Perth Amboy - An Ideal Place to Live

 

 Old Garden in Perth Amboy

 

 Thanks to Craig Halbert for finding this article!

City Hall Park 

The Waterfront

Rector Street

Perth Amboy Harbor

Article from 

Celebrate Perth Amboy

Bicentennial Souvenir Program 

1976

1930's-50's Linen Postcard

Raritan Yacht Club

Article is from 

"Celebrate Perth Amboy"

Bicentennial Souvenir Program 

1976

Raritan Yacht Club 

Early 1990's

(Click photos and articles to enlarge)

The Waterfront- The Groves

 

“ladies were robed in old calico dresses of many colors, and extraordinary cut”

Part 2

 

About five hundred yards off was another grove,and between the two a salt meadow. Along the entire margin, among the rushes and at the base of the declivities, were people in the hundreds, either going into the water or coming out of it. The water itself was thronged with good folks, who were swimming, splashing, diving, and shouting in the heartiest style. The costumes of the bathers were not exactly en regale, for the ladies were robed in old calico dresses of many colors, and extraordinary cut, and the gentlemen for the most part eschewed everything but old pants.

 

Some more scrupulous, added caps, and one good-looking dame from the bricks-works at Perth Amboy, wore a tall stove-pipe hat, that probably was am heirloom. Among the trees of Florida Grove were stationed the carriages and buggies of the farmers, to number of at least 1,400. These had been converted into dressing-rooms by various contrivances. Curtains had been extemporized from house blankets and old shawls, and occasionally old top coats. Behind these recesses I presume that the fair daughters of the farmers disrobed for the bath, for stifled shrieks and pearls of laughter and exclamations of impatience were very audible. Occasionally an ill-fastened blanket would give way, at which the blushing nymphs would shriek with dismay, and would huddle up in confused heaps of loveliness until damage was repaired. When the difficult operation had been successfully accomplished, the girls would emerge from the sheltering wagon in the dingiest possible dresses, but with their locks flowing in undulating waves to their waists.

Joining hand in hand in groups of three, four and five, they would rush down the hill and plunge into the pleasant water, with peal upon peal  of silver laughter. The young men made their bathing arrangements among the rashes that bordered the water near the Englewood Grove, and then swan like so many Leanders, to join their Heros.  Old and young, male and female, would form rings by clasping hands and circle around in the water, which was only about four feet deep, though the channel is twenty-nine. The fun and the jollity were universal.Stout old farmers, with gnarled and wrinkled faces and brown sinewy hands, went with full heart into the mirth and shouted like boys. In one direction I could see two pretty girls swimming a race to the pier and back, in another a handsome young fellow teaching his lady-love to float. I noticed a gray-beaded Frenchman with his granddaughter in his old arms, showing how the ladies bathed in la belle France by professional bathers. Among the rushes there was a stout farm servant of the fair sex who scorned the concealment of blankets and cloaks, and who made her toilet among the rushes with perfect indifference to appearance. Afterward she emerged boots in hand and squatting down upon the sand put them upon her stout extremities with calmness and deliberation.

 

The above is a partial article written and published in 1871 by the New York Times- There is more to come of the article and photos of the Perth Amboy Waterfront..

The Waterfront–A Place Like No Other

Perth Amboy

Sea Bathing by the Farmers – A Very Rustic Frolic – Singular and Unfashionable Scenes on the Beach

Part 1

Perth Amboy, N.J.,Saturday Aug. 19, 1871 - the inhabitants of the State of New Jersey have given up Long Branch to the grasping New Yorkers for sea bathing and holiday making, but the keep Perth Amboy for themselves. For the past two hundred years, and perhaps as , far back as the warlike Swedes against whom Gov. Stuyvesant made war, it has been the custom to devote the first three Saturdays of the month of August to grand frolics down by the waters of Raritan Bay at Perth Amboy.

This old observance has by no means fallen into desuetude. On the contrary, every year it becomes more and more popular. The farmers, though they never heard of the philosopher’s praise of salt, or of the many virtues which be ascribed to it, are completely of his opinion as to it’s merits, and believe that these three weeks’ bathing will secure them immunity from gout and rheumatism for the rest of the year.

Their daughters like it—not so much for the bathing, though that is considered good fun, as for the dancing and pic-picking. Besides, it is well known that half the marriages in the towns round about the spring form engagements made during the salt-water frolic. And the young men like it because it is a holiday, because it is full of enjoyable diversions, and because the prettiest girls of the State never fail to come.

On arrival at the station of Perth Amboy there were a dozen stages drawn up near the platform, and the drivers were shouting a the top of their voices, “To the grove, to the grove, Eaglewood Grove, Florida Grove.” Their vehicles were quickly filled by eager crowds, though many preferred to walk.

The road wound through the outskirts of the “old town”, and soon emerged from the country streets into the narrow lane that leads to the grove. The stages halted about a hundred yards from the Eaglewood Hotel, and the drivers informed the passengers that they were there. I confess that I looked around with astonishment, for there was nothing to see but a grove of handsome oak-trees, but as every one was rushing down a side path I followed blindly, and on arriving at a turn in the descent of a little hill, was rewarded by a sight of the frolic, already in full blast.

The above is a partial article written and published in 1871 by the New York Times- There is more to come of the article and photos of the Perth Amboy Waterfront..