The Camp David of Its Day

 

The Grants got acquainted with Long Branch sometime around 1869 (accounts say 1867 to 1869), when they were invited there by Philadelphia newspaper publisher and local investor George W. Childs. Childs owned a seafront chalet that still exists on Ocean Avenue. Childs, industrialist George Pullman, and bank magnate Moses Taylor bought a cottage near Childs’s home on Ocean Avenue, which overlooked the ocean, and let the Grants use it without charge for the rest of their lives, author Mark Perry wrote. President Grant spent working vacations there during his two terms in office.


An undated postcard shows the altered Grant cottage in Long Branch. Courtesy of Edward Thomas.

Grant’s son Jesse wrote later that the president was at Long Branch for such extended periods that the Democratic opposition in the Congress wanted documentation of his time. Perry wrote that reporters referred to Long Branch as the nation’s ‘summer capital.’”


The Grant cottage at 995 Ocean Avenue in Long Branch, N.J., was the summer White House or Camp David of its time. When President Grant was present, the 28-room home was filled with aides and family members.

 He described how Grant conducted government each summer from his rocker, “deploying secretaries and aides throughout” the 28 rooms of the cottage, making it also the Camp David of its day.

However, Long Branch was not just about official business; Grant’s wife, Julia Dent Grant and his son Jesse later recalled personal times at Long Branch with affection.

 

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