About seven miles north of Avocado, the Morris family shore
house located in Sea Girt, New Jersey, is the small town of Ocean Grove. Founded in 1869 by a group of devout
Methodists as a permanent camp meeting location, Ocean Grove became a seaside
community devoted to simple living and everyday holiness. It
does not seem as though Marriott C. Morris visited Ocean Grove frequently,
however his photographs of Ocean Pathway leading toward the Auditorium and the
camp meeting tents show evidence of at least one trip to the seaside town. Morris’ photos, along with other items from
the Library Company’s collection, give a picture of late 19th
century life in this unique place on the Jersey shore.
Marriott C. Morris, View of Tents at Ocean Grove from Tabernacle, 1884 |
View of the
tents from Service by the Sea. Ninth
Annual Report of the President of the Ocean Grove Camp-Meeting Association of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1878
|
Morris chose to highlight one of the most distinctive aspects
of Ocean Grove in his photographs; its tents.
The tents originally provided temporary housing for the attendees of the
Methodist revivals but stayed a part of the community even as permanent
structures sprung up in Ocean Grove. In
the late 19th century, tents could be found throughout the town and
about 100 still remain. Tent life was
extremely popular in Ocean Grove, allowing residents easy access to religious services
and the opportunity to live simply. In
the Ninth Annual Report of the President of the Ocean Grove Camp-Meeting
Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church, President E.H. Stokes wrote that
“tent life at this place instead of losing, increases in interest every year.” Each
summer, both when Morris visited and today, tent owners pull sheets of canvas
from the shed at the rear of each tent and stretch it over a wooden platform,
creating their home for the next few months.
View of the
tents from Achievements by the Sea.
Twelfth Annual Report of the President of the Ocean Grove Camp-Meeting
Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1881
|
In addition to the camp meetings, its beautiful shoreline contributed
to Ocean Grove’s popularity as a summer destination. A stereograph by Gustavus Pach from the
Library Company’s collection shows a crowd enjoying Ocean Grove’s beach. Bathing attire in the 19th century
was significantly more modest than today’s, and this was even more important
than usual in a religious town like Ocean Grove where the “improper, immodest
and exposed condition” of bathers was discouraged outside of the bathing
grounds.
Gustavus Pach, Views of Ocean Grove, New Jersey, ca. 1877
|
Not every visitor to Ocean Grove stayed in a tent. Elegant hotels like The Arlington, seen in
this image from the 1878 Annual Report, provided more opulent
accommodation. Another stereograph by
Pach from about 1877 shows an aerial view of The Arlington with tents in the
background. Standing next to the hotel
is W.F. Day & Bros. Ice Cream Garden offering a cool respite from the
summer heat. Undoubtedly, the line
stretched around the block in the 1870s as it still does today at Day’s.
View of the
Arlington from Service by the Sea. Ninth
Annual Report of the President of the Ocean Grove Camp-Meeting Association of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1878
|
Gustavus Pach, Views of Ocean Grove, New Jersey, ca. 1877
|
Morris’ second photograph of Ocean Grove shows Ocean Pathway
leading toward the Auditorium, where the main worship services for the camp
meetings were held. The Auditorium’s
spire is visible beyond the trees, but the building that Morris photographed was
not the first Auditorium in Ocean Grove.
As attendance at the camp meeting grew each year, the need for a larger
building became more apparent. The
annual report from 1878 details renovations made to the existing auditorium,
which included the suggestion of extending the roof to accommodate more
seats. In the Annual Report from 1880,
the need for expansion was even more explicit and a new building was proposed
on the plot of land north of Ocean Pathway.
This is where the Auditorium was located when Morris visited in 1884,
serving as the center of the town, both visually and spiritually.
Marriott C. Morris, Ocean Pathway, Ocean Grove. Looking toward
auditorium, 1884
|
Alison Van
Denend
Assistant
Project Manager
The Marriott C.
Morris Photograph Collection
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