St. Rose of Lima was a central feature of young Springsteen's Freehold neighborhood
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The small town of Freehold had a big influence on its most famous son. Born in Long Branch in 1949, Bruce Springsteen grew up in Freehold. His parents, Doug and Adele, first moved in with Doug's mother and father, Fred and Alice Springsteen, at a Randolph Street home that was torn down long ago.
"Here we lived in the shadow of the steeple,” Springsteen said in June 2018, during a performance at the Tony Awards, “where the holy rubber meets the road, all crookedly blessed in God’s mercy, in the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, race-rioting, freaking, soul shaking, redneck, love-and-fear making, heartbreaking town of Freehold, New Jersey.”
He spoke about Freehold every night during the record-breaking run of "Springsteen on Broadway," his Tony Award-winning show.
The steeple belonged to St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, located half a block away from the house at 87 Randolph St., where Springsteen lived until he was 6 years old (afterwards, Springsteen's family moved to 39 1/2 Institute Street, and then to 68 South Street when he was in high school).
Many of his relatives occupied homes on Randolph or nearby McLean Street.
"Our house was old and soon to be noticeably decrepit," he writes in his 2016 autobiography, "Born to Run." "Our kerosene stove in the living room was all we had to heat the whole place."
Born to Run:Here’s what the classic Bruce Springsteen album means to fans, song by song
The church was a central feature of the neighborhood.
"The church bells ring. My clan pours out of our houses and hustles up the street," Springsteen wrote. "Someone is getting married, getting dead or being born."
Next to the house was a huge copper beech tree.
"In our front yard, only feet from our porch, stands the grandest tree in town, a towering copper beech," Springsteen wrote. "On sunny days, its roots are a fort for my soldiers, a corral for my horses and my second home."
The massive tree was taken down by the borough around 2009. Behind the house was St. Rose of Lima School, which Springsteen attended through eighth grade.
Go: The church is at 16 McLean St., Freehold; stroseoflima.com. Springsteen's childhood home was at 87 Randolph St., Freehold.
Where to next? Choose an icon on the map or from the list below. Or continue scrolling for a guided tour.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Freehold's big influence on young Bruce Springsteen
