West Side Garage
Known Name(s)
West Side Garage
Address
1010 Asbury Ave. Asbury Park, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Garage
Physical Status
Demolished
Description
The West Side car dealership was located on Asbury Avenue, north of Asbury Park’s West Side, but strategically situated on the business artery that brought vehicular traffic in and out of the shore resort townn. A paste-over on the 1930 Sanborn insurance map shows the deep lot with a two-story, frame building set at the rear. A photo of the business appeared in a 1972 ad celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the family-owned business, which by that time had moved to a new location. The address on Asbury Avenue is now an empty lot. The city of Asbury Park currently is considering redevelopment of most of the block, which has been empty for decades.
Sources: Sanborn Map Co., Insurance Maps of New Jersey Coast, New Jersey, Vol. 2 (1930), sheet 210 with paste-over; “West Side Ford. We’ve Come a Long Way!” Asbury Park Press. 15 December 1972.
Detailed History
The West Side car dealership was owned and operated by Italian-American businessman John P. Costanzo, who, after serving as a Marine during World War II, continued his father’s business of the same name. Peter Costanzo’s West Side Garage, located at 1206 Springwood Avenue and listed in The Green Book, moved to Asbury Avenue around 1946. The family business, listed at its Asbury Avenue address from 1948 through 1955, then moved to Route 66 in Neptune around 1970. West Side Ford was quite successful: John Costanzo was regularly written up in The Asbury Park Press in the 1970s as the owner of thoroughbred racing horses.
Sources: “Asbury Park Ford Dealer Set to Move,” Asbury Park Press, 15 July 1968; “Asbury Park Proposes Makeover for Section of Asbury Ave.,” The Coaster, 29 March 2023 (https://thecoaster.net/2023/03/29/asbury-park-proposes-makeover-for-section-of-asbury-ave/); “John P. Costanzo,” Asbury Park Press, 28 April 2001; “West Side Ford. We’ve Come a Long Way!” Asbury Park Press, 15 December 1972.
J. Shaffer
