132 Years Old, about to Be Lit and Splashing Around
After years of being hauled around, a 132 year-old Lakewood fountain has a secure location in front of the Sheldon Wolpin Historical Museum in Pine Park. The fountain faced an uncertain future when the Lakewood post office building was sold to a private investor in 2018. Lifelong residents Steve Wexler, chairman of the Lakewood Heritage Commission, VP of the Lakewood Historical Society, and a retired Lakewood police detective; and Bob Kirschner, chairman of the LIC (Lakewood Industrial Commission) decided to relocate the fountain to the Lakewood Historical Museum in Pine Park. A crane truck from the Arnold Steel Company moved the fountain to its new home in front of the museum.
In 2022, with the help of Lakewood Mayor Ray Coles and Block Grant Coordinator Ervin Oross, funding was secured to restore the fountain. Work began in October of 2023 to restore the fountain with lighting and flowing water. Victor Sevcenko. Owner of VKS Welding LLC, Jackson, and his crew fabricated a custom metal bracket to hang heavy lights on the fountain.
The fountain had its origin in 1891 when about 75 Lakewood citizens donated around $550.00 to create and install a water fountain on Clifton Avenue, Lakewood, N.J., near Main Street, for the use of horses and dogs as they traveled up and down the avenue during the day.
That year, Captain Albert Bradshaw, the postmaster who owned the post office building on the Southeastern corner of Main and Clifton Avenues, and William Harrison, who owned a drugstore at the corner of Main Street and Clifton Avenue, commissioned the J. L. Mott Iron Works Company of New York City to manufacture a fountain.
The completed project was shipped in 1891 at no charge to Lakewood via the Central Jersey Railroad and unloaded at Main Street. The fountain was then hauled by horse and wagon to the corner of Main and Clifton and positioned on Clifton Avenue on the West side of the Laurel House Hotel next to the curb.
In 1938, as horseless carriages took over the roads and the need for the watering trough disappeared, the fountain was then moved by the Lakewood Public Works Department to a location on Main Street across from St. Mary’s Church, commonly referred to as Campbell Park.
In 1983, when Clifton Avenue was rebuilt including lighting, repaving, and new brick sidewalks, architect Mark Pavliv, Spring Lake, who was born in Lakewood and working on restoring the Strand Theater, helped in getting the fountain relocated through the Department of Transportation to the corner of Clifton Avenue and Main Street near the curb, close to the fountain’s original place.
Wexler and Kirschner are hoping to have the fountain fully operational with lighting and flowing water by 2024. For more information, call Steve Wexler at 732-300-7881.
About the Sheldon Wolpin Historical Museum: Kuser Hall, the last remaining building of five that made up the Newman School, an exclusive preparatory boarding school for boys, closed in 1942. The building, which the township acquired in 1964 through Green Acres Funding, was the math and science center of the school.
Through the volunteer efforts of members in the Historical Society and the Heritage Commission, Kuser Hall has been transformed into a showcase, featuring Lakewood memorabilia and artifacts. The Township gave both groups a long-term lease in 2012 and it has taken four years to create six galleries on the first floor and a main hallway, depicting scenes of “old” Lakewood.
Some of the renovations include power washing and painting the building; installing handicap ramps, interior and exterior lighting, a security system, and restroom facilities; and replacing 550 plus panes of glass. A fountain from 1891 originally commissioned by a group of Lakewood residents was moved from Clifton Avenue to the front of the museum. The museum also boasts a mono-wing airplane in the southeastern outside corner of the building as part of some hands-on exhibits.
The Ocean County Society of Model Railroaders has relocated from downtown Lakewood to the lower level of the museum where members have built exhibits, one for O Gauge and the other of HO Gauge model trains.