Seven

IMPORTANT PEOPLE

The Grant family enjoyed their days at the Jersey Shore. They are shown here relaxing on the front porch of their seaside cottage on Ocean Avenue.

The beautiful actress Lillian Russell was known as the first pin-up girl as well as the girlfriend of “Diamond Jim” Brady. It was said that the diamonds he often wore were dimmed when he entered a room with Russell on his arm. Russell had a summer home on Bath Avenue.

This image shows the Wallack family in a restful scene at their home in Long Branch. John Lester Wallack was a member of the famous acting family and owner of Wallack’s Theater in New York City.

Annie Brown came to Long Branch from Ireland in the late 1860s. She was fortunate to find employment as a domestic in Pres. Ulysses S. Grant’s summer cottage on Ocean Avenue. The home she built at 264 West End Avenue is still there. Her granddaughter Dorothy Williams still lives in Long Branch as do many of her great- and great-great-grandchildren.

Lily Langtry was one of the many theatrical personalities that performed as well as vacationed in Long Branch. She often stayed at the northeast corner of Second and Chelsea Avenues in one of the ornate cottages built by gambling casino owner Phil Daly. The name of the cottage was the Catherine, named after Daly’s wife. During the summers, while Langtry stayed with the Dalys, she parked her private Pullman railroad car on a railroad siding off of Bath Avenue.