1900-1920
By 1915, a few small summer houses sprouted up in Brant Beach between present-day 58th and 62nd Street, built by Philadelphia families attracted to that area by the exceptional bayfront cove.
The new auto bridge over the bay was completed in 1914, and a new gravel road alongside the railroad tracks made car travel possible up and down the island.
The railroad tracks were torn up in 1936, but the train bypasses are still visible in the form of “cut-ins” along Long Beach Boulevard such as the one that runs from 59th Street to 64th Street and provides off-street angled parking.
Summer residents picked up their mail right next to the Brant Beach Railroad Station at the post office located in the home of Mary Pettibone, between 60th and 61st Street on the east side of the Boulevard. She sold Breyer’s ice cream and comic books to the children who came to pick up the post. The original house still stands with a hand carved sign marked “Pettibone’s Cottage.”
Drinking water came from rain barrels or shallow wells with hand pumps until in 1911 McLaughlin build a water tower with a pump powered by a small gas engine. It could also run a generator, allowing Brant Beach to become the first community on Long Beach Island to have electricity, although it shut down at 10pm each night.
An exclusive summer camp for boys called Camp Miquon was built on the dunes between 57th and 59th streets, promoting swimming and sailing on their fleet of catboats and sneakboxes moored in the cove on the bay. The Barnegat Bay sneakbox is a small sailing dinghy originally designed for duck hunting in the large, shallow waters off Long Beach Island.
There is no census data for Long Beach Township before 1930, but it is estimated that there were very few if any year-round residents in Brant Beach before 1920.