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In the midst of ambitious redevelopment, Long Branch features several trendy restaurants and bars in the Pier Village boardwalk shopping center and in the West End section around Brighton Avenue. Other restaurants are scattered throughout the city.
Long Branch features outdoor sculpture installations during the summer and has a cutting-edge gallery -- the Shore Institute of Contemporary Arts -- in the downtown area being converted to an arts district. Beach volleyball and boardwalk jogging are the top local sports. People-watching from your perch at a boardwalk cafe and pampering at a seaside spa (the Ocean Place Resort & Spa is known nationally) are top indulgences.
Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park
Cost: $7 daily; $42 seasonal for ages 12 to 16; $60 for ages 17 to 64; $23 for age 65 and older. Beach admission is free for age 11 and younger.
Parking passes cost $60 for the season, $6 daily on weekdays and $7 daily on weekends. Mid-season rates for beach admission and parking are available after Aug. 1.
Admission to the park is free the rest of the year. The park is open from 8 a.m. to dusk daily.
Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park stretches from Atlantic Avenue to Joline Avenue in Long Branch.
The Monmouth County Park System operates the area, which has playgrounds and wide, clean beaches. Other features are a skateplex, an activity center, a boat launch, fishing, sand volleyball, and a pavilion with a snack bar and restrooms.
Lifeguards are on duty from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends beginning May 29 and daily from June 12 until Sept. 6.
For more information, call 732-229-7025.
Municipal beach, Seaview Avenue South to Brighton Avenue
Cost: $5 daily, $3 for age 13 to 17; seasonal badges $35, and $30 for age 13 to 17; free for the disabled, children younger than 13 and those 62 and older.
Smoking areas are designated on all public beaches. Beach wheelchairs are available at the Morris Avenue beach, the only beach that has a ramp.
Parking is available, but may be hard to find on streets off Ocean Avenue. There is a new parking garage adjacent to the Pier Village Center, which offers parking for a fee.
Lifeguards are on duty from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends from Memorial Day weekend until mid-June; then from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Labor Day.
Seasonal beach passes are available Mondays through Fridays at the Recreation Department, 3 Bay Ave., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on weekends beginning Memorial Day. Passes also are available at the Beach Office, North Bath and Ocean avenues on the boardwalk beginning Memorial Day weekend, and then seven days a week beginning late-June from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information, call 732-571-6545.
Location: On the Atlantic Ocean, sharing boundaries with these municipalities (clockwise from south to north) Deal, Ocean Township, West Long Branch, Oceanport and Monmouth Beach
Size: 5.2 square miles
Population: 31,340 (2000 Census)
The community
Long Branch is five square miles of diversity, from wealthy summer enclaves to grittier downtown locations. In addition to the beachfront development of restaurants, shops and condominiums, the city has begun transforming lower Broadway into an arts district.
Monmouth University, moments away in West Long Branch, is home to theaters, art galleries, exhibits and lectures, almost all open to the public.
History
Long Branch got its name when the first English settlement developed south of the long branch of the Shrewsbury River about 300 years ago. By the time of the Civil War, Long Branch had acquired a reputation as the preferred location for the fashionable and those in the entertainment business.
In the 1880s and 1890s, enormous homes and 30-room "cottages" were built. Parisian dress designers flocked here to copy the latests styles. Millionaires built houses along Ocean Avenue. Magnificent hotels also were built, including the Continental, with 600 rooms.
Long Branch became a destination for such people as Jim Fisk, Diamond Jim Brady, Lillian Russell, Horace Greeley, Lily Langtry, Henry Ward Beecher and Gens. Phil Sheridan and George Meade. The town welcomed presidents including Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley and Woodrow Wilson.
They worshipped at St. James Chapel, which has come to be known as The Church of the Presidents, home of the Long Branch Historical Museum Association.
On July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot in Washington by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker. Almost overnight a railroad spur was built to carry the wounded president to the door of the Francklyn Cottage on Ocean Avenue, Long Branch, where he died on Sept. 19.
The first city racetrack, called Elkwood Park, opened in the late 19th Century and West End boasted half a dozen casinos. In the 1890s, Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell could be seen watching horse racing. Gambling and horse racing were made illegal in the city around the turn of the century, signaling the end to an era.
The city fell into decline and experienced civil unrest during the 1960s and early 1970s, and its resurgence began about 10 years ago.
Just in case
Nearest hospital: Monmouth Medical Center, 300 Second Ave., Long Branch, (732) 222-5200. In an emergency, dial 911.
