The Sea Scape was built by Ridge Harman, Sr. in 1954 and was the first Boardwalk motel in Ocean City. Located on 16th Street, it was part of what would soon become known as “Motel Row.”The famous March Storm of ‘62 would cause serious damage to the entire town and the Sea Scape was no exception…. Read more »
(Editor’s Note: With thousands of people converging on the Harbour Island Marina this week for the White Marlin Open, we thought it would be opportune to look back at the site before it was home to a housing community and host to the largest billfishing tourney in the world.) The Ship Café Restaurant and Marina… Read more »
Far from “vanishing,” the White Marlin Open has become one of Ocean City’s most popular and famous events. It is truly an “open” and there are no age, gender or skill level restrictions. In 1993, the winning marlin was caught by a 14-year-old boy and in 2016 an angler won over $1.5 million for his… Read more »
The 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquor within the United States. Ratified in 1919, it became effective on Jan. 26, 1920.On Dec. 29, 1929, men on duty at the U.S. Coast Guard station in Ocean City noticed some unusual activity on Assateague. A schooner from Halifax, Nova Scotia had anchored… 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 »
Jackson’s Casino was Ocean City’s most popular nightclub in the late 1930s and throughout the 1940s. Music, drinks and slot machines were the main attraction at the big wooden building on the Boardwalk between 9th and 10th streets.Jackson’s was where the locals hung out and many still recall the special façade built to meet blackout requirements during… Read more »
This artist’s conception of Ocean City purports to show how it appeared in 1895. Published to promote the Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Atlantic Railway, it pictures the hotels and cottages available for rent for summer visitors of that era.The first permanent Boardwalk was built in 1885 and can be seen along the hotel frontage. At the… Read more »
Assateague reached its peak as a sportsman’s paradise in the years immediately following World War II.During this period, the only access to the isolated barrier island was by boat with duck hunters and surf fishermen as the most frequent visitors. Local kids often accompanied their fathers to Assateague and collected shells that had washed ashore… Read more »
The Stowaway Motel was built by Bill Carrier in 1956 and occupied the entire ocean block between 21st and 22nd streets. It was the largest motel in Ocean City in the 1960s with 120 units spread throughout three sections. Home to the biggest pool on Motel Row (local kids would sneak in to swim in the summer)… Read more »
Although there had been a few individual surfers in the post WWII era, surfing in Ocean City began in earnest in the early 1960s. With no local surf shops at the time, wetsuits were purchased from the Diver’s Den in Baltimore and paraffin wax from the local supermarket.Prior to Ocean City’s first surf shop in… Read more »