By Rick Geffken
LONG BRANCH – When new owners announced plans to tear down the venerable Stella Maris Retreat House, it might have been another sad story of callous disregard for our Shore heritage. However, the development group owned by the Chehebar family who bought the oceanfront property in the Elberon section of town has reached an agreement with a local historical group to save parts of the iconic Shore structure.
On Monday, Jim Foley, president of the Long Branch Historical Museum Association (LBHMA), announced an agreement with the owner Ike Cheheba to preserve the entrance and parlor area of Stella Maris. The two original sections of what was originally known as Sea Cliff Villa will be moved to the old Lyceum School on Chelsea Avenue in Long Branch. They will be reassembled as a tribute to St. Katharine Drexel.
“It was at Sea Cliff that Kate Drexel decided to serve as a religious sister and devote her life to improving the lives of Native Americans and people of color,” according to Long Branch Historical Museum Association Board member, Richard Fernicola, M.D.
In a press release issued by the LBHMA, Foley noted the agreement came after a meeting with Doug Jemal, a historical restoration expert and Long Branch resident. “Doug Jemal agreed to incorporate the reassembled entrance and parlor of the Childs’ Estate into the renovated Lyceum School. His idea is to use the room to highlight the life and works of St. Katharine Drexel and the Catholic tradition in Long Branch represented by the old Lyceum School,” Foley said.
The ornate white building with wraparound porches was built in 1868 as a “summer cottage” for New York banker James B. Brown, who sold it soon thereafter to George William Childs, publisher of the Philadelphia Ledger. These were the post-Civil War heydays of luxury development at the Jersey Shore.
“After the Sisters (of St. Joseph of Peace) bought the property in
the early 1940s, they modernized most of the interior except the grand
entranceway which includes original woodworking, the fireplace and the
staircase,” LBHMA’s Foley added.
Although Long Branch had some seaside vacation hotels before this time, its fame as a gambling mecca, horse racing destination, summer vacation site for United States presidents, and eventually an amusement center, was just starting. The Long Branch and Sandy Hook Railroad Company, and later the Long Branch and Sea-Shore Railroad Company, had made it easier for steamboat passengers to reach Long Branch from the northern-most reaches of the Shore.
A series of deep-water piers, most famously the 1879 Iron Pier, offered even more scenic and direct journeys from Manhattan to Long Branch. George Childs was one of the contemporary industrialists who discovered the beauty and serenity of the New Jersey coast. A friend of President Ulysses S. Grant, Childs introduced the former war hero to Long Branch and persuaded him to build a summer retreat on the neighboring lot. Grant vacationed there until his death in July 1885.
When George Childs died, the home was purchased by another wealthy businessman, Adolf Lewisohn. The Sisters of St. Joseph, an order founded by Mother Elizabeth Seton, bought the cottage after Lewisohn’s death in 1938. The religious order eventually purchased the Grant property and razed that deteriorating house in 1965.
Sometimes called the Catholic Sisters Home, Stella Maris was named for one of the approbations of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Star of the Sea – when it became a retreat house.
The LBHMA has worked for years restoring another historic Long Branch property along Ocean Avenue. The Church of the Presidents is now the historical association’s museum. Doug Jemal and Ike Chehebar have also expressed an interest in helping with a new campaign to restore the church where at least seven consecutive U.S. presidents, Grant through Woodrow Wilson, attended summer services.
Beth Woolley, a Long Branch Historical Association trustee, discovered a picture of Mary Lincoln at the Long Branch beach observing a life-saving demonstration, although she says she’s never seen documented proof that our revered 16th president himself ever visited Long Branch.
In the Jan. 7 press release, Foley “…expressed his sincere thanks to Mayor John Pallone and U.S. Congressman Frank Pallone, who, along with many Long Branch residents, wanted to preserve as much of Stella Maris’ history as possible. The Pallone brothers reached out to the Chehebar family in an effort to prevent demolition until it was decided how to best preserve Stella Maris’ history by the Long Branch Historical Association.”
