Convention Hall and the Grand Arcade
Near Asbury Park, New Jersey
This great brick and copper complex on the sand is the architectural crown of the boardwalk. Convention Hall and the neighboring Paramount Theatre were designed by Warren and Wetmore, the same New York firm that gave the world Grand Central Terminal. Built between nineteen twenty-eight and nineteen thirty, they blend an elegant Italian and French style with playful nautical touches, seahorses and shells worked into the ornament.
Convention Hall seats more than three thousand people, and remarkably, it reaches more than two hundred feet out over the beach on steel and concrete pilings, so part of the building actually hangs above the tide. The Paramount Theatre next door holds roughly two thousand seats. The two halls are joined by an enclosed promenade called the Grand Arcade, which spans the boardwalk between them so you can pass from one to the other without ever stepping outside.
The grand opening in July of nineteen thirty was a star-studded affair, and over the decades the stage hosted enormous acts, from the Rolling Stones and The Who to James Brown and Janis Joplin. In recent years Bruce Springsteen has made the hall a home for rehearsals and holiday concerts, keeping the old room loud and alive.
