Things to Do in Spring Lake, New Jersey

The Lake the Town Is Named For

Spring Lake takes its name from an actual spring-fed lake within the borough, and that lake -- not a boardwalk -- is the visual and geographic center of a visit here. The borough was incorporated as a municipality on March 14, 1892, following a referendum held March 8, 1892, and North Spring Lake, a separate borough established in 1884, was annexed into Spring Lake on February 24, 1903, consolidating the town's present-day footprint. Spring Lake covers a compact 1.75 square miles in total, 1.33 of it land and 0.41 water -- a 23.60% water share -- and borders Belmar, Lake Como, Sea Girt, Spring Lake Heights, and Wall Township, all in Monmouth County.

Walking the lake path and the surrounding streets is the closest thing Spring Lake has to a boardwalk stroll, and it delivers a genuinely different, quieter experience than the arcade-and-amusement boardwalks found in other Jersey Shore towns covered elsewhere on this site. The beachfront itself runs along a promenade rather than a commercial boardwalk, which is exactly the "no boardwalk" character the town is known for and that this site's own destination notes flag as a defining trait.

The Martin Maloney and Audenried Cottages: Gilded Age Architecture

During the Gilded Age, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Spring Lake developed into a coastal resort favored by New York City and Philadelphia elites, drawing comparisons to Newport, Rhode Island and Bar Harbor, Maine. Two houses from that era survive as individually listed entries on the National Register of Historic Places: the Martin Maloney Cottage and the Audenried Cottage. Neither is a modern reconstruction or a themed attraction -- both are real, documented register listings, which makes a walk past them a walk past genuine turn-of-the-century architecture rather than a manufactured "historic" streetscape.

No source found in this research confirms current public access, tour availability, or present-day ownership for either cottage, so this page does not invent visiting details -- treat both as exterior, walkable architectural sights and confirm any interior access directly before planning a visit around them.

St. Catharine Roman Catholic Church

Marquis Martin Maloney -- the same Maloney whose cottage is individually register-listed -- constructed St. Catharine Roman Catholic Church, and the church's cornerstone was laid on St. Patrick's Day, 1901. That date is not incidental in a town nicknamed for its Irish-American community: a cornerstone laid on St. Patrick's Day ties the parish's founding directly to that identity, and the church remains a landmark stop for anyone walking Spring Lake's historic core alongside the Maloney and Audenried cottages.

The Spring Lake Five Mile Run

Spring Lake hosts its own signature road race: the Spring Lake 5 Mile Run, established in 1977. The race has been described as the country's largest 5-mile race, and it drew more than 10,000 finishers in 2014 -- a genuinely large field for a distance that is not the standard 5K or half-marathon length, and a real point of civic pride for a borough with well under 3,000 year-round residents. Runners and spectators planning a visit around the race should confirm the current date, course, and registration details directly with the race organizers, since exact annual logistics were not part of this research.

Spring Lake on Screen

Spring Lake has appeared in three notable films: The Subject Was Roses (1968), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and Ragtime (1981). That is a real, documented run of screen appearances spanning three different decades, giving the borough's Gilded Age streetscape and quieter, boardwalk-free beachfront a genuine on-screen history alongside its architectural and running-race credentials.

Planning a Visit Honestly

Spring Lake's population has declined steadily and substantially over the last quarter-century: 3,567 residents at the 2000 census, down to 2,993 by 2010 (a 16.1% drop), down again to 2,789 by 2020 (a further 6.8% drop), and an estimated 2,751 as of 2023. The 2010 count also recorded a population density of 2,250.8 people per square mile, a population that was 97.63% White, and a median household income of $97,885 -- that income figure is a 2010 number, not a current one, and should not be read as today's figure.

What this research did not find, and will not invent: no exact current 2026 home-price, property-tax-rate, or flood-insurance figures for Spring Lake, and no confirmed present-day visitor-access details for the Martin Maloney or Audenried cottages beyond their National Register listings. New Jersey carries its own state sales tax and its own property-tax structure -- do not assume a no-sales-tax framing from elsewhere applies here. Confirm any current cost, access, or event figures directly with the Borough of Spring Lake or the relevant organizers before planning a visit. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.