From 1941-1944 ’America on Wheels’ Roller Skating was a huge success until a hurricane hit in September 1944. The ice-skating rink opened and closed several times, but during WWII, roller skating was king. The magnificent Casino Building complex was home to games of chance, food concessions, ice skating, and a merry-go-round putting the boardwalk on the map as a premieryear-round Jersey Shore destination. In 1905, the original Casino featured an ice-skating rink which Warren & Wetmore included in their 1930 design for the complex, boldly constructing an entire eastern wing on a pier jutting out over the beach reaching the ocean at high tide. Surprisingly, skating had over a century of history, in the Casino Building. Mini golf was a hole-in-one that brought families back to the oceanfront and the tradition continues today with Asbury Eighteen in the green space at 3rd Ave and the Boardwalk.

To counter falling property taxes and fewer visitors, the City introduced several mini golf courses in the green spaces between Ocean Avenue and the boardwalk. The city found itself with a mountain of debt and the country was struggling as the Depression grew. The Casino complex was completed quickly but millions of dollars over budget. By expanding the hall to house indoor amusements, food stands and dance hall, the vision for a grander Casino Building grew, squeezing the footprint for the steam plant (needed to generate electricity as well as to heat a new natatorium just north along the boardwalk) into a small plot on the doorsteps to Ocean Grove.

The Warren & Wetmore design created an open hall for trade shows, a national trend that had recently begun in New York.

Mayor Hetrick envisioned Convention Hall and the Casino Building complex as creating a reliable source of year-round income. In 1930, 59 years after the founding of Asbury Park, Mayor Hetrick commissioned the esteemed New York architecture firm Warren and Wetmore to build the Casino complex (see the previous ‘New Icons, Asbury Park’ Fun House blogpost for an in-depth look at construction of Convention Hall), expanding his vision for to include “twin solarium pavilions” along the beachfront.

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