Whitehead Hotel
Known Name(s)
Whitehead Hotel
Address
25 Atkins Ave. Asbury Park, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Hotel, Tourist Home
Physical Status
Demolished
Description
25 Atkins Avenue was located just south of Springwood Avenue, the main commercial and entertainment thoroughfare on Asbury Park’s West Side. The 1930 Sanborn insurance map showed the building as a large, rectilinear frame structure, the front section designated as a restaurant. The Whitehead caught fire in March of 1965 and was severely damaged. Images of the blaze in the Asbury Park Press show the front of the structure with a two-story porch under a front-facing gable, the steep, third-floor roof punctuated by dormers. 25 Atkins was condemned by the town council in April of 1966 and slated for demolition. A modern home sits on the lot today.
Sources: Sanborn Map Co., Insurance Maps of New Jersey Coast, New Jersey, Vol. 2 (1930), sheet 201; “Asbury Park Considering Plaza Hotel Site Rezoning,” Asbury Park Press, 27 April 1966; “Fire Destroys Two Stories of City Hotel,” Asbury Park Press, 25 March 1965; “Time for Spring Cleanup: Some Areas Near Asbury Park Village,” Asbury Park Press, 15 April 1966.
Detailed History
25 Atkins was listed from 1938 to 1967 both as a hotel, the Whitehead, and as a tourist home (though it was not listed in this capacity in 1941) under the name Mrs. V. Maupin. The hotel name was misspelled in the directory as the Whitelead from 1938 through 1941. The 1940 Polk’s Asbury Park City Directory listed the Whitehead, under Mrs. Maupin’s name, as offering furnished rooms.
The 1930 census reported that Virginia Maupin was an African-American widow born ca. 1891. According to her obituary, Mrs. Maupin was known as “Sis.” Born in Petersburg, Virginia, she died in January of 1965 at the age of 81. Her obituary noted that she had operated the Whitehead for 36 years.
The Whitehead Hotel existed long before The Green Book. On the 1905 Sanborn insurance map, the building – labelled as the Whitehead – was a large, two-story, wood frame structure (at that time, the address was 33 Atkins); it was enlarged in footprint and taller as well by the publication of the 1930 Sanborn map. Music historians Charles and Pamela Horner noted that the Whitehead opened in 1901 and was a hotel favored by elite African-American vaudevillians performing in Asbury Park in the early decades of the twentieth century.
Sources: Charles and Pamela Horner, in conversation; US census, 1930; Polk’s Asbury Park City Directory, 1940; Sanborn Map Co., Insurance Maps of New Jersey Coast, New Jersey, Vol. 2 (1905), sheet 44; Sanborn Map Co., Insurance Maps of New Jersey Coast, New Jersey, Vol. 2 (1930), sheet 201; “Asbury Park Considering Plaza Hotel Site Rezoning,” Asbury Park Press, 27 April 1966; “Fire Destroys Two Stories of City Hotel,” Asbury Park Press, 25 March 1965; “Mrs. Virginia (Sis) Maupin,” Asbury Park Press, 26 January 1965; “Time for Spring Cleanup: Some Areas Near Asbury Park Village,” Asbury Park Press, 15 April 1966.
J. Shaffer
