Black and white: the E Street Band standing in a narrow hallway, Springsteen crouching in front, Clarence Clemons on the left — With the E Street Band, February 1977. Columbia Records · Public domain

Springsteen in a dark open-necked shirt playing a worn Telecaster, grinning, under stage lights — New Haven Coliseum, around 1977–78. Carl Lender · CC BY 2.0

Black and white: Springsteen at the microphone, fist raised high, a Telecaster slung low, in a sleeveless shirt — Born in the U.S.A. tour, 1985. Rocky Widner · Public domain

Freehold · Belmar · Asbury Park · Long Branch · Broadway · London

Bruce SpringsteenA fortune teller on the boardwalk said he would be famous. Here is what became of his places, and how to stand in them.

A Freehold church whose car park covers a childhood home. A street in Belmar that named a band. A booth on the Asbury Park boardwalk, still where it opened in 1932. A bungalow rented for $200 a month. A bedroom, a cassette and fifteen songs. And a museum that opened this June.

Sit down at the booth ↓

Sources

Freehold and Belmar · Late 1950s to 1969

Three houses, one street.

A red-brick Gothic church with a tall spire behind a lawn and a tree on a small-town street — St. Rose of Lima Church, Freehold, seen from McLean Street at Randolph Street, April 2026. Mr. Matté · CC BY-SA 4.0

McLean Street at Randolph Street, Freehold

St. Rose of Lima Church

The one at 87 Randolph Street was knocked down to make a parking lot for St. Rose of Lima Church.

Springsteen grew up in three houses in Freehold. He was an altar boy at St. Rose of Lima. The other two, at 39½ Institute Street and 68 South Street, still stand.

The Institute Street house is a modest white house; he grew up there in the late 1950s. He left 68 South Street, his last Freehold home, in 1969.

A working parish church; look round from McLean Street, and mind the services. The two surviving houses are private homes, named and never pinned.

Sources

The band took its name from E Street in Belmar, where David Sancious’s mother, Stelma, let them rehearse at her house. Chalk a mark on her garage door for every rehearsal.

A clean garage door. The story says the band rehearsed here.

Not chalked yet.
Not chalked yet.
Not chalked yet.
Not chalked yet.

The boardwalk, Asbury Park · Mid-1960s

Your future, told.

In the mid-1960s a 17-year-old Springsteen busked outside her booth, and they became friends. He said she predicted he would be famous.

Marie Castello was born in Asbury Park in 1915 and began telling fortunes on the boardwalk in 1932, as a teenager. She worked from a hut 12 feet square for eight decades.

Sources

She is waiting for your hand.

A small blue and white booth on a boardwalk, painted with a large eye and the words Madam Marie’s and Temple of Knowledge — Madam Marie’s Temple of Knowledge on the Asbury Park boardwalk, March 2016. Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0

Cards stay face down until she has read your hand.

Ocean Avenue and the boardwalk · 1974 to 2025

Up the boardwalk.

Four stops along a few blocks of shore. Walk north, a stop at a time.

Stop 1 of 4: The Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park.

913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park

The Stone Pony

Springsteen did not start his career here: he was already a Columbia Records artist when it opened.

The Stone Pony opened on Ocean Avenue on 8 February 1974.

He began turning up in its early years, and has come back many times since, sometimes unannounced.

In 1984 he and the E Street Band played new material here before the Born in the U.S.A. tour.

On 30 May 1976 Springsteen was one of the guests at a Jukes show broadcast on radio across the Northeast.

He has never played an announced show here, and it keeps enough memorabilia to look round in box-office hours.

A working club with an outdoor Summer Stage. Come for a show, or look round in box-office hours.

Sources

The Stone Pony

The Stone Pony, Asbury Park

913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park

The club has never billed a Springsteen show but keeps enough memorabilia to look round in box-office hours, or come for any gig on the Summer Stage or inside.

See what’s on

A photographer’s studio, New York · 20 June 1975

Lean on Clarence.

No copy of the cover here: just two figures and a slider. Lean one on the other.

Lean

Standing up straight.

Lean further.
Lean further.
Lean further.
Lean further.
Lean further.
Lean further.

Clarence Clemons in a white shirt playing saxophone while Bruce Springsteen leans in grinning behind his shoulder, black and white — Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen on stage in Madison, Wisconsin. Photograph by Keith Robert Wessel. Keith Robert Wessel (Krwessel2024) · CC BY-SA 4.0

West End Court, Long Branch · April 1974

The Born to Run house

He wrote much of Born to Run there.

He moved in that April and stayed about a year and a half, leaving in 1975. He left a piano behind. Clarence Clemons later told her the band lifted the lid and signed it after finishing the album. By then the piano had been thrown away.

They finished the last mixes in New York on the morning of the Born to Run tour’s first show, then headed north to Providence. Bruce Springsteen (official site)

A private home. Named here, never pinned. The Springsteen Center is about a mile west.

Sources

A quiet two-lane town street with shops, trees and parked cars under a grey sky — Brighton Avenue in the West End of Long Branch, September 2026. The house on West End Court is private and not shown. Mr. Matté · CC BY-SA 4.0

A bedroom in Colts Neck · 3 January 1982

Four tracks.

Nebraska was recorded on four-track cassette in his New Jersey bedroom. For years before that he had made his demos on a boom box.

Sources

Four tracks, all quiet. Arm one.

1
Bedroom: not recorded.
2
Set-up: not recorded.
3
Machine: not recorded.
4
Fifteen songs: not recorded.

Hammersmith · West 48th Street · West 44th Street

London, then Broadway.

A broad pale art deco cinema front with a long canopy and tall posters on a London street — The former Hammersmith Odeon, now the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, June 2008. Alex.muller · CC BY-SA 3.0

18 November 1975 · 45 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, London

Hammersmith Odeon

On 18 November 1975 Springsteen and the E Street Band played their first concert in Europe here.

Reports say he started tearing down posters announcing that London was finally ready for him. His manager, Mike Appel, was worried about his mood that night.

The film of the show came out on DVD in November 2005. It is the only full-length official release of the early band on stage; the audio came out on 28 February 2006.

The hall opened as the Gaumont Palace on 28 March 1932, designed by Robert Cromie, and became the Hammersmith Odeon in 1962. It is now the Eventim Apollo, Grade II* listed, holding 3,655 seated or 5,300 part standing.

Now the Eventim Apollo, a working concert hall. Buy a ticket for any show.

Sources

October 2017 to December 2018 · 219 West 48th Street, New York

Walter Kerr Theatre

Springsteen on Broadway played 236 sold-out performances here, from October 2017 to December 2018.

It won him a special Tony Award, and became a film and a soundtrack album.

A working Broadway house. Buy a ticket for whatever is playing.

Sources

A crowd of people holding up phones around Bruce Springsteen at night on a Manhattan pavement — Springsteen with fans outside the Walter Kerr Theatre on West 48th Street, 2 November 2017. Raph_PH · CC BY 2.0

A theatre auditorium with red seats, a deep curving balcony and gilded boxes, the house lights up — Inside the St. James Theatre on West 44th Street, November 2025. Epicgenius · CC BY-SA 4.0

June 2021 · 246 West 44th Street, New York

St. James Theatre

In June 2021 the show came back at the St. James: the first opening night on Broadway since the March 2020 shutdown.

It ran until 4 September 2021.

A working Broadway house. Buy a ticket for whatever is playing.

Sources

Long Branch · April 1974 and 13 June 2026

Two hundred a month.

Count out the West End rent in twenties. Each bill is a line about the bungalow, then the museum a mile away.

Sources

The table is bare. The rent is $200 a month, cash.

Bruce Springsteen

Songs, guitar, harmonica

He grew up in three houses in Freehold and was an altar boy at St. Rose of Lima. Time Out

He left his last Freehold home, on South Street, in 1969. Time Out

Clarence Clemons

Saxophone

The other half of the Born to Run cover. Ultimate Classic Rock

He told the Long Branch landlady the band signed the piano’s lid. Monmouth Magazine

Bruce Springsteen smiling in a dark jacket and open-necked shirt against a pale green backdrop — Springsteen at the New York Film Festival, Lincoln Center, 28 September 2025, for Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. Bryan Berlin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Springsteen, 2025

At the New York Film Festival

There for Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, the film about the making of Nebraska. Motion Picture Association

Visit

Where it is now

9 places you can visit. The Freehold, Long Branch and Colts Neck houses are private homes, so they are named and left off the map. Madam Marie’s booth is not on the map either: find it on the boardwalk, in front of the Wonder Bar.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working parish church; look round from McLean Street, and mind the services.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public corner outside the library. The family house nearby is a private home.

St. Rose of Lima Church, Freehold, seen from McLean Street at Randolph Street, April 2026. Mr. Matté · CC BY-SA 4.0
McLean Street at Randolph Street, Freehold
St. Rose of Lima Church
Springsteen grew up in three houses in Freehold.
A working parish church; look round from McLean Street, and mind the services.
Sources
The corner of E Street and 10th Avenue, Belmar, with the street post and the guitar replica outside the public library, April 2021. Jonathan Schilling · CC BY-SA 4.0
517 10th Avenue, Belmar
E Street and 10th Avenue
The band took its name from E Street in Belmar, where David Sancious’s mother, Stelma, let them rehearse at her house.
A public corner outside the library. The family house nearby is a private home.
Sources

Stay

Sleep a block from the boardwalk.

A boutique hotel on Fifth Avenue in Asbury Park, the Wonder Bar’s street.

The Asbury

The Asbury, Asbury Park

210 Fifth Avenue, Asbury Park

A boutique hotel on Fifth Avenue, the street the Wonder Bar stands on at the boardwalk end. Ten room types; rates on the hotel’s booking page.

Plan a stay

Go there

A museum, a club, the shore.

The new Springsteen Center in Long Branch, the Stone Pony in box-office hours, and marketplace tours of the Jersey Shore.

Springsteen Center

Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music

382 Cedar Avenue, Long Branch · $22

Two floors on the Monmouth University campus: American music downstairs, a Springsteen museum upstairs, with the Long Branch landlady’s note on show. Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm; adults $22, youth $16, seniors $20.

Plan a visit

The Stone Pony

The Stone Pony, Asbury Park

913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park

The club has never billed a Springsteen show but keeps enough memorabilia to look round in box-office hours, or come for any gig on the Summer Stage or inside.

See what’s on

Viator · Ad / affiliate

Springsteen and Jersey Shore tours

Monmouth County, New Jersey

Live marketplace results for Bruce Springsteen and Jersey Shore music tours. Check each itinerary for its stops; none is run by Springsteen or the band.

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What’s on

At the Springsteen Center this month.

A Chuck Berry centenary day and a three-day conference on American music, both at Monmouth University.

Checking current event dates…

Bruce Springsteen · 2CD, Columbia 19075904362, 2018

The Walter Kerr show on record.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The sources

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

Search all places and Moments Current state Sort

13 of 13 places · 20 of 20 Moments

St. Rose of Lima Church
McLean Street at Randolph Street, Freehold
- Altar boy
  Springsteen serves as an altar boy at St. Rose of Lima.
The Freehold houses
Institute Street and South Street, Freehold
- Institute Street
  He grows up in a modest white house on Institute Street.
- Out of Freehold
  He leaves 68 South Street, his last Freehold home.
E Street and 10th Avenue
517 10th Avenue, Belmar
- E Street
  The band is named after the Belmar street where Stelma Sancious let them rehearse.
The Stone Pony
913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park
- The Pony opens
  The Stone Pony opens on Ocean Avenue.
- On the radio
  A guest at a Jukes show broadcast across the Northeast.
- New songs at the Pony
  The band plays new material before the Born in the U.S.A. tour.
The Wonder Bar
Fifth and Ocean Avenues, Asbury Park
- One Step Up
  The video is filmed inside the Wonder Bar.
- Close to two hours
  He walks into the Wonder Bar and plays with Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers.
Madam Marie’s Temple of Knowledge
The boardwalk, in front of the Wonder Bar, Asbury Park
- Outside the Temple
  A 17-year-old busks outside Madam Marie’s booth, and she tells him his future.
- For Madam Marie
  He dedicates Sandy to her after her death.
Convention Hall
The boardwalk, Asbury Park
- Benefit rehearsals
  Two $100 rehearsals before the Magic tour.
- Deliver Me from Nowhere
  The film about the making of Nebraska shoots on the boardwalk and at Convention Hall.
The Born to Run house
West End Court, Long Branch
- $200 a month
  He rents a bungalow in the West End of Long Branch and writes much of Born to Run there.
Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music
382 Cedar Avenue, Long Branch (Monmouth University)
- The Center opens
  The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music opens to the public.
The Colts Neck house
Colts Neck
- Four tracks
  Fifteen songs on a Teac 144 in a Colts Neck bedroom.
- Nebraska
  The cassette comes out as an album.
Walter Kerr Theatre
219 West 48th Street, New York
- Springsteen on Broadway
  236 sold-out performances at the Walter Kerr.
St. James Theatre
246 West 44th Street, New York
- Broadway reopens
  The show returns as Broadway’s first opening night after the shutdown.
Hammersmith Odeon
45 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, London
- London is ready
  The E Street Band’s first concert in Europe.

Bruce SpringsteenA fortune teller on the boardwalk said he would be famous. Here is what became of his places, and how to stand in them.