In the Beginning...
Steger Beach Service is a family-owned and operated business that accommodates visitors and locals alike on the beaches of Cape May and beyond since 1933. The Steger family has operated a handful of other businesses over the century such as Steger’s Sun n Surf Shop, Steger’s Cape Island Furniture Mart, Steger Beach Service, Inc., The Local’s Guide to Cape May, Steger Stand Up Paddle Board, and Steger Beach Company. Aside from business, the Steger family has been woven into the fabric of Cape May history with their involvement in many organizations, civic groups, and local lore.
The Story of Steger Beach Service begins with a young Lithuanian named Stanislaus Stankowski. Born in 1905, he was the son of two immigrants and one of five children who came to America in search of new beginnings. The family made their home in Nashua, New Hampshire. During this time, the family changed their names in order to be regarded as more American rather than their old-world names. Stanislaus was renamed Steven J. Steger.
During his youth, Steven grew up poor in tenement housing and his parents worked in factories and logging mills. His father died in 1912 in a factory accident leaving Steven, and his four other siblings to grow up without a father.
Some years later, Steven focused on school became a basketball all-star, and received a scholarship to attend Ithaca College in upstate New York. After College Steve received his degree in Physical Education and took a job teaching and coaching at Catasauqua High School in Pennsylvania. When a job opened up in the seaside town of Cape May, Steven was told by the superintendent of schools that he had a good reputation in athletics and coaching. He wanted to award Steven the job as a coach and physical education teacher at Cape May High School. The position was sealed with a handshake, and it marked the beginning of the Steger legacy in Cape May.
The Coach
During the Great Depression, Steven took an additional job on the beaches in Cape May as a lifeguard. While working as a guard, he became friendly with a man who owned the Atlantic Bath Houses, which was located on the corner of Jackson Street to Perry St. He also rented beach cabanas, chairs, and sold sundries.
In 1933 Steven officially bought the aging business. The property also came with the beach in front of the building. Steven had a vision that the city could use the beach service for the growing number of visitors flocking to the seashore. The idea for the enhanced cabana design came from similar cabanas erected on the Atlantic City beaches. His style seemed more appropriate for small families and couples coming to the beach for the day or weekend. His first year of business the summer storm of 1933 hit Cape May and virtually wiped out all his structures and concession stands. He had to start over.
Aside from his business, Steven began to make a name for himself in the teaching and coaching community and earned his nickname “The Coach.”
His coaching career spanned 48 years. During his tenure, he coached baseball, basketball, track for both girls and boys, and football. Later in his career, he became the athletic director for the Lower Cape May Regional School District. Over the years he coached thousands of athletes, some went on to play in the major leagues, and college leagues. Some even managed to follow him and became coaches themselves.
During the Second World War when everyone was enlisting for service, Steven was at an age where he was considered too old for combat. The local recruiting commander said he was more instrumental in training the boys in athletics so they would be in good fighting shape. Steven modeled his exercises after military drills the boys would see in basic training. In order to prepare the boys for war he trained them extra hard and trained alongside them.
In 1959 the Lower Cape May Regional School district recommended him for the prestigious Princeton Prize awarded to secondary education teachers for outstanding service. Steven was a true pillar of the community and his work as a coach and entrepreneur is still talked about to this day.
Bob and Betty
During World War II, Robert served his country honorably in Japan. After the Japanese surrendered Robert worked in retail where he managed one of the trading posts on base in occupied Japan. It was during the end of his service, he decided he would return home and open his own store.
In 1950 he opened Steger’s Cape Island Furniture Mart with his future wife Elizabeth (Betty) Steger. The store sold furniture and home goods. It was located at the end of the present-day Washington Street Mall near Perry Street.
Robert was able to open his store with help from his father and the GI Bill, he was 23 years old at the time. Also, during this time Robert and a group of Cape May business owners chartered Cape May’s Chamber of Commerce, which still exists today.
In 1951 he married Elizabeth (Betty), and the young couple ran the store for 10 years. Tragically in the late 1950s, the rise of department stores and malls put a damper on their business and the couple was forced to sell the business.
Robert was presented with a new opportunity to revamp his father’s beachfront bathhouse. Since Robert was well-trained in retail, they turned the rundown bathhouse into a thriving retail store. Also, during this time surfing was hitting the nation and the sport came to the Jersey shore in the mid-1960s. Robert was one of the first surfers in southern New Jersey. He surfed year-round and managed to buy a diving suit, which allowed him to surf in the winter. Due to the surfing culture sweeping the nation, Robert and Betty renamed the store Steger’s Surf n Sun Shop where it would remain a Cape May icon for the next 30 years.
The couple had two children during the 1950s, Steven R. Steger and Linda Steger. Both children would work in the family business in the summer. The Steger Beach Service continued to rise at this time with hundreds of young employees who worked the beaches over the years renting umbrellas, chairs, cabanas, rafts, and boogie boards. At this time Steger Beach Service occupied every beach in town. Steger’s Surf n Sun Shop continued to gain popularity.
The End of an Era
Steven R. Steger began to take more of an interest in the family business, as Linda moved out of the area with her husband where she later obtained her doctorate degree in child psychology and worked for a variety of school districts on the East Coast. In the mid-1980s, Steven took more responsibility in the family business and began to run the beach operation for his grandfather, while his parents managed the store.
Tragedy struck the family in August 1990 when the Coach died of a heart attack in his sleep. He was 84 years old. Devastated, the Steger family decided to continue to run Steger Beach Service without delay.
However, the family was split over unresolved estate planning, and some wanted to liquidate the Coach’s assets and move on. After many negotiations with lawyers, the family sold all his properties, including the prized Steger’s Surf n Sun Shop. In an effort to preserve the family business, Robert and Betty were able to buy back a portion of the business. Back in 1940, the Coach purchased an 1880s carriage house on Page Street, which at the time was used for nothing other than storage. As part of the buyout package Robert and Betty bought back the carriage house, all beach equipment, trucks, Steger Beach, and Queen Street Beach so they may continue to operate Steger Beach Service. The Hirsch Family of the Montreal Beach Resort bought the block-long property demolished the former home of the Steger’s Surf n Sun Shop, and created seven retail storefronts, which still exist to the present day.
Robert developed Alzheimer’s disease and died in 2007. Steven R. Steger, who at the time was starting a young family of his own with his wife Margaret was tasked with the daunting duty of keeping the family businesses afloat. In 1991 the family retreated to the old carriage house on Page Street as the new headquarters for the beach service. Betty still managed the business administration while her son Steven ran the beach operations. Most of the equipment they were left with was aged and in bad condition, also the hundreds of cabanas were being eclipsed by the new trend to hit Cape May, the beach box.
Steven had his hands full re-vamping the beach business. He started fresh with new chairs, umbrellas, and cabanas. He built hundreds of beach boxes and rebuilt several concession stands. Due to beach replenishment, the beaches grew in size and length, furthering Steger Beach Service operations northbound.
The Next Generation
In the early 1990s through the 2000s the beach business was in the midst of revitalization, as the family had to start over, much like the summer storm of 1933. Between the years 2008-2010 Steven decided it was time to rebuild their family’s property to further the purpose and functionality of Steger Beach Service. The old carriage house was in bad condition due to years of neglect; did not have running water and had sub-par electrical wiring. Due to various zoning and historical preservation restrictions- the building was permitted to be historically renovated and lifted to proper flood elevations. The new building featured three floors, a garage area, a second-floor storage area, and the third floor was originally designed for storage, but it was later converted to office space. Steger Beach Service was back to operating at full capacity.
Steven R. Steger and his wife Margaret had two sons Steven J. Steger Jr. and Sean Steger. Both of the boys spent their summers working for the family business. In 2013 Steven J. Steger Jr., the oldest of the two sons, graduated from Monmouth University. After graduation and with a strong enterprising spirit, Steve returned to Cape May to help regroup his family’s iconic business. Steve saw the need to modernize the business and looked to move to additional opportunities beyond the beach.
Steve’s friend Bob Gleeson was in the midst of starting a general contracting company and the duo decided to join forces. They decided to use the third floor of the newly renovated carriage house as the site of the construction company’s office. Cape May Contracting was established in June of that year with its new home on Page Street. The new office at the carriage house gave Steve a firsthand opportunity to revamp the business model of Steger Beach Service. During this time, after almost 50 years of working for the family business, Betty decided to retire and placed her grandson (Steve Jr.) in charge of running the business administration.
Steve went to work creating satellite businesses, including Steger Stand-up Paddle Board at Utsch’s Marina In early 2013 in his college apartment, Steve along with his future wife Holly Steger brainstormed a publication “The Local’s Guide.” The publication featured an insider’s look at the community of Cape May with articles, photography, historical facts, and advertisements. Sean Steger became more active in business administration. Sean collaborates with his father in the beach operations making sure all equipment is operational and ready for the coming summer season.
In 2017 the Steger organization launched its new resort clothing brand Steger Beach Company which featured Steger-branded clothing and home goods in the newly renovated West End Garage on Perry Street.
Steger Beach Service has continued the trend of the various generations taking the reins, changing with the times, and continuing to improve and expand the brand. Since 1933 the family has continued to service the thousands of new patrons and returning customers and they are proud to follow our century-long tradition. The business still hires local youth and teaches them the basics of business and to be dependable. Many Steger Employees past and present have gone off to become successful individuals. Cape May has changed a lot over the decades with changing social trends, world wars, hurricanes, storm surges, pandemics, and an ever-changing city landscape and business community. No matter what the 20th and 21st century hurls at us, as long as there is a beach in Cape May the Stegers will always be there to man the post.
