Belmar Historical Society

09/06/2026

🧳 Don't forget your phonograph.

The Coast Advertiser, Sept. 1919.

09/05/2026

🏃‍♀️🏃🏾 BEST OF LUCK to everyone running in today's 50th Annual Belmar 5 Mile Run, presented by our friends at the Jersey Shore Running Club and celebrating the 125th Anniversary of Belmar's Goodwill Hose Fire Company! 🚒

This 1978 view of the race, featuring two spectators at 2008 Ocean Avenue, was part of a collection donated by April Claudio and the Borough of Belmar earlier this year.

09/02/2026

📸 Have a budding shutterbug in the family? Know a talented high schooler behind a camera? This one's for them!

Attention high school students! County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon invites you to enter our annual Archives & History Day High School Photography Contest for a chance to win prizes and have your photo featured in a photography exhibit at Archives & History Day!

This year’s event celebrates Monmouth County’s creative heritage, so we are challenging students to capture a person, place or event significant to the arts and culture of our County through the lens!

📸Visit tinyurl.com/2026MonmouthPhotoContest for details.

08/31/2026

☝️LOOK UP, Belmar Historical Society’s “Main Street Memories” is back for another season! Hanging on select light posts along Belmar’s Main Street between 7th and 10th Avenues, our photo history banners highlight past downtown businesses in their former locations. This project is similar to our Boardwalk Stroll signs along the beachfront!

There are 9 banners total, and our thanks to Belmar DPW for their work in hanging these up. Take a look the next time you're downtown, and remember to !

08/27/2026

The Belmar Public Library kindly hosts Belmar Historical Society trustees Brian Magovern and Pat Melango for this special library program, Thurs., Sept. 24th, at 5:30 p.m. Come hear tales full of mischief, history, and ancestry from the "grown-up kids" of Belmar!

Limited space available, registration required at https://forms.gle/g2GNJu13aWtFJNraA

You'll laugh at tales from Belmar Historical Society trustees Brian Magovern and Pat Melango as they recall youthful misadventures on Belmar's beaches and even in the original jail cells!

Save the date of Thurs., September 24th at 5:30 p.m. to join us at the Belmar Library, 517 Tenth Avenue, Belmar, to hear tales from lifetime residents of Belmar. Admission is free, and all are welcome to hear true stories of life in Belmar 50 years ago to help you see the town from an entirely different perspective.

🎤 This is US: Belmar Celebrates America 250
📅 Thursday, September 24, 2025
📍 Belmar Public Library
Limited space available, registration required at https://forms.gle/g2GNJu13aWtFJNraA

08/26/2026

🐾 Happy National Dog Day to all of our pals! 🐾

08/21/2026

In 1899, an unknown photographer set up his camera equipment at the edge of the waves (and we wonder if he donned a bathing suit before wading in) to capture a serene view of Ocean Avenue in Belmar. The image, with summer houses lined up between 1st and 2nd Avenue, recorded a scene that has long since vanished. Note the variety of porches on all the houses, beautifully designed to capture every breeze that came their way. We've been adding quite a number of amazing shore photography to our online Library and Archives catalogue - stop by sometime and explore!

08/18/2026

😵‍💫 Your eyes aren't deceiving you, this is one of two Belmar Playland billboards that were installed upside down on local roads back in April 1970!

📷 Full photo caption from this Asbury Park Press clip:

DELIBERATE MISTAKE - It's the billboard, not the picture, that's upside down. Belmar Playland has had two billboards, this one at Route 35 and 18th avenue, in Wall Township, and another at Sylvania avenue and Route 35, in Neptune City, put up this way. The playland’s manager, Julius Schwartz, says the sign company started putting the sign up wrong, but he decided it looked so good the signs would be kept upside down. (Press Photo)

08/11/2026

🚨NEW EXHIBIT ALERT! The Belmar Historical Society (BHS) has created a new mini display in the lobby at the Sixth Avenue entrance to Belmar Borough Hall. The display, called "Gone Fishing," features old photos of fishermen with their bountiful catches. The display comes just in time for the 2026 local fluke tournament.

Visitors to the display might remember some of the fishermen's names; such as Joe Vasallo, Donald Sterner, Edgar Schmidt and Tom Proctor. Mr. Proctor was the Belmar Harbor Master in 1937. The BHS requests your assistance to identify others in the photos. Contact the BHS at [email protected].

07/30/2026

🐟 September 1952 and the fishing was good on the north side of the 18th Ave. jetty! George Guy's Rod & Gun Shop at 705 9th Ave. weighed about 25 of over 100 drum fish caught over the course of a weekend, including the 70 pound whopper landed by Fred Pfaff of 1901 Surf Ave. (center). Looks like his friends did pretty well, too!

📸: This image is one of several donated by Becky Holsonback, along with a George Guy's tide table pamphlet from 1961. We'll also note that Fred was an accomplished tuba player and member of the South End Civic Association of Belmar. Drop a comment if you recognize the other two gentlemen!