Silver Ridge of Toms River and the man who built the homes

 Short History of the man who built my neighborhood and surrounding adult communities

    Forty years ago last month, Doss began construction on what is now known as Silver Ridge, the first senior community in the Toms River-Berkeley area and reportedly second in Ocean County only to the Original Leisure Village community in Lakewood.

Junior Doss started building homes in this area in the early 60's & he didn't stop until he had pretty much run out of useable land.Doss was friendly with Bob Schmertz, who began building the Leisure Park development right around the same time.

 Schmertz died at 48 in 1975 after building Leisure Techology to a pre-eminent position in its field. He also owned at one time the NBA Celtics ,the Trail Blazers and the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers.

Doss was said to be his own man, although occasionally, he did have partners such as Sam Patmas, who built a lot of the west Route 37 corridor homes that Doss did not.Doss' business thrived on both a gregarious nature and strict attention to the details.Junior Doss was said to be a natural salesman who made a personal connection with every person he met. He was fortunate to take an idea whose time had come and seized the opportunity.

 By 1966 after he and Patmas had already done the Silver ridge apartments. Doss ran a lake beach club in what is now the parking lot of the East clubhouse and had all kinds of activities for the whole family throughout the summer. The beach club was run by Ray Wilson, who was a teacher at Toms River High School - there was always a lifeguard on duty - there was rafts, a diving board and concession stand.The lake has dried up since.

 During the mid-1960s Doss began building the Silver Ridge Apartments beside the Garden State Parkway on Lakehurst Road, Toms River.Doss also built Silver Ridge Estates(my neighborhood) and then the senior development as other builders were turning nearby pine forests into affordable second homes or retirement nests. Doss, died two years ago and his given name was Runyon, a street in the neighborhood.

  Few builders were tailoring their projects toward age-restricted communities at the time, and many of those who did were extremely sucessful.A new home could be had for as little as $12,500 in 1968, less than a new car today. And times were different too. A generation that was raised on radio was reaching retirement age.

  A credit to his success was definatley pride of ownership. He trusted his people and they all worked hard. He always had the same framers, glazers, electricians and they were extremley loyal to him.