The front page of the September 23, 1925, Red Bank Register. (Click to enlarge)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Marine Park, 15 years later in 1940 as seen in a postcard in the archives of the Red Bank Public Library.
The Sept. 23, 1925 Red Bank Register carried a front page headline “A Park For Red Bank” with a story about the borough buying the property home to the Lyceum theater to turn the land into the town’s first park.
Frick’s Lyceum, a theater that presented vaudeville and motion pictures, had opened 19 years earlier on the site of an old tomato canning factory and had gone bellly up, presumably.
The location of the theater was just east of the Monmouth Boat Club. The spot would later become tennis courts, and last year converted to parking for the park as part of an ongoing $4 million remake of the grounds.
Back in 1925, the council had to approve spending just $28,000 for the purchase and improvement of the property. The ordinance passed “without a protesting voice being raised among the large gathering of citizens at the meeting,” the paper reported.
“There was no mistaking the sentiment of the meeting,” the story reads. “It was entirely favorable to the park project.”
The story recounts an effort spearheaded by the local Lions Club that had the seemingly unanimous support of the citizens and members of the governing body.
Resident William Chile noted it was nearly impossible for citizens to reach the river without trespassing on private property. Another speaker at the meeting said visitors were amazed to find the town had yet to create a single park.
Several accurately predicted that the borough would eventually buy more parcels to create a larger riverfront park that would be enjoyed by generations. Leo Honigman said the move would “go down in local history as having been one of the greatest benefits ever conferred on the community.”
That dude was right.
It is notable that 100 years later, the park is undergoing perhaps the largest remake in its history.
As part of the remake, the parking lot has been moved to the old Lyceum/tennis courts spot to create a grassy lawn close to the river.
The new setup thus provides a return to the Lyceum’s comedic vaudevillian roots each time an out-of-town visitor is seen cursing as they struggle to figure out how to deal with the paid parking kiosks.
There are also other pertinent aspects of this story that never change.
At that council meeting a century ago, Resident James G Quigley predicted the borough would eventually own all the riverfront land from Cooper’s Bridge to the eastern border of town, with a boardwalk along the river.
That dude was wrong.
A century later, that river walk still exists only on paper, in the pages of the Borough Master Plan and other documents over the years that have set it as a still unachieved goal.
redbankgreen‘s Throwbacks feature is made possible by the Red Bank Public Library’s amazing online archives.
editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
