The St. Mary Star-of-the-Sea Catholic Church was the first church constructed in Ocean City. Land had been purchased on the southwest corner of Talbot Street and Baltimore Avenue, but the building was not completed until the summer of 1880. Services were held in a room arranged as a chapel in the Myers Cottage on Wicomico Street while the church was being built.
John Tracy, proprietor of the Atlantic Hotel, was a devout Catholic and had worked tirelessly to bring a church to Ocean City. It is probable that most of the early worshipers were summer visitors from Baltimore and Washington, DC as there were less than 100 year-round residents in 1880 and few of them were Catholics.
St. Mary Star-of-the-Sea still stands in the same location today. It is the oldest original building in Ocean City.
Postcard from Bunk Mann’s collection