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 »
In the 1900s and up through the mid-1980s, most of Ocean City’s beaches were narrow and in some places nearly non-existent on high tide. There were areas (14th to 16th streets and the blocks between 21st and 25th streets) where breakers rolled almost to the Boardwalk and there was barely room to set up an… Read more »
In 1900 Ocean City’s Boardwalk extended from N. 15th Street to S. 7th Street and was raised several feet above the sand. The beach was narrow in those days and the surf would often roll under the Boardwalk during storms.The photo looks south from where today’s Boardwalk ends — approximately where Harrison’s Harbor Watch and… Read more »
The English Diner opened in 1939 on the corner of Wicomico Street and Baltimore Avenue. Moved to 21st Street and Philadelphia Avenue in the last 1950s, it was one of Ocean City’s most popular family restaurants.It was known as “Little City Hall” for the daily breakfast gatherings of Ocean City’s political elite during the years that… Read more »
One of Ocean City’s most popular attractions was built by Odie Hartley on 65th Street and Coastal Highway in 1972. Originally known as the “Sea Side Slides,” three concrete slides (painted blue) cascaded down a 38-foot man-made hill where kids would ride rubber mats to splash into landing pools about 2 ½ feet deep.Odie, along… Read more »