Those who have not visited Atlantic City in several years frequently voice surprise over the major presence of Stockton University in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood.
Looking at the impressive, modern structures for the first time leads some to believe that Stockton is something new. But Stockton, which began as a college and later became a university, is nothing new; it’s been a presence in the area since 1971 when the school was headquartered in the old Mayflower Hotel, which stood at Tennessee Avenue and the Boardwalk under various names since 1902.
That wasn’t the beginning that the Stockton powers-that-be hoped for.
The origin of Stockton, now part of New Jersey’s Department of Higher Education, began with a 1968 bond issue that was specifically designated for the construction of a new state college in South Jersey. A year later, a 1,600-acre site in Galloway Township was chosen to be the location of the new school.
The first classes were set for 1971, but because construction was behind schedule, the Mayflower was chosen as the temporary headquarters of Stockton.
“When Stockton opened its doors in 1971 at The Mayflower Hotel in Atlantic City, there was a real sense that we were embarking on something new, something different,” said former Stockton president Harvey Kesselman in a 2016 commencement speech.
The school’s time within the hotel was brief. It lasted from September to December of 1971. Those four months at The Mayflower must have been memorable.
This was not a situation where a few dozen students and teachers attended college in an old hotel. The Mayflower Hotel campus was home to around 1,000 students, 60 faculty members and almost 100 staff members. Some years after the fact, that special group took on the name, “The Mayflower Generation.”
According to one of those staffers, “The hotel was transformed into a makeshift campus where a bar and restaurant called Mickey Finn’s served as the library, and hotel rooms were used for classrooms and dorms.”
When the main campus in Galloway opened in 1972, Stockton no longer had an Atlantic City presence. But in 2016, a decision was made to expand the Stockton campus to Atlantic City. To facilitate that expansion, an agreement to purchase the former Showboat casino for $18 million was signed in that year.
The deal was messy and complicated, and made local headlines for months. It turned out that the Showboat legally could not be used for a college campus, as a covenant specified that the Showboat could only be used as a hotel/casino (note that the Showboat ceased to be a casino on Aug. 31, 2014).
Stockton then sold it to developer Bart Blatstein, who bought the Showboat in 2016 for $23 million. Reportedly, that sale included rent-free use of the House of Blues. Four years later, Stockton and Blatstein signed a deal that would allow use of 400 hotel rooms for campus housing. Since that agreement was signed, Stockton built its own campus housing in Atlantic City.
Construction on the Stockton University Atlantic City campus that people see today began with a groundbreaking in April 2017, and an estimated project cost of around $178 million. The campus officially opened in September 2018, marked by a ribbon-cutting for its academic center and first residence hall on the Boardwalk. A groundbreaking for a second residence hall was held in 2020 and opened in 2023, expanding the University District.
As for the history of the college’s name through the years, the “University” designation didn’t happen until February of 2015. Indeed, the school went through a lot of name changes before that, including “South Jersey State College” and the “Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.” Richard Stockton, incidentally, was a New Jersey lawyer and legislator who was the first person in the state to sign the Declaration of Independence.
While the Stockton name was certainly appropriate, there is no record of why his name was chosen, and even after the school decided to investigate that matter in 2017, an answer to the “Stockton question” has not yet been answered.
Today, more than 8,500 students attend the school, which has over 160 graduate and undergraduate programs, a continuing education program. It’s ranked No. 158 in the National University listings (there are over 400 schools with the “National University” designation in the United States).
Stockton University is one of the major success stories in the history of Atlantic City, and New Jersey. Ask any member of “The Mayflower Generation” who hung out in a bar-turned library at the old Mayflower Hotel over 50 years ago.
Bruce Klauber is the author of four books, an award-winning music journalist, concert and record producer and publicist, producer of the Warner Brothers and Hudson Music “Jazz Legends” film series, and performs both as a drummer and vocalist.
