This is stop #45 on our Belmar Treasure Trail. We’re stopping here to mention some interesting environmental and historical facts about the residential areas you see across the street. One bit of trivia is about the land itself, or specifically, it’s geology. The area from here south has soil that does not drain as well and has a higher water table than the northern section of town. Also, as you’ve walked along the boardwalk, you may have noticed that in the northern part of town, the size of the blocks were longer and the housing lots larger. After the town got its start as a summer community of just 25 people in 1872, more visitors and residents started flocking to the seaside get-away. In 1908, the new Belmar grew by annexing adjacent areas. One of them was called the Ocean Grove Park Tract, which started at 12th Avenue and went south to Spring Lake. The area was laid out with 700 new, smaller lots. To entice people to attend the sale of these lots, a marketing promotion offered 10,000 dollars’ worth of prizes, like pianos, diamonds, watches and silverware. In case you’re wondering, the asking price for the lots at that time? A whopping three hundred dollars! Another bit of trivia has to do with one of our historic residents, Elizabeth Nye Darby, a Titanic survivor who lived on the third block of 13thAve. After a trip to England to visit her parents, the young widow was headed back to the U.S. to begin work with the Salvation Army. Her voyage was cancelled due to a coal strike in Britain so she was transferred to sail as a second-class passenger on the Titanic, which left Southampton on April 10, 1912. When the ocean liner collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic four nights later, Ms. Nye was among the survivors in a tragedy that killed 1,500 others. In a letter home, she detailed the horrifying occurrences, but assured her parents, “My nerves are very shattered, I look and feel about ten years older, but I will get over it after a time.” In fact, Elizabeth suffered such exposure that she would later require an operation and was awarded $200 by the American Red Cross. When she finally arrived back on American soil, one of the first Salvation Army personnel to greet her was Captain George Darby. The couple kept in touch and married the next year, following Elizabeth’s commissioning. In 1930, they built a duplex on this property, and lived in the left side at 315A 13th Avenue. Their son, Ray, was a long-time lifeguard in Belmar, and Elizabeth would spend hours in chairs on the front lawn with her neighbors, talking and knitting bandages for the Salvation Army. You’ll find a book about her at the Belmar Historical Society (stop #3 on our tour.)

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A Walking Tour of Belmar, NJ