ATLANTIC CITY’S LONG AND INTERESTING HISTORY DATES BACK TO THE 1670’S.
Atlantic City was incorporated in May of 1854 and has an enormous amount of interesting history dating back over 200 years before casino gambling arrived. There was a time when Atlantic City and its boardwalk were the place to be seen.
AMAZON HAS SOME GREAT BOOKS DETAILING THE HISTORY OF ATLANTIC CITY. Check out “Boardwalk Playground: The Making, Unmaking & Remaking of Atlantic City”, which details how the people of a New Jersey resort built a seaside paradise, lost it, rebuilt a casino town, mostly lost it, and kept on dreaming! You can also find Amazon’s “Deals of the Day” here!
Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island and was originally inhabited by the Lenape Indians. This tribe made the 5-mile trip to the ocean in the summer and spent time enjoying the flora and fauna as well as the food they could gather and preserve from the local waters.
In the late 1670s, Englishman Thomas Budd arrived in the area and established himself as the first owner of Absecon Island when he settled a claim against those who held a royal grant against him. He owned 40 acres of mainland property which was worth nothing but the Absecon Island property was worth 4 cents an acre. This same property would be valued at many millions today.
For more about Atlantic City’s interesting history, check out this paperback “Atlantic City: Its Early and Modern History“.
The Next Century
Hunters and early mainland settlers were among the brave who visited the island over the next century and shared the land with the Indians. One of those settlers was a man named Jeremiah Leeds. Leeds was born in the area in 1754. History shows that in 1785 he built a log cabin out of cedar on what is now Baltic Avenue. He was the first white man to reside on Absecon Island and he and his family became the first official residents.
They built a farm and named it Leeds Plantation where they raised cattle and grew rye and corn. Jeremiah died in 1838 but his family had grown by then and had become involved in development and politics. Aunt Millie’s Boarding House was opened by Jeremiah’s second wife Millicent after his death. His son Chalkey Leeds became the first mayor.
Resort Idea Blooms
Descendants of Jeremiah Leeds owned all of the seven dwellings on the island by the year 1850. As population grew in the area both on the island and the mainland, a physician named Jonathan Pitney saw an opportunity to turn the city into a resort, but he had to figure out how to make the island more accessible to the public.
His thought was to bring a railroad to town. He convinced Richard Osborn, a Philadelphia engineer to work with him and soon began to build the Camden-Atlantic City Railroad. The first train arrived to Absecon Island on July 5th, 1854 from Camden, New Jersey along with a large, eager group of tourists. The trip from Camden at that time was 2.5 hours.
Monopoly
Richard Osborn had the distinct honor of naming Atlantic City, but it was Dr. Pitney who named and decided the grid of the streets. He decided to name the streets that ran north to south along the shore after the world’s oceans and seas (Artic, Adriatic, Baltic, Mediterranean, Pacific and Atlantic), while the east/west streets running down to the ocean named for the American States. These street names are now famous as a result of the Monopoly real estate board game where players move around the board and purchase properties named after the streets in Atlantic City.
The Surge Begins
Visitors were now arriving in Atlantic City in droves, not only by train but by boat. The city was becoming a busy seaport. The greater number of boat arrivals brought with it substantially more shipwrecks. One to be remembered was the Powhattan which sank on April 16, 1854 with 311 immigrants from Germany on board. Bodies that could not be identified washed up for days and had to be buried.
The Smithville Methodist Church was the site of one mass grave which became the final resting place for 54 of the bodies. Another 45 were buried in a mass grave in Absecon. To avoid future tragedies of this nature, Dr. Pitney initiated the construction of a lighthouse. The Absecon Lighthouse still stands today, however due to shifting oceanfront, it stands a half mile offshore. Its original location was just off the ocean.
Accessibility to the Island
The first road to the island from the mainland was opened in 1870. The toll was 30 cents.
The single railroad from Philadelphia to the shore had become insufficient to carry the number of travelers so in 1878 the Narrow Gauge Line was built and began operations. Hotels and rooming houses were springing up throughout the city as the need for accommodations grew. In 1853 the Bellow House was built and was the first public hotel. This was followed by the United States Hotel which filled an entire city block. These hotels were very impressive and luxurious for their time.
The Boardwalk
At this point all the beautiful hotels, restaurants and transportation had so much foot traffic that sand had become a big problem for these businesses. Sand was carried in shoes and clothing and dropped everywhere. Hotel lobbies, guest rooms, and even the trains, which brought a substantial amount of sand back to Camden and Philadelphia with them!
Alex Boardman, a worker on the Atlantic City-Camden Railroad was tasked in 1870 with devising a cure for this problem. He and a hotel worker by the name of Jacob Keim, came up with a plan to construct a 8′ wide wooden walkway to the town along the beach. Their idea was accepted and the walkway was built and the problem solved. The boardwalk was replaced 10 years later by a larger one which was destroyed by a hurricane in September of 1889 but rebuilt again. Today’s boardwalk is 6 miles long, 60 feet wide, and built on top of concrete for sturdiness.
It’s Official!
Atlantic City was officially opened on the 16th of June in 1880, and with much fanfare a resort town was born. At this point 27,000 residents filled the city.
Incredible Growth
In the next couple decades, the city grew in leaps and bounds. In 1881 the first bank was opened, and the first beach patrol dutifully guarded the beachgoers with strict 9am-5pm bathing hours. By 1882 the streetlights were glowing. Then in 1893 trollies were up and running and ran until 1955. In 1898 the first hospital was available to the public and in 1900 a public library. Jitney service began in 1915 and still operates today.
Check out these vintage Atlantic City postcard composition notebooks. A great gift for any Atlantic City history buff!
In 1899 nearly two thirds of the housing in the city were cottages, but not as we know cottages today. They were multi-story private homes built by influential Philadelphia businessmen and doctors. The houses were beautifully decorated, lawns were cut and yards well kept. Interiors were showpieces for the wealthy owners.
Organized Crime / The 1920’s
The 1920’s was when prohibition began and outlaws reigned in Atlantic City. It was the time of organized crime in the city and was the basis for the HBO series, Boardwalk Empire. The series was inspired by a 2002 non-fiction book written by Nelson Johnson called Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City that chronicled the life of mob and political kingpin Enoch “Nucky” Johnson.
Here’s Nelson Johnson’s Boardwalk Empire audio book, available as an audio book through Audible or in paperback. It makes for riveting reading!
Miss America
In 1921 the first Miss America came in the form of a 16-year-old young lady from Washington. This pageant brought even more recognition to Atlantic City. Convention Hall became the home of the Miss American Pageant in 1940.
Entertainment
The boardwalk began to see amusement piers. Million Dollar Pier, Steel Pier, Iron Pier. This entertainment brought more and more people and families to the Shore. There were oddities such as the famous Diving Horse and Dr. Couney’s Premature Infant Exhibit. There were side show acts and dance contests.
The stages on the multiple piers as well as the glam hotels such as The Traymore and Haddon Hall became “THE PLACE” to go and be seen and brought a steady evolving stream of top Vaudeville and Hollywood entertainers. Travelers were now arriving from countries around the globe to stay at the new plush and extravagant hotels and enjoy the entertainment.
The Fall
But then WWII happened and brought an abrupt halt to Atlantic City’s rise. Maybe people were not as economically able or willing to vacation when their family members were off fighting a war, or possibly because air travel access was more limited and people seemed to be migrating westward, but the city lost a lot of its glory, and with it the tourists. The city began to fall into disrepair and remained in that state until the gambling referendum passed in 1976. Since then Atlantic City has fought to come back and has made great strides.
This Writer
A lifelong resident of Atlantic County, New Jersey, Atlantic City’s long history is fascinating to this writer. I remember going to the beach as a child, walking the boardwalk, riding the amusement rides on the piers and watching the diving horse incredibly dive from 40 feet into a pool of water below with a young woman on its back.
If you’re up for a short road trip, you may want to visit Galloway Township, just offshore from Atlantic City where you’ll find the Smithville United Methodist Church and the graves of Jeremiah Leeds descendants and other prominent early Atlantic City families.
Credit:
https://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/atlantic-city-us-nj-ac.htm
If you’re interested in the history of Atlantic City you might be interested in what Neighborhoods have sprung up over the years and what they hold today.
Are you looking for ideas for other things to do while you’re in town? There’s no shortage of FUN to be had, I assure you. Do you enjoy the arts? You can find a list of museums here.
