Renovation of Asbury Park’s historic Turf Club is expected to be completed in about a year

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When Yvonne Clayton and Jennifer Souder first set eyes on the old Turf Club along Springwood Avenue on Asbury Park’s West Side, it was just a cement slab with four walls and no roof. But it was structurally sound and all the ghosts of what once was, were still there … waiting to return.

It has been 55 years since the music clubs of Springwood Avenue were silenced following the civil unrest of 1970, which destroyed what had been a thriving Black business district. Everything that made the area a vibrant community — Fisch’s department store, the meat market, the pharmacy, all the bars and restaurants — burned to the ground that July. Everything but Leo’s Turf…