Rudolph Dolle founded Dolle’s Candyland on the Boardwalk at Wicomico Street in 1910 and his son, Rudy, turned it into an Ocean City tradition. Salt water taffy was the signature item and by the early 1920s Dolle’s also advertised, “Popcorn sent in air tight containers everywhere.”The original building, pictured, once featured a small carousel behind… Read more »
Atlantic sturgeon were once of the most prevalent large fish found in the coastal waters surrounding Ocean City. In the 19th Century, it is estimated over 20,000 sturgeon could be found in this region alone.The brackish waters of the Sinepuxent Bay — before the creation of the Inlet in 1933 changed the salinity — was… Read more »
In 1922, a whale washed up on the beach near Caroline Street in Ocean City. It was towed out to sea by the U.S. Coast Guard but floated ashore again just north of the fishing pier.The City Council ordered the whale carcass dynamited and several pieces landed on the Pier building and surrounding hotels and… Read more »
The property best remembered as Melvin’s Steakhouse had its beginning in 1946 when William Ruark built a restaurant and rooming house on the corner of N. 1st Street and Philadelphia Avenue. Originally named The Avenue Hotel and Restaurant but known to locals as Ruark’s, the building was purchased at an auction by Dirk Quillin in… Read more »
The Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company was formed in 1905 with two hand-drawn hose reels. In addition to fighting many fires over the years, the department has served with distinction during storms and floods, helping evacuate Ocean City during the March Storm of 1962 and Hurricane Gloria in 1985.The department was even called out for… Read more »
There were several reasons that Caroline Street was Ocean City’s primary swimming beach in the 1920s and early 1930s. The beach was narrow in those days and Caroline Street was its widest part. It was also the site of Showell’s Bathhouse where tourists could rent lockers and bathing suits for 25 cents a day.The most… Read more »
“Laffing Sal” used to stand in the cage at the entrance to Jester’s Funhouse on Worcester Street and the Boardwalk. You could easily hear her crazy laugh at least a block away.Sal was purchased by the Jester family in the early 1940s from a funhouse equipment firm in Philadelphia. Sal shook her head, bowed low,… Read more »
Sept. 22, 1994 will long be remembered as the date of the “Sunfest Disaster,” a day which taxed Ocean City’s emergency services to the limit. As vendors were setting up for the opening of Sunfest, the annual end of summer arts, crafts and music celebration, a windstorm hit the Inlet Parking Lot with 50 mph… Read more »
Surfing became popular in Ocean City in the mid-1960s. George Pittman and Bill Wise opened Ocean City’s first surf shop (called the Eastern Surfer) in 1964 in the basement of the Sandy Hill Motel.The less crowded beaches of north Ocean City quickly became the favorite surfing areas in the days before the high-rise condominiums.This 1965… Read more »
The first Boardwalk tram went into service on June 6, 1964 and became an immediate hit with summer visitors. It was so successful early on that a second tram was purchased two weeks later at a cost of $10,000.The early trams were designed to resemble a train and most Ocean City locals still refer to… Read more »