Paradise Road House
Known Name(s)
Paradise Road House
Address
Springwood Ave. Asbury Park, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Road House
Physical Status
Unknown
Description
The Paradise cannot be located definitively, and no street number on Springwood Avenue was provided in The Green Book. Springwood was the main commercial and entertainment thoroughfare on Asbury Park’s predominantly African-American West Side, so the venue was in a prime location (https://tinyurl.com/SpringwoodAveHeritageWalk). The location on the map is general at best.
Detailed History
Listed for a single year and identified as a dance hall, little is yet known about the Paradise. In their book about the music scene on Asbury Park’s West Side between 1871 and 1945, music historians Charles and Pamela Horner noted that the Paradise’s popularity rose when the Roseland (see listing, also designated simply as on Springwood) burned down in 1931.
Source: 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): 123-124.
J. Shaffer
