Deal Borough Hall

The Deal Borough Hall in Deal, New Jersey, while under construction in 1924, was estimated to have cost sixty-five thousand dollars. The building was constructed in the olde English architectural style of the Elizabethan period. The plans called for it to be two and one-half stories in height, and located at the north west corner of Roseld and Norwood Avenues. The exterior finish of the first floor is brick while the second floor is stucco over metal laths with chestnut trim to offset the stucco.The foyer entrance has a circular staircase leading to the second floor. The doorframes are made of stone and the doors themselves of heavy chestnut wood. Over the main doors that front to Roseld Avenue, are inscribed in stone the words "Deal Borough Hall." Upon entering the front doors the police headquarters are on the right hand side of the building while on the left hand side the Borough Hall, library and post office reside. The rear of the building holds the police chief's office and the lobby. When built the jail cells for men and women were located in the rear of the building but have since been removed. The second floor boasts a large conference room adjoining the Mayor's office. The basement had locker rooms, bicycle storage, boiler rooms and coal bins. The entire exterior finish of the Deal Borough Hall is of chestnut wood trim, while the roof of the building is slate with overhanging copper leaders and gutters. This functional municipal complex is still predominately in its original state and has continued to be used for many of its original purposes for almost one hundred years. In 1943 Director of The Federal Bureau of Investigations J. Edgar Hoover personally appeared in The Deal Borough Hall conference room to train the members of The Deal Police Department in criminology.The Deal Borough Hall has been modified and added to seamlessly maintaining the integrity of the original architectural design by Ernest Arend and Catherine Durant's keen eye. It has been internally upgraded to meet the technological and social standards of the twenty-first century.

The Deal Borough Hall was built in 1924 and remains in its original location in the beachfront municipality of Deal, New Jersey which comprises one and one-third miles. Deal resident William C. Durant, who was the founder of General Motors Corporation, Chevrolet and Durant Motors donated this land with the stipulation that his wife Catherine Durant would design the building with her personal architect Ernest Arend and that Mrs. Durant alone would be allowed final approval of the architectural plans. Though Catherine Durant had no architectural training or experience, she had good taste and an acute eye. Chosen for its central location, The Deal Borough Hall was designed to house the Deal Police Department, Deal Jail, Post Office, as well as the Mayor's and Municipal offices. This stylish gem has a rich historical past but with a modern addition that mirrors the original design of Catherine Durant and Ernest Arend. It has uninterruptedly continued to serve as the Deal Borough Hall and police department for almost one hundred years.

All five hundred and sixty-five municipalities in the state of New Jersey can be classified as falling into one of five types of municipal government: Borough, Township, City, Town, Villages, and Boroughs.The Borough of Deal was founded by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 8,1898 thereby separating it from the Township of Ocean. Originally Deal was managed under council rules. In 1912 under the guidance of The Walsh Act, Deal changed its form of government from council to commission rule thereby attaining "borough status." The Walsh Act was signed by then New Jersey Governor who later became President Woodrow Wilson. The Walsh Act permitted municipalities to adopt a non-partisan form of government. In the Borough of Deal no one runs for the office of mayor, rather each election cycle elects or reelects commissioners ( Deal currently has three) and once elected the three commissioners decide which will serve as the Mayor.

The first Deal Borough Hall was located in the Atlantic Coast Realty Company's office. Later the Borough of Deal acquired the realty company's entire building and used it for its municipal offices, the police station and post office. By the early 1920s the new Borough of Deal had outgrown the original borough hall and sought to relocate to a more centralized location. It was at this same time a gentleman named William C. Durant acquired land on Roseld Avenue between Norwood Avenue and the railroad tracks. Mr. Durant sought to build a dozen cottages for his automobile company's executives. Though a hotel already stood on the grounds with which Mr. Durant wanted to build his cottages, Mr. Durant sought and succeeded in attaining permission from the Deal commissioners to move the hotel to the southern most boundary of Deal with the intention of donating the land to the borough for the purpose of building a new borough complex. The Durants donation afforded Deal a beautiful plot in the center of town behind which Mr. Durant did in fact build his executives cottages. Each of these cottages remain standing today and their exteriors are virtually unchanged from their original construction ninety-eight years ago.

Billy Durant was a dreamer and it seemed the more he dreamt, the more he accomplished. He started out in business in Flint Michigan in 1883 and by 1886 he borrowed two thousand dollars and bought a horse carriage factory where he quickly displayed his business acumen. By the 1890s Durant had sold approximately one hundred and fifty thousand horse drawn carriages. At the turn of the century Billy Durant met and partnered with David Buick and together the men converted the Flint Wagon Works building renaming it the Buick Motor Car Company. In 1908, that merger became the General Motor Corporation making Durant a multi-millionaire by 1910. Within a year Billy dreamt a little too big and was forced out of General Motors taking with him a three million dollar severance package.

Never one to be deterred, Durant joined forces with Lewis Chevrolet and founded Chevrolet Motors. Five years later and with eighty million dollars in hand, William Durant walked into the General Motors Board of Directors meeting and retook control over the company. Durant ran both Chevrolet and General Motors and was worth over one hundred million dollars in his own right. His prescient motto was: "Money? What is money? It is only loaned to him. He comes into the world with nothing and he leaves with nothing." In 1920 Durant once again dreamt a little too big and lost control of General Motors for the second time. It was at this time that William Durant and his wife Catherine moved to Deal, New Jersey where he founded Durant Motors. In 1928 William C. Durant controlled three billion dollars in stock and had a phone bill that was twenty thousand dollars a week! The Durants had a beautiful ocean front mansion which they purchased from Jacob Rothschild. After the stock market crash of 1929, Durant lost much of his financial worth. When his Deal mansion was being auctioned off to pay creditors, Durant was asked by a reporter how it felt to be a poor man? To which he replied: "I am the richest man in the world - in friends." At the age of eighty-six William Durant died penniless.

Deal, Borough of. Borough of Deal: Centennial Journal. Author, 1998.

Minutes of Borough of Deal N.J. vol. 7, July 22,1925

"Deal to Have Finished Municipal Building on Shore to Cost $67,000." Asbury Park Press, September 6, 1924.

"Durants to Give Deal Hall Lands." Asbury Park Press. March 21, 1924.

Madsen, Axel. The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors. New York: Wiley, 2001