Welcome to the GREAT VACATION Information Network...
You have arrived at the place where dreams come true for vacationers who are seeking the best possible source to search out and discover the perfect place to stay on their great vacations. Yes, we said vacations (plural), because from this day forward you’ll come here again and again to review all of the vacation properties we have available, and plan your vacations and special weekend getaways.
This is your MASTER LINK to the world of GREAT VACATION INFORMATION.
Go to www.GreatVacationGuide.com and find comprehensive information on accommodations, dining, shopping, attractions, picture galleries and much, much more. Click on the word “Newsletter” on this site’s homepage and discover the Great Vacation bi-weekly online newsletter with hundreds of archived stories on what to see and do, and find the current issue with monthly community events, Atlantic City entertainers, and a host of helpful information. Through these sources link to hundreds of other informative sites for more details on what is listed here.
Go to www.GreatVacationShoreRentals.com and find the perfect Weekly Rental in your favorite shore towns throughout the state of New Jersey, with weekly rates, availability, and contact information.
We list all the shore and bay towns in the entire state, and when you go online and enter the words “GreatVacation” followed by the name of the town and NJ.com, you’ll be linked to information on the towns and resort areas that interest you. For example:
www.GreatVacationAtlanticCityNJ.com, or
www.GreatVacationOceanCityNJ.com, or
www.GreatVacationCapeMayNJ.com, etc.
Go to www.GreatVacationPropertyRentals.com and research the perfect vacation property that interests you beyond the shore areas.
It’s a big world. Someone has to help you find the best accommodations. Make it GREAT VACATION,
your MASTER LINK to the best accommodations.
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Welcome To Margate, New Jersey
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Margate Photo Slideshow (coming soon)
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The native Americans who visited the barrier islands off the coast of New Jersey found the island that contained what would one day be called Margate City a place of sand dunes, holly, wild plums, bayberry bushes, cedars and wildlife – a home to seabirds that was good for fishing and swimming and relief from summer heat, but they did not settle along its beaches, preferring instead to remain on the mainland.
The barrier island was seen by Dutch explorers and was called Abscond Island. Captain Cornelius Mey was the first white man to step onto Abscond Island in 1623. The Dutch changed the name to Eyren Haven, which was later changed to Eyre Haven, which translates as “Harbor of Eggs.” Mey went on to have the town at the southern tip of New Jersey named after him as Cape May (Anglicized from “Mey” in the Dutch language). “Abscond” became “Absecon” and the “Harbor of Eggs” became “Egg Harbor”.
The island served as a haven and launch point for whalers, for privateers who attacked British ships during the Revolutionary War, and its first known settler, Hezedidadiah Samson, was a farmer and fisherman who lived on the island during the War of 1812. Most of the Margate area was covered by bayberries and meadows at that time, and the New Jersey state legislature laid the groundwork in 1869 for the creation of the individual towns of Ventnor, Margate and Longport. The idea of creating one single city on the island was entertained for awhile, but the politicians of that era realized that this was not what the people wanted.
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Real estate entrepreneur James V. Lafferty of Philadelphia came to the Margate area in 1881. He ordered the construction of Lucy the Elephant as a tourist attraction to get people to come from Philadelphia and Atlantic City to see his huge pachyderm and perhaps buy his land. Lucy served initially as a restaurant for the people who came to see what Mr. Lafferty had created. The press of curious onlookers was enough that the Camden and Atlantic Railroad moved further south on Absecon Island.
Streets were laid out and the town that was to come began to be built. The Margate transportation system at this time consisted of cars drawn buy mules and horses that were operated in the summer months. Development continued at a goodly pace, and on August 4, 1885 the town that would become Margate was incorporated as South Atlantic City.
On May 3, 1909 the people of South Atlantic City chose to rename their town Margate City after the famous English seaside resort of Margate, England. Local leaders were convinced that the famous name would attract even more people to the city. Twenty years later in 1929, the year of the stock market crash, Atlantic City politicians asked the people of Margate if they wanted to become part of Atlantic City.
The answer was, “No!”
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Sandwiched between Ventnor and Longport, Margate, New Jersey is a community today of mostly private homes, ranging from bungalows dating to the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, to waterfront mansions on the ocean and the bay. Most towns have one shopping district, but Margate is home to two of them – both along Ventnor Avenue – and the town is a comfortable, well-maintained community with a fantastic beach along the Atlantic ocean, and a perfect bay for boating and fishing.
The town is home to fine restaurants, most of them located near the bay side of the island, plus quiet residential streets ideal for a stroll all year long. The interior of the town showcases one of the loveliest “neighborhoods” of all along any shore – an area referred to as “The Parkway” where Ventnor Avenue flanks tree-lined grass and garden areas on both sides, and four fountains grace these “dividers” separating the roadway from set-back streets that front stately homes along the walkways. It is one of the most attractive areas to be seen in any shore town.
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Margate is justifiably famous for another reason: Lucy the Margate elephant created over 125 years ago by James Lafferty. Six stories high, 90 tons in weight, and constructed from wood and tin, Lucy is a testament to an earlier time age. There were “sister” elephants in Coney Island, New York and in Cape May, New Jersey at one time, but both of them are long gone, and Lucy is the only one to survive.
Lucy is hollow inside and visitors, young and old, can climb the interior of her left rear leg, enter her belly, and learn about her history, and then climb further to her “howdah”, an open air platform under a roof on her back for a great view of the area. Visitors then exit from the “largest elephant in the world” by way of her right rear leg to visit the gift shop and nearby attractions. Lucy, by the way, is actually a “he.” See if you can figure out why Lucy ought to be named Luke.
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