When wealthy New Yorkers in the Gilded Age sought to escape the “heated term,” as summer was called, they certainly didn’t board a ferry to Coney Island with the masses.
The “watering place” many of the new rich fled to was Long Branch, New Jersey, where enormous hotels and cottages (aka, mansions) housed the new rich, as well as actors, artists, and seven U.S. presidents.
In 1869, Winslow Homer, who sketched scenes there for leading magazines early in his career, captured one summer moment in “Long Branch, New Jersey,” the name of the lovely painting above.
In both the painting and the sketch at left, a white flag has been raised, indicating that the bathing hour for proper ladies had begun.
In the painting, two well-dressed women shield themselves from the sun in a sky so blue, it could be the Mediterranean. Long Branch was actually known as the American Boulogne, after a seaside town in northern France.
Tags: Church of the 7 Presidents Long Branch, Gilded Age New York Summer, Long Branch Gilded Age resort, Summer Resorts NYC rich, Winslow Homer Long Branch
Ephemeral New York 
July 4, 2016 at 5:24 am |
Exquisite! So much better than Long Island!
July 4, 2016 at 2:09 pm |
this is lovely…the New Jersey shore is so rich in history
On Sun, Jul 3, 2016 at 11:40 PM, Ephemeral New York wrote:
> ephemeralnewyork posted: “When wealthy New Yorkers in the Gilded Age > sought to escape the “heated term,” as summer was called, they certainly > didn’t board a ferry to Coney Island with the masses. The “watering place” > many of the new rich fled to was Long Branch, New Jersey, whe” >
August 18, 2016 at 7:44 am |
[…] Despite the hopes of its Gilded Age developer, the spectacular oceanside resort of Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn never developed the cache of old money Newport or elegant Long Branch. […]
March 6, 2017 at 6:30 am |
[…] what was called the “heated term,” fire escapes became outdoor bedrooms, the summer porches of the […]