Welcome to Long Branch FMBA Local 68

To proudly serve the public with integrity, protecting life, property and the environment through prevention, education and response, with a professional and dedicated workforce.

Published in the Asbury Park Press 5/18/00

Once a famed seaside resort, Long Branch derives its name from the "long branch" of the Shrewsbury River, which flows in a northerly course. The city's name has been in use for more than a century.

Long Branch fire history is in red

1684: The Wardell Homestead is built by a Quaker, Eliakum Wardell, who was driven out of New England because of his religious views.

1788: Development of the Jersey Shore as a summer resort starts in what is now Long Branch.

1852: The first Roman Catholic church in Long Branch is erected at Chelsea and Second avenues. It is called "The Church of Our Lady Star of The Sea"1864: The Long Branch post office is established with Charles Sprague as postmaster.

Nov. 1, 1866: "The Long Branch News," the pioneer newspaper of Long Branch, is first published by Maj. James S. Yard.

1867: The Long Branch Police, Sanitary and Improvement Commission is incorporated with the power to purchase fire apparatus.

1868: As the gaming capital of America for the rich, Long Branch's plush gambling houses attract such prominent figures as Oliver Byron, Jim Fisk and Diamond Jim Brady.

1869: President Ulysses S. Grant arrives to accept a summer home donated by admirers. The home was razed in 1963.

1871: Oceanic Engine Co. No. 1 is organized with 23 members.

Nov. 2, 1878: The Long Branch Fire Department is organized. Six fire districts are created.

1881: A special track is lain from the Elberon train station to the oceanfront to gently transport President James A. Garfield, wounded by an assassin's bullet on July 2 in Washington, to his summer home in Elberon, where he dies on Sept. 19.

1882: The Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church is organized under Rev. Alfred Garrison. A church is built on Liberty Street and dedicated on Aug. 28.

1887-90: An epidemic strikes underprivileged people in Long Branch. Local businessmen rent four rooms over Arnold's Delicatessen on Broadway to take care of the sick. In less than a year, the fledgling hospital moves to a house on Central Avenue with room for six beds. In 1889, the facility is named the Long Branch Hospital; later that year, its name is changed to Monmouth Memorial Hospital. In 1890, hospital officials purchase the Central Hotel from Percy Dobbins for $25,000 to house patients.

1889: Memorable shooting match in front of the Florence Hotel between Annie Oakley and Phil Daly Jr., who was reputed to be one of the best marksmen in the country. Annie won hands down.

1891: Long Branch Municipal Hall, on Broadway, is built.

1893: Long Branch train station, on Third Avenue, is built.

1896: The Hospital Training School for Nurses opens.

Early 1900s: The Reservation, six Victorian cottages along the ocean in North Long Branch, is built by Buffalo Bill and Col. William Cody to house their Wild West Show. Annie Oakley spent summers at the Florence Hotel, North Broadway and Ocean Avenue, which was razed in the early 1930s.

1920: The Long Branch library is built with a grant from the Carnegie Foundation.

Oct. 19, 1927: Long Branch High School is dedicated.

January 1929: The Long Branch First Aid Squad begins operations.

December 1, 1930: Local career men organized themselves at City Firefighters Union No. 309 of International Association of Firefighters with 9 members.

April 3, 1934: Old Slocum Winery plant at Bath and Norwood avenues resumes business. This was Monmouth County's only winery and the only one in New Jersey that made champagne.

1940: The Mary Owen Borden Pavilion of Monmouth Memorial Hospital is dedicated. That same year, the hospital gains international renown for a polio treatment.

1942: Hospital officials acquire the Park M. Woolley Mansion on Bath Avenue and named it Auxiliary Hall.

April 1943: World War II housing for the area is temporarily headquartered in Long Branch.

1950: The Community wing of Monmouth Memorial Hospital opens.

1955: A new train station and an adjoining shopping center are built at the location of the old station.

Sept. 11, 1955: The Church of Seven Presidents is rededicated as the Long Branch HistoricalMuseum.

1958: Monmouth Memorial Hospital changes its name to Monmouth Medical Center in recognition of its rapid advances in patient care, education and research. Also, the first portion of the apartment complex for graduate and student nurses and other hospital personnel is dedicated.

Oct. 12, 1958: Columbus Day parade and celebration starts in Long Branch.

1959: The hospital's Betty Block Roberts Pavilion is dedicated.

Sept. 12, 1959: The Long Branch Armory, at Ocean and Cooper avenues, is dedicated. It was sold in 1988.

1960: The Sand & Surf Hotel is purchased at a bankruptcy sale and renamed the Harbor Island Spa. The spa was demolished in 1997 to make way for town houses.

1961: The 41-year-old Long Branch library receives a $45,000 grant to build the first addition to the building.

Oct. 12, 1961: A marble statue of Christopher Columbus is unveiled at Slocum Park at Broadway and Slocum Place.

August 1963: Annual Art Festival is started on the grounds of the Long Branch HistoricalMuseum in Elberon.

1965: Ground is broken for the Winone J. Eisner Pavilion for Therapeutic Radiology at Monmouth Medical Center.

April 9, 1965: The Monmouth Park Jockey Club buys the Long Branch Incinerator, which had been inoperative since December 1962, to prevent its future use. On the same date, the Church of Seven Presidents is officially designated a historic site.

October 1965: The Inkwell, a coffeehouse at Brighton and Second avenues, opens for business. It moves to a nearby Second Avenue location about a decade later, but remains popular to this day.

October 1967: The 25th annual Mardi Gras celebration -- actually a Halloween parade -- takes place. Thousands line Broadway as a colorful spectacle of floats, bands, marching groups and youngsters in costumes takes part in the parade.

1968: Monmouth Medical Center's Alexander Pavilion becomes the Regional Newborn Center, the first infant intensive-care unit in New Jersey.

Aug. 31, 1969: An underground newspaper -- The Atlantic Weekly -- starts publishing; inlater years it changes its name to The Atlanticville. A hippie shop and hangout on Atlantic Avenue called the Cornucopia serves as the headquarters. The printing is done in NorthJersey.

Feb. 4, 1973: The Long Branch Inn, a century-old landmark at Third and Morris avenues once described as "The Home of Home Cooking," reopens under new owners and a new name -- Casey Jones.

April 2, 1973: The former Citizens National Bank is proposed to be the new site for a finearts center that would house the Metro Lyric Opera Company.

Sept. 2, 1975: Six Monmouth County teen-agers break the world record by ridingthe Ferris wheel on the Long Branch boardwalk for 29 days. Their feat raises money for the March of Dimes.

1976: The old City Hall is town down in June; the new building, also on Broadway, is dedicated on July 3.

June 1977: Long Branch is chosen as the terminus for electrified rail lines of the New York-Long Branch Railroad.

Feb. 8, 1978: Vogel's Department Store is destroyed by fire.

May 6, 1978: North End Beach Club is destroyed by fire.

Nov. 22, 1978: Louis & John Insulation Co. is destroyed by fire.

Oct. 15, 1981: The controversial Granny Grunt's Grub and Grog tavern on WestwoodAvenue is gutted by a fire ruled as arson.

March 15, 1982: The Surf Lounge, Ocean Boulevard and Matilda Terrace, once regarded by police as a meeting place for underworld crime figures, is destroyed by fire.

Jan. 15, 1983: The historic Hoey Lodge on Cedar Avenue, a favorite stopover for presidents, politicians, Civil War generals and other famous visitors, is damaged by fire.

May 1984: Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park is dedicated. Formerly the Joline Avenue and North End beaches, the park was bought by the city in 1973.

Dec. 17, 1984: Max's Restaurant reopens in its new location on Ocean Boulevard. The famous hot dog eatery was located on the boardwalk for many years before it was destroyed by fire in March 1982.

June 8, 1987: The Long Branch Amusement Pier and Kid's World amusement park are destroyedby fire.

July 9, 1990: The Ocean Place Hilton Resort and Spa opens. The hotel, which its developers call the single-largest project in the city's history, houses a 10,000-square-foot exhibition hall and matching grand ballroom that can seat up to 1,000.

Sept. 11, 1991: Fire destroys most of the former Chandler & Maps lumberyard, gutting the 117-year-old landmark that closed in January because of a poor economy and a severe construction slump.

June 1996: The Elberon train station is dedicated. The original station, built in 1876, was destroyed in an intense fire in May 1988.

July 1999: The July 4 Oceanfest celebration is expanded to a full weekend, drawing record crowds of 50,000 people to the 9-year-old event on the beachfront promenade.

from the Asbury Park Press
Published: May 18, 2000