What Nobody Tells You About Surf City, New Jersey
Surf City is a 1.32-square-mile borough (0.74 square miles land, 0.58 square miles water) on Long Beach Island in Ocean County, New Jersey, immediately north of Ship Bottom and south of Long Beach Township. It is the second Long Beach Island market covered here, and it has its own, entirely separate story to tell — one that has nothing to do with Ship Bottom's shipwreck-name origin or its Ron Jon Surf Shop history. Most real estate copy about Surf City describes a commercial strip and a beach-access point and stops there. This page covers five things that copy leaves out: a small-town political dynasty that is genuinely one of the more extraordinary in New Jersey municipal history, a town that changed its name five times before the one on the map today stuck, a real and reported claim to naming precedence over California's better-known "Surf City USA," a historic hotel with a ghost story tied to a building that burned down before this one was built, and a Hurricane Sandy damage comparison that is worth knowing before assuming every LBI town fared the same. None of this is offered to alarm anyone. It is offered because a prospective buyer, renter, or relocating family should know the real texture of a town before signing anything, not just its beach-access hours.
A 49-Year Mayor Who Was Also a State Senator for 26 of Those Years
Here is the fact that belongs at the top of any honest page about this town: Leonard T. Connors Sr. served as Mayor of Surf City for 49 consecutive years, from January 1, 1966, to December 31, 2015 — one of the longest mayoral tenures of any municipality in New Jersey. That alone would be a notable local-history footnote. What makes it genuinely surprising is that for 26 of those years, from January 12, 1982, to January 8, 2008, Connors simultaneously held a seat in the New Jersey State Senate, representing the 9th Legislative District, while remaining mayor of Surf City the entire time. For more than two decades, one man held both a state senate seat and a small borough's top local office at once.
The dynasty did not end there. When Connors retired from the State Senate in 2008, he was succeeded in that 9th District seat by his own son, Christopher J. Connors, born in 1956, who per available reporting still held the seat as of recent coverage (a claim this page hedges rather than asserts as current for 2026, since the most recent confirmation available was not dated to this year). And when Leonard T. Connors Sr. finally stepped down as mayor at the end of 2015, he was succeeded by Francis R. Hodgson Sr. — who had himself already served 46 years on the Surf City borough council before becoming mayor, and who was reported, per one source noting his age as 92 in 2025, to still be serving in recent years (again disclosed here as a dated figure, not confirmed current). Leonard T. Connors Sr. was born April 11, 1929, in Jersey City, served in the US Air Force from 1947 to 1949, and died December 4, 2016, at age 87, less than a year after leaving office. No specific policy accomplishment, controversy, or scandal tied to either Connors or Hodgson was confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is claimed here — the extraordinary part is simply the tenure and the family succession itself, a real, documented small-town political dynasty unlike anything at Ship Bottom or the other Long Beach Island towns.
The Town Changed Its Name Five Times Before "Surf City" Stuck
A second detail almost nobody mentions: "Surf City" is not this town's original name, or even its second or third. Before 1875, the area was informally known as Great Swamp, and separately referenced as Buzby's Place, after Hudson Buzby, an owner of the Mansion of Health boarding hotel. It was later known informally as Old Mansion. The community was formally incorporated as Long Beach City on September 19, 1894, carved out of portions of Stafford Township.
The final change to "Surf City" is itself told two slightly different ways in the source material, and this page presents both honestly rather than picking one: per one account, the US Postal Service rejected the name "Long Beach City" around 1894 because it was too easily confused with Long Branch, New Jersey, forcing a rename. Per Wikipedia, the Borough Council's resolution formally renaming the town from Long Beach City to Surf City was not adopted until May 26, 1899, explicitly to avoid confusion with other Jersey Shore place names. It is possible the postal rejection happened around 1894 and the formal council renaming followed in 1899, but that exact sequence was not independently confirmed. Either way: Great Swamp, Buzby's Place, Old Mansion, Long Beach City, and finally Surf City — five names for one 1.32-square-mile stretch of barrier island, most of it settled within about a five-year span.
A Real Claim to Naming Surf City Before "Surf City, USA" Existed
Because of that 1899 renaming, Surf City, New Jersey has held its USPS-recognized name for well over a century — a fact reported by local-interest coverage (thecitypulse.com) making a real point of comparison: California's Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz did not begin using "Surf City" as a nickname until the 1960s, and the two California towns later fought their own public and legal dispute over the trademark "Surf City USA." This page presents that comparison as a real, reported claim of naming precedence, not as an official, adjudicated legal victory for the New Jersey town. No independently confirmed formal trademark ruling naming Surf City, NJ as the "original" was found in the research behind this page — but the plain date comparison (1899 versus the 1960s) is real, and it is a genuinely surprising fact for anyone who assumes "Surf City" is a California invention.
The Surf City Yacht Club adds a second, related thread of long-running local identity: an informal group of young men had been meeting since 1894 to promote aquatic sports in the area, decades before the club formally incorporated as a nonprofit on September 26, 1940. It bought its first property, lot 36, in 1937 for $200, later adding lots 34 and 35 in 1939. Sitting on Barnegat Bay, it now runs junior and interclub racing fleets (Optimist, Sunfish, Laser, 420, and Windsurfing dinghies) alongside senior fleets (Lightning, Snipe, and Mariner), and serves as a regular venue for the Snipe Atlantic Coast Championships. Membership numbers and current fees were not confirmed and are not stated here.
The Surf City Hotel: A Prohibition-Era Party Spot with a Ghost Story
The Surf City Hotel is one of the oldest structures on Long Beach Island, with an original building dating to the late 1800s, and it carried several earlier names before settling on the one it has today: Mansion House, then Long Beach Inn, then Marquette Hotel, before it became the Surf City Hotel in the early 20th century. It was originally popular with local fishermen and hunters, and in the pre-Prohibition era it built a reputation for parties and notoriety. In the late 1940s, its cocktail lounge was expanded to serve the growing wave of summer vacationers, and in the late 1950s a Wurlitzer organ was installed in the bar — an organ that long-time owner Hank Crane later donated to Richmond, Virginia. Colleen and Greg Gewirtz purchased the hotel in April 2017 and it remains an operating landmark on Long Beach Boulevard today.
The genuinely surprising part, and the part most tourism copy skips entirely, is that an earlier version of the building on this site was rumored to be haunted before it burned down — a piece of local lore that predates the current structure and still generates ghost stories today. This page will not invent specific details beyond that general characterization: no named ghost, no dated haunted event was confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is claimed here. It is presented as exactly what it is — a real, persistent local legend tied to a real fire, on a real historic site, at one of the oldest continuously operating buildings on the island.
Hurricane Sandy Hit Surf City Hard, Just Not as Hard as Next Door
Per New Jersey Department of Community Affairs data, compiled by NJ Spotlight and cross-referenced with US Census figures, Surf City's housing stock damage from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 was 27%. That is still a meaningfully high figure by any reasonable standard, and any listing that implies Surf City came through Sandy unscathed is not being straight with you. But the genuinely useful comparative fact, confirmed in the same research covering neighboring Ship Bottom, is that Surf City's 27% was significantly lower than Ship Bottom's 46%, the worst housing-damage rate of any town on Long Beach Island. This page does not restate Ship Bottom's specific home or business counts as though they belonged to Surf City — the only figure confirmed specific to Surf City in the source material reviewed is the 27% comparative number itself.
That comparison is worth keeping in mind alongside the town's general geography: Surf City sits in southern Ocean County on Long Beach Island, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, with County Route 607 (Long Beach Boulevard) as its main road and no Interstate, US, or state highway running directly through the borough. The climate is humid subtropical, with average annual snowfall of 12 to 18 inches, an average summer high around 82.7 degrees Fahrenheit, an average winter low around 25.9 degrees Fahrenheit, and an annual average ocean water temperature near 54 degrees (a full-year average, not a summer swimming temperature). None of that changes the flood exposure that comes with living on a barrier island, and nothing here should be read as a substitute for an actual FEMA flood-zone determination on a specific parcel.
What This Page Will Not Tell You, Because Nobody Has Confirmed It Yet
In keeping with the honest approach above, this page will not state a current 2025/2026 median home sale price, active listing count, or effective property tax rate for Surf City specifically, because none was independently confirmed in the research behind this page. Ocean County and Long Beach Island real estate is a high-demand vacation-home market in general terms, but a fabricated specific dollar figure for this particular 1.32-square-mile borough would not help anyone actually budgeting a purchase. Get current pricing and tax figures from a local real estate agent and Ocean County records directly.
This is also a New Jersey market, not a Delaware one: New Jersey has a real statewide sales tax and its own property-tax system, and no "no sales tax" framing from other shore markets applies here. The 2020 census counted 1,243 year-round residents in Surf City, up 38 from 1,205 in 2010. A 2010 census figure put median age at 59.4 years, and a 2006-2010 American Community Survey estimate put median household income at $63,375 — both disclosed here as dated historical figures, not current ones. The borough uses a mayor-and-six-member-council form of government, and the council has reportedly been all-Republican since the early 1960s; this page takes no side on and invents no resolution to any unresolved local political topic beyond the tenure and succession facts already stated above. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, financial, or insurance advice. Confirm every current number — price, tax rate, flood-zone determination, and insurance premium — with a local agent, Ocean County records, FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and a licensed insurance agent before making any decision.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data drawn from research on Surf City, New Jersey, a borough on Long Beach Island in Ocean County: total area 1.32 square miles (0.74 land, 0.58 water); 2020 census population of 1,243, up 38 from 1,205 in 2010; a 2010 census median age of 59.4 years and a 2006-2010 American Community Survey median household income estimate of $63,375 (both dated, not current); Leonard T. Connors Sr. (born April 11, 1929, in Jersey City; died December 4, 2016, at age 87), who served as Mayor of Surf City from January 1, 1966, to December 31, 2015 (49 consecutive years) while simultaneously serving in the New Jersey State Senate's 9th Legislative District from January 12, 1982, to January 8, 2008 (26 years); his son Christopher J. Connors (born 1956), who succeeded him in that Senate seat in 2008; and Francis R. Hodgson Sr., who succeeded Leonard Connors as mayor after 46 years on the borough council, reported at age 92 as of 2025 (both the son's current Senate status and Hodgson's current mayoral status disclosed here as dated, not confirmed current for 2026); the town's successive names of Great Swamp, Buzby's Place (after innkeeper Hudson Buzby), Old Mansion, Long Beach City (incorporated September 19, 1894), and Surf City, with the final renaming dated to circa 1894 by one account (a USPS rejection of "Long Beach City" over confusion with Long Branch, NJ) and to a May 26, 1899 Borough Council resolution by Wikipedia, both presented honestly rather than reconciled; the reported naming-precedence claim over California's Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz, which adopted the "Surf City" nickname only in the 1960s and later disputed the trademark "Surf City USA" (per thecitypulse.com), presented as a real reported claim rather than an adjudicated legal ruling; the Surf City Hotel's history as one of the oldest structures on Long Beach Island, operating under the names Mansion House, Long Beach Inn, and Marquette Hotel before becoming the Surf City Hotel in the early 20th century, its pre-Prohibition party reputation, a late-1950s Wurlitzer organ later donated to Richmond, Virginia by owner Hank Crane, its April 2017 purchase by Colleen and Greg Gewirtz, and local ghost stories tied to an earlier, since-burned building on the same site (general characterization only, no specific named ghost or dated event confirmed); the Surf City Yacht Club, informally active since 1894 and formally incorporated September 26, 1940, its first property purchase (lot 36) in 1937 for $200 with lots 34 and 35 added in 1939, its junior and senior racing fleets, and its role as a regular venue for the Snipe Atlantic Coast Championships; Hurricane Sandy (October 2012) comparative housing-damage data compiled by NJ Spotlight from New Jersey Department of Community Affairs figures and cross-referenced with US Census data, showing Surf City's housing stock damage at 27%, compared with neighboring Ship Bottom's 46%, the worst rate on Long Beach Island; geography and climate figures including County Route 607 (Long Beach Boulevard) as the borough's main road, humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa), average annual snowfall of 12-18 inches, average summer high of 82.7 degrees Fahrenheit, average winter low of 25.9 degrees Fahrenheit, and an annual average ocean water temperature of 54 degrees Fahrenheit; and the borough's mayor-and-six-member-council government, reported all-Republican since the early 1960s. No confirmed current (2025/2026) median home sale price, active listing count, or effective property tax rate for Surf City specifically was found and none is invented here. This is a New Jersey market with its own state sales tax and property-tax system, distinct from Delaware shore markets' no-sales-tax framing. Prices, tax rates, flood-zone determinations, and insurance requirements change; confirm current numbers with a local real estate agent, Ocean County government, FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and a licensed insurance agent before making any purchase decision. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.