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Based on a true story of the gilded age.
"Beautifully rendered, and accurate"
-John Briscoe Author and Director SF Historical Society on the portrayal of the city in the 1880s
“With exhaustive research and a storyteller’s flair, Vincent Dicks offers a sweeping fictional narrative of one of the nation’s most important and unjustly forgotten families.”
-Dr. Sandra Bonura author of California Sweet: The Life & Legacy of Claus Spreckels
"A masterful weaving of 19th-century newspaper articles and other reading into a grand story. It captures the essence of a Victorian girl becoming a woman within an almost forgotten social class system reflective of royalty."
-Candace W. Lee former Archivist at Kamehameha Schools
“A thought-provoking mosaic of dynamic families, their joys, and tragedies...
Fascinating. I was sad when the story was over and found myself wanting to know more."
-Anne Babeuf Rumson NJ and Monmouth County history buff
"Vincent Dicks appeals to both historians and casual readers in this entertaining, coming-of-age tale. An absolute page-turner."
-Richard Ryan Bott Social Studies Teacher Newark East Side HS
A different view of Spring lake
Described in the 1880s as "The Paradise of Watering Places" its lake, beach and quaint commercial district set the standard of elegance in a shore resort. While more famous resorts, Atlantic City and Asbury Park attracted the "excursionists", Spring Lake remained quiet and demure. At a time when women were just gaining equal rights to own a business, male hotel owners outnumbered women 5-1. Not in Spring Lake. A large contingent of women owners and active citizens built a very different seaside resort. This is the story of the making of Spring Lake and the maintenance of its way of life through its first 140 years…
A big little history
Presidential politics, bank fraud, robber barons, forgery, and fugitives played a large role in the delayed development of the little town described in a late 1800s newspaper as "The most beautiful strip of sand on earth."
This is the Jersey Shore history you have never heard.
Anyone with an interest in the origins of Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Belmar, Bradley Beach, Manasquan, and particularly Spring Lake and Sea Girt will find interesting information.
Photo ART
Views of the Shore
A rotating selection of products featuring beautiful imagery