Asbury commons’s “new” Casino was completed in 1929-30, just in time for the worst of the “Great Depression”. It was designed by the architectural firm Warren & Wetmore, who were famous for many other public buildings in N American including New York’s Grand Central Terminal, and featured extensive use of cast bronze and sheet copper ornamentation. The Casino complex, which included the Carousel and the heating flora, was component of an overly ambitious architectural renewal in Asbury that included the Paramont Theater and Convention Hall. The Casino remained in relatively good condition through the 1960’s but after the roof was stripped of its copper the building speedily began to deteriorate. The photo postcard close the beginning of this clip shows the Casino complex in nearly new condition, with great lamps in place on top of the roof and on the columns flanking the gable ends of the walk-through subdivision. Except for another early photo illlustrating the Casino interior’s original stage, balconies, and suspended lighting, the balance of this clip is comprised of digital color still photos and video taken between 2000 and 2007 by Rick Darke. Most of the video is from 2000, shot with a Sony PC100 mini-DV (digital tape) camera, long before digital video went wide aspect. Visitors in summer 2010 will find new green anodized metal roofs on the remaining buildings, but the main subdivision of the Casino, which in 1 case reached out into the surf, suspended on pilings, was removed in 2007. The Schwinn close the end of the clip is a Coppertone 1966 Collegiate 5-speed, which would have been new about the time the Asbury Boardwalk reached its Sixties peak.
