Asbury Park volunteers sweat to bring Westside Community Center back from the grave

ASBURY PARK - The Westside Community Center was once a hub that helped produce everything this city needs, from musicians, workers, nurses and doctors to pastors, athletes and actors.

Now the residents who have been revitalizing the building with a new roof, new floors, new walls and new paint need the city's help so the Westside Community Center can help the city.

The Westside Community Center had long been a central gathering place and trusted space for Asbury Park and Neptune residents, especially the Black community. Located on Dewitt Avenue right off of Springwood Avenue, locals hope to see the community center follow in the footsteps of the historic Turf Club, which is once again showing signs of life.

"The Turf Club was a club, a whole scene, that is music and party life," said Felicia Simmons, a lifelong resident who serves as president of the Westside Community Center Renovation Association. "This (Westside) was literally a group of Black men coming together and saying we need to protect the mental health of our community less than (a century) after slavery was over."

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The Westside Community Center had long been a central gathering place and trusted space for Asbury Park and Neptune residents. The house component of the center was owned by the first Black practicing doctor in Asbury Park, William J. Parks, who donated his house to the community in 1942, and the gym component was built later.

Over the next several decades, the Westside Community Center was the hub of recreational, social and cultural activity, while offering job training, as well as drum and bugle corps, marching drill teams, Boy and Girl Scout troops, Bible study, afterschool programming, tutorials, daycare, dance, community talent shows, and eventually computer literacy courses.

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'We have done this all ourselves'

Simmons became president of the Westside Community Center in the summer of 2022 while she ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Asbury Park. Simmons said she was told the first phase of restoring the building would cost an estimated $300,000, including a new roof and floors. She knew she didn't have the funds, but had faith the community would step up for their center.

"(The Westside Community Center) is looking great. We painted the administrative building, we are cooking with gas," Simmons said. "We have done this all ourselves."

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She said "people have just patch-jobbed this place for 30 years" before the renovation association took over.

"The roof alone was slated to be $190,000. We have that done, but mostly that came from in-kind donations and (volunteer) work. The dumpsters are thousands of dollars to constantly fill up (with) gutting and demolition. The new floors we just put down, the new plumbing, the new electricity," Simmons said. "There is still tons to go, but we don't have any benefactor. We have great people who put in their labor and their financing, the board members."

Rory Stout contacted Simmons after he read the story about the community center being in a state of disrepair. He works for Acrylabs, a roofing systems company.

"They just came out and started to do the work," Simmons said. "Instead of getting them to get it (done) at a few thousands of dollars at discount, we got them to donate it. They were out here like they were getting paid well."

The previous owners knocked down the chimney and covered it up with panels. "You can't make this up. Why would you knock down a chimney and put tile over it?" Simmons said. "So we had to open the roof up, we put in a new chimney."

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Simmons is proud of the work. "We don't have a pot of (money) to just pay you. We are moving on the love of people," Simmons said.

It would cost an additional $3,000 just to finish the floor.

"We lost our flooring guy. He was inexpensive, but he got a good job and he can't finish. But we have all the flooring, we just need somebody who will work on love or very small fees to finish it for us," Simmons said. "We are working on just love. Like we need our kitchen; the materials inside are good, still quality. We just need someone to come in and just clean it and help lay out the floors."

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Bringing back the lunches

Simmons plans to open the kitchen as soon as possible to provide summer programs, as well as afterschool programs.

"We want to have a lunch program here … and do hot lunches here," she said. "These are things that are necessities and not everyone is going to run over to the Boys and Girls Club."

The renovation association sought $130,000 from the city through a community block grant to repair the gym and turn it into their new culture and arts center. "It would be the biggest event space (in Asbury Park), especially since Convention Hall is out of the loop and will be probably for a while," Simmons said.

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The application was submitted in November and denied at the end of January. The city claims the denial was based in taxes owed from 2018. Simmons disputes this, because according to the court ruling at the time, the center itself was run by the nonprofit and the gym was technically owned by the city.

She considers the decision to deny the Westside Community Center's application offensive.

"This isn't something you give money to?" Simmons said. "I've been quiet, I've been good, just trying to work on the center and do what I can there now. This is just offensive."

She added "if anything (the city) should be running here to say, 'Hey we know this is needed and we asked for money to do the roof of the gym.'"

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Despite filling up dumpsters with debris, the renovation association has saved boxes of photos and other memorabilia.

"That is history, you can't remake that stuff. … We have tons of pictures we put up when we were cleaning. I have them stored. I can't throw any of that stuff out," Simmons said. "I don't know what any of that is, it might just look like random picture but that is somebody's history, somebody's family."

She added that she wants to go to the senior center, or possibly bring the old photos to a renovated Westside Community Center, and have people sit, go through and archive the photos properly.

"A year's worth of work (left) to get everything done. I want to get first floor done; the kitchen, great room, finish the back office where we had to gut," Simmons said. "Then we want to just start meetings. Stuff that I can do, use the outside. We are not going to let it sit empty or unused for any amount of time."

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com @CharlesDayeAPP

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park Westside Community Center getting restored by volunteers