Founder of Jersey Shore town built this house as a wedding gift. Now it’s for sale.

This grand Victorian for sale in Asbury Park has a direct tie to the city’s founding.

It was commissioned as a wedding gift by the city’s founder, James A. Bradley.

Now a three-unit, multi-family house, the 4,000-square-foot home has six bedrooms and six full bathrooms. It’s listed for sale for $2,259,000.

The median sales price of a home is Asbury Park was $580,000 as of January, according to the most recent data available from New Jersey Realtors.

“For years when Asbury Park wasn’t doing great, people chopped up these old Victorians and made them multi-family,” said Lydia Bourgeois of Diane Turton, Realtors in Wall, the listing agent.

This house was once a five-family. The current owner made it a three family and put an addition on the back that is a sunroom and kitchen.

But many of the original details of the home remain, including mahogany woodwork and stained glass windows.

The owner’s unit is on the first and second floor. It’s a three bedroom, three bathroom with a sunroom, kitchen, dining room, living room and library with built-in bookshelves.

The second floor also has a one bedroom, one bathroom unit. The third floor has a two bedroom, two bathroom unit, she said.

The turret, a distinct feature of Queen Anne Victorian homes, has a second floor living room and one of the bedrooms on the third floor.

What really makes the house special is that it has a 50 by 150 foot yard and is less than two blocks to the ocean.

“Most houses, when you get closer to the ocean, don’t have much of a yard,” Bourgeois said.

It’s on a quieter street because there are no businesses, has a wrap-around porch big enough to hold a table for six and off-street parking.

“It’s just a really pretty house,” she said.

The home is believed to have been built in 1890 at the request of Bradley, who was a brush manufacturer from New York City, according to the Asbury Park Historical Society.

Bradley, a Methodist, attended a summer camp meeting in Ocean Grove and decided in 1871 to buy 500 acres of oceanfront land north of there for $90,000. He named the town after a bishop, Francis Asbury, from the Methodist Episcopal Church in North America.

His progressive design for the town included the boardwalk with pavilions, a trolley system, tree-lined streets, parks, churches and an oceanfront business district.

The iconic, smiling “Tillie” face arrived in 1880 courtesy of Coney Island entrepreneur George C. Tilyou, who opened amusements on Ocean Avenue. In 1888, the Palace merry-go-round was installed and the convention hall and casino building were built in 1929, making the city a destination for shopping and entertainment.

Asbury Park’s popularity waned from around 1970 until the turn of the century because of competition from Six Flag’s Great Adventure and shopping malls, according to the Asbury Park Historical Society. It has been experiencing a renaissance since about 2002.

Are you an agent, buyer or seller who is active in this changing market? Do you have tips about New Jersey’s real estate market? Unusual listings? Let us know.

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Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com.