame houses of the 1870s, ’80s, and ’90s, like the ones that predominate in Ocean Grove, were often called “Seaside Houses or Cottages” by Victorian planbook publishers such as the Palliser Brothers, because they were especially popular in coastal locations. These houses were often enlivened by linear (i.e., stick-like) wooden ornament applied vertically or horizontally to the exterior walls to suggest post-and-beam construction. But the term also includes the kind of frilly millwork that delights the eye on many late-Victorian porches, gables, and dormers.

For the most part, Stick Style features are decorative, not functional. They are often applied, as in Ocean Grove, to very basic rectangular, L-, or T-shaped houses. The most important—and most frequent—exception to this rule is found in the kind of prominent gables and integral porches that abound in Ocean Grove. Here, the vertical and horizontal elements, and sometimes even lavishly ornamented arches and angles, also serve a structural purpose, because porches and gables included under the main roof are integral parts of the structure, not separate additions that can be removed and replaced at will.

This line of large houses recalls seaside designs in Palliser & Palliser pattern books.

The ornament on Ocean Grove’s houses is so varied and fanciful that you may have to look closely to notice that the buildings themselves, though often large (three stories is a common height), are pretty much plain Jane. But even tiny one-story cottages wear their finest wooden jewelry on their street façades, and larger buildings are truly objects of wonder. Much of the millwork echoes the exuberant gingerbread found in the work of popular late 19th-century planbook designers.

One of Ocean Grove’s most exuberant examples of Victorian embellishment.

Nature and technology conspired in the post-Civil War decades to make America’s booming housing industry the most blatantly decorative and intensely wood-based in the nation’s history, particularly in towns not driven to masonry construction by the (well-justified) fire phobia of urban areas. Formerly untapped forest reserves provided abundant wood, modern mills and machinery such as jigsaws and lathes turned that wood into houses and ornament, and mail-order planbooks suggested what and how to build.

Turned posts, molded handrails, and substantial but unadorned braces are merely supporting players for the real stars of the show here—dramatic cobwebs of turned wood, vertigo-inducing carved wheels, impossibly intricate brackets, lace-like jigsawn flat-work. Given the potential effects of wind and water on wood, some of the millwork may be recent replacements or repair jobs, but in a testament to solid stewardship on the part of owners, jarring missteps are hard to find. Easy to see why you don’t have to be a Methodist to love Ocean Grove.

Online Exclusive: Bone up on the lingo of Victorian ornamentation with our pictorial glossary.

Tags: James C. Massey & Shirley Maxwell New Jersey OHJ December/January 2013 Old-House Journal Stick style victorian

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Christmas at Ocean Grove: Victorian Inn & House Tour (PHOTOS)

• Updated: Dec. 16, 2014, 1:01 p.m. |
• Published: Dec. 16, 2014, 12:01 p.m.
• Mark Voger | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Exquisitely decorated inns and houses weren't the only reason to attend the 2014 Victorian Inn & House Tour in Ocean Grove.

Many stops on the tour offered desserts, coffee, cider ... even soup. The roasted red pepper soup at the Quaker Inn (made by Kula Café in Asbury Park), and the sausage-and-potato soup at the Majestic Hotel, were bliss in a cup.

But any extra calories were burned off by climbing all those stairs to view decorated rooms on upper floors, many with lovely views of the Atlantic Ocean.

You came away from the tour with a renewed appreciation for vintage architecture ... not to mention, scads of Christmas-decorating ideas.

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Take a Tour of the Tents in Ocean Grove

By DON STINE

About 300 people are expected to attend this year’s tour of the historic tents in Ocean Grove- offering a unique opportunity for people to see how the “tenters” live over the summer.

The Historical Society of Ocean Grove is sponsoring the Tent Colony Tour on Fri., July 19 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. rain or shine.

The tour is not held every year but this year it is being done in conjunction with the historic district’s 150th anniversary. The tours began about 10 years ago and this year there are 10 tents on the self-guided tour, with a booklet that discusses each tent.

“People can’t imagine living in a tent but they discover that the tenters have almost all of the amenities they have in their homes. The public is very excited about the tents and they are one of the main things on our regular walking tours,” Society President Robert Waitt said.

“Some tents are more elaborate than others and people just want to see what they look like. We get about 300 people, give or take, for a tour,” he said.

Ocean Grove was founded in 1869 as a religious camp meeting ground where people brought tents and furniture for religion and a vacation. At one time there were over 800 tents and tent cottages on the grounds of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association.

“Today only 114 tents remain and all are cherished by the individual tenter. Each tent is beautifully decorated and furnished by the tenter- so all are uniquely different,” Waitt said.

The tents are leased from the Camp Meeting Association and occupied from May 15 to Sept. 15.

Tickets for the tent tour may be purchased at the Historical Society’s Museum at 50 Pitman Ave. in advance for $35 or on the day of the tour for $40. Maps will be distributed the day of the tour. For reservations or information call 732-774-1869 or email to [email protected] .

Historic Walking Tours of Ocean Grove are also held every Wednesday and Friday at 12:30 pm and Saturday at 10:30 am. The tour includes a talk on the history of Ocean Grove, a visit to the Great Auditorium and a tent, a walk to the Pathway, discussion of the homes, and a visit to Centennial Cottage and its beautiful gardens.

Tickets for the walking tour may be purchased at the HSOG Museum the day of the tour for $15, seniors $12. For information call 732-774-1869 or email [email protected] .

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AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

The good life, celebrate the season in historic ocean grove.

That evening, Saturday, December 7th, join the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association and the greater OG community for a live nativity at 5pm in the Great Auditorium and the tree lighting & sing-a-long in Auditorium Square Park at 6pm . Don't miss exhibits at the Historical Society Of Ocean Grove and the Ladies Auxiliary Christmas Boutique!

On Sunday, December 8th, Main Avenue will be alive with the Christmas spirit!

Visit Ocean Grove for our Holiday Festival from 1-4pm, with carolers, pictures with Santa, store-wide events and so much more. As always, dining & shopping options are available up & down the avenue morning till night.

Join us for our annual Victorian Holiday House & Inn Tour on Saturday, December 7th. Eight private homes, four inns and even a tent will be open for this self-guided tour.

Jitney services will be available to shuttle patrons. Tickets are $35, and can be picked up with maps on the day of the event at the Chamber office, 81 Main Ave,  10am – 4pm.

>>  BUY TICKETS

As always, our beautiful downtown will be bustling and decorated for your holiday enjoyment!

Holiday Horse Drawn Carriage Tour

Saturday, December 14th

1-4pm; tours on the hour

Boards at the corner of Central & Main Aves

Tickets $25 

Tickets are refundable up to the week before the event (7 days)

Holiday Trolley Tour with Jack Green

Saturday, December 21

3-7pm; 45-minute tours on the hour

Includes pictures with Santa & light refreshments

Boards on the corner of Pilgrim Pathway and Main Ave

Tickets $25

​>> BUY TICKETS​

Contact Information

81 Main Avenue

Ocean Grove NJ 07756

732-774-1391

[email protected]

A Sanctuary

Our vision is a world where every woman with cancer has a place to feel whole and we hope that Mary’s Place provides it for you. We strive to continue being a safe haven for all women who walk through our doors, and offer a space where women feel support to heal: mind, body and soul.

Our home is a 10-bedroom, state-of-the-art, custom built “sanctuary by the sea”, located two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Our home can accommodate up to 8 overnight guests in private rooms that include a full bathroom. An elevator is available and allows us to welcome guests with mobility issues.

Please note: Mary’s Place by the Sea is not a medical facility with medical staff or aides.

Guest Accommodations

Each guest enjoys a private bedroom with its own private bathroom. Our home is fully accessible with a ramp to our front door and an elevator taking guests to the upper and lower floors. Our living and dining room are large gathering spaces, where guests can enjoy time with one another.

Individual services may be held in our spa rooms, counseling rooms, or the sanctuary. At the center of our home is a large teaching kitchen, where delicious plant-based breakfast and lunch are prepared for our guests by our chef and volunteers.

3D House Tour

3D House Tour of Mary’s Place by the Sea – Sponsored by Nicole and Joseph Konzelmann

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12 Ashwood Close, Ocean Grove, Vic 3226

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Email enquiry to Hayden Real Estate - Ocean Grove

Property ID : 144681168

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