No. 101
“THE CHANNEL APARTMENTS” – The image shown here is titled “Sunset Drive, from Ninety-sixth Street, Stone Harbor, N. J.” The caption printed on the reverse side of this vintage post card states: “Sunset Drive following the contour of the State Inland Waterway and the Seven Yacht Basins through the wonderful bungalow colony at Stone Harbor”. The large 3-story apartment building is prominently shown here on the left overlooking the Great Channel. As you look northward along Sunset Drive, take just a brief moment to notice just how many structures already appear in the background. Remember it was the area north of 96th Street that was the so-called epicenter of Stone Harbor. That area would be referred to as “Old” or “original” Stone Harbor. For your information, the Channel Apartments were opened 1913 and this post card was published in the same year.
This next very early post card showing a close-up view of the Channel Apartments also contains a caption on the reverse side stating: “Channel Apartments, Ninety-fourth Street and Sunset Drive, Stone Harbor: its large rear porches overlooking Great Channel. Each suite contain five rooms and bath, fully furnished”. This view also appears to depict the apartment building as brand new and just having been completed. There has been no landscaping, any shrubbery or any planted vegetation growing on the trellises at the time this photo was taken.
This cropped image appeared in a local 1916 real estate booklet for the purpose of promoting and advertising various rental housing opportunities that were available in Stone Harbor for the Summer season of 1916. Featuring a photo of the Channel Apartments, the accompanying description is most helpful in providing important details to prospective renters: “94th Street and Sunset Drive. First floor suites, 5 rooms and bath (2 bedrooms). Rent, June 1 to October 1, furnished, $185. Second and third floors suites, 4 rooms and bath (2 bedrooms), large front and rear porches (latter may be used as dining rooms). Rent, season, furnished, $175 each”. What a remarkably good deal!
This post card was released around 1917 or thereabouts and is representative of a change in post card production: the industry now had the ability to publish post cards in dramatic color. Such printing innovations spurred the use and appeal of sending post cards when so many more people were taking to the roads traveling and vacationing. The color images came into vogue and seemed to make places depicted on post cards “come to life”.
Here is the last photograph taken by my good friend Jim Talone on September 26, 2022 that depicts the structures and showing exterior changes and dramatic improvements that have occurred over the last 110 years since the 1913 opening of what was originally the Channel Apartments. We know that each unit today is fully modernized and up to code and has a total of 5 rooms including a living room, a somewhat smallish kitchen area, 2 full baths and 2 bedrooms. Built or reconstructed about 1987, 3 of the units have both an open-air covered front porch as well as a small open-air covered deck or porch area in the rear facing the bay. The other 3 units on the south part of the building while they lack a front porch, do have a covered porch area in the back facing the bay as well as direct access to the wrap-around uncovered porch facing the south to give them unfettered views in two directions and giving them full benefit of evening sunsets. The actual living spaces of these units varies between 663 and 800 square feet. Today there is a boat slip with a floating dock capable of accommodating several boats, perhaps as many as 6 or space for 1 boat for each unit.
In closing and as I was selecting various images to use for this particular article, I came upon something quite interesting that I would like to share with you. Out of habit and whenever I look at a post card, I automatically flip the card over to see if it was postally used and more importantly discover if there was a hand-written or printed message. I have noticed that a common theme or recurring refrain (a comment or statement that is often repeated) seems to have played out both back in yesteryear as well as today and it has to do with rental units and their availability. I couldn’t help but notice what was penned on the message side of a certain 1920s Stone Harbor post card. Here’s exactly what that person wrote: “Almost impossible to get accommodations”. Wow, have we heard that before?
I know I sure have as that speaks to the immense popularity of vacation planning that many families have invariably experienced at one time or another over the years. Such shortages of available rental units in Stone Harbor have sometimes necessitated checking on rental units in neighboring communities like Avalon for example. It’s no surprise that many will book very early in advance to assure themselves a chance to once more to enjoy Stone Harbor – “The Seashore At Its Best”!