Planning Experts Provided Technical Expertise to Create a Springwood Avenue Heritage Walk
A few years ago, a group of Asbury Park neighbors wanted to document what life used to be like along Springwood Avenue, a hub of Black business and culture, in the decades before the 1970 unrest that devastated the area.
They gathered piles of old photos, reams of newspaper clippings and hours of audio interviews of long-time residents with the goal of creating an archive and walking tour of the fabled strip in the famous Jersey Shore town.
The project proved to be massive, overwhelming and time-consuming.
Then, through a city official, the group learned about the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority's (NJTPA) Vibrant Places Program. This program offers technical support from Rutgers transportation and planning experts to communities looking to revitalize their downtowns or commerce hubs. The program is funded by the NJTPA at no cost to the selected towns.
"It was a godsend," said Diane Shelton, the outreach specialist at the community organization Interfaith Neighbors who led the project. "You don't know how many years it was just me trying to do the research, going to the library, going back and forth between all these places trying to find out those businesses that once lined Springwood Avenue because the addresses and owners had changed over time."
A team of staff and graduate students at the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy worked on the project for about nine months, researching city documents, sifting through historical accounts and maps to create an interactive searchable website that offers a virtual walking tour through Springwood Avenue, circa 1930-1970.
The project was recently recognized by the geo-graphing industry, becoming one of 11 finalists in a competition that accepts entries from around the world. The winners of the ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition will be announced on Earth Day. The project also won a New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association 2024 Outstanding Community Engagement Award.
"What we try to do is help communities create places where people want to live, work, have arts and culture - everything in a compact downtown," said Miriam Salerno, managing director of the Public Outreach and Engagement Team at Voorhees Transportation Center. "Springwood Avenue was a perfect representation of what a vibrant place is. What we're striving to do in other communities now is to recreate what they had on Springwood Avenue."
The Springwood Avenue Heritage Walk maps the eight blocks of the thoroughfare that runs through Asbury Park and Neptune. It's divided into six maps, each telling a different story: businesses; life and style; music and arts scene; civil rights and resilience; worship and church life; and community stories.
Typically, the Vibrant Places team spends about four to six months on a project, offering municipalities a blueprint for realizing their vision. For example, they developed a marketing plan for a commercial district in Belleville, created a visitor's guide for Dover and showed Perth Amboy officials how to bring the public to an under-utilized park.
For the Asbury Park project, they had to be historians and website designers, as well as geographers and planners. They learned about the cultural and music scene of Springwood Avenue from the Asbury Park African-American Music Project. They listened to hours of oral history interviews that Monmouth University graduate students conducted during the pandemic with residents of Asbury Park for a series called Porch Talk. They combed through Madonna Carter's collection of her father and photographer Joseph A. Carter's work. They read newspaper articles from decades ago, leafed through historical photos, and collected information from Asbury Park Museum and Asbury Park Historical Society to understand the significance of Springwood Avenue to the community. They also used the historical collection on Asbury Park available at Rutgers University Libraries.
After spending so much time on the project, they became emotionally invested in the history of Springwood Avenue, leaving with a changed perspective personally and professionally.
"I grew up in Elizabeth, and we'd drive to Asbury Park every summer," said planner and project manager Jesika Tixi. "I've been going to this place for years, and I didn't know this part of its history. This isn't just about Asbury Park -- there are many blocks and neighborhoods across the country that people walk by, without knowing their stories."
But the stories of Springwood Avenue were fading even for Asbury Park residents, including Shelton.
"Certain things about the corridor I do remember," she said. "I remember going to the butcher shops with my grandmother. I do remember parades up and down Springwood Avenue. I remember the drug stores. Some of the memories have resurfaced, even though a lot of the stories I wasn't familiar with."
Shelton said the idea for the heritage walk was formed in 2019 as the 50th anniversary of the July 4-6, 1970, unrest was approaching. But the community didn't want to commemorate the aftermath of the riots. Instead, they decided to showcase Springwood Avenue in the decades before 1970.
"When I talked to residents, they wanted some history to remain on the avenue," Shelton recalled. "Not only was it zoned for jazz and music, but it was a major shopping district for the West Side. They didn't have to go outside their community to shop."
The Rutgers team delivered on those wishes. The Thriving Businesses page, for example, showcases local treasures like Fisch's Department Store where residents shopped for school clothes or Sunny Hunny Shoppe for a bite to eat or Bunce and Carter Pharmacy for medication. The page includes photos of the business, their locations, newspaper ads and quotes from old-timers like Rev. David Parreott, saying "There were some folks that lived their whole lives and never crossed the railroad tracks (to the East Side) because everything they needed was over here (on the West Side)."
That storyboard is repeated for five other pages.
Research project coordinator and geographer Cate Heady mapped the project, in many cases, starting on paper to draw by hand to create intricate color-coordinated map.
"There was the process of going through these interviews to get the stories and there was the process of mapping everything out so those stories could be put into place," Heady said. "It was a really fun project."
Shelton said the community organization is already using the virtual walk to share its vision for an actual walking tour. They are planning a sponsorship drive and other events to raise funds for signs, historical markers and ultimately a physical walking tour. Additionally, the tour has been used to support grant applications.
"When we met with Interfaith Neighbors, they told us, 'Asbury Park is known for its rock and roll scene--Bruce Springsteen and the boardwalk, but not the art and legacy of the West Side,'" Tixi recalled. "'That's what people typically think of when thinking about Asbury Park, but it's so much more than that.'"
