Some Lavallette odds and Ends
There is no doubt that the Jersey shore has changed a lot in the last 100 years. If you go and visit Island Beach State Park you can see what places like Lavallette, Ortley Beach, and Seaside Heights were like before they become developed. In Island Beach you walk across the island and see a number of distinctive habitats. There is an Atlantic Ocean facing beach, a series of dunes that contain varying amounts of vegetation, maritime forest and small fresh water ponds, salt marsh, and finally Barnegat Bay. Even if you do get to see this beautiful example of preserved barrier island habitats though, it is interesting to be able to actually see what things were like way back when. Lets start thought by looking at what we can find in Lavallette today. Here is a google map satellite view of Bay Avenue and a bit of West Point Island.
The landmarks are obvious to anyone familiar with Lavallette. West Point Island is the most obvious and readily discernable landform. From that perspective we can see that the southern extent of the map extends into Ortley Beach. Now we can look at a similar view of the same area taken in 1920.
How remarkable is that? As far as I know the two north-south roads you see are what we know as Route 35. One difference in 1920 is the road to the west is, I believe, a railroad track.
It seems so strange to see hardly any houses at all. If you wanted to get to West Point Island you had to wade through a small stretch of the bay to get there.
We can focus a bit on the few houses near the Lavallette / Ortley Beach border. It seems these were some pretty nice houses although it is a bit hard to tell. The northernmost street of the three looks like it is around where 4th or 5th avenue is today in Ortley Beach. That would mean that somewhere around the area between the second and third house, in moving north to south, is where the Surf Club is today. Quite a different view from the beach in 1920!
