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    Birmingham in Vintage Postcards
    Birmingham in Vintage Postcards
    Birmingham in Vintage Postcards
    Ebook172 pages35 minutes

    Birmingham in Vintage Postcards

    By J. D. Weeks

    ()

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    About this ebook

    At the start of the 20th century, Birmingham was one of the fastest growing cities in the South, sometimes referred to as the "Magic City." It began as a town located at the intersection of two railroads and then quickly expanded and took in neighboring communities. Around this time, photographers traveled around the United States taking photographs of towns and cities and turning the photographs into postcards. The postcards collected here show historic Birmingham's downtown, hospitals, parks, communities, schools, hotels, and industries. These images serve as a record of everyday life in this bustling Southern city.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateDec 1, 1999
    ISBN9781439610411
    Birmingham in Vintage Postcards
    Author

    J. D. Weeks

    An avid collector of antique postcards, author J. D. Weeks is a retired public health administrator who began visiting Panama City with his parents in the 1940s and developed an interest in local history at an early age. Since then, his three children and nine grandchildren all have enjoyed similar experiences here. Weeks�s book Birmingham in Vintage Postcards was published by Arcadia in 1999.

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      Book preview

      Birmingham in Vintage Postcards - J. D. Weeks

      Watkins.

      INTRODUCTION

      In 1850, when the New Jersey Legislature created Ocean County from parts of Monmouth and Burlington Counties, they also created Brick Township. The new Township was named after its most prominent citizen, Joseph W. Brick, the industrious and successful owner of Bergen Iron Works.

      At that time, Brick Township included all the land from the eastern boundary of Jackson Township to the Atlantic Ocean. The area included the villages of Adamston, Bricksburg (Lakewood), Bay Head, Burrsville (Laurelton), Cedarbridge, Herbertsville, Osbornville, Point Pleasant, West Point Pleasant, Mantoloking, and a portion of Normandy Beach.

      By 1920, six of the villages had declared their independence. The beach area, once known as Squan Beach, developed into farms and fishing and resort areas. Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head were the first to break away in 1886 and were followed by Mantoloking in 1911. Lakewood, which had been the center of population developed by the Bricksburg Land and Improvement Company, broke away in 1892. The village of West Point Pleasant became Point Pleasant Borough in 1920.

      Though these villages became independent they did play a role in Brick’s history. They had centers where Bricktonians could shop and where they could sell the products from their farms and industries. The railroads came to these villages and carried products to distant markets. The railroads also brought visitors and potential buyers to the resort communities that were developing in Brick in the 1920s and 1930s.

      The early settlers to this area were involved in a variety of industries, including iron, charcoal, turpentine, and fishing. Most of the people were farmers who grew corn potatoes, tomatoes, and other vegetables for their own use and, then, as cash crops. They all had barnyard animals; everyone had a cow for milk, a pig, and chickens. Most inhabitants had a second occupation; some built houses, others built boats, some were fishermen, some were merchants, others operated taverns and inns in their homes, and just about everyone hunted.

      The area, with its well-drained sandy soil, was a natural for raising poultry. Poultry as an industry began when the Park and Tilford Company, a major producer of poultry and eggs, opened Laurelton Farms on the Road to Lakewood (Route 88 West). Jewish immigrants arriving in the 1930s continued the industry into the 1950s.

      The Atlantic Ocean, Barnegat Bay, the Metedeconk and Manasquan Rivers, and their tributaries have played a major role in the Township’s development. The Lenape, the first people to live here, settled along the rivers where there was an abundant food supply. With the arrival of the first white man, came the lumber, pinewood, and iron industries that used the rivers and bay to transport their goods to city markets. Farmers would graze their cows in the meadows along the bay and rivers. In addition, the waterways were used for fishing and boating. The cranberry industry thrived in the watery bottom lands. In the early 1900s, summer camps were popular along the waterways, and they were followed by the construction of resort developments. Brick Township continued to be a quiet, rural, resort area into the 1950s when the Garden State Parkway opened. Residential and commercial development then began to dominate the scene, creating a dramatic growth in year-round population.

      As is true about any community, Brick Township is people. From the Lenape to the present inhabitants, each has built upon what the previous generation had accomplished. They have developed a community from the virgin woodlands, to a rural resort, to a thriving suburban community.

      One

      PEOPLE

      As new people arrived in the Brick area they brought their customs and religion with them. Following the Lenape, who had been longtime inhabitants, the first white settlers were Quakers, Baptist, and Methodists. They built their churches, which became the center for village activities. Parents wanted their children educated, so schoolhouses were built. Each village had a school, usually a one-room, ungraded school, which later housed grades one through eight. Through religion and education, standards were

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