SAMUEL MARKEY PHOTOGRAPHY
Jennifer Souder, left, and Yvonne Clayton at The Turf Club in Asbury Park.
When Yvonne Clayton and Jennifer Souder first set eyes on the old Turf Club along Springwood Avenue on Asbury Park’s West Side, it was just a cement slab with four walls and no roof. But it was structurally sound and all the ghosts of what once was, were still there … waiting to return.
It has been 55 years since the music clubs of Springwood Avenue were silenced following the civil unrest of 1970, which destroyed what had been a thriving Black business district. Everything that made the area a vibrant community — Fisch’s department store, the meat market, the pharmacy, all the bars and restaurants — burned to the ground that July. Everything but Leo’s Turf Club.
The legendary showplace somehow escaped the worst of the conflagration and managed to limp along over the years, changing names and ownership as it continued to host jazz musicians, soul singers and R&B artists. Then, in 2000, the music ended for good.
Now Clayton and Souder, board members of the all-volunteer nonprofit Asbury Park African-American Music Project (AP-AMP), believe they are about a year away from completing their eight-year quest to renovate the historic club. They call it a “lofty goal” but they are determined to, sooner rather than later, open the Turf’s doors once again for a new generation of musicians to mingle with the great musical ghosts of the past.
“We’re finally starting to talk about electricity, and plumbing, and air-conditioning, and sound mitigation. It’s like, ‘We got here!’ ” said Clayton, an Asbury Park council member who grew up on the West Side. “It’s been a while but we have a goal and we’re going to make it.”
“We fought and fought to preserve this building when other people said you can just build another venue and it will cost a lot less money,” said Souder. “But we were like, ‘No, these four walls mean something.’ ”
JENNIFER SOUDER
The Turf Club in Asbury Park.
That “something” is the essence of what Springwood Avenue means to the history of the city’s Black community and to the evolution of the “Asbury Sound.” The Turf was just one of many jazz clubs in an entertainment district dating back to 1940 that was part of the nation’s “Chitlin’ Circuit” and was listed in the famed Green Book as a safe haven for Blacks during the segregation era.
The idea to renovate and reestablish the Turf started in 2017, first as a simple project to collect oral histories of all the musicians who played in the West Side clubs. Clayton and Souder created the project after attending a fundraiser to help a beloved Asbury Park musician, Gladstone Trott, pay off his medical bills. Also at the event were scores of old-time musicians who had played every music venue along Springwood Avenue, and they were all reminiscing about the good old days.
“Initially, we just wanted to get their stories documented,” said Souder. “I’m a landscape architect by training, not a historian. But I have a deep interest in history. At first it was just informational research to make the stories accessible and more visible, put them on a website and share it.”
Then the duo traveled to San Francisco for a conference at which they presented a proposal for a preservation grant for Springwood Avenue from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “It was a room of historic preservationists and they said to us, ‘What are you doing to restore the building?’ ” said Souder.
The women didn’t have an answer, mostly because they didn’t have any money and the property was privately owned by a local investor, Vince Gifford.
“We didn’t have any resources, but I came back, found out who owned the building and went to see him,” said Clayton. “I told him, ‘You know, we’d really like to buy that building. We don’t have any money now, but we’re going to have money.’ And he said okay.”
BRIAN J. COMER
Asbury Park residents enjoy music inside The Turf Club in 2022.
They were stunned. Gifford agreed to sell the building for $125,000 with a no-interest mortgage and no payment schedule. The nonprofit would pay down the loan as it collected funds. “Later on, others came to him and wanted to buy the building,” said Clayton. “And even though they had cash and could afford it, he said no because he was committed to us.”
In January 2022, after four years of sporadic payments, the Asbury Park African-American Music Project took ownership of the building. “We still have a $55,000 mortgage with no interest. When we have money, we give it to him,” said Clayton.
The good thing about owning the building, however, is that it allowed the nonprofit to improve its fundraising profile.
“We had been applying to the National Trust every year for capital dollars. You can apply if you don’t own the building, but it’s harder,” said Souder. “So once we actually owned the building it made a big difference. We got $100,000 from them, $100,000 through a state grant, and $100,000 from Bruce and Patti Springsteen.”
They estimate the entire project, which includes renovations and operating costs, will be $2.5 million. Of course, it’s all contingent on funding. And as of late, funding for arts projects is no longer a priority in Washington.
“Nothing is safe right now,” said Souder, speaking of grants they are still awaiting. But they are determined to push through.
“Could we scale it down? Could we open on a little less? Of course,” said Sounder. “We’re going to make this work one way or the other. We’re in the design phase for the interior right now. Once the roof went on (in 2023) it was like ‘Oh my goodness, we’re really making progress.’ ”
It also gave them an opportunity to temporarily bring music back into the space for a while, holding free “Tuesdays at the Turf” sessions where folks could bring folding chairs and listen to local musicians jam.
In March, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. But Clayton and Souder know that no matter what they do, they won’t be able to recreate the rich history of what Springwood Avenue once was to Asbury’s Black community.
“When I was a kid, they called Springwood Avenue Little Harlem,” said Clayton. “It was our 125th Street with businesses and activity and nightclubs, restaurants and hotels. It was really an amazing place. Busy. Always people. Constant movement. You didn’t have to leave for any services. It was all there.”
JOSEPH A. CARTER SR.
The Turf Club in the 1960s.
Then came the Fourth of July weekend, 1970.
“It was like before-and-after. So dramatic,” said Clayton. “It’s really hard to believe what happened in the course of three to four days. Even today, it makes me emotional and I kind of want to cry. For a long time it was just burned-out buildings and shells. The city eventually came in and knocked everything down, paved it over and planted grass.”
But lately there have been signs of rebirth. A new park, a senior center, an affordable housing project. Not the same as those high-life days on the strip, but the start of a new Springwood experience that also pays homage to the past.
Like the latest addition to the Turf Club project.
“There used to be a record store called Al’s House of Hits that was on Springwood in the ‘60s,” said Souder. “It was only there for seven years. And in so many of our oral history interviews, Al’s House of Hits was mentioned.
“The owner, Al Cinter, passed away a few years ago and his two daughters reached out to us from Hawaii. They said they heard about us, and wound up donating his record collection to us. Our hope is to somehow house the collection in the Turf Club so people can have that experience of Al’s House of Hits.”
Clayton and Souder still can’t quite believe they have gotten this far, and marvel at how things have continued to magically fall into place along the way.
“This whole experience has been a gift for me,” said Souder. “We pinch ourselves. Sometimes we have tears streaming down our faces because we can’t believe what’s happening. When we started out with just the idea of, ‘Let’s collect these stories,’ every single time we sat down with somebody, it felt like they were sharing a gift with us. They were willing to open up, sit down and share their stories, sometimes not knowing us at all.”
“It makes me proud that I’ve been able to give something back to a community that means a lot to me,” said Clayton. “I grew up here and the community gave me so much — confidence, support. It educated me. And then to be able to come back and see concrete changes that we are responsible for … I’m very proud and very grateful. This is a story that you could not make up. I know we’re going to open this club. I know it’s going to happen and I can’t wait for that day. It’s going to be a place for fun, music, laughter and lots and lots of love.”
The Asbury Park African-American Music Project will host a “Jazz Cocktail Sip” fundraiser on June 8 at the Blackbird Commons, 131 Atkins Ave., Asbury Park. The garden party will feature Southern food and classic soul music by Nu Men of Soul. Visit asburyamp.org/events.
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