Maryland Press Association
association · active 1913
State newspapermen's association which held its semi-annual meeting at the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, in July 1913. Its president, Col. William S. Powell, was absent and tendered his resignation on retiring as a publisher; the vice-president, Charles O. Melvin of Pocomoke City, called the meeting to order, and W. Meade Holladay of Annapolis was elected president with John E. Raine of Towson added to the executive committee. Ocean City's role as the Eastern Shore's convention town is the reason it met there — the Peninsular Press Association had been meeting on the same beach since the 1880s.
In the record (4)
1913
Convention town again: the druggists at the Plimhimmon, the state's editors at the Atlantic, the Odd Fellows parading on the Board Walk, and the Tri-County teachers about to become Four-County.
Four gatherings in one season. (1) The Maryland Pharmaceutical Association held its thirty-first annual meeting at the Hotel Plimhimmon from Tuesday evening, late June, with a reception for president David Schindel of Hagerstown; "for the first time in the history of the association a number of ladies" attended as members. (2) The Maryland Press Association held its semi-annual meeting at the Atlantic Hotel in July; its president, Col. William S. Powell, was absent and resigned on retiring as a publisher, and W. Meade Holladay of Annapolis was elected in his place. (3) "Peninsula Odd Fellows will hold a grand re-union at Ocean City on August 1st. The program will include a parade on the Board Walk at 9.00 p. m., escorted by Patriarchs Militant." (4) The summer school known as the Tri-County Institute, begun in 1905, met 27 August to 4 September; in June the superintendents of Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset met the Dorchester superintendent at Ocean City to bring in a fourth county and 140 more teachers, and the paper noted that "the term Tri-County will be a thing of the past. Suggestions will be in order for a new name."
Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaOcean City BoardwalkMaryland Pharmaceutical Association
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1918 · 1918-08-26
Governor Emerson C. Harrington and the Maryland Press Association take over Ocean City for the association's midsummer meeting.
The Cambridge Daily Banner of 30 August 1918: "MARYLAND EDITORS IN SESSION THIS WEEK. Pleasant Visit to The Great Peach And Apple Orchards of Senator Harrison -- Delightful Cruise on Mr. Riddle's Palatial Yacht. The mid-summer meeting of the Maryland Press Association was held at Ocean City this week and was one of the most pleasant in the history of the Association. About 25 of the county papers were represented." Senator Orlando Harrison hosted the editors on the Monday: "Leaving Ocean City early Monday morning in automobiles, the visitors [were] shown through the extensive peach and apple orchards of Senator Harrison on his farm north of Berlin, up to the Delaware line. Returning to Berlin about noon, the editors were joined by Governor Emerson C. Harrington, who received a most cordial welcome from Senator Harrison and the editors. The entire party were guests of Senator Harrison at a splendid dinner served by Mine Host Harmondson, of the Atlantic Hotel." Then Snow Hill and Pocomoke City by car, "and the return trip to Ocean City was made about 6.30 o'clock and at 8 o'clock the association's banquet was served at the Atlantic Hotel. Addresses were made by Gov. Harrington, Senator Harrison, Mr. A. W. Brown of Delaware, and by several of the editors." A sitting governor of Maryland dining at the Atlantic Hotel in the last August of the war, three weeks after the town changed mayors and three weeks before the influenza arrived.
Atlantic HotelAtlantic Hotel BerlinEmerson C. HarringtonOrlando Harrison
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1925 · 1925-07-13
Governors Ritchie of Maryland and Robinson of Delaware, two congressmen and a Virginia gubernatorial candidate all spoke at Ocean City in one evening, 13 July 1925.
The Maryland Press Association and the Del-Mar-Via Press Association held their joint summer outing at Ocean City on 12–14 July 1925, more than eighty newspapermen, entertained free of charge by the Board of Trade and the hotel proprietors. Monday's meeting was in the auditorium of the State School building, decorated with flags and bunting; the address of welcome was made by Mayor William McCabe, with responses from Ridgely Melvin of Annapolis and Edwin H. Brown of Centreville, presidents of the two associations. State Comptroller William S. Gordy, Jr. "explained why the several counties had not received their full quota of school funds." Charles A. Carter of the Colonial Hotel, "a former western newspaper man," welcomed the visitors for the hotel men; "The formal welcome on behalf of the Board of Trade was made by Dr. Charles W. Purnell, its president, and also proprietor of the Atlantic Hotel." At noon the party took a motor-boat cruise down Sinepuxent Bay to the inlet, "enlivened by a jazz orchestra," and landed at "Eagle's Nest," the bayside lodge of W. H. Kearfott about three miles below the town, for a crab feast on the lawn. In the evening Governor Albert C. Ritchie of Maryland and Governor Robert P. Robinson of Delaware spoke, with Congressmen T. Alan Goldsborough and John Philip Hill; G. Walter Mapp, candidate for governor of Virginia, was also on the programme. The invitation had been extended the previous January at Salisbury by Clarence L. Vincent, editor of the Snow Hill Democratic Messenger, and the associations chose Crisfield for 1926.
Two sitting governors, two congressmen and a would-be third governor, on a beach that fifty years earlier had one hotel and no road.
Atlantic HotelDel-Mar-Via Press AssociationBoard of Trade of Ocean CityAlbert C. RitchieRobert P. RobinsonT. Alan GoldsboroughWilliam W. McCabeDr. Charles Washington PurnellW. H. KearfottCharles A. Carter
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1961
JFK's press secretary Pierre Salinger cancels an Ocean City appearance because the Commander Hotel — and every hotel in town — refuses Black guests.
In August 1961 White House press secretary Pierre Salinger canceled plans to attend the Maryland Press Association's September 8 gathering at the seaside resort. MPA executive secretary Ray Hamby said it was because the Commander Hotel, where the MPA would meet for three days, refused to provide accommodations for Negroes — and that when the MPA asked Ocean City's Chamber of Commerce for another convention site, it was told all hotels in town had the same policy. Salinger confirmed the cancellation at the White House on August 18.
A one-paragraph wire story that put the resort's whites-only policy on the President's doorstep — three summers before the Civil Rights Act forced the doors open.
Source · checked 2026-08-06