Boys' Reading Room and Free Library of Ocean City
civic · active 1910
Ocean City charity named as a beneficiary, with the Claiborne Fresh Air Cottage, of the amateur performance of 'A Scrap of Paper' given at the Plimhimmon Hotel Casino on Thursday 28 July 1910 by a company from Easton. It is the first free library, and the first youth institution of any kind, that this project has documented in the town — a reading room in a resort of 476 people, paid for by summer theatricals.
In the record (1)
1910 · 1910-07-28
Amateurs from Easton play 'A Scrap of Paper' at the Plimhimmon Casino to pay for Ocean City's Boys' Reading Room and Free Library.
Under an 'Ocean City, Md., July 30' dateline the Washington Herald reported: 'The entertaining comedy, A Scrap of Paper, was presented by an excellent company of amateur players from Easton, Md., at the Plimhimmon Hotel Casino last Thursday night, before a large and appreciative audience, which included a number of Washingtonians. The performance was given for the benefit of the BOYS' READING ROOM AND FREE LIBRARY OF OCEAN CITY and the Claiborne Fresh Air Cottage.' The Easton company came down on a B., C. and A. special train and put up at the Plimhimmon. Between the second and third acts Mr. William A. McLeran of Baltimore sang 'I Love Thee' — 'the song hit of the Ocean City operetta of last summer, The Dress Rehearsal', written by his brother Donald M. McLeran of Washington. So Ocean City in 1910 has a summer casino running amateur theatricals with a Washington society audience, a home-grown operetta the year before, and a free library for boys that no other source in this project has named.
Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway
Source · checked 2026-08-06