Delaware Valley Archivists Group

From Margaret: The Elliston Perot Morris family, like many upper-class Americans, preferred to spend much of the summer away from their urban home. In late 1875 Elliston bought beachfront property at Sea Girt, New Jersey, and subsequently built two elaborate houses, “Avocado” and “Cedar Mer.” Avocado, 1914 Cedar Mer, 1914 Elliston and Martha, followed by their daughter Bessie after their deaths, lived in Avocado, while son Marriott and his family lived in Cedar Mer. Preparing for summer was no easy matter. Marriot recorded in 1883 that “six large boxes, a bicycle, bicycle stand, flower stand, curtain poles, rolls of carpet & c.” were shipped from Philadelphia. He himself carried his photographic plates and developing supplies. An 1894 order from the Pennsylvania RR Company to Elliston lists the items it would transport for the Morrises: 3 horses, 2 carriages, boxes, and a man (presumably to supervise the horses). 1894 Pennsylvania RR Company Order

At Avocado, Elliston usually began preparations (while sleeping over at a friend’s home) while his family with yet more luggage came the next day. All hands including those of the servants were needed to unpack, make the rooms habitable, and stow away the boxes. Life at Sea Girt was active. Many relatives and friends visited, and boating, tennis, and walking occupied their days. Photographs suggest that the favorite place for all generations was the beach. Marriott composed an album of his children enjoying the beach. In this image, a woman is striding to join others in the surf. Page from a Sea Girt Photo Album

Marriott himself in his later years was captured lying and reading under a capacious umbrella — the essence of summertime living. Marriott Morris lounging on the beachFrom Dana: During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was quite common for affluent Philadelphia families like the Morrises to leave their city homes and spend the summer months either at the shore or the mountains.  An 1878 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer entitled “The Summer Exodus” is especially telling.  It begins:

“The large private schools, of which there are so many and such good ones in Philadelphia, have held their commencement celebrations and closed their doors.  Along the streets where the well-to-do abide, the shutters are up, or the blinds are drawn, and the dust is gathering on the doorsteps.  The stately dwellings are solemn and empty, their occupants having packed their trunks and departed for shore or mountain.”

The article goes on to encourage Philadelphia residents of more modest means to take holidays as well, arguing that time away is beneficial to the health and that vacations need not be expensive or extravagant.  However, the imagery of shuttered houses and dusty doorsteps that begins the article must have rung true to Philadelphians of the period.  The New Jersey shore was a popular destination for many reasons, not least of which was its growing reputation as a health resort.  In their book, Down the Jersey Shore, Russell Roberts and Rich Youmans write that one popular shore point, Long Branch, attracted visitors who wanted to “partake in the invigorating climate in much the same way they would travel to the fashionable spas of Europe,” (52).  The fresh air and sunshine of the shore seemed to be the perfect cure for what ailed city-dwellers.  It was not the summer breezes or brisk ocean water that transformed the Jersey Shore into an appealing resort location, however—that distinction must go to the railroad.  The Morris family, or any of their contemporaries who spent summers at the Jersey Shore, could not have done so without the development of the railroad (a fact that makes the order for the Pennsylvania Railroad an especially fitting inclusion in this entry).  Before railroad tracks criss-crossed New Jersey, the shore was seen as a remote, desolate location that only the bravest of souls attempted to visit..  As Roberts and Youmans note, however, “The iron horse cut through the Shore like a sharp knife through ripe fruit, extending a network of tracks up and down the coast and making the entire region truly accessible for the first time.  The railroad transformed the Shore overnight, and it was largely responsible for the explosion of development that occurred along the coast in the second half of the nineteenth century” (27).  In fact, between 1850, “the dawn of the railroad era,” and 1885, the populations of four major coastal counties—Cape May, Monmouth, Atlantic and Ocean—had fully doubled in size (40).  In the century and a half since seaside development began, Jersey Shore towns have continued to grow and attract visitors from across the country.  Sea Girt, the site of the Morris family homes, has maintained a steady stream of summer vacationers, but remains much like the quaint seaside town the Morrises would have known more than a century ago.  The town spans little more than one square mile, and, while summer visitors swell the town’s population from May until September, only 2,148 (as of the 2000 Census) residents call Sea Girt home year-round.  The town is home to one of New Jersey’s famous lighthouses, although it is not nearly as  well-known as the iconic Barnegat or Absecon lighthouses.  According to the Borough of Sea Girt’s website, the lighthouse was built in 1896 to help illuminate the 38-mile long stretch between the Barnegat and Sandy Hook lighthouses, a common site of shipwrecks.  Decommissioned in 1955, the lighthouse is now open for tours and community events.  Despite the decades of change and growth that have come to the Jersey Shore in the years since its development, it is easy to look at the picture of Marriott Morris lounging on the beach and see how little has truly changed.