A Walking Tour of Belmar, NJ

Merry Brennan

Welcome to the Belmar Treasure Trail – a self-guided tour that features some of the environmental, art and historical gems that make our beautiful shore town such a special place to live and visit. We hope you enjoy the Belmar Treasure Trail narrated by Dave Taylor, Mark Walsifer, Sarah Wilton, Spenser Heulitt, Andrew Huisman, Harry Harsin, Ed Lippincott, Tom Brennan and Merry Brennan. Also available at the iTunes Store.

  1. First Presbyterian Church of Belmar

    03/05/2022

    First Presbyterian Church of Belmar

    This is the First Presbyterian Church of Belmar, stop #4 on the Belmar Treasure Trail. The congregation was founded on March 20, 1877. It’s interesting that before construction of Belmar’s diverse churches, many people in the community worshipped in the same place – and that was a former pavilion from the Centennial Expo in Philadelphia, more commonly known as the World’s Fair. In the summer of 1880, when Belmar was known as Ocean Beach, the pavilion was brought from Philly to Belmar. As a side note, several of our beautiful homes throughout town were originally structures from that same 1876 World’s Fair. These huge buildings were transferred by waterway to Belmar, where they were then “rolled” on giant telephone-pole-like logs to their destinations. Anyway, the pavilion relevant to the churches was set up at the corner of 7th Avenue and A Street and called an Undenominational Summer Tabernacle. Later that summer, the First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Beach was incorporated and the small congregation started to plan for a church of their own. The Ocean Beach Association donated two lots at the current location of 9th Avenue and E Street. The current church building was built and dedicated in 1959. Prior to the construction of an Office Wing addition on the E Street side of the building in the early 1980's, there was a multi-purpose meeting space and gymnasium facility. During the summer in the early 1960's a young High School aged talent, Bruce Springsteen, and his band practiced in that church space. The congregation has an appreciation for music! On March 20, 2022, the congregation celebrated its 145th Anniversary.

    2 min
  2. Breslin Monument

    03/05/2022

    Breslin Monument

    You are at the 9th Avenue pier, stop #9 on the Belmar Treasure Trail. At the front end of the pier, you’ll see the Breslin Monument, which we are extremely proud to have in a permanent place of honor in Belmar after a 50-year absence. The Breslin memorial has a storied place in Belmar history. Pat and Sandy Breslin were the unassuming proprietors of a small luncheonette and boat rental concession at the Belmar Marina. On December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor, Pat and Sandy immediately wrote a letter to Congress offering their boating and fishing pier in the Belmar marina at no cost to soldiers, sailors and marines. Not only through the war years, but for another dozen years after the war ended, Pat and Sandy fed countless servicemen and women and lent them fishing tackle and rowboats. They would even insist the servicemen use their telephone to call home and talk to their loved ones. Over the years they received thousands of letters from servicemen and their families all over the world, and even from complete strangers thanking them for what they were doing. But they also heard about servicemen who shared their hospitality but hadn’t made it back from the war. So, during the summer of 1949, the Breslins dedicated a granite monument outside their luncheonette to express their gratitude to all who served, especially those who gave their lives. Their countless quiet acts of kindness led all the way to the White House, when, in 1953, they were honored in the nation’s capital by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. However, four years later, their concession license wasn’t renewed due to a planned marina renovation. The Breslin monument was put in storage until 1960, when the Breslins wrote to President Eisenhower to request his help in finding a permanent location for the memorial. The next year, it was placed at Fort Monmouth, where it remained until Belmar petitioned for its return after the closing of Fort Monmouth was announced. In 2010, it was officially dedicated in its new permanent home, here on the renovated 9th Avenue pier. If you walk to the end of the pier, you’ll get a panoramic view of the 800-acre Shark River Basin and our Belmar Marina, one of the major marinas along the Atlantic Ocean.

    2 min

About

Welcome to the Belmar Treasure Trail – a self-guided tour that features some of the environmental, art and historical gems that make our beautiful shore town such a special place to live and visit. We hope you enjoy the Belmar Treasure Trail narrated by Dave Taylor, Mark Walsifer, Sarah Wilton, Spenser Heulitt, Andrew Huisman, Harry Harsin, Ed Lippincott, Tom Brennan and Merry Brennan. Also available at the iTunes Store.