Marven Gardens

Marven Gardens Historic District
Location Bounded by Ventnor, Fredericksburg, Winchester and Brunswick Avenues, Margate City, New Jersey
Coordinates 39°19′57″N 74°29′41″W / 39.33250°N 74.49472°WCoordinates: 39°19′57″N 74°29′41″W / 39.33250°N 74.49472°W
Area 16 acres (6.5 ha)
Architect Pedrick & Sons
Architectural style Tudor Revival, Mission/Spanish Revival, Dutch Colonial
Governing body Private
NRHP Reference #

90001440

[1]
Added to NRHP September 13, 1990

Marven Gardens is a housing area in Margate City, Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, located two miles (3 km) south of Atlantic City.

The name Marven Gardens is said to be derived from Margate City and Ventnor City, because it lies on the border of Margate City and Ventnor City.[2] Marven Gardens is surrounded by Ventnor Avenue, Winchester Avenue, Fredericksburg Avenue and Brunswick Avenue. The streets within it are Circle Drive, East Drive and West Drive. Most of the homes were built in the 1920s and 1930s.

For many years, houses in the neighborhood fell into disrepair. During the housing boom of the 2000s, many houses changed ownership and have been returned to their former beauty. In the past ten years, a group of residents got grant money from the City of Margate to restore the numerous landscaped islands throughout the development by planting hundreds of rose bushes, junipers and hydrangeas. Marven Gardens is one of the most expensive streets in Margate. It has some of the highest price per square foot rates in New Jersey.

Marven Gardens was the childhood home of Seth Justman, a guitarist for the J. Geils Band and Jennifer Lynn Farrell, Miss New Jersey in 2003. It was also the home of the Welterweight Champion of the World in boxing, Pete Latzo, who held the title between 1926 and 1927. He lived at 8 West Drive.

Monopoly

Marven Gardens is famous as a Yellow property on the original version of the Monopoly game board, although the game misspelled the name as Marvin Gardens. The misspelling was introduced by Charles and Olive Todd, who taught the game to Charles Darrow, its eventual patentee. His homemade Monopoly board was copied by Parker Brothers.[3][4] In 1995 Parker Brothers acknowledged this mistake and formally apologized to the residents of Marven Gardens for the misspelling.[5] It is the only property on the board that is not located within Atlantic City.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
  2. ↑ Winkler, Renee. "Whatever the spelling, Marven Gardens has its charms", Courier-Post, August 9, 2004. Accessed September 30, 2007. "Marven Gardens, whose name is derived from the combination of MARgate and VENtnor, comes close to straddling the line dividing these two towns."
  3. ↑ Orbanes, Philip E. (2006). 'Monopoly: the world's most famous game & how it got that way'. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-306-81489-7.
  4. ↑ Anspach, Ralph (2000). The Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle (Second ed.). Xlibris Corporation. pp. 302–303. ISBN 0-7388-3139-5.
  5. ↑ Williams, Juan (2002-11-25). "Monopoly". National Public Radio. Present at the Creation. Archived from the original on 2013-10-25. Retrieved 2014-01-17. In 1995, Parker Brothers formally acknowledged the original misspelling of "Marvin Gardens" and apologized to the residents of the neighborhood of Marven Gardens in Atlantic City.

External links