The Ocean City Boardwalk Bench Program is the project to place plaques in memory of/dedication to on the public benches of the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk.
The City of Ocean City is temporarily reopening this program. (as of 7/2008)
The City is offering the approximately 60 benches that are on the boardwalk that are not already dedicated. Most of the benches are located on the street ends from 7th Street - 10th Street and on the boardwalk in the vicinity from 11th to 13th Streets. These benches are being offered on a first come, first serve basis. Once these benches have been dedicated, the program will be closed.
Currently a space on a bench is $650 plus the cost of the plaque.
Yeap. Ocean City suggests using Schoppy's in Linwood, NJ because they have experience with the Bench Program.
The plaque can be no higher than five inches and no wider than 16 inches and should have a blue background with silver lettering.
Yes, there are different color plaques on the Boardwalk now. They are grandfathered into the program before more strict guidelines were in place.
I received a response within a couple hours by using the webform on this page.
Ocean City states that, as of 7/21/2008, there were 60 benches available on the boardwalk for plaque placement.
If you'd like to know my unoffical count check the Stats Page
This question, and many others about the statistics of the plaques and benches are answered on the Stats page of this website.
Keep in mind that these are not official numbers from Ocean City, NJ. They were compiled, unscientifically, by me early one Saturday morning in July 2008.
This is a very new project. The proof of concept for me just began in June 2008 and I didn't get all the photos of each plaque until the middle of July 2008. There is also a lot of manual processing to get the text out of the images. And I do have a full-time job besides.
But I am getting there. I hope to have all the plaques online by spring and keep fleshing out the site as the 2009 Season starts. Keep checking back. I'm sure you'll see changes just about every week.
I am still in the process of uncovering their history. There is a book on the plaques which is similar to this website but in paper form. It was Bench Stories of Ocean City by Dan Smith. I've been unable to find it from an online retailer because it looks self-published but the Atlantic Book Warehouse on the Boardwalk had a few copies last summer. I have one of them sitting beside me as I type this. You can also check the links page for an article in the New York Times (circa 1999) about the Boardwalk Bench Program.
ABOSULTELY! I would be honored and very thankful to hear any and all stories about the Bench Program, individual plaques, the boardwalk, or Ocean City itself. You can email me at mark@ocbenchplaques.com
Part of the plans for this site is to provide a place for people to leave their comments on individual plaque pages. However, I am still working on the technical details for that part of the pages. In the meantime, I am happy to manually add almost anything people would like to discuss about the plaques. So send me your stories, tell me that I can use them on the site, and I'll make sure to post them ASAP.
One cavet to that statement is that I won't post derogatory or mean statements about the people or places mentioned on the Plaques. I consider these plaques as personal monuments to family history and, too often, loss. They should be treated with a respect similar to gravestones and memorial markers. You may disagree, but it's my website and that's how I'm handling things here.
My name is Mark Shellenberger. My family has been going down to Ocean City, NJ since the early 1950's. The family has had a house on the North End since the 1960's. I've been going to OC every summer since I was born.
The plaques have intruiged me since they started popping up on the boards in 1996. But I've been unable to find out too much about them. What little I do know is mostly hearsay and speculation. Check out the history of the plaques part of this FAQ and the link page for more information that is available online.
Even though I love Ocean City as much as any home I've ever had I am constantly surprised by the history and social intruige that seems to permeate the place, right below the surface.
How the locals, the full-time summer residents, the weekenders, and the day-trippers see the town is very different. Even though we all love OCNJ what drives us to return year after year is very diverse. But what binds us is usually expressed most clearly in the boardwalk bench plaques.
I thought a collection of all the plaques in one place might be a nice tribute to the town and the people who make it the best place to vacation in New Jersey.
I'm a native of Eastern PA and spent most of my life in and around the Philadelphia suburbs. Currently I make my home in Montgomery County, PA and my living as a XML/XSLT programmer. You can check out my company website if you are so inclined.
Typo in the text of the plaques? Image too dark? Plaque not correctly placed in order? Anything else missing or erroneous? Please tell me. I will try to fix it if I can. If I am missing a plaque please tell me which streets it is between and what the inscription is. I'll get a photo of it the next time I am in OC and post it immediately.
Please keep in mind that I don't travel down often during the winter/early spring months so it might take a few months to make photographic updates during those times. Also, once my current set of photos is online, I am planning on a complete Boardwalk review of the locations/images/order of the Plaques
I could also use some assistance locating the off-Boardwalk plaques. I have a photo of one from the park near the Tabernacle but I know there are others deeper in town. Also, being a North-ender, I don't get past the south end of the boardwalk often. If there are plaques down south please give me street names and I will add them as soon as possible.