Bruce Springsteen donates $100,000 to restoration of historic Turf Club in Asbury Park

The Turf Club in Asbury Park just got a big Boss donation.

Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa have donated $100,000 to the restoration of the club, located on Springwood Avenue in the West Side of the city. The Asbury Park African-American Music Project, aka Asbury-AMP, is restoring the venue where city greats like Lenny Welch, the Broadways, and a pre-E Street Band Clarence Clemons performed.

“We're really grateful that he thought of us, and he said music from the West Side is important to him,” said Jennifer Souder of Asbury-AMP, who received a call from Springsteen. “He's excited that we're doing this. He's very nice to speak with.”

Asbury-AMP has been hosting shows at the Turf Club over the last few summers, even though the venue didn't have a roof, plumbing or electricity. A roof was recently installed, and the Springsteen donation, as well as grant money from the county, will help the installation of windows and a front door.

The hope is to have it as a functioning performance space and community center.

“This helps us move it right along instead of piecing it together,” Souder said.

Springwood Avenue was formerly a vibrant center of music in Asbury Park. Greats like Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Fats Waller, Sonny Greer, Billy Brown of Ray, Goodman and Brown, Bobby Thomas of the Orioles, Welch, the Broadways, Clemons, Garry Tallent and more played the avenue's clubs.

The scene on Springwood came to an abrupt end in the summer of 1970, when a civil disturbance tore apart Asbury Park. Blocks of Springwood that were not burned down during the disturbance were later bulldozed in a failed attempt at revitalization.

The Turf Club is the last of the great Springwood Avenue clubs on the West Side of the city that still stands.

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In recent years, thanks to groups like Asbury-AMP, the cultural legacy of the West Side of Asbury Park is being rediscovered. Springsteen and photographer Danny Clinch did a photo shoot at the club last January. The images have not been released yet.

“People forget in the ’60s, Springwood Avenue was a thriving, thriving, thriving community with lots of music, lots of good music that came through and it was a very, very thriving Black community filled with Black culture,” Springsteen previously told the USA Today Network New Jersey. “So some attention on who was there and who came out of there, it’s about time.”

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Asbury-AMP is hosting the Live in the Library event from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, with Des Sparks and Friends, the Kings and Queens of Lakehouse Music, and an special acknowledgement of music educator Dorian Parreott at the Asbury Park Public Library, 500 1st Ave.

Visit asburyamp.org for more info on the show, the Turf Club and the West Side.

“The amount of visibility of just having (Springsteen) in our corner, it brings it to a whole different level,” Souder said. “It's part of the story, and the whole story is the community — and he's a part of it.”

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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bruce Springsteen donates $100,000 to Asbury Park club