Trusted HVAC Company in Ocean Grove, NJ

In July, 1869, Reverend W. B. Osborn, Reverend Stokes, and other Methodist ministers camped at a shaded, well-drained spot on New Jersey’s seashore and decided to establish a permanent Christian camp meeting community called “Ocean Grove.” This followed a search of the Jersey Shore for a place not infested with mosquitoes. About twenty tents were pitched that summer. By the following year, the area was laid out into lots and roadways. The lots were leased for 99 years with the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association retaining ownership. Residents were expected to follow the strict Methodist social norms of the era which included prohibitions of alcohol, tobacco, cards, dancing, the reading of novels, and even chewing gum. Nine wells were driven in 1870 to provide fresh water. The first was eventually named the “Beersheba” well, for an ancient well used by the Biblical patriarchs Abraham and Isaac. It is still in existence under a photogenic 1881 gazebo, though belatedly connected to the town water system in 1911.

Drawing from the major population centers of New York City and Philadelphia, Ocean Grove soon became a popular destination during the growth of the camp meeting movement in post-Civil War America. Tents and an open-air wooden shelter for speakers, were erected in the 1870s, for the trainloads of visitors arriving by the New York and Long Branch Railroad after 1875. In 1877 alone, 710,000 railroad tickets were sold for the Ocean Grove-Asbury Park train station.

A third, larger auditorium was built in 1880.