Where the Shore's Giving Keeps a Building Afloat

Where the Shore's Giving Keeps a Building Afloat

On the Navesink River in Red Bank, a building from 1895 is about to undergo a remarkable piece of civic engineering: it will be lifted off its century-old pilings, moved 50 to 60 feet back onto its own property, set on a new foundation, and returned to its original spot — 18 inches higher than it sits today. The Monmouth Boat Club, one of the oldest yacht clubs in the United States, has been constituted on that river since 1879. Its 147th season is being defined not just by racing but by a question the whole community is answering with its own money: how does a shore town keep a National Register of Historic Places landmark standing for another century?

The story so far

• In 2025, Preservation New Jersey named the club one of the ten most endangered historic places in New Jersey, citing the condition of the wood-pile foundation beneath the 1895 structure.
• The New Jersey Historic Trust has since awarded a $750,000 Preserve New Jersey grant (building on a $45,000 grant in 2024) for foundation repair and building elevation — the first grant the club has ever received since its founding.
• The full project is estimated at over $2 million. The gap is being closed by Friends of Monmouth Boat Club, a nonprofit formed specifically to raise private funds for the work.

What the community is doing

• The restoration effort is run by volunteers — members describe the work as "almost a second job," coordinating bids, permits, and donor outreach alongside their regular sailing seasons.
• Construction is scheduled to begin this coming fall, with a six-month active period through winter 2027; the club aims to be fully operational for the 2027 sailing season.
• The club continues to sail through the process: weekly racing, regional regattas, and one of the only Junior and Adult sailing programs on the Navesink keep the building's working life intact while the foundation is rebuilt.

A record of generosity on the Navesink

• Friends of Monmouth Boat Club is where the giving happens: individual and family gifts, corporate matching, and planned-giving gifts are directed to the foundation's restoration fund.
• The club's 150-year photographic and painting archive — one of the largest collections chronicling life on the Navesink — is part of what the project preserves alongside the building itself.
• The Borough of Red Bank is the municipal grant recipient on the state award, meaning the restoration is also a public investment in the town's historic waterfront.

Why it matters locally

Monmouth families who have raced on the Navesink for generations have a reason to be optimistic about the next 100 years: the community has already proven, in real dollars and real volunteer hours, that it can carry a National Register building through a full foundation replacement. The $750,000 state grant was the public's signal. The work of Friends of Monmouth Boat Club is the private sector's answer — and it is a model that other Monmouth institutions can watch and learn from: how a volunteer club, a nonprofit foundation, a municipal government, and a state trust can all pull in the same direction on one building, one river, one shore town.

How to get involved

• Give to Friends of Monmouth Boat Club — individual, family, and corporate gifts support the foundation-replacement fund; tax-deductible. Contact through the Friends of MBC website: mbcfriends.org.
• Sail with the club — Junior and Adult sailing programs run through the season; membership and program inquiries go to the club office at monmouthboatclub.org.
• Attend a regatta — the club hosts regional and national regattas on the Navesink; spring, summer, and Labor Day events draw some of the best sailors on the East Coast.
• Support the archive — the club's 150-year photographic and painting collection is a public cultural asset; families and businesses can support its preservation and public access.

How Love of Humanity supports this work

Love of Humanity is a Monmouth 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works alongside institutions like these — not in place of them, but beside them. Where Friends of Monmouth Boat Club has shown what a community can do with focused generosity, we focus on making sure the shore's broader giving has the same kind of continuity: a clear path from a family's gift to a verifiable local outcome. If the Navesink's story has moved you, the same warm logic applies to where your giving goes. Support Love of Humanity · Stripe: buy.stripe.com. Board leader, foundation director, head of school, or family-office trustee reading this? We build co-branded family education with Monmouth institutions — partnerships@donatetoloveofhumanity.com.

This roundup is editorial. No fees were paid. Love of Humanity is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.