🚒 A sad goodbye to Wonderland Pier | Down the Shore

Watching your toddler go on a ride by themselves at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in Ocean City might be one of the most exquisite experiences the Shore has to offer. Look, they’re ringing the bell on those fire engines (circa 1940), riding in the little boats in actual water, here they come around again, clutching their not-much-older sibling plopped in beside them, or sometimes, just a nice random other kid! At least for the parents anyway. Do the kids remember? Maybe somewhere, a hibernating memory that awakens when they have their own kids.

It’s so life-affirming that the wonderful Ventnor poet Karen Z. Duffy wrote “Watching Them Ride the Rides,” a poem about watching her kids spin around in the teacups: No expressions to decipher/no drama to diagnose/no young pain/only the joy of getting spun...” Tommy Rowan, who rode the fire engines as a 5 year old, wrote about the emotions parents experience here.

So when news came that the Gillian family would be shutting down Wonderland Pier in October, after 94 years in the business, despair was palpable. On the Facebook group Save Our Boardwalks, one woman wrote, “I have dreamt for years of having grandchildren to take to Wonderland … and now it’s going away. I will do whatever to save the merry go round and Ferris wheel!!!”

I hear ya. The property’s owner, Eustace Mita, developer of the Icona Resorts at the Shore, who bailed out the Pier in 2021 with $10 million just before it went to sheriff’s sale, says he gets it. He loves Wonderland as much as anyone. But he’s a hotel guy, and already once proposed a $150 million luxury hotel for the city’s property next to Wonderland, an idea that went nowhere. Ocean City is a dry town, but there are potentially other pathways to alcohol at a hotel with more than 100 rooms.

Mita says he’s taking six months to think about the property’s future, and some are hoping even a hotel idea would save some of the rides.

Meanwhile, there has been renewed attention on Wonderland owner Jay Gillian, who is also mayor of Ocean City, and whose finances, personal and professional, have been on some shaky footing. He also has been entwined in some financial dealings with Mita and another prominent developer in town, who both supplied mortgages for him. Did that murky financial picture contribute to the demise of such a beloved institution?

📮 Should a landmark like Gillian’s, with its iconic Ferris wheel, be saved? What about a hotel in Ocean City? Should there be alcohol in the dry town? Is Ocean City on a path to changing beyond recognition?

Let me know what you think by replying to this email, and I’ll include your most interesting responses.

🌊 It’s been cool and lovely this week, but watch for Ernesto to kick up the surf.

— Amy S. Rosenberg (🐦 Tweet me at @amysrosenberg. 📷 Follow me on Insta at @amysrosenberg. 📧 Email me here.)

🎡 Gillian’s Wonderland Pier is closing, did we mention?

😔 Peace of Wood, the art, music, surf, food, good vibes space in Ocean City is also closing.

🐋 Ospreys, whales, and sharks have all been spotted close to shore.

🌬️ The Save LBI anti-ocean-wind turbine group says air pollution from the planned wind energy projects could endanger wildlife in the Brigantine Natural Wilderness Area.

🚁 Trump’s almost-helicopter crash may actually involve Atlantic City.

🦪 What’s next for the oyster that revived New Jersey’s oyster industry?

🛟 Avalon all-day: The Avalon Beach Patrol swept the Women’s Championship and the South Jersey Championship lifeguard races, and I just happened to interview second-generation beach patrol chief Matt Wolf.

⬇️ See below for Matt’s answers to our Slam Book questions!

🌅 Sunset Beach in Cape May Point has a new restaurant, the Fish House.

☕ Atlantic City has a new coffee shop and creperie, Brewberry.

💆 National Relaxation Day is Aug. 15. Along the beach, Ocean Casino has Exhale Spa, Hard Rock has Rock Spa, Caesars has Qua Spa, and Tropicana has Breathe Salt Spa.

🪕 Off-shore: For all of you now in Middle Township, the Mug Shots will be playing Aug. 20 at 6 p.m. at the Ockie Wisting Recreation Complex in Rio Grande.

🦪 Oysters all day. Check out Craig LaBan and Jason Lo’s interactive comparison of New Jersey’s world-class oysters.

🐘 Visit Lucy the Elephant to celebrate the $500,000 federal grant for interior renovations delivered by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.

Is offshore the Shore? After my story on mainland towns becoming destinations for quote-unquote beach houses, readers had thoughts:

Victor Staniec: No way! the temperature alone is much different on the mainland than on the beach.....hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.

Joe Radano: The Bay has 2 sides. The barrier island side is expensive. But Somers Point has everything on the water and more.

Barbara Elliott: Mainland housing is being snapped up by folks who want a vacation home. The full time residents crucial to the functioning of these communities need affordable housing, and folks looking for investments are just plain selfish.

Herbert Holler: The Mainland WILL be the shore in 50-100 years. Or less.

Andy: Some will, but many or may I say, most, are not giving up The Beach.

Big week for chief Matt Wolf, son of legendary, no-nonsense 65-year-chief Murray Wolf. Avalon’s lifeguards won the South Jersey Lifeguard Championships and the Women’s Lifeguard Championships. One down, eight to go, to match dad’s career!

Matt Wolf, who teaches physical education and coaches wrestling at Middle Township High School, gave these slam book answers:

Favorite beach: Our Ninth Street beach. We’re a mile further out than other ocean towns. You get the whole view of the coast.

Favorite summer breakfast: The Fishin’ Pier Grille, a little breakfast shack near our headquarters on 32nd Street. We’re over there most mornings.

Perfect beach day: The perfect beach day is Coronado or Santa Monica or somewhere in Greece or Italy where I’m not in charge.

Perfect night: We love race nights. That’s stuff we’ll remember 20 years from now.

Best Shore sandwich: On the way home from races, Dino’s in Margate, for a cheesesteak.

When summer approaches, I feel: Excitement. There’s a sense of responsibility, getting 125 lifeguards through the door in a short space of time is an enormous task.

It wouldn’t be the Jersey Shore without: Beach patrol, lifeguard racing, that culture in general is unique to the Jersey Shore.

Best thing for kids: Just a day at the beach. When I was a kid, we went to the beach every day.

Surfing or fishing? Surfing.

Sunrise or sunset? Sunrise.

The Shore could be improved if: Just like anything else in life, if you take a minute to see where other people are coming from before you react, the world’s a better place.

When Labor Day approaches: You lose guards every day starting about this time of year. Every day somebody’s sad they’re leaving. But we’re still here doing our job. It’s hurricane water. The little ones are still at the beach. It’s a lot of rescues this time of year.

Tip the lifeguards? We do not accept tips.

Mari Entwistle shared this memory of getting the family’s belongings to the beach from three blocks away, in the pre-golf cart era.

First thing we’d do is take our shoes off and walk around outside so our sensitive winter feet could start toughening up for the summer season. By the end of the summer we ran over rocks like it was a velvet carpet! My Dad would start hauling everything out of the garage so we “girls” (my Mom, older sister and me) could check to make sure everything still worked OK. Umbrella still goes up and down, chair webbing was still firm and back when we still had toys, they were all accounted for.

My Dad was in charge of the drinks cooler and my Mom the food cooler, which had to contain enough for the whole day because, God forbid, we had to leave the beach! We’d each take a chair, a towel and each of our carefully packed beach bags and head out with my Mom screaming to wear our sandals and us ignoring her. Our feet screaming and our baggage getting heavier with every step, we’d finally make it TO THE BEACH! And it only took an hour and a half!

Our arms and legs had some new muscles from all the walking and lifting. Best of all we’d had those 15 minutes of getting to the beach to talk to each other, laugh and make jokes at the others expense and just grow closer as a family.

Send us your Shore memory for a chance to be published in this space!

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