The Stephen Crane House

06/20/2023

He was a onetime resident of Asbury Park who’s been described as “quite the character and a fixture in the community”...a “gadabout” who “led parades, taught children to garden, and was known for his attention getting antics,” the sort of behaviors that would find him led away by police and written up in the local newspapers (whose reporters said he “made good copy”). Edwin Turner Osbaldeston was AN UNCOMMON CRIMINAL...and generations after his passing, his life and times comprise the subject of a fascinating book by that title, authored by his great-grandchildren Kenson and Noel Siver.

At the most recent monthly meeting of the Asbury Park Historical Society, sisters Alison Siver Dye (Center) and Karen Siver (right) stopped in at the library of the Stephen Crane House to deliver a complimentary copy of their siblings’ exhaustively researched slice of family history to APHS President Kay Harris (left).

Handsomely designed and illustrated with lots of vintage photographs and news clippings, AN UNCOMMON CRIMINAL: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF EDWIN TURNER OSBALDESTON can be purchased from amazon.com...and if you’re a current member of the Historical Society, contact us for details on how you can purchase a copy at a specially deep-discounted, members-only price!

06/16/2023

It was the kind of event that represented The Stephen Crane House at its best...as a place of living, breathing history; as a community resource in the here and now; as a House of Ideas that bridges the centuries and touches every aspect of local life on the rollercoaster timeline of this dazzlingly diverse-but-divided seaside city...

On the evening of June 14, a sold-out to capacity (and THEN some) audience made its way to the doorstep of this circa-1878 cottage that’s welcomed people from all walks of life and figurative corners of the earth. The occasion was READINGS FROM ASBURY PARK: VOICES FROM OUR CITY, THEN & NOW...a program in which an amazing group of authors, poets, journalists and community activists shone a light on the storytellers, scribes and social crusaders of Asbury Park’s yesteryears...wordsmiths that included Pulitzer-winning poet Margaret Widdemer, influential VOGUE editor Edna Woolman Chase, broadcasting legend Lowell Thomas, social justice advocate Rev. J.F. Robinson, pop songwriter May Singhi Breen, and of course our own Stevie Crane.

Made possible by a generous grant from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, this unique entry within Asbury Park’s slate of events in the inaugural NORTH 2 SHORE ARTS & CULTURAL FESTIVAL found the participants pictured here (along with Claire Garland and Kerry Margaret Butch) captivating a crowd that included former Crane House owner and co-rescuer Frank D’Alessandro plus Crane House friends longtime and first-time...with an intimately scaled/ expansively visioned offering that illuminated the (sometimes overlooked) literary legacy of this place that comes fully alive this weekend with music, visual art, comedy, dance, and so many more creative pursuits!

Thanks to NJPAC for honoring the Asbury Park Historical Society among its 2023 grant awardees...to our fellow APHS board members Kay Harris, Andy Skokos, Susan Rosenberg and Jennifer Stine for helping to realize this one-of-a-kind happening...to Antonio and Muriam of Asbury Park TV for creating a video record of the program...and to our neighbors at Cathedral Assembly by the Shore, for allowing us to arrange much-needed parking for our many guests!

Due to those seasonal parking and traffic issues in our residential neighborhood near boardwalk and beachfront, our in-house theatre at the Crane House will take a summer-season hiatus...but watch this space for announcements of NEW public-welcome events coming this fall, and stop in any Sunday afternoon (or make an arrangement for an alternate day/ time) for a tour of our National Historic Site and genuine literary landmark!

06/07/2023

From the producers of the NJ PBS program LOOK UP WITH DARLEY, who took a deep-dive exploration of Asbury Park (Crane House included) for a forthcoming episode:

Let's "Look Up" in Asbury Park, NJ! Happy to announce the primetime debut on NJ PBS Wednesday, June 21st at 8:30pm (and online!). Mark your calendar and watch a preview here

Trace the ups and downs of the diverse beach community of Asbury Park through its musical history, architecture, food, events and entrepreneurs in "Look Up: Asbury Park." TV host Darley Newman meets locals at The Stone Pony, The Wooden Walls Project, The Turf Club, Frank’s Deli and the boardwalk t...

06/06/2023

Congratulations to Asbury Park TV on their winning a 2023 JAG Award for "SIR, I EXIST!," the educational documentary video on which they collaborated with The Stephen Crane House!

Produced by APTV's Nate McCallister, the 30 minute doc on the life of the house's internationally renowned author namesake was created by the Asbury Park Historical Society's Tom Chesek, as a way to preserve the live lectures delivered to school groups and organizations by Frank D'Alessandro, the onetime private owner of the Crane House who graced this project with his on-camera presence. Chesek, who wrote, narrated, and assembled the visual materials used in the presentation, has screened the video for numerous audiences who have scheduled tours at the State and National Historic Site.

The award was one of NINE such honors earned by APTV in this year's JAG competition, presented by the Metuchen-based Jersey Access Group. An affiliate of the NJ League of Municipalities, the nonprofit "advocates, promotes, and preserves the right to media production, distribution, civic engagement, and education in support of diverse community voices."

Among the additional 2023 awards for Asbury Park TV was another involving the Crane House: a recognition for coverage of the Asbury Park 150 Time Capsule project, an endeavor (involving members of the Historical Society and its sister organization, The Asbury Park Museum) keyed to the "sesquicentennial" anniversary of the seaside resort's founding. Chairman Ginny Otley and the APTV board meet at our house on the third Wednesday of each month, and you can catch up with their coverage of civic events and current streaming program schedule, by tuning in to asburyparktv.com.

06/03/2023

UPDATE: Due to a scheduling conflict, Tyrone Laws has regretfully had to withdraw from our event on June 14...and on Ty’s recommendation, we welcome Kerwin Webb to the program!

He was a dynamic speaker and inspirational figure, whose role as pastor of St. Stephen AME Zion Church (in the "West Park" neighborhood that would later be incorporated as part of Asbury Park) placed him at the forefront of organized opposition to Founder James A. Bradley and the segregationist policies governing life in the 19th century Jersey Shore resort. Through his "Indignation Meeting" speeches and peaceful protests like a beachfront "Wade-In," Reverend JAMES FRANCIS ROBINSON sent a message that resonated well beyond the local Shore, attracting the support of big-city newspapers and influential houses of worship.

Here in 2023, a "child of God, strategic thinker, and gifted facilitator" carries the torch of Rev. Robinson forward into the 21st century. As the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Asbury Park-based Interfaith Neighbors, REV. KERWIN WEBB maintains a role in an organization that touches all aspects of community life...and the pastor of Neptune's Martin Luther King Jr. Presbyterian Church has built a national profile, as National Coordinator of Justice and Advocacy for the American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS). An ordained Baptist minister and a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, the Alabama native puts his organizational skills to work in the public sphere, in the personal belief that "all gifts, talents, and abilities are designed to glorify God and that transformative power exists in our understanding of who we are."

On the evening of WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, Rev. Webb pays tribute to the spirit of Rev. Robinson..and shares some of his own impactful words as well...as one of eight participating guests in a one-of-a-kind program entitled READINGS FROM ASBURY PARK: Voices From Our City, Then & Now. Presented by the Asbury Park Historical Society...and hosted in the intimate setting of The Stephen Crane House...the 7 pm event is a unique offering in the citywide NORTH 2 SHORE FESTIVAL; a celebration of this town’s surprisingly rich literary legacy...and a bridge between the centuries in which the vintage voices of some important Asbury-connected storytellers, poets, journalists and social crusaders will be heard anew.

Seating is limited for the READINGS event, and advance tickets ($15) are available via Eventbrite at the festival’s official website, northtoshore.com/events/readings-from-asbury-park

06/01/2023

Recent days have found us opening our doors to a family from Greenville, South Carolina...a couple from Sioux Falls, South Dakota...and even a visitor from Easton, Pennsylvania, where Stephen Crane attended Lafayette College (if by “attended” we mean “hung out in downtown pool parlors until he split school to return to his mom’s house in Asbury Park”)...

Some 27 years after the gutted, boarded up and abandoned old cottage at 508 Fourth Avenue was rescued and reborn as The Stephen Crane House, the internationally renowned storyteller/ poet/ journalist who began his writing career beneath this roof remains the main draw...attracting drop-in guests from all corners of the United States, as well as numerous foreign ports of call. The author whose classic novel THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE has been translated into dozens of different languages has his admirers for sure; a fan base that spans multiple generations and includes esteemed academics, students, artists, filmmakers, historians, librarians, Civil War re-enactors, and anyone with an interest in the forever fascinating story of Asbury Park. We are privileged and pleased to welcome them all to our doorstep, a place where we’ve made countless new friends throughout the years, and where the big world beyond makes a path to our porch.

The Stephen Crane House hosts open house tour hours every Sunday, 12-2 pm, with no appointment necessary and no charge for admission (donations are of course always welcomed for the Asbury Park Historical Society). Arrangements for alternate days can be made...and visits by larger groups from schools, clubs and organizations can be reserved in advance...by calling 732-361-0189 or messaging us here on Facebook. Keep it tuned here as well for updates on public-welcome events inside our in-house theatre...including a centuries-spanning READINGS FROM ASBURY PARK program on June 14, part of the inaugural NORTH TO SHORE FESTIVAL in Asbury Park!

05/31/2023

She was the first woman inducted to the Ukulele Hall of Fame…a songwriter, musician and radio personality who would come to make her home in Asbury Park. MAY SINGHI BREEN was already a well-known bandleader and on-air performer by the time she met her second husband, pianist-composer Peter DeRose (whose hits included “Deep Purple,” “Wagon Wheels,” and “It’s a Marshmallow World”)…and together the two “Sweethearts of the Air” (the name of their NBC radio program that ran between 1923-1939) forged an enduring partnership that saw them collaborate on dozens of Tin Pan Alley-era tunes, both together and with numerous other songsmiths. A specialist in the popular Hawaiian Hula-inspired pop music of the day, “The Original Ukulele Lady” continued composing after Peter’s passing…even making her own late-career contribution to the “Twist” Craze of the early 1960s…and, following the death of the couple’s good friend Babe Ruth, it was May who took on the directorship of the Babe’s charitable foundation for poor and needy children.

Here in 2023, the Eighth Avenue home once shared by May and Peter can be identified by the iron wagon wheels embedded in the porch railing…and the always-amazing music scene in Asbury Park boasts scores of musically inclined women like DEIRDRE FORREST, the self-described singer, songwriter, bleeding heart hippie, cat mom, and “goofy & glam weirdo” whose local live gigs have seen her excel in solo, duo and full band contexts…and whose original compositions, “drenched in descriptive language and raw, personal recollections,” earned her Top Female Songwriter honors at the 2012 JAM Awards. Her latest release “Just Out of Reach” is now well WITHIN reach on your favorite music apps…AND, she plays and teaches uke!

On the evening of WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, Deirdre Forrest honors the legacy of May Singhi Breen…and shares some of her own original music as well...as one of eight participating guests in a one-of-a-kind program entitled READINGS FROM ASBURY PARK: Voices From Our City, Then & Now. Presented by the Asbury Park Historical Society...and hosted in the intimate setting of The Stephen Crane House...the 7 pm event is a unique offering in the citywide NORTH 2 SHORE FESTIVAL; a celebration of this town’s surprisingly rich literary legacy...and a bridge between the centuries in which the vintage voices of some important Asbury-connected storytellers, poets, journalists and social crusaders will be heard anew.

Seating is limited for the READINGS event, and advance tickets ($15) are available via Eventbrite at the festival’s official website, northtoshore.com/events/readings-from-asbury-park

05/30/2023

He was a child of Newark, born in a house that was erased from the earth nearly a century ago. He died, an American living abroad in Europe, at the age of 28. But the man that Ernest Hemingway declared one of the “good writers” entered this world in 1871…the same year that a place called Asbury Park sprang from the scrub and sand of a desolate New Jersey Shore…and it’s in Asbury Park that STEPHEN CRANE made his first awkward schoolboy attempts at becoming a serious writer, while picking up his first professional experience as a boardwalk-beat cub reporter for his brother’s news service. The only boy in a household of social activists and artistically inclined women, young Stevie was left to his own devices as he explored the beaches, the wooded lakefronts, and the emerging streetscape of his new and fast-growing hometown. A keen observer of the grand Gilded Age parade…and the unquenchable quests for amusement, diversion, and discretionary dollars in a place that regarded itself as a dry and pious paradise…the self-proclaimed “True Jerseyman” would part ways with Founder Bradley’s town amid a flurry of scandals and controversy, and sell off his share of his property inheritance in order to finance the publication of his first novel. But Asbury Park would continue to show its influence on his work, whether used as a setting for stories like “The Pace of Youth,” or as source material for articles in which he shared tales of local shipwrecks and ghosts. Stephen Crane would rewrite his own story many times during his brief time on earth, and often risk everything to challenge the Powers That Be…while finding his muse of inspiration here in the place that made him the writer he’d become.

Here in 2023, the Fourth Avenue residence that Stevie’s mom Helen called “Arbutus Cottage” is known as The Stephen Crane House, headquarters of The Asbury Park Historical Society and a State/ National Historic Site that continues to attract tour visitors and event audiences from all over the United States and the big world beyond. Carrying on in the spirit of Stephen Crane is award winning author and journalist DANIEL WOOLF, the Grammy nominated biographer (YOU SEND ME: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke) and cultural historian (NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL) whose 2005 nonfiction volume FOURTH OF JULY, ASBURY PARK…recently reissued in an updated edition…remains one of the most acclaimed explorations of our city’s “roller-coaster” social history, with our Mr. Crane playing a significant role in that timeline.

On the evening of WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, Daniel Woolf honors the legacy of Stephen Crane…and shares some of his own topical writings as well...as one of eight participating guests in a one-of-a-kind program entitled READINGS FROM ASBURY PARK: Voices From Our City, Then & Now. Presented by the Asbury Park Historical Society...and hosted in the intimate setting of the Crane House...the 7 pm event is a unique offering in the citywide NORTH 2 SHORE FESTIVAL; a celebration of this town’s surprisingly rich literary legacy...and a bridge between the centuries in which the vintage voices of some important Asbury-connected storytellers, poets, journalists and social crusaders will be heard anew.

Seating is limited for the READINGS event, and advance tickets ($15) are available via Eventbrite at the festival’s official website, northtoshore.com/events/readings-from-asbury-park

05/29/2023

She was the celebrity of the family, back when her youngest son Stevie was a schoolboy with no particular direction in life…and as president of the highly influential Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Asbury Park, she became an in-demand organizer and public speaker, known far and wide for her “fire and brimstone” speeches on the evils of drink. An abolitionist, advocate for women’s suffrage, humanitarian, and founder of a vocational trade school for young Black women, HELEN CRANE also exhibited a playfully creative streak; painting, sculpting, sketching, and even authoring humorous short stories under the pen name “Jerusha Ann Stubbs of the Skrub Oak Skule Districk.”

Here in 2023, the Fourth Avenue residence that Helen called “Arbutus Cottage” (where, by the way, she co-founded the city’s first art school with her daughter Nellie) is known as The Stephen Crane House, headquarters of The Asbury Park Historical Society and a State/ National Historic Site that continues to attract tour visitors and event audiences from all over the United States and the big world beyond. Carrying on in the spirit of Mrs. Crane…as executive director of the Asbury Park Consortium and the League of Women Voters of NJ; as an acclaimed documentarian (GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK), as co-founder of the Asbury Park Reporter website…is KERRY MARGARET BUTCH, whose background also includes a stint as a Crane House resident in her own right!

On the evening of WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, Kerry Butch honors the legacy of Helen Crane…and shares some of her own topical writings as well...as one of eight participating guests in a one-of-a-kind program entitled READINGS FROM ASBURY PARK: Voices From Our City, Then & Now. Presented by the Asbury Park Historical Society...and hosted in the intimate setting of The Stephen Crane House...the 7 pm event is a unique offering in the citywide NORTH 2 SHORE FESTIVAL; a celebration of this town’s surprisingly rich literary legacy...and a bridge between the centuries in which the vintage voices of some important Asbury-connected storytellers, poets, journalists and social crusaders will be heard anew.

Seating is limited for the READINGS event, and advance tickets ($15) are available via Eventbrite at the festival’s official website, northtoshore.com/events/readings-from-asbury-park

05/28/2023

He was one of the most famous media figures of his day; a globetrotting reporter, public speaker and broadcasting legend whose decades-long career in radio, newsreels and television made him a household name to millions…and the book that first helped LOWELL THOMAS make a name for himself (WITH LAWRENCE IN ARABIA, an account that also helped put legendary soldier-adventurer T.E. Lawrence on the map) was written here in Asbury Park, where his parents resided for years. The celebrity newsman would make repeated return visits to AP, where he’d serve as grand marshal of events like the Orchid Festival, lecture at Convention Hall, and, as it turns out, sponsor the establishment of THE BEACON, the student-run magazine at Asbury Park High School.

Here in 2023, an article that the world-renowned correspondent authored for The Beacon…a little-known (and potentially controversial) piece of writing entitled “In Defense of the Original American”…will receive what may be its first and ONLY public reading at The Stephen Crane House in Asbury Park. On hand to present a counterpoint perspective…and to illuminate the amazing contributions of the Sand Hill Indians, the Monmouth County-based indigenous community that played a significant (and too often overlooked) role in the history of Asbury Park…will be CLAIRE GARLAND, noted authority on New Jersey’s Native American heritage and director of the Sand Hill Indian Historical Association.

On the evening of WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, Claire Garland puts the legacy of Lowell Thomas into contemporary context..and shares some of her informative writings on the people of Sand Hill as well...as one of eight participating guests in a one-of-a-kind program entitled READINGS FROM ASBURY PARK: Voices From Our City, Then & Now. Presented by the Asbury Park Historical Society...and hosted in the intimate setting of The Stephen Crane House...the 7 pm event is a unique offering in the citywide NORTH 2 SHORE FESTIVAL; a celebration of this town’s surprisingly rich literary legacy...and a bridge between the centuries in which the vintage voices of some important Asbury-connected storytellers, poets, journalists and social crusaders will be heard anew.

Seating is limited for the READINGS event, and advance tickets ($15) are available via Eventbrite at the festival’s official website, northtoshore.com/events/readings-from-asbury-park

05/27/2023

She was born in Asbury Park...and while her direct connection to our city ends there, her impact on our culture would continue to make waves here, there, and all around the modern world of the 20th century. Scaling the most amazing professional heights from the most humble Quaker beginnings....and serving as an inspiration to career-oriented, independent-thinking women everywhere...EDNA WOOLMAN CHASE would work her way to the managing editor's desk at VOGUE; in the process transforming that magazine into the influential tastemaking institution that would define it for generations. A giant on the American fashion industry landscape, the diminutive dynamo can be credited with organizing the first major fashion shows in the United States, as well as designing the Women's Army Corps (WAC) uniforms of the Second World War.

Here in 2023, a self-described industry maven, city-based mom, and young veteran observer of the fashion and entertainment industries continues her personal mission "to give voice to her community through her own." A senior journalist with BigBreak Magazine (where she "works with the people next in line to run the entertainment world"), TIASIA NEWMAN became a sustainable fashion designer in her own right in 2019, with the introduction of her Vintage Brothel clothing line. A featured columnist for the Asbury Park Reporter website, her axiom is "Remember Darling, the show must go on...and in good fashion."

On the evening of WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, Tiasia Newman pays tribute to the spirit of the late Edna W. Chase..and shares some of her own impactful words as well...as one of eight participating guests in a one-of-a-kind program entitled READINGS FROM ASBURY PARK: Voices From Our City, Then & Now. Presented by the Asbury Park Historical Society...and hosted in the intimate setting of The Stephen Crane House...the 7 pm event is a unique offering in the citywide NORTH 2 SHORE FESTIVAL; a celebration of this town’s surprisingly rich literary legacy...and a bridge between the centuries in which the vintage voices of some important Asbury-connected storytellers, poets, journalists and social crusaders will be heard anew.

Seating is limited for the READINGS event, and advance tickets ($15) are available via Eventbrite at the festival’s official website, northtoshore.com/events/readings-from-asbury-park

05/26/2023

He was a dynamic speaker and inspirational figure, whose role as pastor of St. Stephen AME Zion Church (in the "West Park" neighborhood that would later be incorporated as part of Asbury Park) placed him at the forefront of organized opposition to Founder James A. Bradley and the segregationist policies governing life in the 19th century Jersey Shore resort. Through his "Indignation Meeting" speeches and peaceful protests like a beachfront "Wade-In," Reverend JAMES FRANCIS ROBINSON sent a message that resonated well beyond the local Shore, attracting the support of big-city newspapers and influential houses of worship.

Here in 2023, an artist, historian, photographer, playwright, actor and public speaker carries the torch of Rev. Robinson forward into the 21st century, as part of a lifelong commitment to "Teaching the Children the Truth" that utilizes all aspects of his multi-faceted skillsets. As voter education chair of the Asbury Park Civic Participation Project, TYRONE LAWS was among the Strivers Panelists selected for the "Tribute to the Blackman" Program sponsored by the Black Women Association of Harvard University...and his past endeavors as an executive of the AP-based Stop the Violence Action Committee, the Asbury Park Job Training Center, and the Westside Community Center have placed him as a pivotal figure in the modern history of this deeply rooted community. Whether performing in stage productions from Monmouth County's Dunbar Repertory Company, or putting his formidable training in the healing arts to work in the volunteer sphere, the self-described "community/ cultural activist" remains dedicated to "creating communities of choice...one person, one family, one neighborhood at a time."

On the evening of WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, Ty Laws pays tribute to the spirit of Rev. Robinson..and shares some of his own impactful words as well...as one of eight participating guests in a one-of-a-kind program entitled READINGS FROM ASBURY PARK: Voices From Our City, Then & Now. Presented by the Asbury Park Historical Society...and hosted in the intimate setting of The Stephen Crane House...the 7 pm event is a unique offering in the citywide NORTH 2 SHORE FESTIVAL; a celebration of this town’s surprisingly rich literary legacy...and a bridge between the centuries in which the vintage voices of some important Asbury-connected storytellers, poets, journalists and social crusaders will be heard anew.

Seating is limited for the READINGS event, and advance tickets ($15) are available via Eventbrite at the festival’s official website, northtoshore.com/events/readings-from-asbury-park