Jersey Shore Magazine

J e r s e y s h o r e • F A L L / H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 6 12 12 BEACHCOMBER continued from page 11 SANDY UPDATE Welcome, Neighbor! The new "Charlie's of Bay Head" building is a beautiful new centerpiece for the town. Jill Ocone Charlie's of Bay Head, the new restaurant/bar in town, as viewed from Twilight Lake. Its exterior was designed with the typical shore architecture of Bay Head in mind— cedar shingles, copper gutters, and weathered brick. F rom the destruction of Superstorm Sandy in the quaint seaside vil- lage of Bay Head has risen a new landmark building. Charlie's of Bay Head, located on Bridge Avenue and Twilight Lake at the former site of The Shoppers Wharf, is a full-service restaurant and bar—and the new centerpiece of the business district, which was flooded with water as high as seven feet during Superstorm Sandy. Formally approved by the town fathers in late 2014, it's been almost two years of planning and construc- tion, and finally, Charlie's is prepar- ing for its grand opening later this year. Charlie's location is historic in itself, as it was constructed on the site of the former Lorraine Theater. Built by Albert C. Lewis, The Lorraine opened in 1917 as an "open-air" theater. A roof was added in 1920, and it became a regular movie house. The Lorraine was run by the Calvin Applegate family for years. When it first opened, an adult ticket cost fif- teen cents. Supposedly, because the theater was located on Twilight Lake and the "Scow Ditch" waterway, the floor of the front rows would fill with a few inches of water during extreme full moon high tides. In the 1970s, the Lorraine was sold and converted into a group of shops, but its auditorium-style, sloped floor from its days as a theater remained. The Shoppers Wharf, as it became known, featured numer- ous small boutiques on both sides of what was originally the main aisle of the theater. Over the years, it was home to a variety of stores including The Memory Shoppe, the Sea Glass Gallery, late artist Robert Loder's Gull Studios, and The Chocolate Shoppe, to name a few. In 2012, the wooden structure was so severely damaged by the storm, it was deemed Courtesy of the Bay Head Historical Society (from the Schoettle Collection) The Lorraine Theater, circa 1925.

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