Beacon July 2010

Volume 10, Issue 3 July 2010 The Beac0n A Collaboration Between The Margate City Historical Society and The Margate Public Library How the Railroads came to Margate The Railroad Years The Railroads Shape the Development of Absecon Island 1854 July 4. Cam‐ Railroad companies en‐ gineered the blossoming of Ab‐ den & Atlantic RR opened public service secon Island. Before the railroad from Camden to At‐ only a few settlers eked out a lantic City. living from the sandy soil, and then with the advent of rail‐ 1876 Philadelphia & roads, everything changed. Cars Atlantic City RR opens were not mass produced in service from Camden America until around 1900; Pennsylvania Railroad’s steam engine model HC1 to Atlantic City. traveled from Philadelphia to Atlantic City. This trains arrived on Absecon Island photo dated June 22, 1919. Photo: Pennsylvania RR 1879 West Jersey & in 1854, offering a dependable, Technical and Historical Society. Atlantic RR (organized economical modality for land develop the Island, and the advertising to by the PA RR built a travel that put the New Jersey popularize it as a destination. For a hundred line off of the Cape shore within reach of what is now years, railroads dominated Absecon Island, May line). considered nearby Philadelphia. and they made it what it is today. 1881 South Atlantic The railroad companies were the Dr. Jonathan Pitney, who first recommended City Branch of the first developers of the island. Be‐ Absecon Island as a health resort, was so sure Camden & Atlantic RR yond laying the track and build‐ of himself that he took it upon himself to estab‐ Built to modern‐day ing the engines, the Camden & lish The Camden and Atlantic Railroad Com‐ Margate. Atlantic Railroad provided the pany on June 4, 1852. The Camden & Atlantic vast capital that was needed to 1884 Track ex‐ (Continued on page 6) tended to Longport. Trolley Tracks in Margate 1888 Rapid Transit The same railroad companies the city that would become Margate. Frank “steam motors” replace that defined and developed Atlan‐ Tiemann writes that “The Camden and At‐ tic City were also foundational to RR mules in AC. lantic Land Company bought [what is now] Ventnor and the upper half of Margate from 1889 Electric Street Mark Reed for the sum of $1,680.00 in cars to Atlantic Ave in 1853.” (Frank Tiemann) In 1861, the Railroad was “authorized to build to the lower end of AC. the Absecon Island. [modern Mar‐ gate]” (Hamilton & Francis, 1951, pg. 4) (Continued on page 2) Page 2 The Beac0n A map of the Shore Fast Line as it Ran at the peak of service during the 1920s and 1930s. Trolley Tracks in Margate (Continued from page 1) and Atlantic Railroad to This persisted until May 1926 Boardwalk & Vir‐ extend tracks to (now 10, 1889.) (Hamilton & ginia Avenue to Margate However, Camden and Margate) later in 1881. Francis, 1951, pg. 5) service ended. Atlantic did not take imme‐ (Frank Tiemann) The The iconic cars of diate advantage of this au‐ Camden & Atlantic Rail‐ the Margate rails were 1933 South Jersey & AC thorization. At the time, road came under the con‐ undoubtedly the “Open RR (owned by Reading RR) there were few residents on trol of the Pennsylvania Cars” that debuted in and West Jersey Seashore the southern end of the Is‐ Railroad in 1883. They 1890. In 1893, the South RR (PRR owned) consolidi‐ land, and hence, little rea‐ built farther, to Longport Atlantic City branch was ated into PRR Seashore son to extend rail service in 1884. South Atlantic converted from steam to Lines. beyond Atlantic City. City and Longport were electric service. (Hamilton Perhaps the most first served weekly on & Francis, 1951, pg. 5) 1936 Last summer of important early resident of Sundays by full‐sized The year 1896 saw the be‐ daily service of the open car Margate was Lucy the Ele‐ steam engines. So‐called ginning of corporate con‐ on Atlantic Ave in Margate phant. Lucy the Elephant, “rapid transit” followed in solidations on the South and Longport. as a good Margate history 1888. (Hamilton & Fran‐ Jersey rail infrastructure. 1944 Great Atlantic Hur‐ buff will know, was the cis, 1951, pg. 4‐5) These The Camden & Atlantic, brainchild of a Philadelphia Baldwin locomotives were The West Jersey Railroad, ricane Disrupts services on developer named James V. also steam engines which and The West Jersey & rail lines. Lafferty. Lafferty con‐ operated from Tennessee Atlantic came together to 1945 Atlantic City Trans‐ structed the “Elephant Ho‐ Avenue in Atlantic City to form the West Jersey and portation Company takes tel,” as it was then known, Longport. They stopped Seashore lines. In 1907 in 1881 in an attempt to only at specified stations. service from Atlantic City over trolleys. increase the desirability (In Atlantic City, local tran was extended across the 1955 End of Trolley Ser‐ and property values south ‐sit was still accomplished Meadows, via Somer’s of Atlantic City. His suc‐ by street cars on tracks Point and across great Egg vice in Margate. cess prompted The Camden pulled by mules or horses! (Continued on page 5) Volume 10, Issue 3 Page 3 Walt Whitman Rides the Rails to the Sea Facts are the backbone of our historical record, but the flesh of history is in primary sources. Writings from the past (rather than about the past) enrich our human connection to our predecessors. The great American writer and humanist Walt Whit‐ man made his home in South Jersey. He wrote a lyrical first‐hand account of his experience riding the new rails from his home in Camden to Absecon Island in 1879. The entire piece can be found on pages 145‐151 in the excellent collection Shore Chronicles: diaries and traveler’s tales from the Jersey Shore 1764‐1955, edited by Margaret Thomas Buchholz, avail‐ able at the Margate Public Library. Below is an excerpted portion. Whitman had suffered a stroke at the time of his trip. Right: Portrait of the poet Walt Whit‐ Walking slowing, or rather hob‐ man by the painter Thomas Eakins bling (my paralysis, though partial from 1887, after the stroke that left seems permanent), the hundred Whitman partially paralyzed. Whit‐ rods to the little platform and man is said to have approved of the portrait, thinking it quite realistic. shanty bearing the big name of “Pennsylvania Junction,” were not point, being one hundred and without enjoyment to me, in this eighty feet above the sea. Here is pleasant mixture of cold and sun‐ what is called by the engineer, “the beams… divide,” the water on the west flow‐ From the car‐windows a view of ing to the Delaware, and on the East the country, in its winter garb. to the Ocean. These farms are mostly devoted to The soil has now become sandy and market truck, and are generally well thin, and continues so for the ensu‐ cultivated. Passing the little station in the distances, and a little branch ing forty miles; flat, thin, bare gray‐ of Glenwood and Collingswood— railroad to May’s Landing; then white, yet not without agreeable then stopping at old, beautiful, rich Pomona, and then another lively features—pines, cedars, scrub oaks and quite populous Haddonfield, town, Absecon, and old and quite plenty—patches of clear fields, but with its fine tree‐lined main street good‐sized settlement, 52 miles from much larger patches of pines and (Revolutionary, military reminis‐ Philadelphia… sand… cences too—a tradition that the Passing right through five or six …The whole route (at any rate from Continental Congress itself held a miles (I could have journeyed with Haddonfield to the Seashore) has session here)... delight for a hundred of these ordor‐ been literally made and opened up Five miles from Kirkwood we strike ous sea prairies we come to the to growth by the Camden and At‐ the thrifty town of Berlin (old name end—the Camden and Atlantic de‐ lantic Railroad. That has furnished Long‐a‐Coming, which they had pot, within good gun‐shot of the spine to a section previously with‐ much better kept). We reach Atco, beach. I no sooner land from the out any… three miles further on—quite a cars than I meet impromptu with We come to Egg Harbor City, set‐ brisk settlement in the brush, with a young Mr. English (of the just men‐ tled about twenty five years ago by newspaper, some stores, and a little tioned Review newspaper), who the Germans, and now with quite a branch railroad to Williamstown. treats me with all brotherly and gen‐ reputation for grape culture and At the eighteen mile post the grade (Continued on page 4) wine‐making—scattered houses off of the railroad reaches its highest Volume 10, Issue 3 July 2010 (Continued from page 3) and through the city itself—capital ward bound steamer. More plainly, good roads everywhere, hard, ship, brigs, schooners, in sign in the tlemanly kindness, posts me up about smooth, well‐kept, a pleasure to drive distance. How silently, spiritually things, puts me on the best roads, and on them. Atlantic avenue, the princi‐ like phantoms (even in the midst of starts me right. A flat, still sandy, still pal street; Pacific Avenue, with its the bright sunshine and the objective meadow region (some old hummocks rows of choice private cottages, and world around me), they glide away with their hard sedge, in tufts, still many, many others. (I had the good off there—most of them with every remaining) an island, but good hard fortune to be driven around by Wil‐ sail set to the firm and steady wind.

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