A Rich History

Rod’s Tavern at 507 Washington Blvd. in Sea Girt has a long and famous history. The 172-year-old building is well known to anyone familiar with Sea Girt’s business district.

The restaurant and bar were updated in 2021 with a coastal, casual theme by Chefs International. The company, run by Brielle resident and CEO Bob Cooper, owns a dozen shore area establishments. Their enhanced outdoor dining areas and new second bar have reenergized Rod’s after 45 years in business.

Frank Kineavy retained ownership of the property until 2020. Frank lived on Washington Boulevard and opened “Rod’s Olde Irish Tavern” with Gerald “Rod” Keller Jr. of Spring Lake in 1981. Rod’s father, the original “Rod,” was a famous restaurateur from the 1930s to 1950s in Convent Station, New Jersey.

Historic Roots

Keeping the historic charm was important to Cooper. “From my first meeting with Frank, it was clear that any work we did needed to honor the history of Rod’s,” Cooper says. “Our goal was to thoughtfully update the building with outdoor gathering and dining spaces, ensuring the community can continue to enjoy downtown Sea Girt for years to come.”

Parts of the building date back to 1854, when it was the summer home of Harriet Maria Stockton. It was built where the top of Trenton Boulevard meets Sea Girt Avenue on her husband’s 800-acre estate and farm, in a grove of yellow locust trees.

The house was built because Maria was afraid to sleep at her husband’s beach house. Former U.S. Senator and naval hero Commodore Robert Field Stockton of Princeton bought the land between Wreck Pond Inlet and the Manasquan Inlet and named it Sea Girt. He built right on the dunes at the ocean, so close he could feel the spray of the waves. Maria preferred to sleep inland. A wooden boardwalk connected the two houses. She was used to being well-treated. Stockton was one of the richest men in New Jersey, and her father, John Potter, had given her a fortune from his Savannah River plantations and rice works.

After Stockton sold and his estate became a resort, the southern 120 acres of the property were sold to the state for a shooting range. From 1891 to 1905, the house was used as New Jersey’s “Summer White House,” where the governor lived and conducted state business while inspecting the state militia. When the New Jersey Pavilion from the 1904 St. Louis Exposition was reconstructed at the camp, the Stockton Cottage was moved to its present location on Washington Boulevard.

The building served as a private home until a fire occurred in 1929. George E. Butler was burning soft coal in an old fireplace in his bedroom when the coal caught fire on the third floor. Heating with soft coal was a dangerous holdover from the 1800s. The Sea Girt Fire Company saved the building.

Edgar Bedell of Newark did extensive renovations in the early 1930s and opened the house as a tearoom during the last years of Prohibition. Horace Brown received the first liquor license, and the establishment became The Emmellon, run by Emma Mellon Jones from 1933 to 1937. The Great Depression limited business in the 1930s. Emma and her successor, Adel Davis of the Lady Gay Inn (1938 to 1939) both experienced failed business.

With soldiers all around, Charles Stewart ran the place as Charlie’s during World War II, but he was busted in 1943 for gambling. Two undercover officers passed money and the names of horses on a slip of paper to the owner, which led to him losing his liquor license.

Leo Luft took over in 1944. Leo’s Sea Girt Manor focused on fine dining. Leo and his wife, Julie, moved to town and operated Leo’s for 23 years. Leo’s featured live entertainment and hung images of celebrities dining at the restaurant.

In 1967, Luft lost the property in a Sheriff’s Sale to Ernest Santola and Louis Neuweiler, who opened it as the Pump House (1967 to 1968). They sold it to Donald Horn and his son Don Jr. They called it Pals Aweigh for the next eight seasons.

Paul Clancy ran P.J. Clancy’s (1977 to 1978) and then Bob Harris ran Commodore Stockton’s in 1979 and Stockton’s in 1980. Frank Kineavy and Rod Keller then opened Rod’s Irish Tavern we all recognize today.

While dining on fish and chips or downing a cold beer, patrons can appreciate that they are sitting where visitors to Sea Girt relaxed after a beach day for the last 90 years. It is also where governors discussed the politics of the state in the 1890s, and where a wife insisted on sleeping a quarter-mile back from the breaking waves before the Civil War.

If you are interested in the history of Commodore Stockton, “Sea Girt Soul: Commodore Robert Field Stockton” is a new book by Vincent Dicks, scheduled for release in March 2026.

Photographs Courtesy of Rod’s Tavern

Vincent Dicks is a Sea Girt author who specializes in writing about the history of the Jersey Shore.