Ocean City Winter 2019 Life-Saving Station Museum January 15th SCUTTLEBUTT P RESIDENT ’ S M ESSAGE It's been a busy productive time since last we met. The Historic House Tour in support of the George and Suzanne Hurley Scholarship was a huge success. We are indebted to the eight owners who were kind enough to allow us into their prop- erties and to our generous sponsors. Daphne Hurley was in- strumental in making the Tour the success it was. We were de- lighted with attendance – 87 people came out on a beautiful fall day. Comments from participants were terrific. Our scholarship account got a boost of more than $10,000. We will be having a tour again next year on Saturday, October 12th. Please let us know what properties you would like to see on the tour and if you have a contact for any properties that might be appropriate. The 5th Annual Storm Warriors 5K run/walk surpassed past Museum Society President, Nancy Howard, at the Mayor’s races. Our net was greater than $14,000. More than 100 run- New Year’s Day Concert at the Performing Arts Center. ners came out on a beautiful November morning. It actually was warmer at 6 a.m. than it was at noon when the event ended! Again, sponsorships made the day. All Museum spon- sors are listed on our webpage. If you have a chance, please thank them. We are grateful for the Tri-Running team who work with us each year. They make it look so easy. And, of course, we are indebted to the City for allowing us to use the iconic OC Boardwalk. Mark your calendars, our 6th run will be Saturday, November 9, 2019. Please help us spread the word. Our very own Treasurer Gordon Katz was the guest speaker at the Worcester County Historical Society fall dinner. He filled us in on the facts and rumors surrounding Ocean City's George Washington Hotel. It was very enlightening. The Worcester County Historical Society has taken on a project to recognize the birthplace of one of baseball’s greatest players, William Julius “Judy” Johnson who was born in Snow Hill in October 1899. The WCHS will erect a monument that would honor this great baseball player. This is the result of a George and Suzanne Hurley scholarship recipient's submission.The Museum was decked out for the holidays with lots of natural greens and some twinkling lights. Thanks to Amanda Cropper, Mabel Rogers, Robin Beauchamp, Robin Breeden, JoAnne Guilfoil, Sandy Hurley and Christine Okerblom for their artistic, wreath-making skills! And thank you Christine for thinking to light up the out- door anchor - it was fabulous. We had a very festive Holiday Appreciation party for our sponsors, friends, and sup- porting organizations at the beautifully decorated Dunes Manor. I think everyone had a good time. And we ended the old year and began the New Year at the Mayor's Open House at the Convention Center. People just can't get enough of photos of old OC and we had lots on display. Plans for the Museum annex remain active but are currently on the back-burner. Will update you when anything hap- pens. Sadly the 40th Anniversary Party was cancelled but it was unavoidable. The Museum is now in its 41st year and I say it's never too late for a party. We're looking for suggestions. How would you like to see the Museum celebrate? Let me know. Let's hope 2019 is productive, kind and peaceful. Do stay in touch….. Page 2 Winter 2019 Staff OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND – THEN & NOW The Shoreham – 309 Atlantic Avenue Sandra D. Hurley The Shoreham, situated on the south corner of 4th Street on the Boardwalk, Executive Director/Curator is the oldest hotel building in continuous service in Ocean City today. The ho- tel has been in operation every summer season since opening in 1923, lodging Christine Okerblom visitors in the same structure at the same location. Other hotels, such as the Assistant Curator Atlantic, the Plimhimmon/Plim Plaza, the Rideau and the Breakers, have been around longer, but those hotels’ present structures were built at later dates, after the original buildings either burned down or were torn down. Board of Directors Prelude: The “Fox Cottage” and “Tourist Inn” Minnie B. Jackson bought the lot on the southwest corner of 4th Street and Nancy Howard the Boardwalk in 1892. The northern end of the Boardwalk at that time ended President at 7th Street. We know very little about Mrs. Jackson, other than she was a well-to-do widow from Baltimore (or Baltimore County). Mrs. Jackson pur- Mabel Rogers chased the two adjoining lots along the Boardwalk in 1896, and had a cottage erected on the northerly part of her property in 1897. She rented the cottage Vice President that season to Washington, D. C. attorney Duane E. Fox and his family. Duane E. Fox and his wife Matilda were two of the large group of the upper Gordon E. Katz class from Washington and Baltimore that dominated Ocean City’s social scene Treasurer from the early 1890s until around 1906. The wealthy visitors often stayed for the entire summer, filling up the Atlantic and the Plimhimmon, which were the axis around which the resort’s fashionable entertainments revolved, as well as Melanie Ayres Merryweather the hotels in between and the cottages that stretched northward along the Secretary Boardwalk. The other group of summer visitors, the excursionists who might only spend a day or two at the beach, were largely relegated to the southern end Hal Adkins of the Boardwalk. The two groups rarely interacted. Mr. Fox and his family were perennial summer visitors in Ocean City for Amanda Cropper more than fifteen years. They hosted John Fager parties and other events at their cot- tage, which became known as the Lee Gerachis “Fox cottage” even though they did G. Alfred Harrison not own it. They were often among the last to leave the beach at the end John B. Lynch of the season, frequently extending Hunter “Bunk” Mann their stays into October. Even after Shirley Moran their peers had largely abandoned the resort after 1906, the Fox family Louis S. Parsons III continued to spend the summer in Tom Perry Ocean City through the 1912 season, but did not return after that. J. D. Quillin III Robert Rothermel, Jr. Having lost her long-term tenant, Illustration 1: From The Baltimore Sun, June 25, 1916 Mrs. Jackson, then living in Florida, Newt Weaver sold the lots and cottage to Lemuel A. Wyatt in 1913. Wyatt was a local builder who had earlier purchased “The Gables”, located next to the Presbyterian Church (now the Baptist Church) on Joseph E. Moore, Esq. Baltimore Avenue near North Division Street. He turned the “Fox cottage” into Board Attorney a boarding house that he called the “Tourist Inn” (see illustration 1). His wife Laura, the daughter of Josephine and Kendall Hastings, managed The Gables Richard W. Meehan property, while Lemuel leased the Tourist Inn to others to manage for him. City Council Liaison Scuttlebutt Page 3 T HEN & N OW C ONTINUED ... WELCOME ABOARD NEW MEMBERS! Lemuel Wyatt’s creditors forced him into bankruptcy in late 1916. At a public auction held on January 17, 1917, Oliver D. Collins, the Worcester County The President and Board of Di- Clerk, purchased the Tourist Inn. Collins had previously purchased the then- rectors take great pleasure in vacant southern half of the property from Wyatt in 1914. He continued to op- welcoming the following new members: erate the boarding house as the Tourist Inn. The Shoreham In the spring of 1922, Collins sold the Tourist Inn to Lemuel Wyatt’s mother FAMILY -in-law, Josephine Hastings. Mrs. Hastings had built the New Avalon Hotel on Baltimore Avenue between North Division Street and North 1st Street in 1903 Nora Benach and the Hastings Hotel on the Boardwalk between 2nd Street and 3rd Street in Ocean City, Maryland 1916. She proceeded to tear down the old cottage on the corner of 4th Street and the Boardwalk, and erect a new hotel on the site. As reported in the Shelia Berger Worcester Democrat on December 23, 1922, “Mrs. [Josephine] Hastings has Berlin Maryland completed the building of her new hotel on the Oliver Collins site just above the Merview [Mervue Hotel, located on the Boardwalk between 3rd Street and 4th Whitney Buckwald Street]. It is a spacious forty room hotel, equipped with all modern appliances, Berlin, Maryland with sixteen bathrooms, and so arranged that guests may secure room and bath if desired. The new hotel is to be called the Traymore; and will be opened Pamela Davis by Mrs. Hastings in the early spring.” Gettysburg, Pennsylvania A follow-up article published on January 20, 1923 provided this update: “Miss Josephine Hastings, formerly of the Hastings Hotel, has completed the Jeff McLain erection of a new hotel on the Boardwalk, consisting of forty rooms, with bath East Petersburg, Pennsylvania attached. This hotel will open to the public June 15, 1923, and is to be named after the Traymore Hotel, of Atlantic City.” We don’t know why, but Mrs. Hast- Joseph Paglierani ings decided to change the name of her new hotel to “The Shoreham”. The ho- tel opened a couple of months ahead of the announced date, as seen in this Valley Lee, Maryland advertisement placed in The Baltimore Sun on April 12, 1923: THE SHOREHAM. Opens April 15, 1923. Ocean City's most up-to-date hotel.