Ventnor Memory Park FAQs
Full name is Ventnor Memory Park: An early 1920s aerial photo of Ventnor from above shows, over toward the right and on Ventnor Avenue, an empty lot with an area of white surrounded by a darker area suggesting that maybe the lot was used for sandlot baseball, whether formally designated or just informally putting an unsold lot to good use for youngsters interested in baseball. In the same timeframe, an early 1920’s Sanborn Insurance Map which laid out towns and color-coded the structures as wood, brick or stucco, depicts the 5000 Ventnor Ave. block as raw land. In 1921, the Heights would still have been largely undeveloped, other than some summer cottage bayfront “boathouses.” Middle class housing away from the water was not undertaken until the 1940’s. No Titus Field for recreational sports, no Wellington Plaza Shopping Center (1972).
Later, at sometime in the 1930’s, two large apartment buildings were built in the 5000 Ventnor Ave. block. They carried street addresses of 2 S. Oakland Ave. and 1 S. Hillside Avenue, consistent with the streets which their front entrances faced.
In between and facing Ventnor Ave., four single family row houses were built; street numbers of 5004, 5006, 5008 and 5010 Ventnor Avenue were their assigned addresses. Right across the street, the old Lou’s eatery was a vibrant magnet of clientele. In the late 1990’s, a 26 block section of the town was dubbed the Northeast Redevelopment Area. After litigation which went to the NJ Supreme Court on the issue of “eminent domain for private gain” and which concluded in 2005, there was a pullback by a financially capable co-partner (Pulte Homes) in the Redevelopment plans. The surviving partner was named the Alliance Group and its principal, Mark Alsentzer, submitted a plan for a 22-unit condo structure he dubbed “Tre Sorelle” on the block as it faced Ventnor Avenue. Although that plan, and another for a 32 unit condo building across the street, received Planning Board approval, neither were ever built.
The vacated structures on the even-numbered side of the street met different ends. Alliance Group renovated the apartment building at 2 S. Oakland Ave and attempted to sell small condo units. Presently, the apartment building is under new sole ownership and still an apartment house. In 2009-10, the vacant rowhouses and the large apartment building at 1 S. Hillside Ave. were demolished. Some refreshing “signs of life” occurred in the same year, 2009, when a building on the corner of Ventnor and Nashville Avenues was substantially renovated and expanded to become a Veterinary medical practice and hospital. But then, any further progress in the neighborhood languished. As five lots, each under separate ownership, languished ... nature started to reclaim "her" own, Clover and weeds; weeds and clover.
What’s behind the effort to build a Ventnor Memory Park? Simple and short version: A family with ties to Ventnor since 1948 has, over four generations spanning six decades, witnessed the 5000 block of Ventnor Ave. go from vibrant to troubled to demolished and neglected. They saw nature “reclaiming its own” in an empty lot, even though the greenery was weeds and crabgrass. They thought:
The basic design concept from which this pocket park drew inspiration came from Ketchum Memory Park, a pocket park right on the Main Street commercial corridor in another town where the family acquiring and donating this land for OPEN SPACE preservation regularly spent family ski vacations.
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Which firms have played a role in the effort to build Ventnor Memory Park? The pursuit of this “vision” and the adaptation of a beloved design concept from one unique setting on the Main Street of a high altitude ski town to Ventnor’s own very specific setting on the commercial corridor of a seaside New Jersey beach town has enlisted the following experienced and talented professionals: Tax and incorporation counsel: Elaine Cohen, Esq. Real Estate and Zoning Counsel: Richard DeLucry, Esq. Architect: Todd Allen Miller, President Engineer: Jay Sciullo, Principal Native Plant Species Landscape Designer Joshua S. Nemeth, Principal Beyond their outstanding technical skills, each professional engaged in this out-of-the-box-thinking endeavor to celebrate NATURE in a lovely PIAZZA-like space has also brought the unquantifiable, but immeasurably important, contribution of PASSION about the project’s vision. To begin with the last name, Scipio was an energetic lovable miniature poodle. Joe and Esther bought the little puppy for their youngest child, to honor a promise that a family pet would be waiting as a reward for bravery entering emergency surgery. Joe a/k/a “Pops” had a quick wit with a touch of irony: the little slip of fluff was given the imposing full name Publius Cornelius Scipioa/k/a “Scipio Africanus,” after a notable Roman general (born 236 B.C. died 183 B.C.) who defeated Hannibal in Africa. The pooch’s nickname was “Sipi” and he lived a long happy life as the family pet, spending summers in the family’s small cottage in Ventnor Heights.
The donating family are dog lovers. A small feature of the park will be a Rainbow Bridge spanning a planted gully celebrating the fact that “pets are like family.” It will lead park users to a corner set with natural boulders and designed via its plantings to be a Monarch Nursery (milkweed) and Flyway (nectar rich perennials). The two “begetting” cornerstones of a growing family of 3 children, then 10 grandchildren, and now 5 great-grandchildren, the late Esther and Joe DeLuca were part of the Greatest Generation and their love story unfolded over the course of 57 years. Theirs was a 7 year courtship featuring a lot of mailed love letters, and a 50 year marriage. They are commemorated by including their names in that of the charity now making Ventnor Memory Park possible.
Esther (Uricchio) DeLuca (1915-1996) was a native of Hartford, CT. She was the daughter of Frank Uricchio, an Italian immigrant from Salandra in Provincia Matera, Italy. He was the first Italian-American pharmacist in the State of Connecticut. Her mother Anna Nellie (Lentino) Uricchio was born in New York City, daughter of Italian immigrants. She had a famous cousin named Jimmy Durante. Interesting aside: Jimmy Durante used to perform at Atlantic City’s 500 Club in an earlier era and when he was in the area, the cousins had a chance to meet and “catch up” on news about their lives. Joseph DeLuca (1913-1991) was born as “Giuseppe diLuca” in Salandra, Provincia Matera, Italy. He was the second child and first son born to Francesco and Nicoletta (Marraudina) diLuca. His father Francesco had been conscripted into the Italian Army to serve in World War I. The political chaos and economic devastation of post-War Italy prompted Francesco to immigrate to America in 1920 in search of a better life for his family. The Salandrese Society in Philadelphia and nearby found emigres from Salandra helping others from their hometown with job offers and immigration sponsorships. Francesco worked in a barber shop in southern NJ, sent money back to Italy to support his wife and three small children, and he saved until, in 1924, he could return to Italy to bring his wife and three young children to America.
Joe was age 10 when he was processed through Ellis Island with older sister Marie and younger sister Elia. The phonetic “DeLuca” replaced “diLuca” at Ellis Island. The family grew with three more children as Angela, Frankie and Tommy were welcomed arrivals on American soil. Elia died in her teens in the 1930’s of an infection that penicillin would have cured if it were available before the 1940’s. In her memory, her name was chosen for one of Joe & Esther’s daughters, and also a granddaughter. Residing in Maple Shade, Joe’s parents owned a small grocery store, using the family’s vegetable garden to supply its freshest produce. Everyone in the family worked the store. In 1928, the family was naturalized as American citizens in the courthouse in Mt. Holly, NJ. Joe was introduced to Esther by extended family with ties to Salandra, and it was love at first sight. Their lengthy courtship was conducted mostly by letters between Philadelphia, where Joe was an undergraduate at University of Pennsylvania, and Hartford, where Esther worked in her father’s drug store. Even in advanced old age, Esther still marveled at Joe’s love letters quoting Dante’s poems in tribute to Beatrice. One artifact from that era: an excited telegram sent in May of 1937 by college senior Joe, informing Esther of his acceptance to Hahnemann Medical School.
In spring of 1941, in very short order, Joe graduated with his M.D., and then married Esther. In anticipation that America might be drawn into the war in Europe, by September 16, 1940 the first “draft” found all men between ages 21 and 45 registered. Like many doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, Joe was among the first conscripted. He completed his internship, obtained medical licensures in both New Jersey and Connecticut in July 1942, and was inducted into the U.S. Army the same month where he underwent Medical Field Service School at Camp Picket, VA for 6 weeks then shipped out as Battalion Surgeon in the 442 Engineer and Amphibious Regiment. Over the course of active service extending from July 1, 1942 to June 8, 1946, he was assigned to duty as ship’s doctor for Army troop transport ships as part of the war effort. He later saw duty in North Africa and in the landing at Naples in 1943, tending to casualties in field hospitals behind battle lines as the Army advanced.
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Joe and Esther, in terms of self-sacrificing active duty service by one and loving support from the “home front” by the other, typified the best qualities of the “Greatest Generation.”