RUMSON: PUTH GIVES PIANO TO ALMA MATER
Rumson-bred pop music star Charlie Puth has donated a piano to the borough’s Forrestdale School, from which he graduated in 2006.
LITTLE SILVER: A BARNYARD CELEBRATION
About 100 Little Silver residents, joined by Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno
, celebrated the completion of restoration work on the three barns at the Parker Homestead Sunday.
The structures, the oldest of which is believed to have been built in the 1790s, and the Parker farm site on which they sit are “as important as Jamestown” in the history of America, Mayor Bob Neff told the crowd.
The restoration, funded with a $250,000 Monmouth County Open Spaces grant, was completed after a dispute with a contractor was resolved and a second contractor, Drill Construction, came on board in January, said Keith Wells, a trustee for the nonprofit Parker Homestead 1665 Inc., the nonprofit that oversaw the project. Two carpenters, Joe Rubel and Mike Cerniglia, were credited for work.
Click the “read more” for additional photos. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RUMSON STAR’S CONCERT TO STREAM VIA APP
Local fans of 24-year-old Rumson-bred pop star Charlie Puth who can’t make it to his sold-out show tonight in New York or Friday night’s sold concert at Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre might want to listen in via an app called go90, which will be streaming tonight’s show live. The app, availble through the App Store and Google Apps, is free, and the show begins at 9 p.m. (Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: O’REE PLANS RECORD-DROP SETS
In conjunction with the release of a new record entitled “Brotherhood,” guitarist Matt O’Ree — a 2015 tour sideman for Bon Jovi — and his band plan to play two sets at Jamian’s Food and Drink in Red Bank on April 22. Tickets ($20) and other information can be had here. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
BON JOVI PICKS O’REE FOR ASIAN LEG OF TOUR
Matt O’Ree playing in Red Bank’s Marine Park in 2013, will share in guitar duties for the band led by Middletown’s Jon Bon Jovi, seen below at JBJ Soul Kitchen in 2011. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
In a headline-making realignment of local music stars, pop singer Jon Bon Jovi has chosen blues guitar monster Matt O’Ree as the road replacement for Bobby Bandiera, according to reports by the Asbury Park Press and other news outlets.
The Holmdel-based leader of the Matt O’Ree Band will join Bon Jovi as touring guitarist for the band’s upcoming shows in Asia and the Middle East starting in Indonesia on Friday, the Press reports, citing multiple unnamed sources.
LITTLE SILVER: BARN RESTORATION STALLS
No work has been done on the barns at Little Silver’s Parker Homestead in months. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
One year after it began, work to restore three decrepit old barns at the Parker Homestead site in Little Silver has been stalled for months, and may be heading to court.
Neither town officials nor the contractor, Nickles Contracting, would discuss the reason for the inactivity, or even say when the stoppage began, leaving the structures a patchwork of braces and plywood coverings.
“It’s kind of in the hands of our attorneys,” Mayor Bob Neff told redbankgreen, citing the possibility of the matter winding up in litigation for his reticence on the matter.
FAIR HAVEN: FATAL CRASH CASE SETTLED
An outpouring of support for cyclist Cole Porter, below, included a bicycle painted pink – his favorite color –and left at the scene of the accident that led to his death. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The widow and children of Cole Porter, a Shrewsbury man who died as a result of injuries suffered in a crash during the 2013 Tour de Fair Haven bike race, have settled a lawsuit in the matter for $7.1 million, NJ.com reported Thursday.
Agreement on the deal was reached June 3 as jury selection was about to begin for a trial over the civil suit in New Brunswick, according to the report.
LITTLE SILVER: COOKIE TIN YIELDS GEMS
A collection of baseball cards from 1909, including two feauring Ty Cobb, found among the possessions of a former Parker family member will be on display Sunday. (Photo above by Liz Hanson. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Sunday may be Flag Day, but at the historic Parker Homestead in Little Silver, it will also be a day for baseball.
Old-time baseball, that is, in the form of a rare set of baseball cards discovered recently in a cookie tin among piles of possessions from the historic house on Rumson Road.
LITTLE SILVER: BARNS TO BE AGE-TESTED
Archaeology students from Monmouth University plan to conduct tests on the barns at Little Silver’s Parker Homestead Friday to determine the ages of the structures. A similar examination was done on the site’s farmhouse, and founding indications that dated it back to 1720, making it one of the oldest houses in America.
FAIR HAVEN SPARED IN SUIT OVER RACE DEATH
Racers during last September’s Tour de Fair Haven. Cole Porter, below, died after an accident in the first race that day. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A lawsuit by the estate of the Shrewsbury man who died after a crash during the Tour de Fair Haven last September does not name Fair Haven as a defendant, contrary to an earlier report that the town would be sued for $10 million.
A civil complaint filed Wednesday on behalf of cyclist Cole Porter‘s widow and two children instead names the race organizer, event sponsors and the race official Porter slammed into on September 15, resulting in injuries that led to his death less than three weeks later.
With litigation pending, Mayor Ben Lucarelli said he he does not expect the popular event to return for a sixth running this year.
LITTLE SILVER: FIRST WALK THROUGH HISTORY
Dozens of visitors toured Little Silver’s Parker Homestead, which opened to the public Sunday for the first time since it was deeded to the borough in 1996. Among the displays was a Parker family genealogy tree hung on a door, at right. The Rumson Road farmhouse, dating to the early 1700s, and three barns built in the 1800s are facing extensive restoration. (Click to enlarge)
LITTLE SILVER: DOOR TO HISTORY OPENS A BIT
A large hearth, uncovered during recent repairs, is among the historic features on display on a tour of the Parker Homestead on December 22. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
For centuries, it was a family’s home. Nothing more than that.
Starting out in the early 1700s as a single-room domicile, it grew out, and up, outlasting all but a few homes in the nation it preceded. Eight generations of Parkers warmed themselves in rooms framed by hand-hewn timbers – when they weren’t working the surrounding land, or harvesting ice from the pond just off the front porch.
“These people weren’t rich, or aristocrats,” Little Silver resident and preservationist Keith Wells said of the Parkers, who arrived here from Rhode Island in 1665. “They were just farmers.”
That simple fact may be lost to the thousands of motorists who have passed by in recent decades, perhaps aware only that the stately home on Rumson Road in Little Silver was for some reason “historic,” an entry on national and state registers of such structures.
But on Sunday, December 22, for the first time ever, the public will get to see the inside of the Parker Homestead, now entering what Wells and others hope is an era of significant repair and restoration. redbankgreen got a sneak peek, of course.
SEA BRIGHT: A LOW-KEY SAYONARA TO SUMMER
Francois Bertrand Lemay, Ary Meziane, Martin Hetu and Maxime Boon get ready to roll out on the next leg of their ride from Montreal to Miami. Below, some beachgoers turned out despite the gray day. (Click to enlarge)
Summer 2013’s unofficial end was a relatively quiet one in the beach community of Sea Bright, thanks to gray skies.
Thanks to a reader tip, redbankgreen got to meet a group of 25-year old Canadian bicyclists who had stopped to camp in town Saturday night en route from Montreal to Miami, a distance of about 1,700 miles.
“It’s a random trip, we’re just going down south,” Maxime Boon said Sunday morning, as the quartet readied to depart.
All four men expressed strong gratitude for the hospitality of Sea Brighters.
“It was one of the best nights of our trip,” said Francois Bertrand Lemay. He recounted how it started with a half a case of beer from man in town who had biked long-distance when he was younger.
“We’ll be back for sure,” said Martin Hetu. “Keep on living the life, the dream life by the beach.”
Other random views of the day are after the jump…
More →
RUMSON: AUTHORITIES MUM ON VNA CRASH
One passenger was airlifted to a trauma center after the VNA van at right collided with the dump truck, at left. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A passenger injured when a tour van collided with a dump truck in Rumson Thursday is in critical condition, authorities said Friday.
Details about the incident remained undisclosed as authorities withheld the identity of the victim, by name, age, town of residence or gender. The passenger was transported by helicopter to Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune after the crash.
Nine people were in the Visiting Nurse Association van, said First Assistant Prosecutor Rick Incremona of the Monmouth County Prosecutor‘s office, which is investigating. Two incurred minor injuries, he said.
No charges have been filed, said Incremona, who declined to identify the van’s driver.
RUMSON: ONE HURT AS TOUR VAN HITS TRUCK
Emergency personnel place the victim in a MONOC helicopter that landed at Rumson-Fair Haven regional to transport her to Jersey Shore Medical Center. The damaged van, below. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Visiting Nurse Association van carrying “multiple” sightseers on an annual tour of grand homes smashed into a dump truck in Rumson early Thursday afternoon, seriously injuring one passenger.
The victim, who was not immediately identified, was transported by MONOC helicopter to the trauma center at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, said police Chief Scott Paterson.
Two other passengers may have also been taken to a hospital lesser injuries, said Paterson, who added that information was still being gathered by investigators shortly before 3 p.m.
FAIR HAVEN: NEVER-ENDING WAR WITH VINES
Jeff Dement gives a lesson in tree identification during Saturday’s walk through the Fair Haven Fields Natural Area. (Photo by Sarah Klepner. Click to enlarge)
By SARAH KLEPNER
The Fair Haven Fields Natural Area Committee is engaged in a quiet, prolonged battle, one of forest versus invasive vines that have become familiar in Monmouth County.
About 20 people turned out Saturday to witness the ground gained in the war on a walk guided by Jeff Dement of the American Littoral Society. He pointed out the different types of invasive plants, including Oriental bittersweet and Japanese honeysuckle.
“The way vines kill is by robbing trees of sunlight,” he said. “The forest is all about competition, usually for sunlight.”
FAIR HAVEN DOORS OPEN FOR SANDY VICTIMS
Among the homes on Friday’s tour is this one on Harvard Road. (Click to enlarge)
By DANIELLE TEPPER
A holiday tradition and one of the key fundraisers for the Fair Haven School District, the Fair Haven PTAs biennial house tour typically draws some 300 community members, with proceeds supporting the educational programs in the borough school system.
This year’s edition, though, is focused on Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. Attendees at the event, which takes place Friday, are encouraged to donate new kitchen and household items, as well as gift cards to housewares stores, for those who lost their essentials in the storm.
We thought it would be a unique way of supporting the hundreds of two-river area home owners who lost or sustained severe damage to their homes, said tour co-chair Lauren Steets. Most of us know at least one local family who is suffering now as a result of the storm, and we all want to help in some way.
BON JOVI OPENS CRIB TO TV CREW, AND YOU
Bon Jovi’s mansion on the Navesink River, as seen in 2008. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
‘Person to Person,’ a TV program of bygone days that featured live interviews with and often, tours of the homes of Marilyn Monroe, John F. and Jackie Kennedy, Marlon Brando and other big names of half a century ago, returns to the airwaves next week with a drop-in at the Middletown home of pop rocker Jon Bon Jovi, CBS News announced Thursday.
The comeback episode, to air Wednesday night, also includes tours of homes owned by two other “legends of today:” actor George Clooney and investment sage Warren Buffett.