Can Hope REALLY Rise from the Ashes in Ocean Grove?

Beautiful Historic Ocean Grove NJ, is a seaside resort town boasting street after street of beautiful, highly ornate Victorian buildings.

This is the town that gives gingerbread ornamentation its name.

Sadly on March 13, 2010 a devastating 4-alarm fire struck Ocean Grove NJ.

The fire burned through nine structures, six were destroyed including the Manchester Inn B&B at the heart of Ocean Grove.

While this catastrophe cannot be undone, there was always hope that these buildings would be rebuilt with utmost accuracy as places such as Warsaw Poland were rebuilt after being destroyed during WWII. And today anything is possible.

Now four years later, the buildings destroyed by fire have been rebuilt.

As these buildings have been rebuilt, many other Victorian buildings in town have been remodeled. This construction has resulted in many changes to Ocean Grove over the years.

Good bye historic Victorians, welcome Disneyland

To the tourist visiting Ocean Grove I am sure they are amazed by the fancy gingerbread covered buildings everywhere they look.

However, to someone who knows old buildings and how they are designed, this quaint, picturesque town is slowly morphing into a Disneyland of plastic want-to-be Victorian architecture.  Similar to a movie set, architectural features wow the viewer as a distraction from noticing bad building design and poor construction.

There are still many gorgeous wood Victorians with their original wood windows or accurate historic replacements that still glorify Ocean Grove.  However, fires and insensitive “home improvements” open doors to bad design – changes that conflict with the original design and architecture of the building.

The Manchester Inn is Born Again

Above are two Sanborn Maps above showing the Manchester in 1890 and in 1905.

The shapes are based on the foundation.
A dotted line defines a porch.
Numbers depict the number of floors.

Notice that:

• The road seems to have been widened by 1905 as you see the front property become smaller.
• The rear of the Manchester expanded and attached to the neighboring house.
• The neighboring house (later combined with the Manchester) added a side porch (dotted line depicts a porch)

The Google Earth view is from September 2010 – six months after the fire.

The ruins have been removed and property is cleared making way for new construction.

The house on the left sure is a stunning Victorian.  A show-stopper for all passing by unless they take the time to look more closely!

As shown on the early Sanborn Maps above, these two 19^th century houses became one in the 1920’s. Now after the fire there are two houses once again.

Let’s take a closer look at that fretwork (gingerbread).

Victorian fretwork.

As you can see from the old/new combined photo it appears that company doing the work basically did a nice job. However!!!!

Is there anything you notice that looks a bit “off”?

Look at the balustrade (railing) in the historic photo.  There are three floors of railings.  The first floor is mostly covered with Wisteria vine. Look at the other two and see how nicely they work with the building.

Now look at the railings on the new construction – scroll up, I’ll wait! The railings are not in proportion with the building.  The new railings are much higher.

The top of the hand rail on a typical house should NOT be above the window sill.  That makes the railing a height of about 24”. See how low the historic hand rail is? It’s probably about 24” high.

Actually, if you look at the design in the new building, the railing appears to be stretched for the extra height.

Having a railing that low (24″) is prohibited by Building Code unless the building is historic.  This building is not historic but a reproduction, so unfortunately code wins out.  We know this is a requirement and a safety regulation but no matter what, a railing that high looks bad on any house.

In a town like Ocean Grove, one would think an exception could be made.  This is both the fault of the Architects and a weak Historic Preservation Commission for allowing them to make such a mess and bully lawyers representing the owner. Although most of us are accustomed to seeing ugly high railings, when looking at a house and comparing, you will see how much better an architecturally correct railing looks.

To really understand this and see for yourself, visit my Porch Page .  There are more details about railing height and comparison photos to help you understand the importance of a properly designed porch.

The architect was aware of the height issue and the way this building code problem was approached was OK.  The design however shows a railing that lacks cohesiveness.

Below is my recommendation for handling this railing to make it both architecturally correct for a historic building and code compliant. The best remedy however would be for building code to make an allowance and do it the original way.

Modified porch railing height. Notice the black painted rail increased the height but separates itself from the design.

• Make the top of the railing window sill height. Beef up the hand rail by adding a sub-rail.  See how thin the builders railing is? Extra trim for a stronger and prettier appearance should be added, otherwise it looks like it came right out of Home Depot!
• Beef up the Foot Rail by adding an apron.

Now you have sawn balusters in the center that are not stretched and better match the historic photo; a hand and foot rail with extra trim to appear thicker and historically accurate.

Look and compare.

Now the part I don’t like is making the railing conform to code.  By adding an upper railing and painting it black or the body color, it will be minimally visible and not effect the architectural design and scaling.

In reality the code does NOT require a railing when the porch is so low.  Railings ARE required on the other floors so it is best to make each floor match.

A Design to Make your Railing Last

There is another change I would make.

A porch takes quite a lot of abuse from the weather and should be designed to make it last as long as possible.

Here is a photo of the current foot rail.

It is flat and rain water will collect on it.  You know why we don’t want that!

Maybe the builder will get more business when the rail rots out.

An Important Piece of the Porch is Missing!

A porch is constructed with a floor and a roof.  In this case the roof also becomes the next floor above.

Both the roof and floor are supported by a beam. There are posts that hold up the roof.  These posts sit on the floor and support the beam that the roof or floor above rests on.

Simple and basic – this applies to a every building  – historic and contemporary.

Your inner senses expect to see this visual support even if the house is made of cardboard.

Well – look at the image to the right. This beam (the entablature) is missing on the 2^nd floor.

The posts are attached right to the bead-board ceiling appearing as if they may poke through the ceiling at any moment.

How could this architectural blunder happen? Would you want your house to look like this?

The scroll-work is attached the same way. You would never see this on an old building. Drive around and look.

Porch Posts

Is this house crooked?

You don’t need to be a carpenter or need a ruler to see this problem.  My first thought was that when they built the 2nd floor there was a strong ocean breeze blowing everything to the left.  A center post too far to the right proves that theory wrong. I would also think the builders were intoxicated but Ocean Grove is a dry town.

One post is correctly lined up and the other four are not.

Someone paid 1.5 million for this great work by PHJ Architects & Contractors of Spring Lake.

Window Design

Notice the side windows.

Doesn’t it look strange that they are located so close to the end of the building?

This building originally had shutters.  If one were to add shutters there would be no room for them.

Now imagine yourself inside this house or your own.

How would you like to have a window shoved way in the corner?

While many windows today are picture framed and lack a crown on top and a sill on the bottom, this window is the designed correctly.

However, the casing is way too narrow! The casing should be 4-4.5 “ wide, not the 3.5 inch width.

A window design should not be based on the convenience and low cost of stock sized lumber.

Why does this matter?  It matters to our inner senses. Structure, scale, and proportion go hand in hand.

Our minds are hard wired expecting to see an opening in a large wall (a window) supported by a reasonably sized frame (casing). Visit my aesthetics page for more info.

A builder that is supposed to be familiar with historic design should know what size a window casing should be.  This house is not cheap and should not be cheaply built.

There is an additional problem with the windows installed in this house and many new homes today.

While the window colors look great, there is a problem with the color placement. It is a manufacturing design problem that is probably unnoticed by the buyer and really makes a big difference.

Windows are the eyes of the house and their design is very important.  Click here to learn more about what you need to be aware of with new windows.

Conclusion

There are many other small issues I have with this building but will not go into here.  The points stated about this house are the same for the newly constructed house next door (other half of the Manchester).  Other homes in Ocean Grove and other towns are not immune to this.

The point I would like to make is that a historic house CAN be replicated.  This house was replicated to a point that the fancy gingerbread distracts us from noticing the many basic and important design errors.

I hope the owner that paid $1,500,000 for this house did not expect a historically designed house.  The burning of the Mainstay Inn and the other houses were a great loss.  Disneyland buildings however need to be recognized for what they really are and not be credited as historic.

There is a Preservation Commission that is entrusted to, and should have been overseeing the construction of this building and the rehabilitation of the many other buildings in town. This commission can only do so much however when a developer’s henchmen control the board of adjustment.

Many Victorian buildings sadly stand out as Disneyland and not Ocean Grove.  Through this article, hopefully the public will learn and become aware of the difference.