Maryland State Board of Health
government · active 1920
The state health authority, and in 1920 an active presence at Ocean City. Its secretary, Dr. John S. Fulton, ran the response to the town's spring smallpox outbreak — thirteen cases, and more than a thousand people vaccinated in about four days, "approximately 99.5 per cent of the entire population," with the list of names kept on file — and afterwards wrote the town officials "a highly commendatory letter" for it. In July he came down on a Sunday with Attorney-General Alexander Armstrong, who sat on the board ex officio, to confer with Mayor Edward M. Scott about "improving sanitation and sewerage facilities of the resort, so as to eliminate some of the objectionable features complained of." The board then stationed a representative in the town for the remainder of the season to work with the local health officer, Dr. Francis J. Townsend, and sent an expert from Baltimore to run a campaign against flies.
In the record (13)
1921
Ocean City has defied a State Board of Health order to build a new sewerage system since 1917, and in April 1921 goes to Baltimore to say it still cannot afford one.
"The question of a new sewerage system for Ocean City, which has been debated by the State Board of Health for four years, again was raised at a meeting of the board Wednesday when a delegation from the Eastern Shore resort came to Baltimore to protest against the board's insistence that a new system be built at once. The State board ordered the Ocean City authorities in 1917 to construct a new sewerage system, but the order was not obeyed. Under the law a penalty of up to $500 for failure to obey such an order in the first instance, and up to $50 a day for each day an order remains disobeyed, can be imposed. Governor Ritchie, when Attorney-General, instituted proceedings against Ocean City for recovery of this penalty, but the case was never brought to trial." The town's delegation "protested that at this time the municipal treasury has not enough money to construct a new system"; the board "maintained its position that a new sewerage system is absolutely necessary at the resort," and its committee was to inspect the existing system the following week, when "the matter may then be brought to a definite issue." A resort of about seven hundred winter residents that filled to many thousands every summer was, in 1921, four years into open defiance of the state's sanitary authority - and the sitting Governor had personally sued it.
Source · checked 2026-08-10
1924
Nine cases of diphtheria at Ocean City, one of them a public school teacher, bring a large shipment of antitoxin from Baltimore.
Reported in the Maryland state-news columns of 7 November 1924: 'State Acts To Check Diphtheria Outbreak — Baltimore — The State Department of Health sent a large quantity of anti-toxin to Ocean City, and to Salisbury, to check an outbreak of diphtheria. Nine cases of the disease were reported at Ocean City, including among the victims a public school teacher.' The health lens pays for the second year running after 1922 could not pay it at all, and this time it is the state, not a doctor, doing the work.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1925 · 1925-05-01
Maryland's new model milk ordinance named Ocean City by name: the resorts' summer milk supply was to get "particular attention."
Midland Journal, 1 May 1925, on the State Health Department's comprehensive milk ordinance for submission to every city and town: "Results of the survey to date reveal that in most sections of the State it is impossible to obtain good milk of low bacterial content without difficulty. On the Eastern Shore, however, the lack of adequate facilities for cooling milk makes the problem more difficult, officials said. The ordinance is designed to restrict the sale of milk to that from tuberculin tested herds, promote the general use of ice in dairies and to eradicate tubercular cattle… Particular attention will be given the milk supplies of Ocean City and other summer resorts, where a large population gathers for the hot months."
Thirty-five thousand people on a Fourth of July, in a town whose milk arrived warm.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1935 · 1935-02-04
In February the county's councils were called together over work relief; in December the town wrote to two senators about mosquitoes
At the meeting of 4 February 1935: “Letter of Dr. E. W. Cory on Pest Control and State Board of Health on milk ordnance and Secretary instructed to write that Council would Cooperate. Meeting of various Councils with County Commissioners for Tuesday night Feb. 5 to discuss work Relief talked over and Mayor and as many of Council as Could decided to attend.” An order also passed to give the Fire Company $25.00 towards an oyster roast. Ten months later, on 9 December, the secretary was instructed to write to F. W. Besley the State Forester, to Congressman T. Alan Goldsborough and to Senators Millard E. Tydings and George L. Radcliffe asking that the pest control be continued — a resort town of a few hundred winter residents lobbying its entire federal delegation about mosquito abatement, in the same month it was letting a sewer contract with federal money.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
County Commissioners of Worcester CountyOcean City Volunteer Fire Department
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-06-26
Ocean City took its sewage plans to Baltimore and to Abel Wolman before it let the contract
The disposal plant was designed by Clark Gardner, the Salisbury city engineer, who acted as consulting engineer to Ocean City; the Messenger noted in August that he 'was here over the week end studying details of the new Ocean City sewage disposal system, which he designed.' On 29 February 1936 the council met Gardner specially 'to Consult on disposal Plant', and he reported that he had made adjustments with the Board of Health so that the plans would be acceptable to them and the town was ready to ask for bids on Disposal Plant Contract No. 2. Then, between the opening of the bids on 26 June and the award, Mayor W. Thomas Elliott, Edmond H. Johnson and Gardner travelled to Baltimore and 'Consulted with Mr. A. Wolman and Board of health as to best plan to follow'. Abel Wolman was chief engineer of the Maryland State Department of Health and the most influential sanitary engineer in America. The plant Ocean City built discharged into the inlet at the south end of Philadelphia Avenue.
Ocean City Inlet & JettyClark GardnerW. Thomas Elliott
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-06-26
Five contractors bid on Ocean City's sewage disposal plant in June 1936, from $74,510 to $98,902
Bids on the disposal plant - Contract No. 2 - were opened at a council meeting on Friday 26 June 1936: Virginia Engineering Co. Inc. of Newport News, Va., $98,902.58; George & Lynch of Dover, Del., $79,270.50; M. J. McDermott of Georgetown, Del., $74,510.48; A. Stanley Mundy Co. Inc. of Woodbridge, N.J., $81,593.38; and B. J. Contracting Co. of New York City, $88,247.00. The council tabulated them, held its decision on the award 'until future date' and returned the certified check of the New York bidder. The lowest bid was more than the entire federal grant. Between that meeting and the award, the clerk noted, Mayor Elliott, Edmond H. Johnson and the engineer Clark Gardner went to Baltimore to consult the Board of Health on the best plan to follow, and a request went to Washington for an additional grant of $6,750, forty-five per cent of $15,000. — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: M. J. McDermott of Georgetown, Delaware, the low bidder of 26 June 1936 at $74,510.48, did get the contract. He started work on 26 August 1936 under Contract No. 2 of PWA Docket Md. 1065-R and the Mayor and City Council accepted the completed plant on 8 June 1937. This closes an open research request from the 1936 pass. Note that the final construction cost is still NOT established: $74,510.48 is his bid, and the 1937 press printed three different totals for the whole system.
A. Stanley Mundy & Co., Inc.Clark GardnerW. Thomas Elliott
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-12-31
A viscose manufacturer looked at putting a rayon plant at Ocean City in 1936, and the state's engineers thought the site the most favourable of four
Buried in the 1936 report of Maryland's Bureau of Sanitary Engineering: 'The Bureau was again requested, by a viscose manufacturing concern, to investigate the possibility of the location of a large plant on the Wicomico River below Salisbury; also at Snow Hill, Ocean City, and on the Susquehanna River... Both Ocean City and the site on the Susquehanna River appeared to provide ample dilution water for the wastes from the manufacture of rayon with a limited amount of treatment... The site near Ocean City appeared to be most favorable with the Hawkins Point location next in order.' The reasoning is the inlet: Ocean City had, by 1936, enough moving salt water to dilute the effluent of a rayon works. Nothing was built.
In the same year the town was arguing about whether its own sewage could go into the inlet, the State Board of Health was quietly telling a viscose manufacturer that Ocean City was the best place in Maryland to put a rayon plant, on the strength of the same water. The resort that exists is not the only one that was on the table.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1936 · 1936-12-31
The state's own account: Ocean City laid 7,750 feet of sewer and part of a plant in 1936 for $35,431, against a completed system of about $125,000
The Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Maryland for the year ending 31 December 1936, in the report of the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering under Abel Wolman as chief engineer, lists Ocean City first among the Public Works Administration projects begun in 1935 and carried on: 'Ocean City, intercepting sewers and a sewage treatment plant'. The figures are exact: 'Ocean City installed 7,750 feet of sewers and a portion of its treatment plant at a cost of $35,431. The system when completed will cost approximately $125,000.' The same report records that 'Ocean City expended $3,226 in the reconstruction of wells and in the installation of 150 feet of mains'. The report never names the inlet as the discharge point - a search of the volume for 'Sinepuxent' returns nothing.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-03-19
Ocean City discussed requiring pasteurised milk in 1937 and voted it down
'Pasturized milk ordinance was discussed and rejected.' Nine words, on the evening of 19 March 1937, in a town that was three months from accepting a federally financed sewage treatment plant and would in November agree to pay the State Board of Health $7 a month to run a clinic. The minute gives no argument on either side and names no proponent.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-04-26
The sewage plant ran eight months late because the contractor could not get cinders and brick, and because the Board of Health made him keep sewage out of the water mains
A typed resolution of 26 April 1937 sets out the whole history of the delay in the contractor's favour. 'M. J. McDermott under contract NO.2 started work on August 26th 1936 Docket Md.1065-2R Sewerage Treatment Plant and on Jan 4th 1937 time extended to April 26th 1937.' Two reasons are given for a further extension: '#1 Inability to obtain certain materials to meet specifications (cinders, brick, etc.)'; and '#2 - It became necessary, because of stipulation by the State Board of Health, to have the Roberts Filter Mfg. Co., Sub Contractor, design and submit for approval certain mechanical equipment to prevent the backing up of sewerage into the city water lines.' The council extended the time to 26 May 1937 and 'waive[d] the liquidated damages specified in said contract relative to failure to complete the work in time', directing that 'the State Director be advised of this action'. It was signed by Mayor W. Thomas Elliott, by William H. Scott as President of the City Council, and certified by J. M. Mumford.
A resort that had just voted 104 to 1 to put sewers in the sand was, eighteen months later, still waiting on a delivery of cinders - and on a Philadelphia filter company to invent a way of stopping the sewage getting into the drinking water.
M. J. McDermottRoberts Filter Manufacturing CompanyFederal Emergency Administration of Public WorksM. J. McDermottW. Thomas ElliottWilliam H. ScottJohn M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-11-23
Ocean City contracted for a public comfort station in November 1937 - $578 to build it and $2,103 to plumb it
'Question of Town Comfort station was discussed and decided to get other bids beside of Cropper on Cost' - 9 November 1937. Two weeks later, on 23 November, the bids were opened. For the plumbing: Harry J. Cropper $2,103.00, Carson Beldin $2,250.00. For the building: Sellersville Mfg. Co. $793.82, Chas. H. Clark & Co. $743.50, Alfred Pruitt $578.00. The contracts went to H. J. Cropper for plumbing and Alfred Pruitt for building. The plumbing cost nearly four times the shell, which is what a public lavatory cost in a town that had only just finished putting in sewers. The council also voted that night to pay the State Board of Health clinic $7 a month for twelve months beginning 1 December. — 1938 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [downgraded]: Measured negative: the Ocean City municipal comfort station contracted for on 23 November 1937 is NOT mentioned once in the whole of the 1938 minute book - no completion, no payment, no location, no opening. Nor does it appear in the 588 pages of the 1938 Democratic Messenger. The 1937 fact is not withdrawn - the contracts are in the 1937 minute and are real - but the campaign should stop expecting the next year's record to close it, because the next year's record has been read and it does not. — 1939 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: THE COMFORT STATION WAS BUILT, IS OPEN AND IS CHARGING. The 1937 pass recorded the contracts - Alfred Pruitt to build at $578.00, Harry J. Cropper to plumb at $2,103.00 - and could find no completion; the 1938 pass measured its total absence from 39 pages of minutes and 588 newspaper pages. Ocean City's own financial statement of 13 July 1939 carries 'comfort station 400.00' under estimated 1940 INCOME and 'Comfort Station 1100.00' under estimated requirements. It is therefore an operating municipal facility taking money at the gate by 1939. STILL NOT ESTABLISHED: where it stood. The 1939 minutes never say, exactly as 1937 and 1938 never said.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-05-10
Ordinance No. 100 forbade cesspools and privies anywhere in Ocean City, and the town went after the shanties first
The sewer was accepted in 1937. In 1938 it became compulsory. On 10 May 1938 'Ordinance #100 was unanimously passed forbidding use of Cesspools and Privys in corporate limits of Ocean City and Secretary instructed to notify owners of land where shanties were that they must connect to sewer.' The push had come from the state. On 4 April Dr. Wallace Spring of the Board of Health had appeared and 'recommended the Passing of an Ordinance Compelling all dwelling places Especially shanties to Connect to sewer and have flush toilets with water under pressure', described 'unsanitary conditions existing along bay Shore' and suggested 'place be provided in West Ocean City for shanties & trailers with proper sanitary facilities'. On 12 April he came back 'in interest of Ordinance compelling the Elimination of Outdoor toilets and taken Copy of Ordinance for their Engineers to study before passage'; at the same meeting F. W. Truitt told the council he would cooperate in removing shanties from his lots.
A town that had argued for a decade about whether to build a sewer spent 1938 discovering the other half of the bargain: once you own the pipe, you have the power to make people join it - and the first people made to join were the ones living in shanties on the bay shore.
Dr. Wallace SpringF. W. TruittFrancis J. Townsend
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-12-31
Maryland's Board of Health inspected eight summer resorts in 1938 and reported that only Ocean City had made major improvements
The Maryland State Board of Health's report for 1938 lists the resorts it kept under regular inspection: 'Among the more important summer resorts regularly inspected are Ocean City, Tolchester Beach, North Beach, Chesapeake Beach, Pen Mar, Betterton, Public Landing and Hygeia Beach. There were a number of smaller resorts that were also inspected one or more times during the season. With the exception of Ocean City, no major improvements were made.' The improvement in question is the one the town's own minute book records: a sewage plant accepted in 1937, a west-side sewer measured and paid for in March 1938, and Ordinance No. 100 in May forbidding cesspools and privies inside the corporate limits and ordering the shanty owners onto the pipe. The same volume records eighteen applications for swimming-pool operating permits in the state that year and eleven permits issued.
Source · checked 2026-08-11