Surf City, New Jersey

The Long Beach Island Consolidated School District is a regional consolidated public school district which serves students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade from five communities bordering the Atlantic Ocean on Long Beach Island, in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. Communities served by the district are Barnegat Light, Harvey Cedars, Long Beach Township, Ship Bottom and Surf City.As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of two schools, had an enrollment of 215 students and 30.7 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 7.0:1.The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "FG", the fourth-highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.As part of an effort to reduce costs associated with multiple aging facilities, the district announced in 2016 that it was considering closing the Long Beach Island Grade School and consolidating all students at Ethel A. Jacobsen Elementary School. The plan would require a $16 million bond to cover the costs of expanding and upgrading Jacobsen School to add two new wings, which would add about $50 per year in property taxes for the average homeowner, excluding any contribution from state aid or revenue from the sale of the old building.Students in public school for seventh through twelfth grades attend the Southern Regional School District, which serves the five municipalities in the Long Beach Island Consolidated School District, along with students from Beach Haven and Stafford Township, as well as students from Ocean Township (including its Waretown section) who attend as part of a sending/receiving relationship. Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Southern Regional Middle School with 902 students in grades 7–8 and Southern Regional High School with 1,975 students in grades 9–12. Both schools are in the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township.

Ship Bottom is a borough situated on the Jersey Shore, within Ocean County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 1,098, a decrease of 58 (−5.0%) from the 2010 census count of 1,156, which in turn had reflected a decline of 228 (−16.5%) from the 1,384 counted in the 2000 census. The borough is located on Long Beach Island and borders the Atlantic Ocean. The summer population can climb as high as 20,000.The borough's name was derived from a March 1817 incident in which a woman was saved from a wrecked ship that had capsized as her rescuers used axes to cut through the bottom of the hull.What is now Ship Bottom was originally incorporated as the borough of Ship Bottom-Beach Arlington by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 3, 1925, from portions of Long Beach Township, based on the results of a referendum held on May 23, 1925. The borough name was shortened to Ship Bottom in 1947.The borough is known as the "Gateway to Long Beach Island", as Route 72 provides the sole road access from Manahawkin in Stafford Township, ending in Ship Bottom as it crosses Manahawkin Bay via the Manahawkin Bay Bridge (formally known as the Dorland J. Henderson Memorial Bridge).

Long Beach Island (colloquially known as LBI, The LBI Region, or simply The Island) is a barrier island and summer colony along the Atlantic Ocean coast of Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, on the Jersey Shore. Aligned north to south, the northern portion generally has more expensive low-density housing, whereas the southern portion possesses higher-density housing and considerable commercial development. Long Beach Island is 1-2 miles away from Mainland New Jersey. The primary industries include tourism, fishing, and real estate. The only access point to the island by land is a single causeway. The island is home to about 10,000 people on a year-round basis. The population is distributed among six separate municipalities, the largest of which is Long Beach Township. However, the island's population swells significantly during the summer months and reaches about 100,000 people, including part-time residents and tourists, who are often referred to as "shoobies". The island's close-knit communities are largely affluent and contain vacation homes for wealthy individuals who reside elsewhere, primarily New Jersey as well as New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.The island and its properties and economy are expected to be severely affected by sea level rise. By 2013, sea level had increased by six inches and is expected to rise at least another six inches by 2030. Most projections suggest over a meter of sea level rise by 2100 and would require significant climate change adaptation to survive, making both property protection and an engineered retreat economically unattractive.

Manahawkin Bay is a bay in the U.S. state of New Jersey in Ocean County, located between Long Beach Island and Manahawkin, on the mainland. It is a part of the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Dorland J. Henderson Memorial Bridge, familiarly known as the Manahawkin Bay Bridge or (while technically inaccurate) The Causeway, is a steel girder bridge that spans Manahawkin Bay, carrying traffic along Route 72 between Long Beach Island (LBI) and the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township, in Ocean County, New Jersey. The bridge starts at Manahawkin and ends at Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island. The bridge spans five land masses: the mainland, Long Beach Island, and three intermediate land masses, of which two are small and one is rather large. The bridge provides views of Barnegat Bay, Little Egg Harbor Bay and the Atlantic City skyline, less than 25 miles (40 km) away.

The Harvey Cedars Hotel is the last remaining historic hotel of its size located on Long Beach Island, in the town of Harvey Cedars, New Jersey, United States. It began as a one-story house constructed by Sylvanus Cox between "soon after the War of 1812" and 1837. In 1841, Captain Samuel Perrine purchased and expanded the house into the two-story "Connahassett House at Harvest Cedars," which served as a boarding house for fishermen and duck hunters. Its biggest attraction was its public dance hall on the south side of the building. Sailing parties from other hotels came for lively square dances and reels on summer evenings. Sometime between 1865 and 1870, John Warner Kinsey began to run the hotel, and it became known as "Kinsey's." He continued as the hotel keeper until the end of June 1880. Captain Isaac and Mary Jennings were in charge of the Harvey Cedars Hotel by 1881. It was nearly self-sufficient as the property had fruit trees, gardens, animals, and an abundance of seafood from local waters. During this time, additional rooms and a porch on the south end of the hotel were built. Mary made the kitchen [2] equal to the standards of other hotels on the island, featuring a long bar. From 1886 to at least 1907, William Thompson managed the hotel, including a massive expansion of the building. The hotel was raised off the ground, creating a crawl space, and had the third floor, gambrel roof, dormers, central tower, large porches, water tower (now public bathrooms and an office), and additional rooms added to the bay side. In addition, cedar shingles replaced the white siding. Gas lamps lit the various types of rooms. As a fire precaution, Thompson covered the walls and ceilings of the main dining room (now the lobby and bookstore) with decorative tin, most of which remains today. The hotel went out of business around 1910, and Harvey Cedars Beach Company sold it by 1912. It suffered a succession of owners until sold to the YWCA of Philadelphia, which turned the property into a Christian summer camp for young women named Camp Whelen from 1923 to 1935. Camp Whelen survived until the Depression. After shutting down due to a lack of funds, the hotel was abandoned for about six years. In 1941, Presbyterian minister Jack Murray purchased the hotel and converted it into Harvey Cedars Bible Presbyterian Conference. In 1951, Jack left the operations to Al Oldham. The name was changed to Harvey Cedars Bible Conference and was run by Al until 1995 when he passed on the director position to his son, Jon Oldham. Years of neglect of the building led to Harvey Cedars Bible Conference's decisions to renovate it over the years. The former dining room (which now serves as the main lounge dedicated in memory of Jack Murray) has been kept mostly original. Two previously-exterior windows from the hotel's earliest form remain on the inside wall in this room, although boarded up and covered with curtains. All exterior windows have been replaced, but the decorative embossed steel walls and ceiling are still present, although painted over, in the inner half of the room. The gas light fixtures were replaced with electric Victorian-style chandeliers. The pocket doors on the south side were covered but are still inside the walls. The former kitchen was expanded and now serves as an ice cream and snack shop. A Springfield Gas Machine, a water-driven air pump used to provide gas lighting, dated August 17, 1868, was found in the hotel's basement and is on display in the main entrance today. Further renovations between 1995 and 2004 replaced the former bar (more recently a lounge room) with office spaces. Remains of the room's fireplace are inside the walls. Additional offices were built, replacing parts of the west wrap-around porch. The embossed steel ceiling is still present under the new drop ceiling. The former south lounge, which served as the chapel in the 1940s, was extended and converted into conference rooms, and its two matching fireplaces dated 1903 were removed. The south balconies were replaced with one of two fire-resistant stairwells added to each end of the building. The original stairs which extended from the former kitchen to the attic were mostly removed, but some sections remain in the walls. Many rooms were gutted and rebuilt out-of-style with the original Victorian architecture, some being repurposed as public restrooms. In 2021, the former 1860s house, which was connected to the hotel in the 1903 expansion and served as a staff dormitory for HCBC, was entirely gutted and renovated into an apartment space. The bricks of the original chimney were preserved and sold. Today, the hotel is named the Victorian Hotel and serves as the main building for Harvey Cedars Bible Conference.

Harvey Cedars Bible Conference is a Christian retreat center in Harvey Cedars, New Jersey, providing conferences, retreats, and other events. The Bible Conference has a long history of biblically-oriented ministries and vacations for families and people of all ages and ethnicities. Summers feature week-long family and teen conferences. The rest of the year is filled with retreats for different organizations, including at least one retreat which brings in hundreds from other countries. Lodging facilities include a Victorian hotel, a modern hotel, a motel, and other dormitory-style housing units. Other facilities include a dining hall, a dock and gazebo, tennis courts, an indoor heated swimming pool, an indoor hot tub, a gymnasium, volleyball court, and soccer fields.

Camp Whelen, a Christian summer camp for young girls, was founded in the early 1920s after the former Harvey Cedars Hotel was purchased by the Philadelphia YWCA. Camp Whelen survived until the Depression. After shutting down due to declining attendance, the hotel was abandoned for about 10 years. After this, it was purchased and turned into Harvey Cedars Bible Conference. For more old photographs of the building, see also: Harvey Cedars Hotel and Harvey Cedars Bible Conference as they occupied the same building.

Harvey Cedars is a coastal borough situated on the Jersey Shore, in southern Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough encompasses a narrow strip of Long Beach Island fronting both the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 391, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 54 (+16.0%) from the 2010 census count of 337, which in turn reflected a decline of 22 (−6.1%) from the 359 counted in the 2000 census.Harvey Cedars was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on December 15, 1894, from portions of Union Township (now Barnegat Township), based on the results of a referendum held on November 20, 1894. The community's post office was initially known as High Point, the name of a neighborhood in the borough that lies at a higher elevation, before a name change was made in the 1930s at the request of the United States Postal Service to differentiate the post office from the northern New Jersey community of High Point in Sussex County.The majority of the housing units in the borough are seasonal houses used primarily in the summer by owners who live elsewhere, bringing the summer population to 12,000. The borough's quiet character and bay and ocean access make housing very expensive, with many bay or oceanfront houses priced at $2 million or more. Despite the borough's small size, its property was assessed at over $1.28 billion in 2019.

Manahawkin Wildlife Management Area (Manahawkin Bottomland Hardwood Forest) is a 1,642-acre (664 ha) wildlife management area near Manahawkin, Stafford Township, Ocean County, New Jersey. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in January 1976. It is known for its mature bottomland hardwood forest which contains examples of American sweetgum, red maple and black gum trees.

Beach Haven West is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) constituting a part of the Jersey Shore community of Stafford Township, in southern Ocean County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 4,143, an increase of 247 (+6.3%) from the 3,896 recorded at the 2010 census, which in turn had reflected a decrease of 548 (−12.3%) from the 4,444 counted in the 2000 census.

The Stafford Township School District is a community public school district that serves students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade from Stafford Township, in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States.As of the 2018–19 school year, the district, comprising five schools, had an enrollment of 2,198 students and 190.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.6:1.The district participates in the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, having been approved in July 2002 to participate in the program. Seats in the program for non-resident students are specified by the district and are allocated by lottery, with tuition paid for participating students by the New Jersey Department of Education.The district is classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "DE", the fifth-highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.For seventh through twelfth grades, public school students are served by the Southern Regional School District, which serves the five municipalities in the Long Beach Island Consolidated School District — Barnegat Light, Harvey Cedars, Long Beach Township, Ship Bottom and Surf City — along with students from Beach Haven and Stafford Township, together with students from Ocean Township who attend as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Ocean Township School District. Schools in the district (with 2018–19 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Southern Regional Middle School with 934 students in grades 7–8 and Southern Regional High School with 1,952 students in grades 9–12. Both schools are in the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township. At the time of its founding in 1957, the Southern Regional School District had a roughly equal number of students from Long Beach Island and Stafford Township. By 2016, the overwhelming majority of students were from Stafford Township, accounting for nearly 90% of enrollment. These demographic changes have led to significant discrepancies in the cost per pupil sent to the district from each community, with Harvey Cedars and Long Beach Township paying more than $200,000 per pupil, while Stafford Township's costs are $3,600 for each student. These widely different costs result from a formula that uses the taxable property value in each municipality to apportion costs, which means that municipalities with relatively high property values and small numbers of students pay a higher share of total district costs. Some residents of Long Beach Island communities are seeking to amend the formula to take advantage of a 1993 law that allows districts to use both property value and enrollment to allocate property taxes, though that would require passage of referendums in each municipality.