Eastern Shore Gas and Electric Company

In the record (6)

1. 1925 · 1925-12-29

   Days after the fire, Dr. C. W. Purnell said he would not build another Atlantic and the Seaside's owners were not expected to rebuild — the pier, they thought, would come back.

   Worcester Democrat, 2 January 1926: "Ocean City is now in darkness, but is promised lighting facilities in a very short while. Seaside Hotel, on which there was an insurance of $10,000 will likely not be rebuilt; and Dr. C. W. Purnell is reported as saying that he will not erect another Atlantic hostelry. The Pier, it is thought, will be re-built as will also the other structures destroyed." The paper closed with the obituary of the building: "A landmark has been removed from Ocean City's water front in the burning of the Atlantic Hotel. Recently it celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of [its] erection, and is probably the ol[dest]…" Officials of the Eastern Shore Gas and Electric Company said the town would be in darkness "for possibly ten days." RESOLVED: he rebuilt. "The NEW ATLANTIC HOTEL" advertised for Easter 1927, and through that summer "Hotel Atlantic … Season, Easter to Thanksgiving. Dr. C. W. Purnell, Prop." In August its dining room held a hundred-guest banquet closing the second annual convention of the Atlantic Coast Guard. He said it in the shock of the week after the fire and did the opposite within eighteen months.

   The Atlantic was rebuilt in 1926 anyway, and the Purnell family has run it ever since — so the most quotable line in the whole story is a man saying, four days out, that he was done.

   Atlantic HotelDr. Charles Washington PurnellThe Purnell Family

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

2. 1925 · 1925-12-29

   Mrs. Harry Gunby found the fire about eleven in the morning, in a small room off the engine room of the Eastern Shore Gas and Electric plant.

   Worcester Democrat, 2 January 1926: "Just what caused the ignition in the Power plant is not known, but it was discovered about 11 A. M. in the small room adjoining the engine room, by Mrs. Harry Gunby. The resulting flames raged till about 3 o'clock, four hours after their discovery." The Milford Chronicle agreed on the seat of the fire: "The fire originated in the engine room of the power plant, according to the firemen, who discovered the rear portion of the building in flames." The Associated Press, filing while it burned, reported that Snow Hill and Salisbury "reported that the flames, originated in the electric plant at the eastern end of Baltimore avenue, were working into the residence district."

   A woman whose given name nobody printed is the first person on the record to see the fire that ended Ocean City's first fifty years.

   Mrs. Harry Gunby

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

3. 1925 · 1925-12-29

   The Great Fire: on Tuesday 29 December 1925 three blocks of ocean-front Ocean City burned, taking the Atlantic Hotel, the Seaside, the Pier, the Casino, Dolle's and the power plant.

   The Worcester Democrat and the Ledger-Enterprise of 2 January 1926 ran it across page one: "FIRE DESTROYS TWO HOTELS, THE PIER, AND SEVERAL OTHER BUILDINGS AT OCEAN CITY — Conflagration Of Tuesday Last Sweeps Heart Of State's Summer Resort — POCOMOKE FIRE COMPANY HELPS FIGHT BIG BLAZE." "A disastrous fire visited Maryland's only seaside resort, Ocean City, last Tuesday, laying waste property valued at between $300,000 and $400,000. The buildings destroyed were the Power plant, Seaside Hotel, Atlantic Hotel, the Pier, the Casino, the building containing the flying horses, and the candy-making establishment adjoining." The Milford Chronicle of 1 January 1926 headlined it "DISASTROUS FIRE SWEEPS HOTEL AREA AT OCEAN CITY, MD. … RESORT IN DARKNESS" and reported that "Three blocks of ocean-front property at Ocean City, Maryland, were destroyed on Tuesday by a [fire] which, aided by a thirty-five-mile wind, raged for two hours"; that the blaze spread from the power plant to the Seaside Hotel adjoining, "then leaped Baltimore avenue to the Atlantic Hotel, spreading over that entire square," next to Dolle's Candy Shop, "then leaped to the Casino Building, where several amusement devices are located, across the boardwalk to the pier"; and that "The boardwalk was burned for the entire distance of three blocks." Firemen stopped it at Wall's Hotel, just south of the pier. The Associated Press had the story running the same day: the Washington Evening Star of 29 December 1925, page one — "BLAZE IS SWEEPING MARYLAND RESORT — Ocean City Isolated—Two Hotels and Several Homes Appear Doomed" — datelined Baltimore, 29 December: "A section of Ocean City, Md., including two hotels and several residence blocks, appeared doomed by fire at noon today."

   Fifty years and six months after the Atlantic Hotel opened, the building Ocean City was built around burned down in an afternoon, and took the pier and three blocks of boardwalk with it.

   Atlantic HotelOcean City BoardwalkOcean City Volunteer Fire DepartmentDr. Charles Washington PurnellMrs. Harry Gunby

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

4. 1925 · 1925-12-29

   Itemised: the Atlantic $100,000, the power plant $100,000, the pier $50,000, the Casino $40,000, the Seaside $35,000, Dolle's $15,000, Dr. Purnell's cottage $6,000 — and almost none of it insured.

   The Milford Chronicle of 1 January 1926 printed the loss schedule: "Atlantic Hotel of 200 rooms, $100,000; electric power plant, $100,000; Ocean City pier, $50,000; [Casino] Building, $40,000; Dolles Candy Shop, $15,000; Seaside Hotel, of 65 rooms, $35,000; cottage of C. W. Purnell, $6,000" — a total of $346,000 — and added: "Practically none of the property was covered by insurance, the average insurance being about twenty per cent of the loss." The Worcester Democrat put the loss "between $300,000 and $400,000" and the insurance at "not more than $50,000 on the total loss of $300,000 or more. This will not go very far toward rebuilding." The Smyrna Times of 30 December ran the highest figure — "$490,000 Damage Done to Resort Including the Famous Atlantic Hotel" — and its list adds Reed's amusement park $5,000, Wall's Hotel damaged by fire and water $3,000, the Atlantic Summer Garden (used in summer as a branch of Dolle's Candyland) and Loeb's Pier Theatre.

   The town lost a third of a million dollars and was insured for a fifth of it — which is why the Seaside never came back.

   Atlantic HotelDr. Charles Washington Purnell

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

5. 1926 · 1926-01-02

   The first newspapers of 1926 count the cost of the fire that burned three blocks of Ocean City on 29 December 1925.

   The fire itself belongs to 1925, but every published account of it is dated 1926, because both surviving papers are weeklies. Milford Chronicle, 1 January 1926, 'DISASTROUS FIRE SWEEPS HOTEL AREA AT OCEAN CITY, MD. — The Atlantic And Seaside Hotels Burned Along With Other Buildings. RESORT IN DARKNESS. Electric And Water Plant, Where Blaze Originated, A Complete Loss': 'Three blocks of ocean-front property at Ocean City, Maryland, were destroyed on Tuesday by a [fire] which, aided by a thirty-five-mile wind, raged for two hours and caused damage estimated at $350,000... Practically none of the property was covered by insurance, the average insurance being about twenty per cent of the loss.' The itemised losses: Atlantic Hotel of 200 rooms, $100,000; electric power plant, $100,000; Ocean City pier, $50,000; the Casino Building, $40,000; Dolle's Candy Shop, $15,000; Seaside Hotel of 65 rooms, $35,000; cottage of C. W. Purnell, $6,000. It began in the engine room of the power plant, spread to the Seaside, leapt Baltimore Avenue to the Atlantic, took Dolle's, then the Casino, then crossed the boardwalk to the pier, and was checked at the Walls Hotel. 'The boardwalk was burned for the entire distance of three blocks.' Frozen fire plugs forced the firemen to pump straight out of Sinepuxent Bay. Six companies came — Salisbury, Berlin, Pocomoke City, Princess Anne, Laurel and Snow Hill. The Worcester Democrat of 2 January puts the loss at '$300,000 or more' against no more than $50,000 of insurance; a Baltimore correspondent quoted in the same paper on 16 January said 'nearly $800,000'.

   Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

6. 1926 · 1926-09-03

   Ocean City does not rebuild its burnt power plant — it is wired to a transmission line from Laurel, Delaware, and gets forty electric ranges and an electric bakery.

   The fire of 29 December 1925 destroyed the town's electric and water plant, and 'Ocean City is now in darkness' (Worcester Democrat, 2 January), with the Eastern Shore Gas and Electric Company saying it might be ten days. Instead of rebuilding, the town took current from the company's power station at Laurel, Delaware. On 27 February the county paper reported the company 'finding some difficulty in receiving right of way in Wicomico' for the line. By late summer it was done. The company's own full-page advertisement (Milford Chronicle, 3 September; Peninsula Enterprise, 21 August): 'The above is equally true of Ocean City, Maryland. Ocean City is now served by a high grade transmission line of practically unlimited capacity for all time to come. The engine plant has been abandoned. Rates here were also reduced, wholesale and retail power and cooking rates established. More than 40 ELECTRIC RANGES have been installed. One Apartment House has eight and another, twelve Ranges. Ocean City boasts of an Electric Bakery in which everything is done ELECTRICALLY.' The Eastern Shore Gas and Electric Company is described as 'A Fitkin Utility, under the management of the General Engineering and Management Corporation of 165 Broadway, New York' — the Fitkin utilities 'own and control more than $200,000,000 of Public Utilities.' A Rehoboth customer's testimonial in the same advertisement gives the rate: 15c a kilowatt-hour for the first 25, 4c thereafter.

   Source · checked 2026-08-06