In 1916, Asbury Park Mayor Clarence E.F. Hetrick hired famed architectural firm McKim, Mead and White to design a convention center for the block just north of the city's Atlantic Square, between 6th and Sunset Avenues.

The completion of the third Madison Square Garden in New York, and the approval of Atlantic City's new Convention Hall, put Hetrick under considerable pressure to construct a similar venue for Asbury Park.

"While the Traymores and Breakers and other imposing structures have been built over a period of 25 years, we can show only the Monterey, the Berkeley-Carteret, the Asbury-Carlton and the Palace (referring to four then-new seasonal hotels in the resort city)."

In 1927, after a mysterious fire destroyed the 5th Avenue Arcade just east of Atlantic Square on the Boardwalk, voters passed a bond referendum to construct a new convention center on the plot.

Hetrick commissioned architects Warren and Wetmore, whose eventual design called for a 1600-seat theatre to occupy the old 5th Avenue Arcade plot.

The entire complex was designed in a combination Italian-French style, with an emphasis on nautical themes in recognition of its oceanfront location.