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Ocean’s Heritage, Fall 2019
Message from the Museum
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President
hank you to our generous Museum members, dedicated volunteers, and supportive community leaders for the first ten years in the Eden Woolley House. Together we’ve created a cultural landmark that’s preserved an ever increasing number of important local historical structures.
Our preservation work began in 1990 when we moved a child’s playhouse built in the early 1900’s from a Wanamassa estate to the property of the Board of Education Building on Monmouth Road (that then housed our Museum). We moved the Playhouse again in 2009 to its site along side the Woolley House. And with the help of two Eagle Scout projects from Troop #71, we’ve seen it restored and preserved.
Our efforts ramped up dramatically when we took on the rescue of the Woolley House, whose preservation remains our main mission. But we’ve added to our inventory three adjacent structures, once part of the Haupt family’s Stucile Farm. The Stucile Farm Cow Barn and Water Tower are reminders of Ocean’s rural past. Its Pool House is a symbol of the Township’s many gentleman farms. With help of grants and volunteers we’ve repaired and painted all three buildings. We plan to open exhibit space in the Tower and Barn to illustrate the disappearing farming heritage of coastal Monmouth County.
In recent months, we’ve completed several important projects—including repainting the Playhouse and parts of the Woolley House as well as continued work on the Tower and Barn. We couldn’t have imagined, back in 1990, the scope or impact of today’s preservation efforts. We’ve signed up for much responsibility—and work. Knowing we’re keeping local history alive for generations to come is what makes it all worth it. Paul Edelson
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Raffle Book Reminder
lease return your Quilt Raffle books/ stubs! Drop by or put them in the mail. State law requires that we account for all books distributed.
New episodes of Hometown Histories
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he newest crop of “Hometown Histories,” the Museum’s oral history interview program, is available on our website OCEANMUSEUM.ORG and as scheduled on Ocean TV—Channels 77 (Cablevision) and 22 (Verizon FiOS ).
Early Oakhurst and OTHS
Hometown histories producer Dallas Grove sits down with sisters Mary Ann McKean and Kathy Lyle to retell stories of Oakhurst passed down to them from their grandparents, who arrived here from Ireland in the 1890s. Kathy, a graduate of Ocean Township’s first class to spend all four years in the new high school, carries the stories forward with memories of her class’s rebellion against the school’s restrictive rules: How 1969!
Sisters Mary Ann McKean (left) and Kathy Lyle remember family stories of their ancestral Larkin Place home and of Oakhurst in the day.
Interlaken as artist colony
Joan Brown’s interview with Elizabeth Hardy reveals an Interlaken that was home to some of the nation’s top illustrators. The artists found the lakeside community perfect for their studios—several of which survive today. Interlaken’s 1930s housing boom disrupted the sought-after peace and ended its reign as a noted artist’s colony.
The library grows up
Anita Nelson invites Phyllis Fyfe into the studio to share memories of a lifetime of community service. Phyllis, retired Ocean Township school librarian, remembers supporting Ocean’s first library—a set of bookshelves in the Wanamassa Fire house. She fought for the library’s move into Town Hall where it grew to be the county system’s most active branch. Today, she is a tireless moving force behind the “Friends of the Library”—and so much more.
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Joan Brown (left) interviews Elizabeth Hardy in her Interlaken home, surrounded by some of the artwork featured in her stories.
Anita Nelson (right) talks with community volunteer supreme Phyllis Fyfe about her decades as a community activist and volunteer.
“Lifting the black veil”
intage clothes authority Laurie Smith and photography mavin Glenn Vogel, both vendors at the Shore Antique Center, Allenhurst, shared their fascination with Victorian mourning customs with 70 guests, Oct. 23, as part of the Museum’s Speakers Series. Items from their personal collections—from jewelry made from the hair of the deceased to postmortem portraits—were on display. Laurie Smith, in Victorian widow’s garb, sat silently in the corner as guests filed into the auditorium.
