-Hi, I'm Darley Newman, and I'm taking a swan boat ride today in Asbury Park as we explore the intersection of architecture and history to reveal community and culture.

[introductory music] We're "Looking Up" in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where the sounds of doo-wop, rock and roll from the likes of Br uce Springsteen and Bon Jovi, and jazz, rhythm, and blues from icons like Duke Ellington an d Billie Holiday became the creative foundation for a generation of local entrepreneurs and artists.

-Well... [Darley] We're walking back in time through the structures and sounds that bring the strong community of this Je rsey Shore town to life.

From the Pride Parade and nightlife to African American music history, a roller coaster of decline and development, and modern renovations with a foot in the past, we're diving into Asbury Park with locals as our guides, starting on the boardwalk with Don Stine.

So, what was Asbury Park like in the early days?

-Oh, Asbury Park was booming.

If you wanted to come to the shore and stay in a nice hotel, or if you lived in Monmouth and Ocean Counties and you wanted to do fine shopping, you came to Asbury Park.

[Darley] So this is a classic beach town on the Jersey Shore.

[Don Stine] It always has been, for 150 years.

A brush manufacturer named James A. Bradley, he made a lot of money during the Civil War.

He came down here to go to Ocean Grove, which was founded as a Methodist tent revival, and Bradley bought 500 acres north of Ocean Grove and he named it Asbury Park.

So eventually, he sold the boardwalk and they let alcohol in.

And that's when Asbury Park became the party destination.

That's Convention Hall.

It's got a beautiful theater in it, and they always had concerts in the '60s, the Stones, The Doors, Janis Joplin-- probably Asbury Park's most iconic building, Convention Hall.

[Darley] Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Asbury Park Convention Hall was built in 1930 to be "the finest structure of its kind along the Atlantic Coast" and was designed by the illustrious New York architectural firm Warren and Wetmore, the architects for New York City's Grand Central Station and St. James Theatre.

Influenced by French, Italian, an d maritime themes, the style is an example of eclecticism, employing two or more types of design, and to me, seems to go along well with the eclectic nature of Asbury Park.

Don walks me through Convention Hall to a spot on the boardwalk where the SS Morro Castle, an ocean liner being towed while on fire, ran aground atop an earlier wreck.

-The Morro Castle was still on fire, and it ended up exactly on top of the New Era shipwreck.

[Darley] That same spot had claimed a clipper ship called the New Era some 80 years be fore in a tragedy.

The Morro's wreck in 1934 would br ing thousands of tourists to watch the grizzly scene from shore.

-Both disasters resulted in changes to laws to make sailing and cruising on ships better.

[Darley] From disaster came something good, but Don reveals a tale about the 1854 New Era wreck in which the ship's surgeon tried to abscond with a bag of silver and gold from the passengers during the tragedy.

-And the lifeboat went down, and he fell between the ship and the lifeboat, and it came back and crushed him.

So out there, there's a big bag of money somewhere in the sand, okay.

-Asbury Park has a fascinating history.

-Oh, it does.

People don't know about it.

Oh, yeah.

There's so much here that, you know, people don't know about.

[Darley] Other public buildings were built along the boardwalk, too: Paramount Theater, the Asbury Park Casino, and the Carousel House.

The Carousel House still stands, and that's where I'm meeting Jenn Hampton.

She helped launch Th e Wooden Walls Mural Project.

She inspired artists to design and paint murals on the wood of boarded-up buildings in Asbury Park, and the project has taken off throughout the city.

Artists from around the world have come to Asbury Park to participate.

Today, dozens of murals allow visitors to lose themselves on a street art tour, including in the old Carousel House.

-I look at our architectural buildings as our first public art, and so I feel like I'm just honoring a tradition that's been here since the '20s.

It's just that the art changes.

Obviously, it had its life protecting a carousel, but.

[Darley] And now it protects art.

-I know.

Now it protects our artists and art.

So, the buildings inspired me.

It was my love letter to Asbury Park because it's the muse that inspired me.

And then I hope to give people the platform to be inspired as well.

[Darley] It's your love letter, and then it's the love letter of artists that are from here, from the rest of the US, from the rest of the world.

[Jenn Hampton] Yep.

And you know, everybody comes here to see music, but while you're here, there's art to see and engage with and galleries and...

So that's my big, lofty goal.

It's like, how can art change the fabric of our community?

[Darley] A short walk away from the Carousel House, we're taking a trip down music memory lane with Tony Pallagrosi.

He started his career as a trumpet player in the band Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, often headlining at the classic music venue, The Stone Pony.

I'm seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Who are some of the names I would recognize that have played here at the Stone Pony?

[Tony Pallagrosi] Well, Elvis Costello, Cheap Trick.

The Black Crowes, No Doubt, Skid Row.

-All these songs are going off in my head right now.

[Tony Pallagrosi] Just about every band that became big, this was one of the clubs that they played when they were still a club band.

I was standing right over there in that corner, that's where the horn section, the Jukes' horn section stood, the first time that Bruce got on stage with us, pretty soon after I joined the band.

That was very exciting.

This town had, you know, 15,000 - 20,000 people in it, and you were getting major stars.

Perhaps over a thousand artists have played on that stage.

There are very few clubs that have been doing what The Stone Pony has done throughout its history who are still here and are still very viable, and still very much in the minds of the public.

-If these walls could talk or sing, the stories they would tell.

-Well, yeah, especially after-hours stories.

-We won't ask you to reveal those.

-Okay.

I don't-- I don't remember them, which means I was really here.

[Darley] The late 19th century saw the rise of Victorian homes in Asbury Pa rk, and the later development of the boardwalk gave birth to a flourishing industry of hotels, shops, and restaurants.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists would visit every summer, not just from New Jersey, but Philadelphia, New York City, and beyond.

But the history in Asbury Park ha sn't always been easy breezy.

Transportation changes, violence in the 1970s, economic decline and suburban sprawl, would all be contributing factors to why residents moved away, and tourism declined over many decades.

But Asbury Park has been on the rise once again over the last 20 years, with new developments and a renaissance of arts, culture, and food.

We're taking a walk to see mo re of the historic structures and symbols that survived the decades, and the community members who took a chance to bring Asbury Park back to better days, starting with Tim McLoone, who opened a supper club in a retro Howard Johnson's, which survived demolition.

It's located along the boardwalk.

[Tim McLoone] There's something unique about Asbury that everybody knows.

It's a very romantic attachment that I have.

And of course, the whole Bruce mystique and the whole of the music that came out of here.

We were the first lease signers down here in 2007 when they decided to redevelop the boardwalk.

[Darley] Tell me a little bit about this space.

This was an old Howard Johnson.

[Tim McLoone] Right.

When we first opened up, we actually still sold clam strips-- the HoJo clam strips.

And this is the second floor, and we made it into a supper club.

We spent a lot of money on the acoustics, and it's rich as can be.

-I would love to hear the acoustics.

I don't know if there's anything you can play.

-Who, me?

-Just a few numbers.

-Well, I recently wrote this and then I wrote, you know, I wrote to... see if I can get this here.

[smooth piano notes] ♪ Clouds of blue were waiting Outside my door ♪ ♪ It doesn't seem to shine As much anymore ♪ ♪ And when it rains It's really more like it pours ♪ ♪ Since you got over me ♪ ♪ Look in the mirror now What do I see?

♪ ♪ Try to understand What's happened to me ♪ ♪ The shadow of a man That I used to be ♪ ♪ Since you got over me ♪ -Aw.

You're pulling on my heartstrings.

Just across from Tim McLoone's Supper Club, Debbie DeLisa welcomes people and pets to The Wonder Bar.

Outside, a replica of smiling Tillie reminds us of Asbury Park's 1950s amusement park past.

Debbie is such an advocate for animals.

They have this amazing Yappy Hour going on.

If you love dog watching, which is one of my particular favorite pastimes, this is it.

And we're in this iconic building here right across from Convention Hall.

Famous people played there.

Bruce Springsteen and other amazing artists have played here, and this is a real community feel at the Wonder Bar.

-Here you go.

-Ooh!

Thank you, Debbie.

-You're welcome.

Enjoy it.

-It looks so good.

-Thank you.

[Darley] Now, let's try this burger.

I love a good grilled burger, when the outside is nicely charred, and it screams summer.

Even though we're not here in Asbury Park in summer, it screams summer fun to me.

The LGBTQ+ community has been a huge part of Asbury Park's revitalization.

Entrepreneurs took their chances, opening up new businesses in the early 2000s, like Russell Lewis at Watermark.

Cheers!

-Cheers to you.

So here we are on the Asbury Park boardwalk.

I've been lucky enough to come and look at this view every day for the past 15 years.

And I got to tell you, it does not get old.

-How did you decide to open up here?

-I bought a house here in Asbury in 2004, but there just wasn't a cocktail culture.

So, a little bulb went off and said, oh, you know, whoever opens up a really cool, progressive cocktail lounge could really kill it here.

We wanted to create a place that was modern and progressive, but also homey, comfortable, a little refined and upscale, but not pretentious and snooty.

-Unpretentious, welcoming, homey, cozy.

It's what I hear a lot of people saying about Asbury Park.

-It's incredible, the diversity in Asbury Park.

The different cultures and the different people, and the different languages that you hear just walking up and down this Jersey Shore boardwalk town.

It's truly remarkable.

[Darley] It's not just the boardwalk where the LGBTQ+ community has opened up businesses to bring people back to Asbury Park, it's happening in the historic downtown at places like Taka and Moonstruck.

Let's start with sushi.

You're definitely an inspiring entrepreneur, but you came to the USA from Japan, and it wasn't easy.

-I don't know anything about Asbury Park, but everybody was talking about it, 18 years ago or even 20 years ago when I moved to this town.

Asbury is coming back.

Then, that first five years is really struggle, then catch up slowly, slowly.

[Darley] Today, Taka's restaurant is super popular, drawing in people to downtown Asbury Park for sushi fusion that's tasty.

Moonstruck's move from Ocean Grove to downtown Asbury Park re sulted in the major renovation of an old deteriorating Victorian building, recalls Moonstruck's Howard Raczkiewicz.

-This building was vacant and sitting for a long time, and it had been a nightclub.

It had been different things over the years.

When we purchased the building in 2000, I took pictures of all of the storefronts on a three-block stretch behind us on Cookman Avenue.

Every store had been boarded up or closed or vacated.

It was a gamble at the time, but it was a rebirth.

[Darley] You know, I love supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs when I'm traveling, and there are a lot of choices here in Asbury Park.

I heard there was a really special bakery that specializes in rock and roll pastries.

Confections of a Rockstar Bakery is run by former rock 'n' roll drummer Kimmee Masi, who helps me decide on wh at delicious treat to taste.

-A Cranberry pistachio scone or a pop tart?

-Pop tart.

There's nothing like a homemade pop tart.

And this is delicious.

The strawberry, the flaky pastry.

Mm-mm.

Mm-hm.

Asbury Park's LGBTQ+ community di dn't just burgeon with new restaurants in the early 2000s.

Back in the early 1990s, Laura Pople helped bring th e Pride Parade to Asbury Park.

1992 was the first year of the Pride Parade here in Asbury Park, but why Asbury Park, and why at that time?

-The community had just come off of a successful eight-year campaign to have our law against discrimination at the state level amended to include sexual orientation.

At that time, we were only the fifth state in the country, so we set out to do a Pride Parade, a pride event here in New Jersey, a statewide one.

Asbury Park, at that time, had business and resident community, LGBTQ+ community, and we couldn't come up with anything that was more quintessentially New Jersey than our boardwalk.

And so, we felt this would be the perfect destination.

So, here we are.

Every year, we come back to it, so I feel pretty good about Asbury as our partner.

[Darley] With a parade and restaurants comes nightlife, too.

The Empress is a hotel resort dating back to the 1960s, catering to families originally.

Judy Garland and Liza Minelli on ce vacationed at The Empress, and today, the original st ructure has been transformed, keeping historic details alive.

Tonight, it's the place to be for Drag Bingo.

And though I don't win a prize, I have fun getting to know more of As bury Park's diverse community.

During the late 1800s to the early 1900s, there were lots of grand hotels in Asbury Park.

Not many have survived.

[Kay Harris] Over time, many of the visitors, instead of staying for the whole summer and the whole weekend, became day trippers.

So, we no longer needed hundreds and hundreds of hotels.

Grand hotels, cottages, boarding houses... [Darley] I meet Kay Harris, President of the Asbury Park Historical Society at the Berkeley Hotel, one of the few of these grand hotels to survive.

[Kay Harris] The Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel, which was originally called the Berkeley Carteret Hotel, was actually designed by Warren and Wetmore, and they're the same architects who actually designed the Convention Hall and the Paramount as well as the Grand Central Station in New York.

[Darley] So neat to be in this iconic old hotel and then to look out across and see all the amazing architecture that's still preserved here in Asbury Park.

[Kay Harris] Yeah, absolutely.

It's something that we almost take for granted.

And unfortunately, we have lost several structures, but we are trying to preserve those that we have left.

[Darley] Kay's organization, the Asbury Park Historical Society, now occupies the Stephen Crane House - former home of the prolific short story writer who wrote The Red Badge of Courage.

[Tom Chesek] It was completely gutted.

It was boarded up.

It was abandoned.

So, the story of the Steven Crane House, if you're looking for a building that really encapsulates Asbury Park history from the 1870s to the present, this is the place.

A story of ruin and rescue and redemption and reimagining in the new century.

[Darley] Tom Chesek shares the story of Asbury Park during Crane's time here.

[Tom Chesek] He began his writing career while he was living here as a teenager.

Asbury, of course, in the Gilded Age, was quite the fancy resort.

People like Oscar Wilde and the Prince of Wales, and, you know, they all flocked to Asbury in those days.

He had a kind of a love-hate relationship, I would say, with Asbury.

His father was a prominent minister in North Jersey.

He had passed away by the time they moved here.

Everything that his father inveighed against, you know, drinking, smoking, dancing, carousing, and music, this is all stuff that Stevie was into.

[Darley] There's now a community push to keep buildings like the Stephen Crane House preserved, and to restore others wi th a strong cultural legacy.

-And there was an urgency to capture the stories and share it with the next generation.

[Darley] Jennifer Souder and Yvonne Clayton meet me in a church by Springwood Avenue.

They're part of the Asbury Park Af rican American Music Project working to revitalize a historic music club along Springwood Ave, The Turf Club.

-I grew up here, so I remember the Springwood Avenue that used to be that you could walk down the street and there was music coming out of the stores and nightclubs and I couldn't go in, but I could hear the music.

And musicians on their breaks, they would go from one club to the other just to hear the music playing.

We knew the Turf Club was there, the last standing music venue, and this was a safe place, especially for African Americans to come and be entertained without fear, without discrimination.

And it became our goal to see what we could do to preserve that building.

-Yvonne and I and a group, a small group of people, decided to just work together on documenting the stories and the musicians.

[Yvonne Clayton] All of these musicians showed up that we're still here.

That's how we first found Vel Johnson.

[smooth jazz saxophone music] -As far as I can remember, the music scene was unbelievable.

It was part of the reason why I'm even here right now, because it's just all kind of you absorb it all.

And the Turf was a major part of the music scene here.

I wrote a song for the Turf.

It's called A Night At the Turf.

[upbeat jazz music] [Yvonne Clayton] For us, this project speaks to our hearts, and that is to reopen that building and make it a place where live music can be heard on Springwood Avenue once again.

[Darley] In Asbury Park's residential neighborhoods, I find another architectural treasure, the Asbury Park Public Library.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it has an original Louis Comfort Ti ffany-stained glass window designed by artist Theodore Russel Davis.

Mayor, your family has deep roots here in Asbury Park.

-Yes.

My great grandfather moved to Asbury Park in 1888.

[Darley] It's a great place to meet three-term Mayor John Moor for coffee and further insight into Asbury Park's past and future.

How did the Renaissance happen?

Because there's a continued renaissance happening here in Asbury Park.

-Organically, small businesses, small stores have brought back the city and made it a mecca for the entire county, if not the state.

And then developers came in and said, money can be made here.

And they've done some fantastic developments.

Every year, like we're named like number one or number two beach in the country with number one or two boardwalk.

We get so much credit because of all the work put in by so many.

[Darley] Another structure standing strong and well supported by the locals is Frank's Deli, where owner Joe Maggio has become famous for serving a Central Jersey tradition.

[Joe Maggio] Pork roll, egg, and cheese.

-Three slabs.

-Three slices of pork roll, cheese, and egg on top, fried egg on a poppy roll.

-So, if I travel to... -Washington, D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania... [Darley] Not going to find this.

-Not going to find it.

[Darley] I heard that there's a little bit of a... maybe a controversy.

-If you're in Hoboken, Jersey City, it's Taylor Ham.

Come south of the Edison Bridge, it's pork roll.

-Now, why would one--?

-No idea why.

It's just the way it is.

[Darley] How long has Frank's Deli been around?

[Joe Maggio] 1960, we opened, and I've been working here since 1969.

Seven decades.

-[Darley] You came in, and you just didn't leave.

-[Joe Maggio] That's it.

My father didn't feel good.

He went home one day.

He left me on the grill and said, Joe, take over, and I'm still here.

-I love bacon, egg, and cheese.

Big fan of breakfast.

So, this I'm excited to try.

-[Joe Maggio] There you go.

-Mmm.

This is delicious.

-A good sandwich.

[Darley] Cheese.

That pork.

And the fact that you've seared it.

How many of these pork, egg, and cheese you sell each week?

[Joe Maggio] Probably about a thousand or so.

-That's a lot of pork roll.

-A lot of pork roll.

[Darley] I'm heading next to a diner, and this one's housed inside Asbury Lanes, a bowling alley dating back to the 1960s.

There's a lot to do within this re novated historic landmark, as Ferran Sanfelimon explains.

-State of the art bowling alley, event space, diner.

-So you can come here, and you can grab a drink, see some live music, maybe dance a little.

Go to the diner, or go bowling.

I love it, boozy shakes.

Cinnamon cereal crunch.

That sounds great.

[Ferran Sanfelimon] Let's do it.

[Darley] Wow.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh, my goodness.

This looks awesome.

Mmm.

So good.

Adjoining Asbury Lanes is a hotel that's housed in an old Salvation Army building that had fallen into disrepair.

[Ferran Sanfelimon] Welcome to the Asbury Hotel.

[Darley] Cool space.

[Ferran Sanfelimon] This used to be the old Salvation Army building.

We decided to keep the brick walls, the steel structure, and then they decided to complete the full renovation that turned it into the hotel.

-I like how you renovated it, though.

This is so fun, using the existing windows spaces... -[Ferran Sanfelimon] Exactly.

-[Darley] ...has beautiful flowers coming out and plants, and it's super cool.

It's neat that you were able to take this building with its history and preserve elements of it and keep that alive while updating it, making it fun and modern.

-It is very nice, and also, it's very rewarding to see hotel guests coming back, remembering stories from their childhood.

So, it's very cool to see that.

[Darley] No trip to the Jersey Shore would be complete without hitting an old-fashioned arcade.

Patty Barber introduces me to a living, interactive museum at Silverball Retro Arcade.

How long has this been on the boardwalk?

[Patty Barber] We've been on the boardwalk for about 14 years.

We came right before things built back up in Asbury.

-I love the nostalgia, but I also love that you're still bringing in new things.

-That was a goal of mine when we recently renovated was to bring us to a place where young people of every age, every type of person, would enjoy us so that we weren't just pigeonholed into one area where it was just a nostalgic thing.

Young people find a game themselves that they really enjoy and that becomes theirs.

But the older games remind people of a time when they played.

-Love it.

Here's Pac-Man... -Hm.

The whole family, Baby, Missus, and Pac Man, and the music, the lights, the whole experience brings everybody together.

And we're pretty proud of that because that's what it was all about, just being in a place where people can forget everything and have fun.

-So, I might have gotten sucked into the games here at Silverball Arcade.

It's been awesome exploring culture, history, architecture and more here in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Thanks so much for joining me.

I'm not going to get over you, Tim, don't worry.

-[both laughing heartily] -We've only just begun.

-At the beach.

A stone's throw away from The Stone Pony.

Has anyone ever said that?

That's actually-- -That's a lot of pork roll.

-That's a lot of-- there's a lot of pork roll.

-Yeah.

-It's a theme.

-Yeah.

A lot of pork roll.

-Do you have a favorite memory of playing here?

Or is it today, right now, when we're filming?

-Yeah.

-This is for Bob.

Yay.