If you ask the average person to name five great operas, chances are “Madame Butterfly” would be on the list. If you then told them there was a direct link between the famous opera and a house located in the Spray Beach section of Long Beach Township on Long Beach Island, they might doubt you.

John Luther Long was a Philadelphia attorney with a passion for writing and one of the first summer residents of what is today Spray Beach. In 1897, his sister returned from a missionary posting to Japan.