LBI Town Boundaries

Six Towns, Nine Segments

Long Beach Island has six municipalities, but driving north to south you pass through nine distinct stretches. That's because Long Beach Township is non-contiguous — five separate chunks wrapped around the five boroughs. Loveladies sits north of Harvey Cedars, not south of it. This one fact explains most of the confusion about where you are on LBI.

Where Each Town Line Falls

North to south. Each line shows what the claim rests on — a borough beach code and a welcome sign are not the same grade of evidence, and this page doesn't pretend otherwise.

• Barnegat Light ↔ Loveladies

  Not yet established

  Not established at street level.

  Barnegat Light's numbered grid ends around 30th Street; Loveladies uses tract numbers instead of a street grid, and its southernmost badge-list entry is 87th Street. Two unrelated numbering systems meeting, so neither set of numbers locates the line.

  Basis: Needs the Ocean County parcel record or an LBT tax map sheet.

• Loveladies ↔ Harvey Cedars

  Inferred from official sources

  Around 87th Street — the last Loveladies badge entry, with Harvey Cedars’ northernmost guarded beach at 86th.

  This is the weakest of the inferred lines. The badge directory omits streets with no beach access, so the true edge of Loveladies may sit south of 87th on a street the directory never had reason to list.

  Basis: LBT Beach Patrol street directory + Harvey Cedars guarded-beach list. Neither states the boundary directly.

• Harvey Cedars ↔ North Beach

  Local knowledge — unconfirmed

  At William Street. William Street is the southernmost Harvey Cedars street; 124th Street is the first North Beach street.

  Two welcome signs sit at the same point on Long Beach Boulevard facing opposite directions — “Welcome to Harvey Cedars” to northbound traffic, “Welcome to North Beach” to southbound. Two municipalities independently marking the same spot is far better evidence than one sign, which can always be set back for shoulder room. Harvey Cedars’ south end runs through the 5200–5300 Boulevard blocks.

  Basis: A matched pair of welcome signs on the Boulevard. No parcel record pulled yet.

• North Beach ↔ Surf City

  Inferred from official sources

  Between Sherwood Way and North 25th Street — the Surf City sign sits just south of Sherwood Way, around 1004 on the Boulevard.

  North 25th is Surf City’s last numbered street, but Shallow Shore Lane sits between the sign and the numbered grid, so the borough appears to have a named lane or two above N 25th. Shallow Shore appears in no badge list — the third example of the directory skipping streets without beach access.

  Basis: The LBT badge directory ends North Beach at Sherwood Way, and the Surf City welcome sign lands on the same block. Two independent sources agreeing.

• Surf City ↔ Ship Bottom

  Local knowledge — unconfirmed

  Down the centerline of South 2nd Street — north side Surf City, south side Ship Bottom.

  South 2nd is the last street in Surf City, and only its north side is. Everything below — the south side of S 2nd and all of South 3rd Street — is Ship Bottom, despite carrying Surf City mailing addresses. Ship Bottom’s beach code describes its beaches as starting at “the southern end of 3rd Street” while the addresses on that same block read “South 3rd Street, Surf City.” One physical street, called different things by the town that owns it and the mail that serves it.

  Basis: On-the-ground knowledge, corroborated by mixed municipality tagging in listing data on South 3rd Street — some records resolve to Surf City, at least one to Ship Bottom. Parcel records not yet pulled.

• Ship Bottom ↔ Brant Beach (Long Beach Township)

  Confirmed

  Along 31st Street — Ship Bottom on the north side, Brant Beach on the south.

  Ship Bottom’s beach runs to “the northern side of 31st Street,” while the Township directory lists 31st Street as a Township street. Both hold at once: the line runs along the street, not at either end of it. A 31st Street house can be in either town depending on which side it sits. The Township’s 31st Street Beach Buggy Ramp at 3001 Long Beach Blvd confirms the Township side.

  Basis: Borough of Ship Bottom beach code + LBT Beach Patrol street directory, read together.

• North Beach Haven (Long Beach Township) ↔ Beach Haven

  Confirmed

  At 12th Street.

  Confirmed three independent ways: the borough defines its own beaches as “12th St. to Nelson Av.”, the Township badge directory ends North Beach Haven at 13th St, and the “Welcome to Historic Beach Haven — Queen City, 1874” sign stands at the corner of 12th. Landmark anchor: Panzone’s sits at 1106 N Bay Ave — 11th Street and the Boulevard, which is named Bay Avenue through the borough — one block inside Beach Haven. At Panzone’s you are in Beach Haven; two blocks north at 13th you are in Long Beach Township, and the mail says Beach Haven either way.

  Basis: Borough of Beach Haven beach code, the LBT badge directory, and the borough welcome sign — three sources on the same line.

• Beach Haven ↔ Holgate (Long Beach Township)

  Confirmed

  At Nelson Avenue.

  Basis: Borough of Beach Haven defines its beaches as running to Nelson Avenue.

The Division Avenue Myth

Ask around and someone will tell you Division Avenue is where Surf City ends and Ship Bottom begins. It isn't. Division Avenue sits two blocks inside Surf City, between North 1st and South 1st, and the name means exactly what it says — it's where the borough's street numbering divides from North to South. Nothing else divides there.

The real line is two blocks further south, running down the centerline of South 2nd Street. Division Ave and South 1st are squarely Surf City. The south side of South 2nd, and all of South 3rd Street, are Ship Bottom — even though the mail there says Surf City.

It's also where the island's street numbers reverse direction for the second of three times, which is probably how the myth got started: something genuinely does change at Division Avenue. Just not the town.

Long Beach Township Villages by Block

The fourteen sections of Long Beach Township, north to south, with the Boulevard block range for each. Village middles are solid; village ends are softer, because our main source is a beach-badge list that skips streets with no beach access. Where the Township's own marker posts confirm a seam, we say so.

• Loveladies — Loveladies has no street grid — it runs on tract numbers plus private lanes, and the numbers fall as you drive south.
• North Beach — The badge directory abbreviates these to 118, 94, 54, 26, 22 and 6 — the same scheme with the thousand dropped. The Boulevard address at the Surf City sign, just south of Sherwood Way, is 1004. 124th Street is Township but appears in no badge list, so the north end may run past Lagoon Drive North.
• Brant Beach — Starts at 31st, not 32nd — 32nd is only the first guarded stand — and runs well past 68th, which is likewise just the last guarded stand in that stretch. The south end at Harrington is confirmed by a marker post at 7299 Long Beach Blvd.
• Beach Haven Crest — Seven blocks, not the ten most listings claim.
• Peahala Park — A marker post at Mermaid Lane reads "88 Mermaid La" — the block number printed on the Township’s own signage.
• Beach Haven Park — Blocks 108 and 109 carry numbers but no names in the directory.
• Haven Beach — Posted at both ends: a Haven Beach post on the bay side of Virginia Ave at 10998, and another at MacEvoy Lane facing the Dunes post across the Boulevard. A single Beach Haven Terrace post also stands at Virginia Ave, beside a development wall that itself reads "Haven Beach" — the badge directory and both Haven Beach posts side with the wall, so that one post is most likely mislabeled.
• The Dunes — The block range is confirmed by a back-to-back pair of marker posts at MacEvoy Lane — Haven Beach ending, The Dunes beginning, both reading block 121. The street-level numbering inside the range is NOT settled: the badge directory omits MacEvoy entirely and assigns 121 to Holly Banks. That leaves eight street names for seven blocks, so at least one number in the directory’s Dunes sequence is wrong. We are holding all of them until another Dunes street post is photographed.
• Beach Haven Terrace — Posted at both ends — "Beach Haven Terr" at Ohio Ave (12799) and the Gardens post at Delaware (13211).
• Beach Haven Gardens — Begins exactly at the numbering flip: the marker post sits at Delaware Ave (13211), the last named block of the Terrace, and the next street south is 34th. The cut point against Spray Beach is softer — a "continued" heading falls mid-column in the directory right around 28th/27th.
• Spray Beach — Marker post at 2613 Long Beach Blvd. Ends at 22nd, not 21st — the North Beach Haven post settles that.
• North Beach Haven — Not the 33rd–13th run most sites assume. A marker post at 2101 Long Beach Blvd reads "North Beach Haven 21 St", which pushes Spray Beach back to 22nd.
• Holgate — No numbered grid — Holgate runs on named avenues from the Beach Haven line at Nelson Ave to the wildlife refuge at the island’s tip.

Street Name to Block Number

South of 52nd Street the Township stops numbering streets and starts naming them — but the block numbers keep running underneath. Harrington Avenue is block 73. Mermaid Lane is 88; the Township prints that on its own marker post. Here is the crosswalk, village by village.

Street Names That Appear Twice

Five street names occur in two different Long Beach Township villages, in three cases roughly 45 blocks apart. Type one into a phone without the block number and you can end up a ten-minute drive from where you meant to be.

Names You'll See That Aren't Really Places

These turn up on rental listings and realtor pages but don't appear as posted Township sections. They're marketing names, historic plat names, or informal local usage — real enough in conversation, but they won't help you work out whose beach badge you need.

• Bay Vista — Appears on realtor sites and some township lists, but not in the street directory.
• Beach Haven Heights — Used for part of the Holgate peninsula. Informal or historic — no block range of its own.
• Silver Sands — A marketing or plat name; not a posted Township section.
• South Beach Haven — Widely used but not an official section name.
• Beach Haven Inlet — Describes the south tip below Holgate rather than a distinct village.

How LBI Street Numbering Works

There isn't one system — there are several unrelated ones, and they don't all run the same direction. Driving the Boulevard from the lighthouse to Holgate, the printed numbers change direction three times.

1. Rising through Barnegat Light, 1st → 30th
2. Falling from Loveladies through Surf City’s North series — tract 176 → 1, 86th → 69th, N 25th → N 1st
3. Rising from Division Avenue on through Ship Bottom and the whole Township middle — S 1st → S 3rd, then up to block 133
4. Falling again from Beach Haven Gardens to the end of Beach Haven, 34th → 1st

The collision point: Beach Haven Terrace ends at Delaware Avenue, block 133. The next block south is 34th Street, in Beach Haven Gardens, and from there the numbers count back down to 13th at the Beach Haven borough line. Two systems running in opposite directions meet mid-island with nothing on the ground explaining it — and the Township's Beach Haven Gardens marker post sits right at the seam.

The Township's Marker Posts

Long Beach Township has planted white posts along Long Beach Boulevard: section posts carrying the village name, and street posts carrying the street name with its block number printed on it. They're the Township's own answer to the question this page is trying to settle, and at four separate section seams they agree with the beach-badge directory — including back-to-back pairs at MacEvoy Lane and Virginia Avenue where one village ends and the next begins.

How We Know This

Two primary sources carry most of this page. The first is the Long Beach Township Beach Patrol street directory, which lists every street requiring a Township badge, grouped by village, with each street's block number. It is the only published name-to-number crosswalk for the Township.

It has one known flaw, and it matters: it is a badge list, not a street census. Streets with no beach access simply aren't in it — 124th Street in North Beach, Shallow Shore Lane near Surf City, and MacEvoy Lane in The Dunes are all real streets missing from the directory. That's why the first and last entry in any village's list is a weak boundary marker while the interior is reliable.

The second source is the Township's marker posts, which are independent of the directory and confirm it at four separate village seams. Where the two disagree — as they do in The Dunes — we hold the claim rather than pick a side.

• LBT Beach Patrol Street Directory — The village and block crosswalk — the backbone of the Township section data. A badge list, so it omits streets with no beach access.
• Township of Long Beach marker posts — The Township’s own Boulevard signage, carrying section names and block numbers.
• Borough of Ship Bottom — Beaches defined from 3rd Street to the northern side of 31st Street.
• Borough of Beach Haven — Beaches defined as 12th St. to Nelson Ave.
• Borough of Surf City — Badge zone defined as S 3rd to N 25th.
• Barnegat Light Borough — Guarded beaches 10th–30th.

LBI Boundary FAQ