Our Historic Haven
A Timeless Story of how The Ridgewood House got it’s start (and name!)
Ridgewood Innkeeper leaves a legacy of tradition and love
Originally published by The Coast Star written by Alexa Carini
In 1968, a young woman moved to the small Jersey Shore town of Sea Girt with her six children and husband. Little did she realize, that small town would one day hold a big place in her heart.
Some guests passing through town may notice the large white home with a yellow awning on First Avenue and the Terrace, but to many people that is no ordinary home - it is a chapter of their lives they will never forget thanks to the late Mary Schambach, keeper of the Ridgewood House for 50 years. Mrs. Schambach passed away on Oct. 23, leaving behind a legacy of tradition, love and a passion for all that life has to offer.
Mrs. Schambach [née Young] was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. At the age of 17, she served as a Civil Air Patrol pilot during World War II. With just five hours of flight training, her instructor gave her the green light to fly solo. As a pilot, she scouted the coast, searching and reporting sightings of German submarines.
In 1946, Mary moved to New Jersey to attend the College of St. Elizabeth where she met John Schambach and the couple married within the year. They began their family in Bernardsville, and had six children: Skip, Pat, Tricia, Mark, Eric and Daryl.
In 1967, the Schambachs and their daughter, Tricia, went for a drive to a beachy town along the Jersey Shore called Sea Girt. It was a cloudy, stormy day when they were invited by their realtor to view a house on First Avenue and The Terrace, a 13-bedroom property that was being used as a boarding home.
"We came along the ocean and drove up and over the bridge, and the house was all closed up because it was not used in the winter. Mom looked at it and dad looked at it and that was the beginning,"
said daughter Tricia Brennan
The Ridgewood House was built in the late nineteenth century, serving as an identical duplex for the builder's twin sons. In the 1920s, the homes were purchased by a second owner, and the walls torn down to make one large dwelling.
"The center hallway had a wall dividing the house that has since been torn down. There are [still] stairways beside one another leading to the second and third floor," said Pat Schambach.
The home was purchased by the Schambachs from the Mitchell family in 1967 and the family took up residence in March 1968. The Schambachs continued the tradition of keeping the 13- bedroom house as an inn, also keeping the name, The Ridgewood House.
"They called [the house] 'Operation Education,' it helped pay for our education; it helped us growing up and with our schooling," said Tricia.
In the summertime, while all bedrooms were occupied by visitors, the family of eight lived in the basement, jokingly referring to their summer stay as "the catacombs."
Each night, the children would clean and prepare the bedrooms with their parents to prepare for new guests, and each morning the family prepared breakfast for the guests.
"Mom did the cooking and we did all the serving," said Pat. "Over time, making beds, cleaning rooms, serving breakfast - that became a lot of work every night. It evolved then to, 'How 'bout we do weekly rentals so we don't have to do this every single night for every room?'
Fishing nearby The Ridgewood House Circa 1908
"And then that worked so successfully we thought, 'Why don't we do monthly rentals?" And then over time it evolved to, 'How about seasonal rentals?"" said Pat.
The vintage home of four stories welcomes guests with comfort and ease. The identical left and right interior mirror each other, providing a look into the backstory of the home.
Beachy patterns fill each individually decorated bedroom, differentiated by a name affixed to the entry door.
The walls of each room are brightened by paintings made by Mrs. Schambach.
In the main hallway leading to the kitchen area, framed photographs of the family cover the walls, many of Mr. and Mrs. Schambach, their children, 15 grandchildren and eight [soon to be 10] great-grandchildren.
Getting a spot at the Ridgewood House was no easy task. Ms. Schambach knew what she expected of her guests and each applicant was asked to visit the inn prior to their rental period for an interview.
Every December, guests from the year before were granted the opportunity to rent again, that is, if Mrs. Schambach felt they were still a good match for the inn.
Mrs. Schambach was very precise about the upkeep of her home, always fixing and painting, cleaning and modernizing with the help of her creative hand.
She treated her guests with love and generosity, allowing them to stay for a bit longer than their contract had paid for. "[Guests] stayed from Memorial Day to the following week after Labor Day. Nobody wants to move out on Labor Day, so she gave them an extra week to stay," said Tricia.
For Mrs. Schambach, staying at the inn also meant you were a physical representation of the inn. "There were no coolers on the porch and no shirts off on the porch," said Trisha, reflecting on an interaction she had with a police officer after her mother's passing.
"He came to our door and said in all the years he had been an officer, he had been to all the other inns over a hundred times, but had never been called to this one," she said, crediting her mother.
Over time, guests became more like family with the Schambachs as well as with one another. The same groups would apply summer after summer for another spot, keeping the same group together annually.
"All the guests at the funeral were talking about how she was their second mom and this was her second family," said Pat. Mrs. Schambach passed away Monday, Oct. 23, 2017 at 90-years- old, less than a month shy of her 91st birthday. "She was still running up and down the three flights of stairs, there was no slowing her down," said Skip Schambach.
"She was painting the ceiling in the kitchen the night before she died ... up on a ladder at 90-years- old," Pat added. Summer of 2017 was Mrs. Schambach's 50th season with the Ridgewood House. Residents may have noticed a banner in front of the house in celebration of her milestone. She was predeceased by her husband John who passed away in 1995.
Four years later she found her second husband, Stephen Kenyon, on the Sea Girt beach - or maybe it is better to say, he found her. "It turned out he had been a guest years earlier. His wife had passed away from cancer and from him the story goes, [his wife] said, 'you need to find somebody else' and he said 'there is no one else,' and she said, 'how about Mary Schambach?' And so he spent two summers walking the beach looking for my mother, found her on a beach blanket and started a conversation," said Pat.
Mrs. Schambach and Mr. Kenyon were married in 2001. Mr. Kenyon's first wife, Helen, was also a painter, and a photo of her work is on display in the living room area of the first floor. The painting is a replica of the Ridgewood House. From a pilot, to a teacher, artist, mother and more - Mrs. Schambach is remembered as a determined, strong woman with compassion for others.
According to her children, she is immortalized through the kindness she shared with many people and the hearts she touched within the small Jersey Shore town known as Sea Girt.
This photograph is from 1887 taken from the beach approximately New York Ave, looking Northwest. The Parker House, Beacon House (at the time Ventnor Cottage) and our roof are to the left of the photo, the house partially obscured by the sheds of J. Bunford Samuel's house, Saul Wahl (the angled home to the right. The Tremont hotel is behind it)
