This Old House ~ The Latimer - Neri House
The big real estate boom that overtook our little island during the turn of the 21st century came without warning. On every street from the beach to the bay, from Anglesea to Wildwood Crest, beach cottages and motels were coming down and being hauled away and replaced with condos and townhomes at such a rapid speed that it was difficult to keep pace and remember what once stood in its place.
Although many of our old buildings have been razed, never to return again, we have discovered quite a few “home improvement heroes” who refused the way of the wrecking ball in order to preserve the past. In this issue of The SUN we’d like to acknowledge Bob & Tracy Neri. Their renovation and restoration work to the old Latimer home would even inspire Bob Vila, the original old house guru from “This Old House” that first aired on PBS television in 1979. As stated in our story, “Surely Bob and Dorothy Latimer would be able to walk down Farragut Road and undoubtedly be proud of the house their father built, still standing strong.”
Our hope at the SUN has always been to provide locals and tourists with the original nostalgic newspaper filled with positive stories and news. We make every effort to capture the heart of the Wildwoods and to print the stories you want to read about. We are pleased to showcase this series of a select group who value their old homes and want to keep them in their families for generations to come. Look for more “heroes” in our future issues. Send us your Old House story!
It is possible in the recent years for even those familiar with the Wildwoods to walk down any given street and not recognize the buildings there. For this reason it is a special thing to see an old home revived with new life and a new family, still maintaining its old-time charm.
The Neri family- Bob, Tracy, Austin, and Daria- are one special family that has brought an old house up-to-date while keeping its history. The Neris are only the second family to have ever lived in their home on 205 East Farragut Road in Wildwood Crest. Built in 1926 by the Latimer family, the house was among the first constructed after Turtle Gut Inlet was filled in by the county in 1922. Farragut Road and a handful of the surrounding roads became a development originally called Wildwood Gables. The Latimer house predates the Gables, yet it carries the same Spanish style and signature awnings typical to the homes that were later built there.
The Latimer family is just as much an historical part of the Wildwoods as their house. The Latimer bakeries, most notably their main establishment originally located next to Wildwood High School in a building that is now a dentist’s office, were a place where locals and vacationers alike can remember eating warm cinnamon rolls or other baked treats hot out of the oven.
Dorothy and Robert Latimer, siblings originally from Philadelphia, owned and operated their father’s business and became well-known locally because of their successful bakeries. Bob Latimer was also big in the community as a member of the Wildwood Country Club. With the Latimer name recognizable around town the house in turn also became familiar, though few outsiders ever really had the opportunity to enter.
Though Dorothy was married for a short time to a Coombs, another well-known local family, the Latimer siblings spent most of their lives living together in the Farragut house during the summer months. The home was left unoccupied for the rest of the year while the Latimers returned to their other home in the Philadelphia area. During one such absence in the 1940s an electrical fire was ignited underneath the house. The flames burned for quite sometime before the fire was found. While there was quite extensive damage below, the inside, luckily, and the rest of the house were spared.
Decades later the house would be spared again. When the Neris moved in 13 years ago the inside of the home needed refurbishing. The carpet was torn up and the original, and still beautiful, hardwood floors were restored. Also, the Neris opened up the downstairs of the house by knocking out two walls of the formerly sectioned off floor plan. Yet, aside from the modernizing repairs on the inside of the house, the outside of the house was left intact.
Though the house does not sit on acres, the 3 full plots of land could certainly be equated to the Wildwood version of acres. During the condo boom, and even now the Neris, could have sold their home and at least 3 brand new condos could have stood in its place. People walking down the street would often stop and ask the Neris not to let the house get torn down. They listened, and the family decided to forego shiny and new and stick with history, to their own benefit and that of the whole community.
In the spacious backyard, instead of new condos is a beautifully manicured garden patio (Bob Neri does all the landscaping himself) complete with a grilling area. By not selling, the Neris gave themselves the gift of space (true for the backyard, not the closets to Tracy’ chagrin). The old Latimer house is one of very few left on the island with so much land, allowing Austin and Daria plenty of room to run around with friends in their own backyard.
The Neris said that their home is part of the landscape of the Wildwoods, and they are right. The house is virtually unchanged aside from the smartly decorated and more spacious downstairs and Daria’s purple Hannah Montana bedroom upstairs, which could be the envy of any young girl today. Bob and Dorothy Latimer would be able to walk down Farragut Road and undoubtedly be proud of the house their father built, still standing strong.
Latimer's on Baker and New Jersey Aves |
R.C. Latimer |
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