Carver Inn Reborn as Apartment Complex
Posted by Webmaster on 06/10/08

Courtesy of the Asbury Park Press

By Bill Bowman

NEPTUNE — For the first time in decades, live music was once again playing Wednesday at the Carver Inn on Myrtle Avenue.

This time, though, the music wasn't accompaniment to a party, but a prelude to a celebration.

Local, county and state officials were on hand to mark the opening of the Carver Inn Apartments, a 14-unit apartment building geared for low- and moderate-income active adults aged 55 and older.

The building was constructed on the site of the old Carver Hotel. The hotel, which opened in the early 1900s, was where African-American entertainers stayed when they performed in the Shore area.

Among the luminaries who stayed and performed at the hotel were Count Basie, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and Duke Ellington.

About half of the building's one-bedroom and efficiency apartments — with monthly rents ranging from $650 to $797 — have been taken, said Mariann C. McDaniel, director of resident services for the building's owner, the Affordable Housing Alliance.

The building has a live-in superintendent and features a community room, laundry room and extra storage space for the efficiency apartments.

McDaniel said about 30 applications were given out during a two-hour open house Wednesday, and there were 32 other people on a waiting list.

"We never turn down anyone who wants to apply," she said. Not all applicants meet age and income requirements, she said.

The $2.4 million project was several years in the making, said Donna Rose Blaze, the Eatontown-based alliance's chief executive officer.

"This was very unique in that we took this historic structure that we intended to rebuild and ended up having to recreate it," she said.

That's because a 1999 fire destroyed part of the hotel, and some of it collapsed while the group was before the township Planning Board seeking approval for its plans.

The building had to be razed, but it was rebuilt to look as much as possible as the original.

That suited Karen Pugh Lascaris just fine.

Lascaris' father, the jazz organist and pianist Sam Pugh, played at the Carver often, she said.

The band played in the hotel's bar, which was located in the basement, she said.

"Everyone always dressed up to come," she said.

It was Pugh's book, "In Our Own Image . . . Treasured African-American Traditions, Journeys and Icons," that inspired Blaze to renovate the building, she said. The book includes a picture of people socializing at the hotel in the 1950s.

"It really made us feel proud to have an impact on the neighborhood," Lascaris said.

Lascaris, who was born and raised in Neptune, now lives in Los Angeles.

"I had to come back for this," she said. "I had to see it."

Lascaris was also a founding member of what has become the Midtown Urban Renaissance Corp., which is partnering with Trenton-based CityWorks to redevelop the West Lake Avenue area.

Gail Oliver, MURC's vice president, said the Carver "compliments what West Lake Avenue is going to become. This is another kickoff for Midtown."

The building's front walkways are comprised of brick pavers which can be engraved. Three lines of 13 characters each cost $100, while two lines cost $50.

For more information about the brick engraving, call the alliance at (732) 389-2958 and ask for Gwen Love.

Bill Bowman: (732) 643-4212 or bbowman@app.com