The Beach Haven Library will host Margaret Thomas Buchholz on May 21st at 1:00 pm as she presents a slide show based on recently acquired and rarely seen photos of old Barnegat City from about 1900 to 1920.

 The town was very small and very different back then. In fact, much of what was the town more than 100 years ago is now under water, and what wasn't sandy beach and dunes or bay-front meadows was covered with trees and bushes with a few cottages with water pumps and outhouses.

Visitors came either by boat from Barnegat on the mainland or on the train. The tracks ran along what is the now the main road; one photo shows an airplane being pulled along the street.

Two large hotels were built on the oceanfront and near the bay. You will see where they were when developers decided to challenge the supremacy of Beach Haven and Atlantic City as a summer resort, and what happened to them when attacked by the storms of 1919 to 1920.

Many of the photos of the Lighthouse are spectacular, including ones of it being threatened by the storms and the local effort to save it.

Join us for a walk back in time!  Call the library at 609-492-7081 or email library@beachhaven-nj.gov to register. 

Margaret Thomas Buchholz was born in Manhattan and moved with her parents to Long Beach Island just in time to be evacuated by the Coast Guard during a northeaster. She started her education in a one-room school in Barnegat Light. After graduating Cedar Crest College, she and her husband purchased The Beachcomber, which she published seasonally for 35 years. After selling the publication to Jersey Shore Newsmagazines, she stayed on as editor. She currently divides her time between Key West, Maine and Harvey Cedars on Barnegat Bay, where her family has been coming since the middle of the 19th Century.