Metropolitan Hotel
Known Name(s)
Metropolitan Hotel
Address
1200 Springwood Ave. Asbury Park, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Hotel
Physical Status
Demolished
Description
The 1905 Sanborn insurance map labeled the structure at 1200 Springwood, on the corner of Springwood and Atkins Avenues on Asbury Park’s West Side (https://tinyurl.com/SpringwoodAveHeritageWalk), as the Metropolitan. The building was a large, almost square, two-and-a-half-story frame structure with a one-story wrap porch. The one-story, concrete block building on the site today was built to house the Turf Club, the legendary music venue that moved to 1200 Springwood from 1125 Springwood in 1956 (https://www.asburyamp.org/the-turf-club).
Sources: Sanborn Map co., Insurance Maps of New Jersey Coast, New Jersey, Vol. 2 (1905), sheet 44.
Detailed History
Music historians Charles and Pamela Horner noted that the Metropolitan Hotel, which opened in 1900, was one of the more upscale establishments catering to African Americans on Asbury Park’s West Side at that time. The Metropolitan was listed in The Green Book from 1938 through 1949, and the tourist home under the name Mrs. E. C. Burgess at the same address was listed from 1938 through 1941 and again in 1947. The hotel and tourist home appear to have been one and the same.
Mrs. Rachel Burgess and her husband, Edward, lived at 1200 Springwood and operated the Metropolitan before the advent of The Green Book, and it is unclear why their names remained linked to the address in the guide long after their deaths. Boyd’s and then Polk’s Asbury Park City Directory tied 1200 Springwood to the Burgesses in a variety of ways. They lived there as early as 1905. The address was listed as a boarding house by 1907. By 1910, 1200 Springwood was identified as the Metropolitan Hotel under Mrs. Burgess’s name, and in 1911 the hotel was under Mr. Burgess’s name. It remained listed under Mr. Burgess’s name until 1928, when Mrs. Burgess, listed as his widow, operated the hotel. Her obituary stated that she ran a boarding house. Mr. Burgess, identified as the proprietor of the Metropolitan in newspaper articles, died in 1928; Mrs. Burgess died “at her home, The Metropolitan,” in 1933, and was cited in her obituary as operating a boarding house. The Burgess’ daughter, Mrs. Anna Queenan, was identified as the manager of the hotel in the 1940 city directory. Mrs. Queenan died in 1943. The Metropolitan was not listed in the 1937 or 1945 directories; in 1948, the address was listed as the Victory Hotel. Why the names “Metropolitan” and “Burgess” remained in The Green Book listings is unknown.
Sources: Sources: Boyd’s and Polk’s Asbury Park City Directory, 1905, 1910, 1926, 1928, 1937, 1940, 1945, 1948, and 1950; “City Renews 82 Licenses,” Asbury Park Press, 28 June 1956; “Edward C. Burgess,” Asbury Park Press, 18 June 1928; “Legal Notice,” Asbury Park Press, 1 November 1955; “Police Court Notes,” Asbury Park Press, 15 January 1924; “Queenan – Annie,” Asbury Park Press, 14 April 1943; “Rachael A. Burgess,” Asbury Park Press, 18 September 1933; Charles and Pamela Horner, Springwood Avenue Harmony. The Unique Musical Legacy of Asbury Park’s West Side. Volume 1, 1871-1945 (Somerset, NJ: Classic Urban Harmony Press, 2020): 44.
J. Shaffer
