Things to Do in Avalon
Avalon sits on the northern half of Seven Mile Island in Cape May County, New Jersey, sharing that island with Stone Harbor to the south -- both towns founded by the same company, the Seven Mile Beach Company, which purchased the island in 1887. But Avalon's own identity does not depend on its neighbor. The main attraction for a visitor here is not a beach umbrella or a boardwalk ride -- it is a real, dated, literary naming story confirmed through the Seven Mile Times' own dedicated feature on the subject, paired with a civic motto, "Cooler by a Mile," that turns out to describe real geography rather than just marketing copy. This page sticks to what our research confirmed. It does not invent current hours, admission prices, or the names of specific present-day shops or restaurants.
A Real Arthurian Legend Behind the Town’s Name
Around 1887-1888, during the Seven Mile Beach Company's earliest development of the island, a colleague named Rev. Charles Henry Bond proposed calling the new town "Avalon." His reasoning, as documented by the Seven Mile Times, was specific: the island's then-untamed landscape of forests, dunes, ponds, marshes, wildflowers, and large cedar and oak trees reminded him of the mythical Isle of Avalon near Glastonbury, England -- the legendary resting place of King Arthur in Arthurian legend.
Bond did not stop at the name. He went on to serve as corporate secretary of the Seven Mile Beach Company, and when the young town needed its first newspaper, he named it "The Round Table" -- a second, deliberate nod to the same Arthurian legend. It is a genuinely unusual detail for a Jersey Shore town: a resort community whose name and whose first newspaper were both chosen as a literary homage, by the same person, within the same few years. Our research did not confirm whether "The Round Table" still publishes today, so this page does not state its current operating status.
"Cooler by a Mile": A Motto Grounded in Real Geography
Avalon's civic motto, "Cooler by a Mile," is not just a catchy marketing line -- Wikipedia's own entry on the borough explains the real geography behind it. Avalon's stretch of coastline actually extends roughly one mile farther out into the Atlantic Ocean than the neighboring barrier islands nearby. That extra mile of exposure to open ocean water is the genuine physical reason behind the phrase, giving visitors an actual geographic fact to point to rather than an empty slogan.
That same position on the coastline is also why Avalon deals seriously with erosion. The borough maintains extensive rock jetties along its beaches and has carried out ongoing beach-replenishment efforts to hold the shoreline in place. Our research did not confirm a specific current jetty count, a named current replenishment project, its cost, or its completion date, so this page does not invent any of those figures -- confirm current shoreline-protection details directly with the Borough of Avalon.
A Lost Juniper Forest: An Honest Before-and-After Story
Before development reshaped the island, Avalon's native landscape was a juniper forest -- part of the same "untamed" scenery of dunes, ponds, marshes, and large cedar and oak trees that inspired Bond's Arthurian naming in the 1880s. That native landscape has largely disappeared as the town was built out over the following century, and hills along with native juniper are now genuinely rare within Avalon's borders today.
It's an honest before-and-after story rather than a purely celebratory one: the same landscape that once evoked a mythical, mist-covered island now looks, in most places, like a built-out Jersey Shore beach town. Walking or driving through Avalon with that history in mind -- picturing the dunes, ponds, and cedar groves Bond saw in 1887 underneath today's homes and streets -- is itself one of the more interesting ways to spend time here, even without a single ticketed attraction involved.
An Affluent Beach Town, By the Numbers
Avalon's reputation as an upscale Jersey Shore address is backed by real, specific figures rather than just impression. Forbes named Avalon the 65th most expensive ZIP code in the United States in 2007, and the 2010 census recorded a median household income of $88,527, a median family income of $135,781, and a per capita income of $99,655 -- notably specific numbers for a town of its size. Wikipedia describes Avalon as one of the most affluent communities along the Jersey Shore, with some of the most expensive real estate on the East Coast, and Washingtonian magazine has named it the "chicest beach" in the Mid-Atlantic.
Those figures are dated -- the 2007 Forbes ranking and the 2010 census numbers are not current-day statistics, and our research did not confirm today's median home price, active listing counts, or current rental rates. Treat them as historical evidence of Avalon's long-standing affluent identity, not as this year's market data, and confirm current figures with a local real estate professional or Cape May County's own records.
A Small Island, A Shared Founding
Avalon was incorporated as a borough on April 18, 1892, carved from portions of Middle Township following a referendum held two days earlier. It shares Seven Mile Island with Stone Harbor -- Avalon on the island's northern half, Stone Harbor on the southern half -- both born from the same 1887 purchase of the island by the Seven Mile Beach Company. The 2020 census recorded a year-round population of just 1,243 residents, down from 1,334 in 2010, even as the summer population swells to as many as 45,000.
That contrast -- a tiny, close-knit off-season community giving way to a crowded summer resort -- is itself part of what visitors are experiencing when they walk Avalon's streets in July: a town whose permanent population would fit into a handful of city blocks, built on land its own founders once thought resembled a mythical, legend-soaked island.
What This Page Does Not Invent
This page is built around what our research confirmed: Rev. Charles Henry Bond's proposal of the name "Avalon" around 1887-1888, inspired by the island's untamed landscape evoking the mythical Isle of Avalon from Arthurian legend; Bond's founding of the town's first newspaper, "The Round Table," as a second nod to the same legend; the real geography behind the "Cooler by a Mile" motto; Avalon's largely-lost native juniper forest; the borough's rock jetties and beach-replenishment efforts; Forbes's 2007 65th-most-expensive-ZIP-code ranking; the 2010 census income figures; Washingtonian's "chicest beach" description; the 1892 incorporation; and the 2020 census population of 1,243 against a summer population of up to 45,000.
It does not state current sanctuary or attraction hours, admission prices, current jetty counts or replenishment-project names, current median home prices, current population figures beyond the 2020 census, or the names of specific present-day shops, restaurants, or businesses, because none of those details were confirmed during our research pass. Confirm current details directly with the Borough of Avalon before planning a visit around them.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from this project's own Avalon competitive research pass, which independently confirms, via Wikipedia's own Avalon, New Jersey entry and the Seven Mile Times' own dedicated feature on the naming of Avalon: Avalon's location on the northern half of Seven Mile Island in Cape May County, New Jersey, shared with Stone Harbor; its 2020 census population of 1,243 (down from 1,334 in 2010) against a summer population of up to 45,000; its April 18, 1892 incorporation as a borough from portions of Middle Township; Rev. Charles Henry Bond's proposal of the name "Avalon" around 1887-1888 for the Seven Mile Beach Company, inspired by the island's untamed landscape of forests, dunes, ponds, marshes, and large cedar and oak trees evoking the mythical Isle of Avalon from Arthurian legend; Bond's later role as the Seven Mile Beach Company's corporate secretary and his founding of Avalon's first newspaper, "The Round Table," as a second nod to the same legend; Forbes's 2007 ranking of Avalon as the 65th most expensive ZIP code in the United States; the 2010 census figures of $88,527 median household income, $135,781 median family income, and $99,655 per capita income; Wikipedia's description of Avalon as one of the most affluent communities along the Jersey Shore with some of the most expensive real estate on the East Coast; Washingtonian magazine's naming of Avalon as the "chicest beach" in the Mid-Atlantic; the real geography behind the "Cooler by a Mile" motto, reflecting Avalon's position roughly a mile farther into the Atlantic Ocean than neighboring barrier islands; Avalon's largely-lost native juniper forest and its extensive rock jetties and beach-replenishment efforts against erosion; and the shared 1887 Seven Mile Beach Company founding of Avalon and Stone Harbor. Current attraction hours, admission prices, jetty counts, replenishment-project details, median home prices, and specific current business names were not confirmed this research pass and are not invented here. Confirm current details directly with the Borough of Avalon. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.