Riverview Hotel
Known Name(s)
Riverview Hotel
Address
710 8th Ave. Belmar, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Hotel, Resort
Physical Status
Demolished
Description
The Riverview Inn was located just to the east of the railroad tracks in the shore town of Belmar. The 1905 Sanborn insurance map depicts a large, irregularly shaped, two-and-a-half story, brick building with deep, one-story wooden porches on both the north and south sides. A photo in The New York Age from 1949 appears to show this structure. The building no longer exists; a modern apartment building, owned by the Belmar Housing Authority, sits on the lot today.
Sources: Sanborn Map Co., Insurance Maps of New Jersey Coast, New Jersey, Vol. 2 (1905), sheet 88; “Asbury Park Ideal Vacation Spot Now,” The New York Age, 30 July 1949.
Detailed History
The Riverview was listed in The Green Book from 1952 through 1958 as a hotel and from 1952 through 1960 as a vacation resort. Little is known of it from those years. The establishment had a large ad that accompanied a 1949 article in The New York Age, a leading newspaper for African Americans. The article cited Asbury Park as an “Ideal Vacation Spot Now” for African Americans due to changes in civil rights laws in New Jersey and advocacy on the part of Asbury citizens. Belmar is a few towns south of popular Asbury Park on the New Jersey coast, and the ad noted the Riverview’s proximity to Asbury, Monmouth Racetrack, and other shore leisure spots.
Sources: “Asbury Park Ideal Vacation Spot Now,” The New York Age, 30 July 1949.
J. Shaffer
