Research Materials

A history of local kidnapping, murder, smuggling and extortion. Order from AHHS partly benefits AHHS. Mail a check for $22 (book $19.99, S&H $2.01) to Atlantic Highlands Historical Society PO Box 108 Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716.

Atlantic Highlands: From Lenape Camps to Bayside Town

By local historian Paul Boyd. 160 pages. 70 illustrations. $24.99.
Published by Arcadia.

Our new town history covers four centuries in a flowing narrative, fills big factual gaps in our past, and debunks old myths. For example: The Indians were not just summer visitors here. Henry Hudson
was not such a nice man. Our people were not all patriotic rebels during the Revolutionary War. Blacks did not arrive after the Civil War, but in the 1690s. Our town founder was not a selfless visionary, but had capitalist and religious motives. With fires and liquor battles, our Victorian resort was not all swimming and socials. The town harbor began in 1917 as "Snyder's bathtub," not in the 1940s. The 1920s were not just "roaring" but also boozy, with illegal liquor worth $100 million a year coming through here.

Buy books ... and build the roof!

The Atlantic Highlands Historical Society (AHHS) bought bulk copies at a discount and is the book's sales agent in town. The difference is a fund-raiser for the Society. Proceeds will go toward getting the new roof
that is desperately needed on the Strauss Mansion Museum -- the core symbol of the Victorian era in town.

Get your copies by mail or in person
- Send us a check with your name, mailing address and desired number of copies. The book will be
sent by US mail. Check should be payable to Atlantic Highlands Historical Society. Information and check should be sent to: AHHS, P.O. Box 108, Atlantic Highlands, N.J. 07716. (Book price is $24.99, postage & handling are $1.51 (no sales tax), making total cost of $26.50)
- Visit the Strauss Mansion Museum at Prospect and Mount Avenues any Sunday between 1 and 4 pm and buy copies. Check or cash. Sorry, no credit cards.
- Get copies at the Arts and Crafts Festival August 21 (Veterans Park), Flea Market September 11 (harbor), or Town History Celebration November 19 and 20 (St Agnes Church Hall).
- Buy copies any day at Atlantic Artisans, Bayshore Pharmacy, Book Compound, Books Once Read, or Indulgence Cafe, with proceeds also going fully to the Historical Society.

A number of maps are available loose in drawers and on display around the Strauss Mansion.

The maps in this scrapbook were all made for purposes of selling lots, and were prepared for real estate sales agents or development entrepreneurs. Twenty-three maps are for Atlantic Highlands dating between 1881 and 1942, and there are labels for five more maps which are missing. In addition, 23 maps are for Highlands, 4 for Rumson, 2 for Fair Haven, one each for Little Silver, Red Bank, and Holmdel, and 2 for Shark River Hills.

Almost all the maps are accompanied by numbers which appear on separate labels or on markings on the maps themselves. Two different numbering systems are used. One system provides numbering from "IV-2" through "IV-1202". The other system has the letters "O.N" followed by numbering. The significance and meaning of these labels has not been discovered. One possibility is that O.N. are the initials of the name of the unknown compiler.

The Atlantic Highlands Historical Society has numerous maps of land tracts in Atlantic Highlands and neighboring areas which were prepared in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Tract maps were typically drawn up to show lot configurations when lands were subdivided for sale and house construction. Some maps cover a single tract, while others include several tracts and many lots across a wider area. The date of a tract map can be a clue to the ages of houses built on its lots.

Some maps contain proposed developments which were mapped out as an enticement for buyers and include roads, artificial lakes and other attractive features which were never built. Occasionally, tracts were divided into multiple lots that were very small in size, but buyers always combined several lots when building houses.

Since many of the original maps are delicate from age, folding, the flimsy paper used, or repeated use, they presently can only be seen on request at the Strauss Mansion.

Tax map books of Atlantic Highlands as published in 1924, 1966 and 1974 showing all block and lot numbers.

Maps show exact footprint of all buildings, construction materials, uses and other details related to fire risk and insurance coverage. One volume is from 1907 updated to 1916 and has 5 plates. The second volume is from 1923 and has 6 plates.

Story from Blackfoot people of the Plains about how sacred knowledge of the Sun Dance was given to the Blackfoot people.