Canvas ties bind Ocean Grove 'tenters'
Some have been summer homes for generations of families

Living in close proximity makes for strong ties among tenters.

OCEAN GROVE — The most coveted summertime address on the Jersey Shore may also be the most unusual: the tent colony in Ocean Grove, which has a 20- year waiting list for rentals.

One reason for the queue of people waiting to occupy a tent for the summer is that many of the 114 tents clustered close to the Great Auditorium in this seaside town have been occupied for generations by members of the same families.

"We have quite a few generations, children who have grown up [summering in Ocean Grove] and the children now have tents. There are many, many families who have been in the same tent for 30, 40, 50 years. That's the reason it's so hard for a person coming in to have a tent," explained Martha Rakita, herself a sixth-generation "tenter."

The quaint and charming encampment is a vestige of an era that began in 1869 with the founding of the Camp Meeting Association in Ocean Grove as a Methodist camp. According to the Ocean Grove Historical Society, the tents provided shelter for people who came to hear the preachers speak, and at its height, the tent colony consisted of 660 tents.

Many tenters like Rakita have summered in Ocean Grove since childhood, a tradition that began with her great-grandparents in 1884. "Marty" comes to her tent in Ocean Grove on May 15 and stays until Sept. 15, when she returns to her home in Florida. According to Rakita, many tenters come from Florida and from states as far away as Texas, while others live in the Victorian town for the rest of the year and leave their homes to move into a tent in the summer.

Guided tours of some of the tents are offered by the historical society and visitors can see that the seasonal structures have all the conveniences of home including showers, bathrooms and kitchens.

"The tents began in 1869 when people camped around the preacher's stand at the camp meeting," explained Rakita, who is a volunteer for the historical society. "There are still tents today as a vestige of the tents those people brought. A few years later, they tired of schlepping tents and built little shacks. Now each tent has a wooden cottage behind it. In that cottage you have all the modern conveniences including TVs, computers, microwaves."

The canvas tents that form the front of the structures are stored in the rear wooden cabin, and each spring the canvas tents are erected over the front wooden platform, creating a living room that is furnished and decorated with homey touches, while outside, rocking chairs are set on porches and flowers are planted to create a picturesque tableau.

Besides the similar ideals tenters share, Rakita says living in close proximity creates a strong bond among the summer residents.

"The tenters feel very close," she said recently. "When you live with a canvas between you and your neighbor, you become very close to that neighbor.

"Tenters are very close, partly because of the physical closeness of living with a canvas wall between you and partly because you have people who feel the same and have a great love for Ocean Grove."

Rakita explained that the Camp Meeting Association has a few requirements for campers, which she summarized as: prayer, presence, gifts and service. Of these, she said, "Service is the most important. Ocean Grove runs on volunteers, and tenters are very strong volunteers who support the historical society, serve as ushers in the auditorium, the ladies auxiliary, and the beautification committee.

"In my view, it's a perfectly reasonable requirement," she noted. "The tents are very inexpensive, for the summer season running $3,500-$4,000. People pay $1,000 a week here in Ocean Grove."

While not exactly roughing it, Rakita can attest to the fact that tenters are a hardy lot. She recounts the time her mother rode out the 1944 hurricane in a tent.

"It washed away the boardwalk, but my mother stayed in the cabin," said Rakita, who has continued her family's tradition by sharing her tent with grandchildren.

As a sixth-generation tenter, she has one hard and fast rule:

"A real tenter sleeps in the canvas," she said. "You can hear the sound of rain on the roof, the wind snapping the tent in a storm. When you wake up in the morning, lots of times the tent is filled with a golden light. A real tenter sleeps in the tent."

What has kept her coming to Ocean Grove every year for more than 80 summers?

"My memories of Ocean Grove, everything Ocean Grove means to me. The fellowship of the people I come back here to see every summer. The work I do with the historical society. I would be lost if I couldn't come to Ocean Grove in the summertime. I'm not just speaking for myself, it's true of everybody that comes here."

At the heart of the summer community since 1894 is the Great Auditorium, home of the world-famous Hope Jones organ. Another attraction is the Centennial Cottage, which dates to 1879 and serves as a living history museum offering visitors a glimpse of life in the 19th-century resort. Each year, visitors from around the world come to the seaside community, which was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

For more information on the tents and on ocean grove history, visit the Historical Society of Ocean Grove Web site at www.oceangrovehistory.org.