Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.
company · active 1944-1945
Also known as Red Star Buss Co.; Red Star Bus Terminal
The bus company whose fight for an Ocean City terminal ran across two councils. In February 1944 the Woman's Club asked that its terminal be taken off Baltimore Avenue; in May 1944 its application to build a terminal in Block 20 was refused with eleven citizens standing against it; in June 1944 it was told to park its buses off the streets except to load and unload. In January 1945 the council agreed that if Brittingham's garage on North 2nd Street could be had it would help get the residents' consent, and on 8 February 1945 the company applied to build on the site of the North Garage. After a hearing on 14 February at which the people present voted 26 to 14 against it, the council granted the permit 2-1 on 23 February 1945, having first made the company strike the gasoline station off its application. Represented throughout by a Mr. Bennett, with Attorney Robbins and later a Mr. Robbins of the company.
In the record (7)
1944 · 1944-05-02
Ocean City refused Red Star Motor Coaches a bus terminal in May 1944 with eleven citizens standing against it - two of whom were on the council that granted it nine months later.
Red Star Motor Coaches Inc. applied for a building permit for a bus terminal in Block 20, lots 2-3-4-5. Mr. Bennett and Attorney Robbins appeared for the company. Opposing in person were Rudolf Dolle, Frank Sacca, H. D. Cropper, C. D. Savage, Owen Mumford, Mrs. Torpy, Myrtle Brittingham, Savannah Dennis, Elizabeth Powell, Thelma Dennis and Marion Elgin 'representing Citizens', with a letter from Dodd Shuster read against it. On motion by Harold Rayne, seconded by H. D. Parsons, the application was refused. Bennett and Robbins then discussed arrangements to handle loading and unloading of their buses for the season, which was left open. Dolle and Savage, who stood against the terminal here as citizens, were elected to the council three months later; on 23 February 1945 Savage moved the permit that granted it and Dolle cast the only vote against.
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1944 · 1944-06-22
On 22 June 1944 the Ocean City council declared 24 August an annual Marlin Day.
At a special meeting called mainly to deal with the B. & E. Railroad Company's freight lots, the council on motion by Bounds, seconded by Parsons, declared August 24 an annual Marlin Day. The same meeting offered $500 for lots the clerk writes as the 'Hobbs' lots - the word is uncertain in the original - decided the town was not interested in the freight lots at the price asked, and told the secretary to write Red Star Buss Co. that they would have to park their buses off the streets except for loading and unloading passengers.
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-01-09
'Monument for Service Men was discussed and no decision reached' - the whole of Ocean City's first attempt at a war memorial, in one line of the minutes of 9 January 1945.
The sentence is the entire record. By October the same idea had become a War Memorial Building with proposed sites, brought before the council by Mrs. Gladys Hastings, Elizabeth Laws, Robert Cropper and Mr. Harris; and the council listened to their plans and took them under consideration. The same 9 January meeting settled the other long argument: Mr. Bennett and Avery Hall of the Red Star Buss Co. came to discuss a terminal, and it was mutually agreed that if Brittingham's garage on North 2nd Street could be had, the City would assist all it could in getting the consent of residents to a terminal there.
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-02-14
About seventy people came to Ocean City's bus terminal hearing on 14 February 1945: the property owners within 250 feet voted 14 to 4 for it, and the room voted 26 to 14 against.
The council recessed to the firemen's room to hold a hearing on the Red Star application for a terminal on the site of the North Garage, of which every property owner within 250 feet had been notified. About 70 people were present. Mayor Trimper explained the object of the meeting and the President of Council, John B. Lynch, presided. A vote of the property owners within 250 feet was taken and there were 14 for and 4 against, with 8 not present and one who wanted to see plans. Frank Sacca, Lewis Hardcastle, Dr. Guy Dennis and Mrs. Harriet Cropper spoke against the terminal, and Sacca insisted a vote be taken of the people present: 14 voted for and 26 opposed. Two rival applications were read at the same sitting - James D. Jarman's to build on a lot in rear of the Rideau Hotel, and one from the Union Buss Station Co., signed by Frank Sacca, on the old railroad station lot, 120 by 250 feet. Nine days later the council granted the Red Star permit anyway.
John B. LynchDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Frank SaccaJames D. Jarman
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-02-23
Ocean City granted the bus terminal 2-1 at a Friday morning meeting nine days after a public hearing voted 26 to 14 against it - the only vote against coming from the man who had opposed it as a citizen.
The council met at 11:30 on the morning of Friday 23 February with Mayor Trimper and all three councilmen present. Cranford O. Savage moved that the permit be granted to Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc. to build a bus terminal on the site of the North Garage as applied for on 8 February and amended on 20 February. John B. Lynch seconded. The mayor asked for the vote: Savage yes, Lynch yes, Rudolph Dolle no, and Mayor Trimper expressed his sentiment as yes. The application was signed by Lynch as President of Council with Savage as witness, and the meeting adjourned at 12:20. Savage and Dolle had both stood before the old council as private citizens in May 1944 to oppose the same company's terminal; the council refused it then. On 20 February the council had been unable to agree, had made the company strike the gasoline station off its application, and had gone to Salisbury to talk it over with the bus officials.
Cranford O. SavageJohn B. LynchRudolph DolleDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1946 · 1946-05-28
Ocean City used its own ordinances to keep a 'Beach Ball' concession off the Atlantic Hotel lot in 1946, on the ground that it was not a permanent building - and five men came in the following week to object to it anyway.
J. E. Collins and a partner asked the council on 28 May for the privilege of placing a 'Beach Ball' on the Atlantic lot opposite the City Comfort Station. 'Much discussion was had as to merits of the granting the privilege and was objected to by Councilmen R. Dolle and C. D. Savage because it was not a permanent building and did not conform to City Ordinances.' No grant is recorded. A week later Mr. English, Evans, Buckman, Jarvis and Shaw were before the council objecting to the Beach Ball being placed on the Atlantic Hotel lot. Collins had already been refused twice in March - once when he asked to lease part of the city parking lot for a lunch stand and was told the City did not want to lease it, and once when he asked to erect a Beach Ball on Red Star Bus property to serve lunches. Three weeks into the first zoning summer, an amusement concession is being refused on the ground that it does not conform.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Rudolph DolleCranford O. Savage
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-09-09
Ocean City's buses simply stopped before the season was out in 1946, and the council had to write and ask the operator why.
'The busses having quit, Secretary was told to write Mr. Colonell as to why he quit before October 1st.' The answer came on 1 October, when the clerk read a letter from Shore Bus Lines in reply, along with letters from Holcom Bailey asking for a permit or franchise for bus service - a rival already applying for the run. By 22 October the matter had gone up to the Maryland Public Service Commission, whose letter regarding a permit to Colonell was read to the council. It is a quiet end to the fight that consumed the town in 1944 and 1945, when a bus terminal was refused outright in May 1944, granted 2-1 in February 1945 over a public meeting that voted 26 to 14 against it, and pressed in March 1946 to keep its office open and add an extra daily trip.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Shore Bus LinesPublic Service Commission of Maryland
Source · checked 2026-08-15