Morgan, New Jersey

Regis Philbin with Mrs. Mary Beninato at Club Bene Enjoying a Delicious Meatball Dinner She Cooked Just for Him. Photo Courtesy of Donna and Tommy Andrejewski.

Regis Philbin currently holds the Guiness Book of World Records record for having the greatest number of hours in front of a television camera on a commercial network.  The previous record of 15,188 hours was held by Hugh Downs.  That’s just a day and a half shy of 380 forty hour work weeks (7.3 years) or, alternatively, 632.83333 consecutive days! Regis surpassed Hugh on 20 August 2004 and he is still going strong.

My first recollection of Regis was when he was sidekick to Joey Bishop on “The Joey Bishop Show” between 1967 and 1969.  Joey’s show was a 90-minute late-night talk show (11:30pm – 1am) which was broadcast on ABC (channel 7 in NJ) five nights a week opposite “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”.  My strongest memory of this show was one summer when we rented a small bungalow at Midway Beach near Seaside Heights for a week.  It was probably the summer of 1969 – the same summer that Apollo 11 landed on the moon (or maybe it was 1968).  The show was funny even to a young stallion. What I most recall of “The Joey Bishop Show” – in fact pretty much all I recall – was the way that Joey would pronounce Regis’ last name.  Phil-a-bib!

I guess I started to get Regis Fever when Regis appeared in the famous episode of Seinfeld when Kramer appeared on “Regis and Kathy Lee” with his coffee table book which, in turn, was also a coffee table.  This was Seinfeld Series episode 86, the 22^nd and final episode of season 5 which aired on 19 May 1994.  What a brilliant premise and a funny episode.  A few years later, my wife, young son, mother and I went to Walt Disney World for Christmas were we saw Regis in person preparing for a Christmas special in front of the castle.  My mom yelled out to Regis and he very kindly waved back to her.

Regis Fever got serious when he hosted the show which everyone could just NOT get enough of, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”  It was around that time that I picked up a copy of Regis’ 1995 autobiography “I’m Only One Man”.  It wasn’t expected and I got very excited when I read what he wrote about his very happy experiences everytime he performed at Club Bene in Morgan, NJ!  Club Bene, which will be featured in a hopefully soon future posting, was right down the street from where I lived when I lived in Morgan.  This little club in its heyday attracted some of the world’s greatest and most well known talent.  More about this in a moment.

Anyone that watches “The Late Show with David Letterman” will frequently see Regis make seemingly unplanned cameo appearances usually designed to try to throw off Dave.  The smoothest one was a few months ago during the final credit roll when Regis and Dave were sitting on top of the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theatre reminiscing about show biz and smoking stogies.

This past summer on my most recent visit to Morgan, I was able to get to get together with some of my Sayreville War Memorial High School buddies.  The greatest stories told that evening IMHO were by Bruce who must have one of the world’s greatest jobs.  He gets to work with Regis!  Regis sounds like he is off camera just as nice and funny as he is on camera. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I received correspondence and the photo shown on this posting. The photo is of Regis with Mrs. Mary Beninato and was received from her daughter Donna and grandson Tommy.  Mrs. Beninato was the wife of Club Bene founder and owner Joseph Beninato.  Not only would Mrs. Beninato often make dinner for the world famous entertainers who would perform at Club Bene, but she would also get her photo taken with them.  How cool is that!  It is so cool that her grandson posted this and a number of other photos of his grandmother with celebrities who performed at Club Bene on his Facebook page! Awesome.

The thing that touched me most about Donna’s letter to me was the justifiable pride she had about her parents.  What also touched me was when Donna wrote, “When we had Regis he would arrive hours early before show time to enjoy an Italian meal my mother would cook for him which he always looked forward to.”  Isn’t that something?  Here it is a number of decades later and that special event still stands out greatly to the Beninato family!

I asked if Mr. Philbin would be so kind as to write something that I can post just for this web site.  True to the awesome person I thought he would be, he very kindly wrote the following just for us.  For that kind act, I can’t be more grateful to him and the people that helped me make contact with him.

Sure I remember the Club Bene. It was a great place to break in an act, improve it and most important, learn it.  The crowd was always friendly if not a little on the rowdy side.  Let’s just say they were enthusiastic.  I thought it was a great place to learn another side of show business … being up there onstage entertaining the people in person and not through the camera.  I loved the Beninato family.   All of them were great characters and Mrs. Beninato was a terrific cook.  After rehearsing with the band she always served a great dinner.  Great meatballs, and pasta just like my Italian mother made.  It was always exciting to appear at Club Bene.  I loved that place. 

So should Mr. Philbin ever come to LA, if he could have his people talk to my people, I would be delighted to “do” lunch!

Film Crew for the NBC Drama Series “Mercy” at Teddy’s Bar on 26 January 2010. Photo Courtesy of Joe Tanski.

When living in the LA area, as I now do, it isn’t unusual to turn a corner and see a film crew which has taken over a house or street in order to shoot a movie or TV show.  This however isn’t something too often seen in Morgan, NJ.  Around 1984, Woody Allen filmed scenes of “The Purple Rose of Cairo” in the old Raritan Diner on Bordentown Avenue in neighboring South Amboy.  The Raritan Diner, before it was moved to Ithica, NY, used to be on the north side overlooking the Raritan River Rail Road tracks (click here to see photos of The Raritan Diner on pages 124 & 125 of the book Images of America South Amboy).  In 1999 or 2000, Jerry Bruckheimer Films shot scenes for the movie “Coyote Ugly” – also in South Amboy. 

On 26 January 2010, Teddy’s Bar (see our 29 November 2009 posting) on South Pine Avenue and Liberty Street hosted a film crew for NBC’s drama series “Mercy”.  A reader on the Morgan-NJ.org Forums section said the crew was going to be fed in the cafeteria at near by Jesse Selover School!  

 “Mercy” is a new series on NBC – currently still in its first season after having premiered on 23 September 2009 – which airs on Wednesday evenings at 8pm / 7pm Central.  It is about the careers and lives of three nurses, Veronica, Chloe and Sonia, who work in a fictitious hospital in Jersey City.  Interestingly enough, I was born in a non-fictitious hospital in Jersey City which has subsequently closed. NBC has ordered 22 episodes for the first season.

This episode aired on 3 March 2010 at 8pm/7pm Central on NBC.

Since the first person went there on 12 April 1961, thus far only about 450 people have been in space.  The space based photos of the Morgan, NJ area featured in this posting were taken by a few of those 450 people.  To help you see where Morgan, NJ is located on these maps, see the “Where Exactly is Morgan, NJ?” posting from 22 August 2009 (keep scrolling down and selecting “Older Entries” until you find it).

ISS006-E-37526. Raritan Bay Surrounded by New Jersey and New York with Connecticut at Night. Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.

These photos vary in altitude and times of the year.  Not all have north at the top of the frame.  Most show all of Raritan Bay and Staten Island and many show other near by states (New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts).  All these photos were taken by astronauts while on the International Space Station.  NASA’s web site (mentioned below) also features some photos taken on the Space Shuttle.  I’m a little partial to the Space Shuttle as that was the first aerospace system I worked on after graduating from Rutgers.  As a note, there are not that many space shuttle launches planned for before the US retires the system so if you want to see a launch, you had better get a move on it.

ISS006-E-49273. Looking Westward over Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Raritan Bay is Clearly Seen to the West of Long Island. Also Clearly Seen are: Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, Delaware River, Hudson River, Long Island Sound, and Narragansett Bay. Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.

While it isn’t inexpensive enough at the time of this writing for regular people to take trips into space, the time will come, perhaps before this decade is out (catchy quote), that taking a suborbital ride into space will be an affordable option for middle class family.  If that does come to be a reality, we can all thank those “Early Adopters” who made possible so many things we regular people were able to eventually afford.  They buy products or services when they are new concepts and very expensive thus allowing for the product or service providing company to recoup some early research and development costs.  They also provide early feedback which help make the products better.  Among the products Early Adopters have helped provide for the rest of us include automobiles in the days of the horse and buggy, airline travel, personal computers, personal GPS devices, and digital wide screen televisions.

ISS002-708-31. Primarily Pennsylvania and New Jersey with Northern Delaware and Northern Maryland. Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.

The first company which appears to be close to offering sub-orbital, and eventually orbital, trips to space is Virgin Galactic.  Virgin Galactic, part of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group (Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Records, Virgin Megastores, etc.), recently announced its space transportation system composed of SpaceShipTwo, a space craft designed to carry six passengers and two pilots, and WhiteKnightTwo, the ferry ship which will transport SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of 50,000 feet.  At this altitude, SpaceShipTwo will detach, ignite its rocket engine, travel at 2,500 miles per hour and climb to the sub-orbital altitude of 68 miles (international agreement defines “Space” as starting at 62.1 miles).  The trip will originate and return safely to earth (another catchy phrase) at the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, California.  The whole trip will be about 2.5 hours – all for only $200,000. 

ISS014-E-16761. Raritan River, Raritan Bay, and Arthur Kill. New Jersey: Sayreville (with Morgan), Laurence Harbor, Madison Park, South Amboy, Perth Amboy, Woodbridge, Fords, and Staten Island, New York. Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.

The exact start dates for these flights have not been published yet but will probably be 2012 or 2013 though 2011 may be a time period Virgin Galactic is striving for.  There is said to already be hundreds of people on the waiting list including, reportedly, William Shatner who played Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek TV series.

ISS015-E-9190. Raritan Bay with the 2.9 Mile Long Trident Shaped Pier at Naval Weapons Station Earle. Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.

Shortly after Virgin Galactic starts their commercial tourist flights, they expect to quickly surpass the count of 450 visitors to space.

ISS003-E-5388. September 11, 2001 Image of Raritan Bay Showing the World Trade Center Plume of Smoke Following the Terrorist Attack. Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.

These photos, taken in orbit by astronauts using hand held cameras, were obtained from “The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth” NASA web site.  This site contains nearly one million images – some of them quite amazing.  Poke around the web site – especially using the “Collections” button.  Should you be interested in obtaining a complete image of one of the images shown on this Morgan-NJ.org posting which makes it possible to zoom in with less distortion, perform the following steps:

1. Go to http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/mrf.htm.
2. In the big white box on the right under “(If anything is entered here, then this search will be used rather than the one to the left.)”, type in the image number of the image you want to obtain, e.g., “ISS004-E-10408”.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the web page and click on the “Run Query” button.
4. On the “Database Search Results” page to the left of the entry for the photo, click on the purple “Quick View” box.
5. In the new window, scroll down and under the image, click on “See all metadata, images and captions.”
6. In the new window, scroll down under the image,  Under “Large Images to Request for Downloading” on the left of the entry for the photo, click on the “Request” box.
7. Yet another “The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth” window will pop up which will provide “How to retrieve” information. In item 1 under “Using a web browser”, click on the link which starts with “ftp://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/” and contains the image name followed by “.JPG”.
8. At this point, a request for the photo has been made to some computer at NASA to retrieve the image from the photo database and provide it to you in yet another pop up window.  This may take a few minutes.
9. In this final window, if you do not see the photo, wait a few minutes and hit the refresh button in your browser.  Repeat until you see the photo.  When you do see the photo, go to the “File” menu and select “Save As…” to save the file to a location of your choice.

1960 Ad for a Lapstrake Hulled Henry Luhrs Built Sea Skiff.

Probably the most successful family to have been associated with Morgan, NJ – at least thus far – is the Luhrs family.  A very short summary of the Luhrs family and their boat businesses was lightly touched on in an earlier posting on this web site.      

Mr. John Luhrs, has been absolutely wonderful to speak with and has very generously allowed for me to call him and ask about his recollections.  His father is the legendary Henry Luhrs who, in little old Morgan, became the Henry Ford of boat building when by the 1960’s he figured out how to mass produce Jersey Sea Skiff boats in a fashion John and his business partner and brother, Warren, say they have not equaled since.      

The Luhrs family has been in the boat business for well over 180 years.  The grandfather of Henry Luhrs was also named Henry Luhrs.  This Henry Luhrs launched (a nautical term as well) a marine chandlery business in New York City in the 1830’s and ultimately ended up owning shares in twenty-two different types of ocean-going vessels, i.e., barks, brigs, and schooners.  Of the barks, Henry was the principle owner of the one named for his wife Sophia R. Luhrs.      

One hundred years after the original Henry Luhrs established his boating businesses, Henry Luhrs the grandson came to Morgan, NJ sometime in the 1930’s.  This second Henry, the one that is so well known now, set up a company by the name of Morgan Yacht Basin on the northwest shore of Cheesequake Creek right next to the New York & Long Branch Railroad and bridge.  Readers can view the location of this site on the March 1919 Morgan street map illustrated on the January 2, 2010 posting.  The site was bisected by Keyport Road/Main Street and previously contained a restaurant and a dancing hall.  My mother tells me our Morgan neighbors, Hazel and Jasper Johnson, used to go dancing at this dance hall in the 1920’s/1930’s!  John Luhrs said Keyport Road/Main Street was also known as Route 4 and went right through the Luhrs facility until the current Route 35 drawbridge was completed in the early 1940’s.      

As told by John Luhrs, “Dad was renting the property from Mr. Robert E. Lee Morgan. [Verne: Yes, Mr. Morgan was named after the Confederate General.]  One day during the Depression, I was with him when he met with Mr. Morgan.  Mr. Morgan told my Dad that he thought my Dad had paid enough rent and that he was going to sign the property over to him.  He gave my Dad the property on a hand shake!  Mr. Morgan was a decent guy.  Had a big farm in Marlboro which was a stud farm for cows.  It was a lovely farm.  The barn was for his prized bulls. The doors of the barn were all varnished.”      

Morgan Yacht Basin, Mr. Luhrs continued, “Did mostly boat repairs.  New York/Sandy Hook pilots. Commercial work. Dad built a few custom boats, too.  They had a railway on a ramp which hauled out a lot of commercial boats or pilot boats. If they had an emergency, they knew it would get fixed right away.  At the time there were two boat ramp railways but subsequently the one to the east was covered over.  I still know where the covered over one is located.”      

During World War II, Henry Luhrs and his company continued repairing boats and installed ice sheathing on the bows of Coast Guard boats.  According to John Luhrs, “the paperwork requirements were virtually non-existent in those days.  If the Coast Guard needed to bring a boat in to get serviced, all they needed to do was to show up and it would get fixed.  Now there are a lot of formalities.”      

At the Luhrs Dock on Cheesequake Creek in Morgan, NJ in1943 or 1944. Henry Luhr's Boat "Lady Luck" on the Left, My Dad's World War II US Coast Guard Boat CGR-1122 on the Right, and Marion Lappas Mocarski. Her Older Sister, Dorothy was Employed at the Boat Yard.

  

One of those World War II US Coast Guard boats which would go to the Morgan Yacht Basin for service or repairs was a converted private vessel with hull number CGR-1122 (see photo).  “CGR” stood for “Coast Guard Reserve” and was a designation typically assigned to boats less than 100 feet long.  This boat was crewed by my father, Verne, Sr. who was stationed on Staten Island until he shipped out to the Pacific Theater in December 1944.  The significance of this to my family will be covered in another later posting.      

Looking South from the Old Luhrs Property Toward the Boat Ramp and Cheesequake Creek Railroad Bridge.

  

Following the war, Mr. Luhrs built 27-foot fishing boats but a turning point came in 1948 when he started producing a type of custom-built pleasure craft, at affordable prices, known as clinker-built or lapstrake.  In the days before fiberglass boats, of which Henry Luhrs was an early pioneer, this was a prevalent type of boat hull design.  In fact, the design goes all the way back to the days of the Vikings – if not earlier.  Instead of the smooth curvature which is seen on modern fiberglass boats, the hull of a lapstrake boat consists of a series of planks which overlap each other.  The Luhrs Flying Bridge Sea-Skiff in the photo advertisement of this post is an example of a clinker-built or lapstrake boat.      

The following is from the Hunter Marine biography of Henry’s youngest son Warren Luhrs who, with brother John, also jumped into the pleasure boat industry: “The sea skiff is a class of boat that has been very popular, owing to its seaworthiness. It features a sharp bow, which reduces pounding in surf or choppy seas, and a hull whose forward section is rounded below the waterline to increase stability in rough water or a following sea. Such skiffs can either be smooth sided or of a lapstrake construction.  Henry Luhrs was both designer and engineer, and his progressive new models exhibited his talent for innovation. He successfully changed the line of the bow from straight to curved at a time when the industry trend was a straight square effect, and he is believed to be the first designer-builder to popularize a small boat with a fly bridge.”      

The post war economic booms allowed for average people to be able acquire their own boats.  With the desire to serve the market place and inspired by mass produced automobile manufacturing methodologies, by the 1960’s Henry Luhrs Sea Skiffs was producing in excess of 1,200 boats per year.  In any given week, they built 18 boats – an average of over 3 per day – of various sizes with each selling for $2,000 to $4,000 each.  Considering the small size of the Morgan facility, that was quite an accomplishment.  Per John, Henry was criticized but respected by his competition because they built a few boats a year while Henry was building over three a day.      

Looking North Up the Boat Ramp to the Old Luhrs Property from Cheesequake Creek.

  

A fantastic article written by David Engebretson (click here), a Henry Luhrs Sea Skiffs employee, appears in the Spring 2005 edition of The Luhrs Line magazine on pages 12 & 13 (you’ll need to scroll down in the PDF file once you click on the link).  It discusses the process and people which made Mr. Luhrs’ Morgan, NJ based company so successful.  It also mentions an early neighbor of mine, Mr. Hank Constantineau (a gifted painter) and has a photo of John Luhrs working on an electric sander.       

Henry Luhrs Sea Skiffs, along with the Ulrichsen Boat Company based in Marlboro, NJ which Henry acquired in 1960, were both sold in 1965 when Henry got an offer too good to pass up.  The acquiring company was the Fortune 500 conglomerate Bangor Punta Corporation.  Bangor Punta Corporation was a complex organization which had its origins with two companies which merged in 1964.  The Bangor & Aroostock Corporation was a Maine railroad company which primarily hauled potatoes and lumber.  Model railroaders would know them best for their red, white and blue boxcars.  Punta Alegre Sugar Corporation produced sugar in Cuba in the days before the Fidel Castro lead overthrow of the Fulgencio Batista government in 1959.  The Cuban Revolution resulted in a $54,000,000 loss for Punta Alegre which, somehow under US tax laws, was able to be used to acquire other companies.  The conglomerated Bangor Punta Corporation collected a number of other name brand companies such as Smith & Wesson (firearms), Piper Aircraft, and other boat building companies.  They were not as successful in acquiring Harley Davidson.      

Morning of February 22, 1968. Fire at the Luhrs Boat Company in Morgan, NJ. Photo Courtesy of Christina DiPoalo Olender.

  

After the acquisition, John Luhrs stayed with the company as a manager until 1969 including one terrible morning.  Around 2 A.M. in the early morning hours of February 22, 1968, a fire started at the Morgan facility resulting in the burning of several buildings and six boats.  John DiPoalo (Owner of Morgan Lumber, see posting from December 6, 2009) helped fight the fire with the Morgan Hose and Chemical Company (see posting from October 3, 2009).  Trains running on the adjacent railroad tracks were delayed for several hours as the fire hoses needed to be run across the railroad tracks.  Despite the $400,000 fire, the Luhrs Boat Company shifted production to the Marlboro NJ facility in order to meet the orders.      

In 1969 John and his brother Warren started a new phase in the Luhrs family boating legacy – which is still on-going – by purchasing a small boat building company in Toms River, NJ by the name of Silverton Sea Skiffs.  This wondrous story is also planned to be covered in a future Morgan-NJ.org posting. 

After the sale of Bangor Punta to Lear Siegler, John and Warren were delighted to be able to reacquire the Luhrs name in 1985.       

Click on any of the following corporation names to go to their respective web site:      

Luhrs Marine Group – which is composed of:      

Hunter Marine Corporation
Luhrs Corporation
Mainship Corporation
Silverton Marine Corporation      

Click here to see a video journaling John and Warren’s journey in creating the Luhrs Marine Group.      

Click here to see interactive virtual 360 degree tours on your PC of the great boats made by all the companies making up the Luhrs Marine Group.      

      

Today, the former site of the Henry Luhrs Sea Skiff Company is occupied by Zuback’s Heavy Metal Marine, Inc.      

Map of Morgan Just North of Cheesequake Creek as of March 1919.

Here again is a great find made possible because of the internet.  Finding this was just as exciting as finding the Historic Aerials web site which was mentioned in the October 16, 2009 posting.      

Between 1867 and 1970, the Sanborn Map Company produced maps of cities all across the country for fire insurance companies to help those companies assess fire related risks for properties.  These standardized maps contain a wealth of information and are now virtual time capsules containing detail hard to find elsewhere – if it is available at all.      

All of the maps are amazing.  You can watch the growth of Sayreville and South Amboy over the years by examining these maps.  There are maps of South Amboy for the years: 1886, 1891, 1896, 1901, 1908, 1919, and 1930.  Sayreville has maps for: 1904, 1908, 1910, 1919, 1920, and 1931.  Though Morgan is a section of Sayreville, the maps of Morgan are contained within the South Amboy map series, specifically the 1919 and 1930 map years.      

Each area mapped, e.g., South Amboy or Sayreville, contains a master index map and additional large-scale maps as necessary.  The master index map contains many features including:      

• Shading showing areas detailed in the corresponding large-scale maps 
• Indication of the total number of maps for this area 
• Population of the area covered 
• Prevailing wind direction 
• Map date 
• Compass Rose (the figure on the map which indicates which direction is North) 
• Standardized key of symbols used 
• Textual information regarding Water Facilities and Fire Departments 
• Street index indicating which map covers the street 
• Location of Fire Departments and concentric circles showing coverage areas distances from each Fire Department 
• Location of fire hydrants and a circle showing  the fire hydrant’s coverage area

Each of the large-scale maps referenced by the master index map were drawn to be 50’ per inch.  These are the maps which contain the detail the insurance companies needed including:      

• Streets, roads, and highways 
• Railroads (e.g., N.Y. & Long Branch RR) 
• Bridges of note 
• Natural features such as bays (e.g., Raritan Bay), rivers/creeks (e.g., Raritan River & Cheesequake Creek), etc. 
• Compass Rose (the figure on the map which indicates which direction is North) 
• Indication of street width 
• Outlines of buildings 
• Building types 
• Materials the buildings are made of 
• Number of stories in the buildings 
• Roofing materials used on the buildings 
• Location of nearby fire companies 
• Location of nearby gas pipes 

In a moment you will be able to click on a link to a map viewer.  We recommend the first thing you do after you click on the map viewer the first time is to click on the “User Guide” box to learn how to navigate within the map viewer.     

Here are some of the highlights (for me) of the Morgan maps (in no particular order) starting with the March 1919 map.  Click here to view the 1919 map:      

• Note that it is 100’ per inch vs. the typical 50’ per inch. 
• It predates Route 35 and shows the road now named Old Spye Road (then called Main Street or Keyport Road) as being the main vehicular thoroughfare to the Jersey Shore from points north. 
• Ye Old Spye Inn is shown at the curve where Main Street turns east to parallel Cheesequake Creek 
• Main Street/Keyport Road has a railroad level grade crossing over the New York and Long Branch Railroad just north of Cheesequake Creek.  This spot was discussed in the September 2, 2009 Morgan-NJ.org posting as being the source of the enormous traffic jams when people were trying to go to the Jersey Shore in the 1920s.  The “Roaring Twenties” was when personal cars became affordable (before the “Great Depression”).  At the same time, railroads were still heavily used.  The high frequency of trains passing through Morgan combined with the grade level crossing caused legendary delays for the cars passing through Morgan since the trains had the right of way. 
• To the west of the railroad tracks, there are a number of buildings and stair cases shown above and below the Main Street/Keyport Road.  None of these remain today.  The only building located in this area today is the office for the Misty Morn fishing boat (see the photo in the September 29, 2009 posting). 
• There is a railroad passenger station shown on the southbound tracks of the NY&LB RR north of Main St/Keyport Rd.  This building was demolished some time in the early 1920’s.  You would never know now that there was ever anything there. 
• To the east of the NY&LB RR on Main St/Keyport Rd is a restaurant and dancing hall.  None of the buildings shown remain today.  The location where the restaurant was later became the Henry Luhrs Sea Skiff Company and is today Zuback’s Heavy Metal Marine, Inc. 
• The area marked “Low Marshy Ground” is where Cheesequake Creek used to flow prior to the 1883 construction of the Cheesequake Jetties and channel into Raritan Bay.  Cheesequake Creek was redirected to eliminate the turn which made sail powered navigation on the creek more difficult. 
• The bridge marked “Iron Draw Bridge” was removed after the current Route 35 four lane drawbridge finished construction in the early 1940’s.  John Luhrs, son of Henry Luhrs, said that the men that dismantled and removed that bridge later worked for Henry Luhrs. 
• The Robert E. Lee Inn had not yet been built by John Cady who originally named it Cady’s.  Wonder why he chose that name? 
• The Jersey Central Traction Company trolley trestle is shown and the area within the Morgan neighborhood the trolley ran is also shown.  This right of way is now the north bound lanes of State Route 35.  You’ll note that the trolley was the beginning of splitting the neighborhood into two pieces, the area to the north of Route 35 and the area south of Route 35.  This physical boundary has subsequently caused a distinct split in the interactions of those living on both sides.  Kids growing up on one side tended to not associate with kids growing up on the other side. 
• The bungalows on Morgan Beach are shown!!!!!  This is very significant for my family as my Grandparents used to own one of them (I believe it is the one marked ‘C’).  Major events in our family occurred because of this bungalow.  The big problem with Morgan Beach was that the people that owned the structures did not own the land.  This became a problem in the late 1950’s and will be covered in another posting. 
• The area on the west side of the map marked “Property of U. S. Government for the Use of War Dept” was part of the land used in the T. A. Gillespie Shell Loading plant (aka Morgan Plant) which blew up the year before this map was completed and just weeks before the end of World War I (then known as the “Great War”).  There will be more information regarding this topic in future postings on the Morgan-NJ.org web site.  BTW, if you have information and especially photos you can send me, that would be most appreciated! 
• Many of the streets have subsequently been renamed!  This was totally surprising:
  • Perrine Ave -> Dodd Place 
  • Grove -> Robinson Pl
  • Northern part of Main St -> Tyler St
  • Main St or Keyport Rd -> Old Spye Road
  • Taft Place -> Feary Place
  • Wampus was eliminated and replaced by what was known as the Morgan Circle until sometime in the 1970/80’s when all the houses were removed.  Today there are some very nice houses in their place.
  • Pine Ave -> Route 35
  • Haussling Place – west part replaced by Rt 35 south 
• The foot bridge over the creek north of Cheesequake Creek is no longer there. 
• Byrom Place next to the foot bridge is no longer there. 
• Portions of many of the streets were removed when both two northbound and two southbound lanes of Route 35 were constructed.  Hausling Place now only exists to the north of Route 35 and it is now a very short street. 
• At the very top left, you can see part of what was the “Chicken Farmer’s” farm. 
• A number of the structures on the north side of the trolley right of way are still there. 
• 1^st Street on the north side of Route 35 is no longer there.  There is a pipeline pumping station located there now which was built some time in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s.  This pipeline was also dredged at the time.  It goes under Raritan Bay and appears to connect to Long Beach on Long Island on the southern part of Hempstead Bay.  Interestingly enough, I don’t know what is pumped through this pipeline. 

Here are some observations of the February 1930 map.  Click here to view the 1930 map:      

• By this time, the Jersey Central Traction Company trolley was out of business and two lane State Route 35 replaced it.  There was one lane in each direction.  Presently these lanes are now the northbound lanes.  The two south bound lanes were added just before World War II. 
• Route 35 eliminated the need for the problematic grade level railroad crossing of Main Street (Keyport Road).  It also eliminated the traffic jams except for when the current draw bridge opens. 
• The railroad passenger station on the southbound side of the NY & Long Branch RR was replaced with the RR Station shelter shown in the inset map.  Note that this shelter can be seen in the photo shown on the October 9, 2009 posting. 
• The Cady’s Seafood Restaurant structure (later renamed the Robert E. Lee Inn) is shown east of State Highway 35 and north of Cheesequake Creek. 
• The bridge marked “Steel Bridge” is the same bridge marked “Iron Draw Bridge” in the 1919 map.  In order to eliminate the grade level crossing with the railroad, the turn onto Main Street (Keyport Road) was eliminated and a land fill incline built to connect the road to the truss bridge built to cross the railroad tracks (again see the October 9, 2009 posting). 
• There were additional bungalows built on Morgan Beach.  My Grandparents bungalow number was #15.
• The Morgan Hose and Chemical Company Fire House is shown at the intersection of Main St (Keyport Rd) and 1^st Street. 
• This map shows the addition of Midland Avenue and Vineyard Ave to the north of Route 35.  Possibly these streets were created between 1919 and 1930. 
• The big building on the south side of Pine Avenue (Route 35) opposite of Vineyard Ave appears to be a hospital which is shown on an Army Corps of Engineers map detailing structures affiliated with the T. A. Gillespie Shell Loading plant.  There are no remains of this hospital today.  In fact, I doubt anyone living in Morgan even knows of its one time existence. 

The maps for New Jersey are contained in the Map Division of Princeton University Library and are available on-line.  Clicking here will bring up a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet containing over 1830 master index maps.  The master index maps are sorted by County, City and year.  Clicking on the year of the city of your choice will bring you to another selection screen where you can then select which sheet (i.e., which large-scale map) you would like to view.      

Here is a list of maps, sorted by date, which were most interesting to me.  In some cases I indicate why:      

• 16541 – Sayreville – Fisher listed – Sheet 1 – Jun 1904 
• 16544 – Sayreville – Sayre & Fisher listed – Sheet 4 – Jun 1904 
• 16545 – Sayreville (Index) – Lower Sayreville – Sheet 1 (of 7) – Mar 1910 
• 16546 – Sayreville Public School No 1 – Sheet 2 – Mar 1910 
• 16552 – Sayreville (Index) – Sheet 1 (of 9) – Oct 1920
• 16553 – Sayreville – Sayre & Fisher – Sheet 2 – Oct 1920
• 16577 – South Amboy (Index) – Sheet 1 (of 6) – April 1886 
• 16582 – South Amboy (Swan Hill Pottery shown) – Sheet 6 – April 1886 
• 16606 – South Amboy (Index) – Sheet 1 (of 12) – July 1908 
• 16614 – South Amboy (Raritan River RR) – Sheet 9 – July 1908 
• 16616 – Sayreville (International Smokeless Powder & Chemical, Co shown) – Sheet 11 – Jul 1908 
• 16618 – South Amboy (Index) – Sheet 1 (of 16) – Mar 1919 
• 16625 – South Amboy (Shows bay side of tracks) – Sheet 8 – Mar 1919 
• 16626 – South Amboy (to Morgan) – Sheet 9 – Mar 1919 
• 16629 – South Amboy and Pennsylvania RR Car Repair Shop – Sheet 12 – Mar 1919 
• 16630 – Morgan & Morgan Beach – Sheet 13 – Mar 1919 [This is one of the two maps discussed above] 
• 16631 – South Amboy Coal Docks – Sheet 14 – Mar 1919 
• 16632 – Du Pont Powder Company –Sheet 15 – Mar 1919 
• 16633 – South Amboy & Du Pont Powder Company – Sheet 16 – Mar 1919 
• 16634 – South Amboy (Index) including Morgan Beach, Melrose, Morgan & Laurence Harbor – Sheet 1 (of 18) – Feb 1930 
• 16635 – South Amboy – Main & Stevens – Sheet 2 – Feb 1930 
• 16636 – South Amboy – N Broadway & Church – Sheet 3 – Feb 1930 
• 16647 – Morgan (Pine Ave, shows Ted’s Bar) – Sheet 14 – Feb 1930 
• 16648 – Morgan – Sheet 15 – Feb 1930 [This is the other map discussed above] 
• 16649 – Morgan Beach, Laurence Harbor – Sheet 16 – Feb 1930 
• 16650 – Laurence Harbor – Sheet 17 – Feb 1930 

Using the Excel spreadsheet to view multiple maps is pretty lengthy so I use the following much faster method:      

1. Identify which map you want to view from the above list of maps. 
2. Note the five digit number to the left of the map of your interest. 
3. Copy the following and paste it into your Internet browser: http://gisserver.princeton.edu:81/navigatorMapViewer.htm?map= 
4. After the equal sign, type in the five digit number corresponding to the map of your choice and hit “Enter”. For example, Sheet 2 for Oct 1920 Sayreville would be: http://gisserver.princeton.edu:81/navigatorMapViewer.htm?map=16553
5. Your desired map should be displayed. 
6. Remember to familiarize yourself on how to navigate the map by pressing the “User Guide” box in the Princeton Library Map Viewer. 

Enjoy and let us know of anything you find interesting!