Asbury Park

Town in Monmouth County, east-central New Jersey, USA; population (1990) 16,800. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean, 8 km/5 mi southwest of Long Branch. Established in 1871 as a resort area for temperance advocates in nearby Ocean Grove, it became a preeminent summer resort in the 1930s and 1940s. The town declined during the 1960s, but began redevelopment in the early 1990s. Asbury Park is celebrated for the blue-collar rock music that developed from the 1960s in its clubs, a key exponent of which was Bruce Springsteen. Notable feature include the beach, boardwalk, and Convention Hall, off which the burning liner Morro Castle grounded in September 1934.