Look for the grand, cream-colored five-story building with rows of tall arched windows lining the upper floors and a set of cheerful red awnings on the ground level-right on the corner where Cookman Avenue meets the next street.
Imagine it's just after 1897, the sidewalks of Asbury Park buzz with the energy of people in their Sunday best, and everyone’s talking about the new Steinbach-Cookman Building towering above the little shops nearby. When this place opened, it wasn’t just a department store, it was a magnet, drawing folks for miles with dazzling window displays and more hat styles than you could shake a feather at. People admired the elegant Second Renaissance Revival design-a style so refined they probably checked their reflections in the windows twice! This building was the flagship for Steinbach’s, the kingpin of department stores in the area, and if you wanted the fanciest dress or the snazziest pair of shoes, this was the spot. Over the years it became part of everyday life, woven into the heartbeat of Cookman Avenue, surviving the ups and downs of decades of business booms and busts. Ever since 1982, it’s been protected as a historic treasure, and in 2014, it took its rightful place as a cornerstone of Asbury Park’s Commercial Historic District. Soak in the sunlight bouncing off those windows-think of all the stories, sales, and city gossip that blossomed right where you’re standing!
