No. 39
How can you beat this great deal?
In this descriptive and illustrated 1917 advertisement, the South Jersey Realty Co. is conducting a great sale scheduled for July 28, 1917 and continuing until September 3, 1917.
The title of this particular ad announces “One of the Beautiful, Fully Furnished Bungalows Offered at This Great Auction Sale”. These very bungalows were promoted as being convenient and easily accessible to both the Great Channel or the back bay as well as the beach.
The following is an exhaustive and detailed listing of just what was being provided and included with these bungalows. It’s a rather lengthy list and here is essentially what that listing detailed: electric light, sanitary sewerage and daintily furnished with white enamel bed, 2 woven wire spring mattress cots and linen couch covers, 4 Crex (name of an established carpet company) rugs, dining table, centre table, rocking and straight chairs, quartered oak bureau with plate glass mirror, shirtwaist box, completed shower bath, porcelain lavatory, vitreous china closet, front and side entrances with a 3 step rise, fresh and airy cottage due to so many windows, window shades, wickless blue-flame oil stove, Russian iron oven, ice chest, cooking utensils and dishes, an area for outdoor sitting or socializing and even a place for hanging out one’s laundry on a line to dry outdoors.
In conclusion this ad characterizes these charming bungalows as the “Ford Automobile” of seashore real estate. These complete, practical and inexpensive units would rent for from $88 to $128 a year and sell for $1,200.
This second advertisement is related to the first but it appeared in a different publication. This eye-catching 2-color ad shown here, while certainly not as descriptive as the first ad, nevertheless portrays two photographs depicting: (1) crowds of prospective buyers on an inspection tour of Stone Harbor and approaching the newly completed boardwalk as they are headed to the Auditorium Pier and various seaside amusements; and (2) the arrival of an excursion train and more potential investors by way of the Reading Railroad. This “Greatest Auction Sale” set for the same period of time as the initial ad shown earlier from July 28, 1917 to September 3, 1017 highlights a whopping total of 607 “Fully Improved Lots”. These are water front, residential and business sites along with 7 fully furnished and newly constructed bungalows. It should be very clear that this represented a significant marketing strategy utilized by the South Jersey Realty Co. and what’s more, we know it was a resounding success.
So what do you say? You wanna get in line to buy or rent one of these bungalows along with the rest of us?