Real Estate Matters
By Elisa Jo Eagan
In honor of my grandfather, William Joseph Eagan, Jr., who was born on Saint Patrick’s Day March 17, 1887:
My pop pop was the oldest son of William Joseph Eagan, Sr., and Caroline W. Eagan.
My great grandfather was a Philadelphia fireman who owned and operated a livery service, also known as a horse and carriage business in Philadelphia.
The Atlantic Beach Boardwalk was completed in 1870. By the late 1800s, Atlantic City had become an ideal place to invest in real estate, creating a development boom in beachfront hotels, boardwalk attractions, entertainment, churches, and housing into the early 1900s. Many of those structures are still standing today.
In the 1870s my great grandparents, Caroline and William, Sr., began to visit and enjoy Atlantic City frequently. They fell in love with each other and everything about Atlantic City.
They brought with them their four children: Anne, the oldest daughter; their son (my grandfather) William, Jr., daughter Olive, and youngest son Edward, to enjoy the beach and the boardwalk.
They were pioneers of a development revolution. With faith in God and great passion and vision, they invested their time, talent and treasure in real estate in the early days of “The World’s Playground.”
Anne, Edward and Olive made Atlantic City their full-time home around 1919. Their real estate business grew, owning numerous properties on Florida Avenue and the Boardwalk, Stenton Place, Montpelier Avenue and Arctic Avenue until my great grandmother’s death in 1955. She almost made it to age 100. I am grateful for her inspiration and her legacy, which lives on in me.
My grandfather, William Joseph Eagan, Jr., was a Harvard graduate with a degree in finance and an Army veteran of World War I.
In the days of Prohibition, he worked at the famous Babette’s Supper Club in Atlantic City for Nucky Johnson in the height of the “Boardwalk Empire” era. He and my grandmother, Edna Mae Gouck Washburn, met at The Ritz in the late 1920s, a love that lasted until the day Pop Pop died on Leap Day, Feb. 29, 1968.
My great grandmother Caroline, a true inspiration, was a staunch Irish Roman Catholic and a prayer warrior. She was grateful, proud and considered it an honor and a blessing that her son, William Jr., was born on Saint Patrick’s Day.
Tragically her younger son, Edward, who was in seminary to become a priest, was killed in a train accident.
Through her heartbreak and her steadfast faith, she was inspired to devote herself and invest in the building of the Catholic churches in Atlantic City, and to assist in sponsoring young women to come from the Eagan Family hometown of Tipperary, Ireland, to Atlantic City to live, work, marry and raise their families for a better life here in the United States of America.
I am pleased to know that one of these fine women is the mother of my dear friend Msgr. William Hodge, who shared this with me recently.
Happy Heavenly Birthday to you, my dear pop pop, William Joseph Eagan, Jr. We love you and miss you.
An Irish blessing to each and everyone on this Saint Patrick’s Day and always.
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
For More Real Estate Questions, Information and Advice Contact Elisa Jo Eagan “The Real Estate Godmother” (609)703-0432 and Remember…”There’s No Place Like Owning Your Own Home!”
