Notre Dame Motel

[fuzzyscorpio]

Continuing my retro-discovery of North Wildwood ...

This is sweet. (If nothing else, the lone set of lawn furniture at the crook of the motel tickles me for some reason.) Anyone remember it? The photo is pretty old, maybe even mid-50s, judging by the cars. The description just says "2201 Surf."



eBay listing: cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250036421723&ih=015&category=20224&rd=1#ebayphotohosting

[FlyinGN]

neatttttttttt...... No pool... wow.. whats there now??

[fuzzyscorpio]

So, since I am so foggy about North Wildwood, I got to wondering if this little motel might actually still be there, though I thought I would have remembered it after several slack-jawed passes up and down Surf Ave this summer. In a search on it, I found this typically sad October 2004 article on Philly.com (originally from the Inquirer) and thought I might as well post it, even though someone may have posted it back then. It talks about other motels and Fred Musso's efforts to save the signs.

I guess the Notre Dame was set to come down during the demolition orgy of '04-'05, judging by this article... and in the "list of motels demolished" thread here, writhinganacondo posted that it was gone as of mid-November '05. dwpl.proboards44.com/index.cgi?board=motels&action=display&thread=1132252991

In the chronicle of that off-season-from-hell, this modest little place probably wound up a footnote.

Sorry I'm kind of educating myself out loud here, but perhaps someone will find the following an interesting look back...

Wildwood dims lights
By Kristen A. Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer

NORTH WILDWOOD - The door, pulled off its hinges and propped up against a window at the Notre Dame Motel here, said it as well as anything:

For Sale - Everything read the spray-painted door against which a beaming Jeff Wenz leaned.

Wenz is one of about 17 Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood motel owners selling up - that is, selling at a profit - this off-season.

The result is a series of demolitions that preservationists call the biggest tear-down boom yet on an island once famous for its schlocky but beloved places to stay but now in the thick of a major development wave driving up property values.

The barrier island that is home to the Wildwoods is ripe for speculators because its property values have long been lower than those in other Cape May County resorts, such as Avalon, Stone Harbor, Ocean City, where they have soared into the stratosphere.

Twenty luxury condominiums will rise on the land once occupied by the Notre Dame.

"The land is worth more than the motel will ever be worth," Wenz said. "People are taking cruises now, not two-week [motel] vacations to Wildwood. They're maybe spending a long weekend here."

Running a motel is back-breaking work, Wenz said, and the revival of the Wildwoods' 1950s-era doo-wop architecture or not, he's got to earn a living.

"In September, one of my girls just didn't show up for work the whole month, and I was working 40 hours a week the whole time," he said. "This is a tough business."

When he bought the place three years ago, he thought he would own it for the next quarter century. But then the economy changed, and now Wenz is embracing the new Wildwood.

He bought his own condo on the boardwalk, and after he closes on the Notre Dame, he plans to buy and sell houses until the bottom falls out of the market.

One motel owner, who declined to be identified, said developers were paying him almost 700 percent more than he paid for his property a few years back. For a small-motel owner struggling to clear $25,000 a season, he said, it's hard to say no to that kind of cash.

But Carmen Aponte, head of maintenance at the Notre Dame for the last 14 years, shook her head. She understands the economics of why Wenz and others are selling, but she doesn't like it.

"A lot of people can't afford condos," Aponte said. "They're only good for rich people."

•

Heedless of the biting wind and off-and-on drizzle of a recent, eerily quiet weekday, Fedele "Fred" Musso wore shorts and a sweatshirt - "my sign-saving clothes," he called them.

Musso, owner of Ultra Neon, a neon design and repair business, also is a historian and artist who specializes in collecting and preserving the grand old signs that once topped some of Wildwood's most famous spots.

When he hears a motel is about to fall, Musso does his best to rescue the grand, gaudy signs that once guided patrons by the thousands.

"The scope of what's happening is unbelievable, and it's just so quick," the sign collector said of the motel demolition boom. "You try to pass it off as rumor, but it turns out that everything you hear of has been true."

That wet day he was out casing. First, the Blue Jay, whose 10-foot-high beaut had a rusty patina he loves; he already has been promised that one. Then the Packard.

In front of the latter, he ran into John Anderson, a Wildwood Crest resident running an errand and taking a last look at the motel before its demolition.

The two men nodded politely at each other although they do not see eye to eye on the changes sweeping the island.

Anderson bought his home for $455,000 a few years ago. It is already worth $600,000, and he figures he can get $700,000 for it next year.

The former King of Prussia resident had been going to Wildwood Crest "since I was knee-high."

And he can see both sides of the coin.

"Now that I'm an investor, I think it's great," Anderson said. "I know that the older people who've been here 60 years are angry, and I can't blame them. But this is America."

•

Dan MacElrevey, president of Wildwood's Doo Wop Preservation League, believes the island is at a critical point.

"If we want to remain a viable resort, there's got to be places for people to stay, and that can't be townhouses," MacElrevey said.

"Economically, it's had quite an impact on the restaurants, the boardwalk. If you have a townhouse, you have a kitchen, and you're not going to go out every night," MacElrevey said.

A few of the demolitions - the smaller, crumbling motels - have been good for Wildwood Crest, Mayor John Pantalone said.

But as the boom creeps oceanward, grabbing the likes of the landmark Satellite and the Carousel, which in the mid-1950s housed celebrities such as Connie Francis, Liberace and Johnny Mathis, things change.

Wildwood Crest is a dry town with little commercial development, and it relies on its motels to keep afloat.

"This disturbs me a great deal," Pantalone said. "None of us are enthused about these places coming down. It's just getting too much."

At the Monta Cello Motel in Wildwood Crest - A Family Resort located one short block from the ocean beach! boasts the brochure once given to prospective guests - owner Victor Valerio presided over a few presettlement chores.

"You feel like parts of you are being pulled out," Valerio said.

Watching developers swallow up his neighbors' properties one by one the last few summers, Valerio said, he and wife Betty figured they would get more business from the customers displaced by the razed motels.

But they did not come.

"This is not what we planned - this was going to be our semiretirement," Valerio said. "But business was so bad that we just couldn't hang on. We had to jump on this wave or we weren't going to be ready for the next one."

Like many owners selling out, he and his wife bought the place a few years back from a longtime owner.

"This year was either the 'break it' or 'make it' year," he said grimly. "We didn't make it. It was a bad season. We hate to let it go."

Joe Conners, owner of the Carousel, looks at it differently.

"Most of these old buildings are junk," said Conners, who partnered with Wally Lerro of Royal Site Development and plans to build 21 condos and three 4,500-square-foot townhouses, each with its own elevator, on the site of his old motel.

"This is more," Lerro said, "for the beautification of Wildwood."

Source page: www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/9999795.htm

[fuzzyscorpio]

flyingn said:

neatttttttttt...... No pool... wow.. whats there now??

Both Mapquest and Google Earth put this site at 22nd Ave, so I guess it's part of the wall o'condos now.

Hard to read the image at Google Earth... could be the motel still (since as several posters have pointed out, Google Earth's images are often not up-to-date).

[wildre]

fuzzyscorpio said:

flyingn said:

neatttttttttt...... No pool... wow.. whats there now??

Both Mapquest and Google Earth put this site at 22nd Ave, so I guess it's part of the wall o'condos now.

Hard to read the image at Google Earth... could be the motel still (since as several posters have pointed out, Google Earth's images are often not up-to-date).

If it's down there at the south end of Surf, it has to be condos. I'll check tomorrow, if I remember.

re

[hulk007]

Didn't the ND add a pool later on?

[Al Alven]

I remember the Notre Dame, but not too vividly.

To put it in perspective for those who might not be very familiar with North Wildwood, it was located on the same block as the King's Inn Motel, which hugs the Boardwalk right at 22nd St. (across from Sportland Pier).

Also on that block were the recently departed Sea-n-Surf and Maryanne motels. Condos went up at the site of the ND rather quickly, after it was demolished in dreaded fall of '04.

I saw that postcard on eBay earier this week, and kept watching as the price continued to skyrocket. Kathi, did you happen to catch what it wound up going for? Last I saw, it was going for close to $20.00.

I was going to place a bid on it at one point, but I noticed the name of the high bidder (a friend of mine), and didn't want to drive the price up any higher.

[wildre]

2201 is condo's but all are facing the side street. The ND backed up to the Bayberry on Surf.

Also noticed that the Eden Roc is for sale by owner, again.

[thelastresort]

wildre said:

2201 is condo's but all are facing the side street. The ND backed up to the Bayberry on Surf.

Also noticed that the Eden Roc is for sale by owner, again.

I understand she has been trying to sell it since the day she bought it, so no surprise there

[MMM]

The poor Eden Roc was looking pretty rough when I saw it recently...

[Al Alven]

It's a real shame to see the Eden Roc in the shape its in. Given the motels architectural elements and its location, I would have to think that would be an excellent candidate for renovation. I think it would do well, if some money was sunk the effort.

I do have to ask, though, whose idea was it to paint the underhangs bright yellow? Yikes.

[crazyaboutwildwood]

fuzzyscorpio said:

So, since I am so foggy about North Wildwood, I got to wondering if this little motel might actually still be there, though I thought I would have remembered it after several slack-jawed passes up and down Surf Ave this summer. In a search on it, I found this typically sad October 2004 article on Philly.com (originally from the Inquirer) and thought I might as well post it, even though someone may have posted it back then. It talks about other motels and Fred Musso's efforts to save the signs.

I guess the Notre Dame was set to come down during the demolition orgy of '04-'05, judging by this article... and in the "list of motels demolished" thread here, writhinganacondo posted that it was gone as of mid-November '05. dwpl.proboards44.com/index.cgi?board=motels&action=display&thread=1132252991

In the chronicle of that off-season-from-hell, this modest little place probably wound up a footnote.

Sorry I'm kind of educating myself out loud here, but perhaps someone will find the following an interesting look back...

Wildwood dims lights
By Kristen A. Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer

NORTH WILDWOOD - The door, pulled off its hinges and propped up against a window at the Notre Dame Motel here, said it as well as anything:

For Sale - Everything read the spray-painted door against which a beaming Jeff Wenz leaned.

Wenz is one of about 17 Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood motel owners selling up - that is, selling at a profit - this off-season.

The result is a series of demolitions that preservationists call the biggest tear-down boom yet on an island once famous for its schlocky but beloved places to stay but now in the thick of a major development wave driving up property values.

The barrier island that is home to the Wildwoods is ripe for speculators because its property values have long been lower than those in other Cape May County resorts, such as Avalon, Stone Harbor, Ocean City, where they have soared into the stratosphere.

Twenty luxury condominiums will rise on the land once occupied by the Notre Dame.

"The land is worth more than the motel will ever be worth," Wenz said. "People are taking cruises now, not two-week [motel] vacations to Wildwood. They're maybe spending a long weekend here."

Running a motel is back-breaking work, Wenz said, and the revival of the Wildwoods' 1950s-era doo-wop architecture or not, he's got to earn a living.

"In September, one of my girls just didn't show up for work the whole month, and I was working 40 hours a week the whole time," he said. "This is a tough business."

When he bought the place three years ago, he thought he would own it for the next quarter century. But then the economy changed, and now Wenz is embracing the new Wildwood.

He bought his own condo on the boardwalk, and after he closes on the Notre Dame, he plans to buy and sell houses until the bottom falls out of the market.

One motel owner, who declined to be identified, said developers were paying him almost 700 percent more than he paid for his property a few years back. For a small-motel owner struggling to clear $25,000 a season, he said, it's hard to say no to that kind of cash.

But Carmen Aponte, head of maintenance at the Notre Dame for the last 14 years, shook her head. She understands the economics of why Wenz and others are selling, but she doesn't like it.

"A lot of people can't afford condos," Aponte said. "They're only good for rich people."

•

Heedless of the biting wind and off-and-on drizzle of a recent, eerily quiet weekday, Fedele "Fred" Musso wore shorts and a sweatshirt - "my sign-saving clothes," he called them.

Musso, owner of Ultra Neon, a neon design and repair business, also is a historian and artist who specializes in collecting and preserving the grand old signs that once topped some of Wildwood's most famous spots.

When he hears a motel is about to fall, Musso does his best to rescue the grand, gaudy signs that once guided patrons by the thousands.

"The scope of what's happening is unbelievable, and it's just so quick," the sign collector said of the motel demolition boom. "You try to pass it off as rumor, but it turns out that everything you hear of has been true."

That wet day he was out casing. First, the Blue Jay, whose 10-foot-high beaut had a rusty patina he loves; he already has been promised that one. Then the Packard.

In front of the latter, he ran into John Anderson, a Wildwood Crest resident running an errand and taking a last look at the motel before its demolition.

The two men nodded politely at each other although they do not see eye to eye on the changes sweeping the island.

Anderson bought his home for $455,000 a few years ago. It is already worth $600,000, and he figures he can get $700,000 for it next year.

The former King of Prussia resident had been going to Wildwood Crest "since I was knee-high."

And he can see both sides of the coin.

"Now that I'm an investor, I think it's great," Anderson said. "I know that the older people who've been here 60 years are angry, and I can't blame them. But this is America."

•

Dan MacElrevey, president of Wildwood's Doo Wop Preservation League, believes the island is at a critical point.

"If we want to remain a viable resort, there's got to be places for people to stay, and that can't be townhouses," MacElrevey said.

"Economically, it's had quite an impact on the restaurants, the boardwalk. If you have a townhouse, you have a kitchen, and you're not going to go out every night," MacElrevey said.

A few of the demolitions - the smaller, crumbling motels - have been good for Wildwood Crest, Mayor John Pantalone said.

But as the boom creeps oceanward, grabbing the likes of the landmark Satellite and the Carousel, which in the mid-1950s housed celebrities such as Connie Francis, Liberace and Johnny Mathis, things change.

Wildwood Crest is a dry town with little commercial development, and it relies on its motels to keep afloat.

"This disturbs me a great deal," Pantalone said. "None of us are enthused about these places coming down. It's just getting too much."

At the Monta Cello Motel in Wildwood Crest - A Family Resort located one short block from the ocean beach! boasts the brochure once given to prospective guests - owner Victor Valerio presided over a few presettlement chores.

"You feel like parts of you are being pulled out," Valerio said.

Watching developers swallow up his neighbors' properties one by one the last few summers, Valerio said, he and wife Betty figured they would get more business from the customers displaced by the razed motels.

But they did not come.

"This is not what we planned - this was going to be our semiretirement," Valerio said. "But business was so bad that we just couldn't hang on. We had to jump on this wave or we weren't going to be ready for the next one."

Like many owners selling out, he and his wife bought the place a few years back from a longtime owner.

"This year was either the 'break it' or 'make it' year," he said grimly. "We didn't make it. It was a bad season. We hate to let it go."

Joe Conners, owner of the Carousel, looks at it differently.

"Most of these old buildings are junk," said Conners, who partnered with Wally Lerro of Royal Site Development and plans to build 21 condos and three 4,500-square-foot townhouses, each with its own elevator, on the site of his old motel.

"This is more," Lerro said, "for the beautification of Wildwood."

Source page: www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/9999795.htm

I didnt know Wally Lerro ( owner of the Bolero ) owned anything else in Wildwood except the Bolero?

[hulk007]

alalven said:

It's a real shame to see the Eden Roc in the shape its in. Given the motels architectural elements and its location, I would have to think that would be an excellent candidate for renovation. I think it would do well, if some money was sunk the effort.

I do have to ask, though, whose idea was it to paint the underhangs bright yellow? Yikes.

I also heard the person running the Eden Roc had a terrible attitude.