Helen-Chantal Pike

West Long Branch Revisited Helen-Chantal Pike

West Long Branch Revisited is the long awaited follow up volume to Helen-Chantal Pike's first pictorial narrative. Here she tells the stories of the well-landscaped properties, storied summer cottages, and families who gave the borough its distinctive country character. Nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the fertile farmland of New Jersey's coastal plain, West Long Branch has always had a town-and-country personality. It was tilled by the descendants of some of the original settlers into the early 20th century, and later it developed a distinct commercial hub and an industrial area. Concurrently, prosperous New Yorkers originally drawn to cosmopolitan Long Branch developed bucolic vacation homes in this small town. They created a vibrant community that can still be found today. Following World War II and the rise in post-secondary educational opportunities, various cottages were converted to classrooms as West Long Branch evolved into the town-and-gown community it is today.