Once Upon a Time at Sandy Hook
By Cathy Padilla|September 28th, 2020|Travel| Once Upon a Time at Sandy Hook
FEATURED PHOTO: Modern Era at Sandlass Beach Club: 1940 -1962 | CREDIT Author’s Collection
Highland Beach, which was a resort area at the southern end of Sandy Hook run by the Sandlass family from 1888 until 1962, is the subject of a new book by Susan Sandlass Gardiner, releasing on October 12.
The book, Sandy Hook’s Lost Highland Beach Resort, tells the history of how the Sandlass Resort put Sandy Hook on the map and how the historic paradise has been wiped away by time, technology, and politics.
Built by William Sandlass during the Golden Age of the Jersey Shore, the Highland Beach excursion resort was an iconic landmark for more than seven decades.
In the 1890s, at the once magical playground where hordes of tourists were brought by trains, ferries, and automobiles to soak up the sun and enjoy the plentiful amusements, families dined and relaxed at Sandlass’ Surf House and Basket Pavilion. The buildings and character of the land would be in constant change throughout the next few decades, as 21 storms caused continual issues to the area. By the 1930s, profound economic conditions as well as the war abroad changed how people of the time vacationed and traveled. Most visitors to the area were from northern New Jersey and New York, and their trips to the shore were mainly done by boat and train. Once train service was discontinued in the late 1940s, and the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway were built in the 1950s, attention was drawn away from Highlands Beach as beach-goers discovered more and more towns along the shoreline in their car rides going south. Yet teenagers still rocked away the night at the resort’s occasional summer teen dances held in the Bamboo Room, the tropical night club that was open to the public from 1941 to 1961. During this time, Sandlass transitioned from a day-trip destination to the Sandlass Beach Club patronized primarily by families from Monmouth County.
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PHOTO: Sandy Hook’s Lost Highland Beach Resort
PHOTO: William Sandlass, Jr. at Highland Beach excursion resort, c. 1912 | CREDIT: Author’s Collection
PHOTO: Modern Era at Sandlass Beach Club c. 1950s-1960s | CREDIT: Courtesy of the Carolyn Mcmillan collection
PHOTO: Modern Era at Sandlass Beach Club: 1940 -1962 | CREDIT: Author’s Collection
PHOTO: Great Switchback Rail Road gravity roller coaster in 1889 at Highland Beach excursion resort | CREDIT: Author’s Collection
The resort would come to an end in the early 1960s when the Sandlass family was awarded $350,000 in condemnation proceedings by the State of New Jersey Superior Court as eminent domain was used by the Department of the Army and the State of New Jersey Department of Conservation and Economic Development to turn the land at the south end of the Fort Hancock Military Reservation into a state park. In 1974 the U.S. Army closed Fort Hancock and turned the land, including what was Sandy Hook State Park, over to the Department of the Interior as part of Gateway National Recreation Area.
Gardiner’s book goes into great detail, giving a robust vision of the time and what influenced all the changes. Cofounder of the Jersey Coast Heritage Museum in 2016, Gardiner works with the nonprofit to create awareness of the history of Highland Beach excursion resort as a vital legacy of the Jersey Shore. She actively supports the New Jersey Twin Lights Historical Society and its museum exhibits, and contributes artifacts and brings historical stories of interest to the public.
Gardiner grew up in Sea Bright and moved to Washington, D.C., in 1965. For more than twenty-five years, she was active in bilingual community and media relations in the Montgomery County Public School System. As a community activist, she was awarded the Distinguished Service to Public Education award by Montgomery County Board of Education in 2014.
She was recognized for her skills in providing community outreach to underserved families in the local schools. Her award-winning photography and experience as a documentarian continue to enrich her pursuits. Gardiner is a mother of five children and a grandmother of ten. She lives with her husband, Gary, in Montgomery Village, Maryland.
The book is available here.
PHOTO: Postcard from Sandlass Beach Club | CREDIT: Author’s Collection
PHOTO: The Albertina steamer | CREDIT: Courtesy of the Bahrs collection
PHOTO: Postcard from Sandlass Beach Club | CREDIT: Author’s Collection
PHOTO: Excursion Landing at Highland Beach Resort, c. late 1880s | CREDIT: Author’s Collection