Asbury Park Boardwalk Incubator Babies

The story opens on April 25, 1907, with a front-page article in the Asbury Park Evening Press announcing that Beach Commission President Theodore H. Beringer had signed a one-year lease with the Infant Incubator Company of New York for a store at the southern end of the new Third Avenue bathhouse group on the boardwalk — at a rental of $2,000 per year.

The article was enthusiastic, describing the exhibit as “entirely novel and unique in the entertainment line.” It noted that the company had “established hospitals for the saving of infants’ lives in all the principal cities of the country and in all the big expositions of recent years,” and that infants as small as three to four pounds had been successfully raised. The planned facility would be 24×37 feet, facing the boardwalk.

Within weeks, the company ran into its first bureaucratic obstacle. The Beach Commission disapproved the Baby Incubator company’s request to convert approximately 30 bathhouses into sleeping quarters for the nurses. The commission consulted the bathing lessees (Messrs. Mitchell and Fry), who were actually willing, but the commission itself refused. It was a sign of tensions to come.

By early July 1907, the exhibit had relocated slightly — opening “at the foot of Second Avenue on the boardwalk” rather than Third Avenue as originally planned. A short news item reported:

Four babies were in incubators, with a fifth who had “graduated” to the nursery
The smallest was a girl weighing only a pound and a half
The boys wore blue, the girls pink
All linen was sterilized; infants were bathed daily in a glass bathtub
Two trained nurses were on duty around the clock

The exhibit was clearly drawing visitors, and the operation was running. A classified ad from July 25, 1907 reveals the showman side of the enterprise: the company advertised for a “young man about 25 years old, good appearance and address, to lecture” — confirming that paid lecturers explained the exhibit to boardwalk crowds.

Almost immediately, the exhibit became entangled in Asbury Park’s fierce Sunday closing laws. The incubator manager complained bitterly that boardwalk businesses were required to shut at noon on Sundays, yet the Casino was allowed to hold “sacred concerts” on Sunday evenings. He called his institution a “benevolent one” that deserved the same latitude — and threatened a visit to Mayor Atkins.

This was the beginning of a dispute that would run for the entire following season.

The company returned for a second season. By late June 1908, advertisements were running with slogans like “Always Interesting! The Infant Incubators — Something every man, woman and child should see” and “Most Novel Exhibition on the Boardwalk.”

A notable admission came in June 1908: a baby girl weighing just three pounds and one ounce, born to West Indian parents aboard a ship entering New York harbor, was sent on the ship’s surgeon’s recommendation directly to the boardwalk incubator — illustrating that the exhibit genuinely served as a referral destination for premature infants who had no other care options.

The Sunday closing dispute returned with new intensity in late June/early July 1908, now escalating to the city council.

Mayor T.F. Appleby took a hard line, telling council he stood for a “conservative Sunday law” and that places not necessary for public comfort should not open. He also objected to what he called the “barking” of the incubator man — the loud street-hawking used to draw crowds.

Councilman Charles N. Swain pushed back fiercely, arguing it was absurd and discriminatory to close “an innocent baby incubator, a scientific institution” all day Sunday while ice cream parlors and cigar stands remained open. He called the incubator “a scientific institution” deserving equal treatment.

The dispute became so public that a satirical poem appeared in the paper (likely submitted by the incubator’s management under the initials “J.A.B.”), mocking the mayor:

“They incubate on Sunday,
Babies they reach.
But Sunday incubation Is Sabbath desecration —
The law must reach.”

The matter was eventually left unresolved, with the expectation that the mayor would permit the exhibit to stay open until noon on Sundays as a compromise.

In late August 1908, the paper ran a charming human-interest piece on Rosie Seigel, described as “the youngest summer visitor in Asbury Park” — a three-day-old girl from Brooklyn weighing just two pounds fifteen ounces at birth. The manager’s wife, Mrs. Russell, personally traveled to Brooklyn to collect her, the infant swaddled in cotton “from head to foot, just a little place for her nose being exposed.”

The saga concluded abruptly. At a Beach Commission meeting in late August 1908, amid routine business about expanding arcade seating, a single line buried at the end of the article noted: “On motion of Mr. Gordon, the lease of the Incubator Baby company was cancelled.”

By November 1908, a brief notice confirmed the store was vacant and the commission was entertaining bids “for approved purposes.” The Infant Incubator exhibit on the Asbury Park Boardwalk was over.

References — Asbury Park Evening Press (Asbury Park, NJ)

“Incubator Infants on the Beach Front,” April 25, 1907, p. 1
“No Sleeping Quarters: Beach Commission Disapproves Request of Incubator Company,” May 16, 1907, p. 3
“Four Incubator Babies,” July 3, 1907, p. 3
“Object to Sunday Rule,” July 17, 1907, p. 1
Classified advertisement: “Young Man Wanted … to Lecture at Infant Incubator,” July 25, 1907, p. 5
Classified advertisement: “Young Woman Wanted … Incubator Hospital, Boardwalk,” June 22, 1908, p. 9
Display advertisement: “Always Interesting! The Infant Incubators,” June 25, 1908, p. 4
“Baby Incubator Open: Little West Indian Infant Attracts Much Attention,” June 25, 1908, p. 7
Display advertisement: “You Must See the Infant Incubators,” June 30, 1908, p. 7
“Mayor Wants a Quiet Sabbath,” July 14, 1908, p. 3
Advertisement/verse [signed J.A.B.]: “Mayor Wants a Quiet Sabbath” with satirical poem, July 17, 1908, p. 2
“Councilman Swain Criticizes the Mayor,” August 24, 1908, p. 3
“Youngest Visitor: Rosie Seigel, Three Days Old, Residing at Infant Incubator,” August 25, 1908, p. 5
“Plans for More Seats in Arcade” [includes lease cancellation notice], November 28, 1908, p. 1
“Beach Booth to Rent,” December 30, 1908, p. 2

Last Updated on 04/29/26