Gone But Not Forgotten - The Springfield Inn & Carousel
On May 16th, Sea Isle News.com published an article in which they laid out the details that the new proprietors of the Springfield Inn had finally received the proper permits allowing them to proceed with their plans to demolish and “transform the space into a new restaurant, outdoor bar and condominium property”. As Memorial Day Weekend approaches at the shore, Summer 2020 will be the first summer since 1972 with no Springfield and no Carousel (the attached beach bar) in Sea Isle City. Although all bars on the island will be closed for the upcoming weekend due to Hurricane Rona, the Springfield and the Carousel will never reopen as we once knew them. The white, weathered, wooden building on the corner of 43rd and Pleasure Ave. is getting torn down, only to be replaced by the ever common “businesses on the bottom, condos on the top” style monstrosities that are becoming ever more common in our little shore town.
I can be overly nostalgic sometimes,(a trait I blame on having spent so much time in Dean’s growing up), so with that being said there is probably no wonder that the Springfield/Carousel was my favorite bar on the island. I can remember in grade school and the early days of high school riding my bike with my friends past the dimly lit bar down Pleasure at night time, or sitting at the rail on the promenade during the day, looking on as our parents, cousins, brothers and sisters were having drinks at the octagon-shaped hut bar. Gym shorts and t-shirts reigned supreme over pastels and khakis. We all longed to be old enough to participate because everyone seemed so happy.
Sometimes aging bars can border the line of just being old and being old and dirty. The Springfield hovered that distinction like a tailing Ryan Howard line-drive hit down the right field chalk. The Carousel was an old school beach bar. Everyone expected the sand, the flies, the cigarette smoke, the old yellow awning covering the old plastic tables. At the end of the day you were at the beach, and if you were expecting anything fancier then you were probably in the wrong place. The Inn inside the Springfield was dirty. The busted tile floors, the peeling bar stools, the drop ceiling, and the bathrooms with the flooded floors of God knows what fluids. It was a dive, but it was a dive that had an aura. It had a unique 50 person oval shaped bar with a stage in the middle. It had a dance floor that always had room enough to dance. It had stiff drinks, and cold beer, and some amazing music. It was a place that screamed “if these walls could talk they’d tell a thousand stories”.
Let’s get this straight - every bar down the shore is pretty much great, especially when you can get a good space to hang with your gang. The right hand corner at the front bar in Shennanigans? - Amazing. Stools along the rail of 2nd floor Dead Dog? - Killer. There were definitely more sought after places to be on the island, and I get that. Some of my friends thought the Springfield was an old persons bar, which it could be at points, but to me that’s what gave it charm. There was always a healthy mix of old and young, different groups, different schools and neighborhoods. When you had a big group of your friends in the Springfield, you knew you were gonna have a good time because you knew you could get a drink, not be crammed in like a sardine, and mix and mingle with generations of people who have been doing the same thing you were now doing for 50 years.
Look - I understand progress. This is America where things are constantly evolving. I also understand that after 50 years, a building that has taken the abuse of salt air, coastal storms, and hundreds of gallons of spilled Miller Lite is probably close to its dying day. Nothing but success to the new era. The only hard pill to swallow is that institutions like the Carousel, the Springfield, La Costa (set for the same course next summer) are what makes a town like Sea Isle what it is. They aren’t just part of the town’s infrastructure, they are part of its essence and spirit. When they fall, so do all those memories that have been soaked up in their beams. Apparently they will keep the names Springfield and Carousel, I just hope they can retain the soul.
In Summer 2021 there will be a building in that lot, brand spanking new, with tan siding, white deck-lined condos, and a new blue roof. The building will be pretty and clean, but one thing places like the Springfield and Carousel have taught us - sometimes things don’t have to be pretty to be beautiful.
- J.H
