The Colonial was one of two cottages built by William Warrington on N. 1st Street in the 1890s. In 1897, he attached the two into one hotel and named it “The Colonial.” The hotel fronted on the Boardwalk and was able to host up to 100 guests. It had an oceanfront dining room and wide porch but no private baths, elevators, heat, or air conditioning. By the late 1960s it had seen its better days and became one of the first hotels to lease its Boardwalk frontage. Its tenants would include Joe Kroart’s original Ocean Gallery and John Pager’s Blue Dog East coffee house.
The Colonial was the first victim of the “fire bug arsonist” that terrorized Ocean City during the winter of 1972-73; it burned down on Dec. 14, 1972. Ocean City’s first Boardwalk timeshare — Boardwalk One — would open on the site in 1975.
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