Retro Rumson Beach Boys & Girl & Clubbing History

Rumson girl and beach boys of the 60s
Photo/courtesy of Cindy Crowley

A reprise for history’s sake …

The Rumson beach boys of the 1960s no sooner made their retro appearance than the iconic spot of their clubbing and lifeguard stand antics became a focal point of the snapshot.

And there’s a sequel with a girl added to the beach boy mix, apparently having broken up the standoff on the lifeguard stand, calming top spot. Mayhem ensued. Meanwhile, back at the club …

Longtime beach clubbers in the area recognized it as the old Chapel Beach Club, and even before that, Elliot’s, as former Rumson Mayor John Ekdahl tells us. Now, it’s Sea Bright Bathing Pavilion, or SBBP.

And one RFH, or then Rumson High School grad, whose family owned the club, offered a little iconic spot history and anecdotes about his day on the beach sun back in a wartime era. His beach frolicking was a different, more guarded sort than the beach times of these 60s Deane-Porter Rumson kids’ raiding the lifeguard stand.

His name is Charles “Chuck” Seymour, a 1951 Rumson High grad and Navy vet, and here’s his story, told in an email to R-FH Retro, about Chapel Beach Club times back in his day …

“A familiar sight from many, many years ago. The property in the photo was purchased by my grandfather, Charles V. Shropshire, and his partner, John Naughton, from a Mr. Sandlass who had established a beach club on the site.

“The new owners expanded the business over time using the former church as the main structure, and it became the Sea Bright Bathing Pavilion, more familiarly know as SBBP.

“I was born in 1933 and our entire family enjoyed our access to the ocean and all that the place brought to us. My first real job was as a locker boy then later parking attendant there.

“The war years brought home to us kids that our country was being attacked in our area by the presence of enemy U-Boats off our shores. Beach access was denied from 6 PM to 8AM by patrolling soldiers and horse mounted Coast Guard personal.

“No cameras nor binoculars were permitted and if discovered were confiscated on the spot. Several times us kids were run off the beach as debris and thick waves of oil floated in from ships that were torpedoed off shore. Mixed in were the remains of some ships’ crews.

“After the war, things returned to a more normal life. I graduated from RHS in 1951 and joined the Navy for a lengthy career. After my grandfather’s death, the business was continued by my grandmother and continuing partners. At her death, the partners purchased her portion of SBBP and we lost the family connection.

“Memories of learning how to swim by myself in the ocean the many hours I and my friends spent imagining ourselves as Batman & Robin, tearing around the premises corralling the bad guys, interspaced with hours in the surf, riding ever- rolling Atlantic waves.

“The photo indicates that later owners modified some of the earlier features noted by the food stand structure. As you may tell, my days on that spot of sand were indeed the happy days of summer.

“My wife and I visited Sea Bright after the hurricane that destroyed that area and it was sad to see nothing left of the old structure which had been the Chapel Beach Club.”

**Thanks, again, to RFH grad Cindy Crowley for the snapshot sequel back in time! And many thanks to the fabulous Chuck Seymour for the history lesson! Note: This photo is for exclusive publication on R-FH Retro.**