See it. Learn it. Then share it, in writing.
This meticulous work cycle, wrapped around a lifelong Stone Harbor love affair, marks New Jersey-born author Harlan Radford.
The Moorestown native has produced more than 500 published accounts on Stone Harbor, his vacation heartland, in the last 25 years. He has been notably prolific with the Stone Harbor Museum, having written more than 300 posts since 2022. That’s more than half of everything the museum has ever published.
Now the author becomes a story.
Radford earned the Stone Harbor Property Owners Association Citizen of the Year Award in September. This major distinction comes from an organization that recently expanded its honoree pool beyond residents. Radford, who vacations here each summer and lives outside of Cleveland, joins a group that includes borough icons Clinton Bunting, Ed Breen, and John Sprandio, who transformed downtown Stone Harbor via the Harbor Plaza and The Reeds at Shelter Haven.
“This is a labor of love and while I am honored, what the award really says to me is that people clearly believe the history of Stone Harbor matters,” Radford says. “They believe it is important to be preserved and that can be utilized from what I can learn via this work.
“Preserving and writing history with a degree of authority brings me in touch with wonderful people connected with Stone Harbor,” he adds.
Stone Harbor has long been special to Radford. He began vacationing here as a youth in the 1950s, often at C-7 Weber Court. Like many, Radford developed love for the family values espoused here. Unlike many, he’s been able to feed it 75 years later, often from a distance, at age 83.
Radford’s adult life took him to a teaching career, primarily social studies in the Cleveland suburb of Rocky River, Ohio. He contributed Stone Harbor stories to various outlets throughout his 34-year teaching tenure there and retired from teaching in 2000. He has also been writing for the Historical Society of Riverton for 20 years.
Radford’s work originates from a dependable process.
Inspired by his own postcard collection or images on a thumb drive, Radford presents vivid imagery of an earlier time, predating modern innovations like postal air travel and highways through town.
He is just as thrilled to learn about the subject as to write about it.
“Maybe I should have been a prosecutor, an investigator or a curator,” he laughs, regarding his love of the research.
Radford is not bound by traditional rules of magazine or newspaper story length. Some of his articles are manifestos, reaching 30 pages of text. He reports to his audience with the joy of someone discovering a treasure. Which, via the research, he has.
Radford has become a de facto encyclopedia on Stone Harbor’s rich past. On the museum website, he has posted information that will make people chuckle and yearn for prices from another time.
One of them is a two-story property from 1917 called the “House That Jack Built.” It was actually designated as a dormitory and located at 101st Street and Third Avenue on lots 99 & 101, block 100. This was equivalent to an 11-room cottage. On the first floor were six rooms (three bedrooms) and bath, and an open fireplace. The second floor accommodated four beds. The listing described this dwelling as an “original and ingenious arrangement.” Rent, furnished, $350 season. Sale, $4,700, terms to suit.
How about THOSE numbers in Stone Harbor?
The website contains a potpourri of his postcard treasures. Favorites? He has a few.
One was documenting events like Stone Harbor receiving air travel all the way from Ocean City more than 100 years ago. Imagine, boarding and deplaning in Cape May County.
“In 1912, nine years after the Wright brothers in Kitty Hawk, the post office of the United States decided they wanted to promote a possible means of mail going by air,” he recalls. “A guy sent me photos of it that I had never seen before and I was delighted to have it. Delighted to do a lengthy dive into that research.”
The flight covered 30 minutes, Radford notes, about what it takes to drive now.
Another gem is “Margaret,” wrecked off Seven Mile Beach in December 1912.
“What captured my attention most about this event was the herculean effort made by lifesaving crews of Avalon and Stone Harbor to successfully rescue 10 members of the stranded ship and bring them to their safety after two perilous rescue trips,” he says.
Another all-star memory concerned construction of three concrete houses and their fascinating connection with Thomas Alva Edison. The prolific inventor patented a method to cast entire houses in a single concrete pour.
Still another golden nugget involves a deep research dive into a sad yet significant moment in American history. It describes a backstory of a dramatic photo (in the Stone Harbor Museum archives) taken by a Stone Harbor resident of the famous German LZ-129 airship Hindenburg as it flew over Stone Harbor on the fateful day of May 6, 1937.
“About one hour later, that very airship tragically exploded, taking 35 of the 97 souls on board at Lakehurst, New Jersey,” Radford says. “You may wonder what was the Hindenburg doing flying over Stone Harbor. Actually, the aircraft was in a holding pattern awaiting news from the Lakehurst Naval Air Station to be cleared to proceed and land at Lakehurst due to stormy weather in the South Jersey area at that time.
“As we all know, the rest is history.”
Radford fondly recalls the work recognizing Gala Week, a festivity of Stone Harbor events in July of 1911. That’s when the Risley brothers (Howard, Davis and Reese, the visionaries credited with turning Stone Harbor into a resort) promoted high-profile events like the opening of the causeway linking Cape May Court House and the mainland with Stone Harbor. New Jersey Gov. Woodrow Wilson officiated over a formal dedication ceremony for the opening of the first drawbridge enabling automobiles and even trains to travel to the town, yet allow boats to also ply the waters of the Great Channel.
The list seems endless.
“What Harlan has provided is a remarkable body of work, and it has meant a great deal to the museum and to everyone who reads it,” says Katie Hinchey-Wise, curator of the Stone Harbor Museum.
“Harlan is our main writer for the web and people love his posts. We only see the people who walk through the door. Harlan reaches a large portion of our constituents who are invisible to us,” she notes, referring to the readers who follow Radford and Stone Harbor online. “He loves to ask questions and elicit conversations from people. Some of our most popular blogs are written by Harlan.”
Hinchey-Wise believes Radford helps people find their snow-globe moment, stories from a time in their past that encourages them to share memories of Stone Harbor.
Radford has collected accolades, just like bylines.
In 2023, he was formally recognized in Rocky River as a resident who is “a difference maker who creates positive change in the community.” He’s also an active member in the Rotary Club of Rocky River.
Besides his writing, Radford directs philanthropic efforts to the Cleveland Clinic, Meals on Wheels, various food banks, and other volunteer roles.
He maintains a full life with little free time and a nose for nostalgia.
Whenever he finds a story, he embraces it like a new friend. Then he disseminates it to all his old friends.
