Biohazard Cleanup Near Holgate Beach Haven, NJ

Beach Haven is a borough on Long Beach Island in southern Ocean County, fronting the Atlantic Ocean at the Jersey Shore.

Beach Haven was incorporated as a borough on November 11, 1890, from portions of Eagleswood Township, following a referendum held five days earlier.

Known by the nickname "The Queen City," Beach Haven was originally established in 1873 as a beachfront resort for wealthy summer residents from Philadelphia.

The 2020 census counted 1,027 year-round residents in Beach Haven, down from 1,170 in 2010.

Beach Haven's housing stock is overwhelmingly seasonal: the 2010 census counted 2,667 housing units but only 531 households, reflecting the many summer homes in the borough.

More than half of the borough's total area is water, since its 2.33 square miles include about 1.35 square miles of bay and ocean.

The first incident of the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 happened at Beach Haven, off the east end of Engleside Avenue, when swimmer Charles Vansant was killed on July 1, 1916.

The Beach Haven Historic District, listed on the state and National Registers of Historic Places in the early 1980s, preserves the borough's Victorian and Edwardian resort architecture.

The historic Baldwin Hotel, photographed around 1908, was razed in 1960 and replaced by what is now Veterans Memorial Park, and the borough's Veteran's Bicentennial Park hosts concerts, flea markets and festivals each summer.

Beach Haven is home to Fantasy Island, the only amusement park on Long Beach Island, and Thundering Surf, the island's only waterpark.