Atlantic City Bacharach Giants To Auto racing (New Jersey)

Atlantic City Bacharach Giants. The Atlantic City Bacharach Giants baseball team was a founding member of the second major Negro League, the Eastern Colored League, which was established in 1923. This outstanding team represented their league in the 1926 and 1927 Negro League World Series. In 1916, during the "Great Migration” of blacks from the South to the North, the club was brought intact to Atlantic City from Jacksonville, Florida, by two local black businessmen/politicians, Tom Jackson and Henry Tucker. The team derived its name from the leading Atlantic City politician of the day, Mayor Harry Bacharach, who sponsored it in its first years in the city. Among the great players to wear the Bacharach uniform were John Henry "Pop" Lloyd, a legendary shortstop and a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Richard "King" Lundy, also a shortstop and a manager; the hard-throwing right-handed pitcher Arthur "Rats” Henderson; and longtime first baseman Napoleon "Chance” Cummings.

Atlantic City Medical Center. This 581-bed facility has two divisions: one, in the heart of Atlantic City, has been in existence for more than a century; the other, the Mainland Division, opened in 1975, and is located in Galloway Township on the campus of the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. The Medical Center is one of six units of Atlanti Care, which has been ranked among the nation’s top integrated health-care systems. Atlantic City Medical Center was Atlantic City’s first hospital and, in the year 2000, had the region’s only Level II trauma center, its only neonatal intensive care unit, and its most comprehensive cancer and heart centers. The Medical Center’s Heart Institute offers the region’s first and only cardiac surgery program. It is a teaching hospital affiliated with the Jefferson Health System, which includes the Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and the DuPont Hospital for children in Wilmington.

Atlantic City Surf. Established in 1998, the Atlantic City Surf won the Atlantic League Championship in the league’s inaugural season. The Surf is not affiliated with any Major League Baseball organization. They play in the Sandcastle, a 5,900-seat stadium co-funded by the City of Atlantic City, which contains an arcade, merchandise store, and a 16,000-square-foot picnic area. From May through September, the Surf play 126 games. Frank Boulton is the principal owner of the team and Mitch Williams, a former Major League pitcher, is the manager.

Atlantic Coastal Plain. The Atlantic Coastal Plain is the largest of New Jersey’s physiographic provinces, covering some three-fifths of the land area of the state. It is to be found to the southeast of a line from New Brunswick to Trenton and southward along the Delaware River to the Atlantic Ocean. This Coastal Plain can be divided into three subdivisions: an inner lowland progressing from Raritan Bay southward and bordering the Delaware River, a central upland lying roughly at fifty feet above sea level, and an outer lowland comprising the area facing the Atlantic Ocean from Raritan Bay to Delaware Bay. The inner lowland possesses some of the best soils in the state, while very sandy and droughty soils often compose the rest of the Coastal Plain, which is covered by a mixture of oaks and pines, with white cedars found in bog locations. Much of this area is covered by the Pinelands National Reserve. Most of the outer lowland, from Sandy Hook to Cape May, consists of barrier islands backed by lagoons. It is much valued, especially in the summer, for recreational activities.

Atlantic County. 671.3-square-mile county in southeastern New Jersey, with twenty-three incorporated municipalities. Mays Landing is the county seat. Hamilton Township is the largest municipality in geographic area and Atlantic City is the municipality with the largest population (40,517) according to the 2000 census.

The original inhabitants were the Lenape Indians, and Absegami was the Indian name for the area. Henry Hudson surveyed the coast in 1609. In 1614 Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, another early Dutch explorer, gave the name Eyerhaven (Egg Harbor) to the area because waterfowl were so plentiful that the meadows were filled with their eggs. Most of the early settlement took place along the coast and waterways. Somers Point was one of those early settlements. In 1693 John Somers of Great Egg Harbor was granted a license to "keep a ferry over Great Egg Harbour for men, hors, and Kattle.” Many of the early settlers were Quakers. In 1698, Daniel Leeds made surveys of Egg Harbor.

Prior to the 1700s, the inhabitants of Great Egg Harbor were overseen by Cape May County. By an act of the state legislature dated January 21, 1710, Gloucester County was granted jurisdiction over the area that now encompasses Atlantic County. As the population of the eastern portion of Gloucester County expanded, men of influence deemed it important to form their own government. Appointees to governmental positions often found it difficult to get to meetings across the state in Woodbury, the county seat. Riding on horseback or in carriages along rutted trails to reach the scheduled meetings, they were often delinquent and fined for not appearing. Deeds, wills, and legal documents needed to be filed, and the trip to Woodbury was often difficult and time-consuming due to weather and road conditions. Atlantic County was created from the eastern portion of Gloucester County in 1837. Public meetings were held in Haddonfield and Woodbury approving the measure, and the legislature passed an act setting off the townships of Egg Harbor, Galloway, Hamilton, and Weymouth to form the new county.

Many of the inhabitants were employed in the maritime industry and related businesses. Along the Mullica and Great Egg Harbor rivers and adjoining creeks, shipbuilders (Vansant, Gaskill, Risley, Clark, Pen-nington, Wheaton, Frambes, English, and others) kept the maritime business afloat. The soil of Atlantic County provided agricultural opportunities, and farming became a major part of people’s lives. Iron forges and glass factories were early industries in the county.

To improve transportation for both materials and people, Jonathan Pitney and Enoch Doughty proposed to build the first railroad to connect the Philadelphia market to Atlantic County. They suggested that the railroad would open up markets for the glass industry, help convert forested lands to fruit and truck farms, and establish South Jersey as an attractive bathing resort for Philadel-phians. Although many proponents of the maritime industry opposed a rival mode of transportation, the Camden and Atlantic Railroad was established at a meeting of the directors held in Philadelphia, June II, 1852. Thus began the new Atlantic County business of tourism. 

The Leeds family opened the first hotel on Absecon Beach. The hotel was mainly a place where hunters and sportsmen could stay while they enjoyed a few days of gunning at the Shore. In 1852 there were only seven houses on Absecon Island, and one of them was the home of Jeremiah Leeds, the first permanent settler on the island. Upon his death in 1832, his widow Millicent Leeds added rooms to the house and started taking in boarders. After the first train arrived on July I, 1854, the tourist industry played a major part in the economy of Atlantic County. The wealthy and famous, including actors, musicians, and politicians, vacationed and played in Atlantic City. Grand homes and summer cottages were built. Support industries grew on the mainland, and Atlantic County flourished along with Atlantic City. A year-round economy was never established in Atlantic City, and as the summer season ended so did the residents’ employment. New tourist destinations, neglect of properties, and a rising crime rate, along with unemployment, should have forewarned of serious problems for the city. By the 1950s the tourist industry had declined along with the overall economy of the area. On November 2,1976, voters passed a referendum legalizing casino gambling, and on Memorial Day 1978, Resorts International opened its doors to the gambling public. What followed was a partial revitalization of Atlantic City and tremendous growth in Atlantic County as both business and residential areas expanded.

Atlantic County is crossed by the Garden State Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway; the former connects Atlantic County with the New York City metropolitan area and the latter connects it with the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Other major highways are Routes 322 (Black Horse Pike), 50 (White Horse Pike), 9, 30, 206, 49, 52, 54, 87, and 152. The Amtrak rail system carries passengers from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, passing through the communities of Absecon, Egg Harbor City, Hammonton, Atco, and Lindenwold. Atlantic City International Airport is located in Egg Harbor Township, and Bader Field and Ham-monton Municipal Airport service private plane and helicopter traffic.

Atlantic County’s principal industries are casino hotels, aviation testing/engineering, agriculture, yacht building, plastics, pharmaceutical research, and tourism. There are many opportunities for recreation, from relaxing on the beaches to surf and deep-sea fishing; enjoying the extensive park systems including wildlife refuges and passive and active parks; and visiting historical sites such as Absecon Lighthouse, the Somers Mansion, Renault Winery, Weymouth Furnace, Dr. Smith’s Sanitorium, Lucy the Elephant, Pleasant Mills, Risley Homestead, the county buildings at Mays Landing, and the Jonathan Pitney House. Federal, state, county, and municipal parks occupy 80,805 acres. There are fourteen miles of beach and more than five miles of boardwalk. Six hospitals and numerous nursing and rehabilitation centers serve the county’s medical needs.

According to the 2000 federal census the population of Atlantic County was 252,552: 68 percent white, I8 percent black, 5 percent Asian, and 12 percent Hispanic (Hispanics may be any race). The median household income in 2000 was $43,933.

Postcard view of Atlantic Highlands.

Atlantic Energy. Atlantic Energy is a holding company created in I987 as the parent company of Atlantic City Electric Company (ACE) and several newly created unregulated subsidiaries. The Electric Light Company of Atlantic City, established in I886, merged with three other electric utilities in I907 to form ACE, which provides electricity to approximately five hundred thousand customers in the southern part of New Jersey. Atlantic Electric’s other subsidiaries are ATE Investment, Atlantic Energy Technology, Atlantic Generation, and Atlantic Southern Properties. In I998, Atlantic Energy merged with Delmarva Power and Light Company to form Connective.

Atlantic Highlands. The Atlantic Highlands in Monmouth County are a type of erosional landform known as a cuesta, which develops on the resistant rock strata generally associated with a coastal plain. The Highlands form the highest part of the Atlantic coastline south of Cadillac Mountain in Maine, reaching an elevation of 391 feet at Crawford’s Hill south of Keyport, which is the highest altitude in the New Jersey Coastal Plain. The cuesta, or ridge, forms the divide between the streams that drain into the Atlantic to the east and those that drain into the Raritan and Delaware rivers to the north and west. The northern part of the Highlands overlooks Sandy Hook.

Atlantic Highlands Borough. 1.24- square-mile borough in Monmouth County. This shorefront community was first settled in 1671 by Thomas Henry Leonard. In 1879 the Rev. Robert Emery developed a Methodist camp meeting there, which lasted until I88I, when it ran out of money. On March 7, I887 Atlantic Highlands was organized as a borough.

Atlantic Highlands is located along the northern New Jersey shore with easy access to Sandy Hook Bay, Raritan Bay, Flynn’s Knoll, Romer Shoal, and the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers. Its major industry is fishing. Atlantic Highlands is home to one of New Jersey’s largest fleets of party and charter fishing boats. The Atlantic Highlands Municipal Marina provides full marina services and a launch ramp.

Mount Mitchell, the highest point on the eastern seaboard, rises approximately 260 feet above sea level and overlooks the Raritan River and Sandy Hook Bay, with good views of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and New York Harbor.

Atlantic Terra Cotta Company. As the largest architectural terra cotta manufacturer in the world, the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company contributed nearly 50 percent of the visible structural materials of Manhattan’s famous terra cotta skyline in the early 1900s. The firm was formed in 1907 when the old Atlantic Terra Cotta Company of Tottenville, Staten Island, joined Perth Amboy Terra Cotta and Excelsior Terra Cotta. The three became plants 1, 2, and 3, respectively, of the new company, with Perth Amboy as the headquarters. Two additional firms were later acquired. Atlantic Terra Cotta’s most notable achievement was the terra-cotta-clad Woolworth Building in New York City (1913), which was sheathed and trimmed in custom ornamental detail. The company closed in 1943.

Audubon, John James (b. Apr. 26,1785; d. Jan. 7, 1851). Naturalist and watercolorist, best known for The Birds of America. Born Jean Jacques Fougere Audubon in Haiti, the artist fled to America in 1803 to escape conscription during the Napoleonic Wars and anglicized his name. He was naturalized in 1812.

His early years in America were spent at his father’s estate near Philadelphia, Mill Grove, observing and drawing birds. Here he met and married his wife, Lucy Bakewell. Later, Audubon eked out a living as a portraitist, art teacher, and taxidermist, making trips down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to study natural habitats. In 1826 Audubon’s drawings were published in England, securing his reputation as an artist and naturalist.

In 1824 Audubon, commissioned to draw a grouse for use on a New Jersey banknote, met Edward Harris, a Moorestown ornithologist who became a lifelong friend. In the spring of 1829, while living in Camden, Audubon observed a nest of Warbling Vireo and other migratory warblers. Visiting Great Egg Harbor for three weeks, he delighted in the variety of bird and marine life. He returned to Camden that fall and again in June of 1832, when he completed drawings of New Jersey specimens including the Mottled Owl, the Connecticut Warbler, the Blackpoll Warbler, the Wood-Peewee, the Great Crested Flycatcher, the Golden-crowned Thrush, the Yellow-breasted Chat, the Seaside Finch, and the Bay-winged Bunting.

John James Audubon, Self-Portrait, 1826. Pencil on paper, 5 9/16 x 4 3/16 in.

Audubon was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1830. From 1842 until his death Audubon lived on his estate, Minnie’s Land, now Audubon Terrace, New York City.

Audubon. 1.7-square-mile borough in Camden County. Audubon was once part of the lands belonging to Francis Collins of Newton Township, whose land survey dates to 1682. The first industry in the borough was John Breach’s gristmill, on Newton Creek.

The Bettle family operated a large dairy farm in the late nineteenth century, shipping six hundred quarts of milk daily to Pennsylvania Hospital. In 1939 the farm became part of Abbotts Dairies, which owned the property until 1961, when apartment houses were built on the tract.

Audubon lies in the center of several important travel routes: Nicholson Road, to the north, extends to Gloucester City, formerly a major Delaware River port; Kings Highway, to the south, runs east and west through Camden County; the Black Horse Pike, to the west, and the White Horse Pike, to the east, were major roads to Atlantic City. By 1905, although nearly half of the community remained farmland, the many settlements of the area, then part of Haddon Township, had experienced sufficient population growth to incorporate as the Borough of Audubon. Mrs. Samuel Nicholson Rhodes is said to have suggested its name to honor John James Audubon.

The 2000 census count was 9,182, and 97 percent of the population was white. The median household income in 2000 was $49,250. For complete census figures, see chart, 129.

Audubon Park. 0.2-square-mile borough, one of the smallest municipalities in Camden County. Audubon Park, originally part of Audubon Borough, was incorporated in 1947. An early planned development located near Camden City, it was designed by architects Oscar Stonorov and Joseph Norman Hettel about 1939 and sponsored by Camden Local #1, the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America. It began as a pioneer defense housing project, on the Camden Plan, a program financed by the Federal Works Agency. Residents neither rented nor owned their homes but bought stock in the nonprofit mutual company that owned the project. The arrangement continues to the present day. Residents pay property taxes to the borough, build equity in their homes, and are shareholders in the Audubon Park Mutual Housing Corporation. When they move, they receive a share of their equity but can sell only to a blood relative, or ownership reverts to the corporation, which sells it to the next person on the waiting list.

"The Park” contains 500 prefabricated units, which were built in twenty-six days. A community center and athletic fields complete the municipality; students attend the Audubon School District. There is no industrial or business section. The population in 2000 was 1,102 and 99 percent white. The median household income in 2000 was $34,643. For complete census figures, see chart, 129.

Automatic Data Processing. Automatic Payrolls was formed in Paterson in 1949 by Henry Taub and two partners, whom he bought out during their first year of business. Offering what was then the unique service of weekly payroll preparation, the firm picked up data from clients and delivered finished payroll checks to them. In 1952, Henry Taub, with his brother Joe, who had joined the firm soon after it began, hired Frank Lautenberg to become Automatic Payroll’s first full-time salesman. The firm renamed itself Automatic Data Processing (ADP) in 1958 and became a publicly held corporation three years later. In 1975 Frank Lautenberg replaced Henry Taub as CEO, and in 1982 he left the firm to become a U.S. senator from New Jersey.

Today ADP provides a wide variety of data processing services, including payroll processing and tax filing, securities transaction processing for brokerage firms, and inventory processing for auto and truck dealers. During the 1990s, the company processed the payroll check of one of every ten workers in the United States. With its world headquarters in Roseland, ADP is one of the top twenty-five employers in New Jersey.

Auto racing. The sport of auto racing has had deep roots in New Jersey from its earliest days, attracting national-level competitors in a variety of racing disciplines at several facilities. Indianapolis 500 pioneer Ira Vail won the first auto race at the Flemington Fairgrounds in 1915. A high-banked, one-and-a-half-mile speedway was constructed entirely of wood at Amatol, just outside Hammonton, in 1928 but closed the following year. In the 1930s and 1940s several major race teams were based in Paterson.

Indianapolis-level drivers competed regularly at the one-mile dirt (later paved) oval at the state fairgrounds in Trenton during the 1940s and 1950s. In the late 1960s the fairgrounds track was expanded to a one-and-a-half-mile superspeedway, drawing Indy and NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) events, but it closed around 1980. Championship Auto Racing Teams Indy racing took place on a temporary course at the Meadowlands sports complex for five years until the mid-1980s.

Drag strips sprang up at Great Meadows and Atco, followed by Raceway Park in Old Bridge Township, which has hosted a major annual National Hot Rod Association meet since the early 1970s. Short, oval dirt tracks still host well-attended weekly events, mainly for stock cars, at Bridgeport, East Windsor, and New Egypt. Flemington hosted weekly stock car racing on dirt until the track was paved in 1991. The historic fairgrounds have been dormant since 2000 and is a development target. Another paved oval, Wall Township Speedway, is still a significant draw. Bids since the late 1990s to build major NASCAR superspeedways at the Meadowlands and the former Atlantic City Race Course have failed to materialize thus far.