Steel Pier and Railway Company of Ocean City
company · founded 1896
Incorporated by the Circuit Court for Worcester County on Wednesday, May 27, 1896 with $50,000 of capital in 500 shares of $100 par and its principal office at Ocean City, to erect a steel pier "stretching from the beach to a considerable distance over the water." The incorporators were William J. Warrington, William T. Fadden, Thomas W. Jenkins and Edward Stabler, Jr., of Baltimore, and Albert P. Warrington of Norfolk, Virginia. The design published a week later was a T-shaped iron pier running 570 feet into the ocean, with a casino whose ground floor held bath-houses and booths and whose upper storey held bowling alleys and pool rooms; the pier was to be done by the Fourth of July and the casino a fortnight later. A New York syndicate had had an engineer on the ground that May. Nothing in the remainder of the 1896 county press reports the pier finished, and the October storm dispatch that inventories the ocean front building by building does not mention it.
In the record (3)
1902 · 1902-04-08
Chapter 442 of 1902 quietly drops 'Steel Pier' from the town's amusement charter: the Ocean City Steel Pier Railway and Amusement Company becomes the Ocean City Railway Company.
Approved 8 April 1902. The Act changes nothing but the name of the corporation created by Ch. 682 of the Acts of 1900 (approved 10 April 1900), and provides that "all the powers and privileges conferred by said chapter 682 ... shall be hereafter enjoyed by the 'Ocean City Railway Company.'" Six weeks later the county paper described a company holding a legislative franchise and proposing $40,000 steel pier structures at Ocean City — the same body, still nominally in the pier business under a name that no longer says so.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1902 · 1902-05-24
Two rival piers were announced for Ocean City in May 1902 — a $40,000 steel one and a wooden one promised in twenty days. Neither is ever reported finished.
From the Messenger of 24 May: "Two plans are on foot for Piers at Ocean City, one by a company which secured a franchise from the Legislature last winter, proposing to erect in the near future steel structures at a cost of $40,000. A company has been formed to build a wooden pier, however, which can be erected in 20 days, and which it is now intended to have finished by July 1. This company is backed by E. B. Showell, [—] Meyers and Mr. William H. Rayne. The pier will be placed in front of Mr. Rayne's hotel and will run out about 300 feet — beyond the line of breakers. A pavilion will be built on the outer end, in which a band of music will render concerts during the afternoon and evening. The fishing from this pier should be very fine." The franchise company is the one re-chartered that April as the Ocean City Railway Company. Every page of the paper from June through October was searched for 'pier': there is no completion notice, no opening, no accident, nothing. NEGATIVE STRENGTHENED, 2026-08-06: all 950 non-Messenger pages of the 1902 Maryland, D.C. and Delaware corpus were searched for "pier" near an Ocean City, Md. reference. Every hit is Atlantic City's Steel Pier, Narragansett Pier, or a person surnamed Pier. Neither scheme was built, and the campaign's tally of announced-but-unbuilt Ocean City piers stands.
The third Ocean City pier in six years to be specified in print down to the foot and then vanish — after the Steel Pier and Railway Company's 570-foot 'T' of 1896 and Waggaman's sixty-foot square of piling in 1899.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1905 · 1905-05-12
A crowded meeting at the railroad depot organises the Ocean City Pier and Improvement Company to build an ocean pier — the third such company since 1896, and the first to build one.
"A New Pier for Ocean City. A company was organized last Friday to erect an ocean pier out from the beach at Ocean City — a project long contemplated. A largely attended meeting was held at the railroad depot." R. Lee Purnell of Snow Hill chaired and J. E. Ijams of Baltimore was secretary. Officers of the Ocean City Pier and Improvement Company of Ocean City, Maryland: president Christopher Ludlam of Ocean City (the town's mayor); vice-president L. L. Dirickson, Jr., of Berlin; treasurer D. J. Adkins of Berlin; secretary R. L. Purnell of Snow Hill; assistant secretary J. E. Ijams of Baltimore. A board of directors was elected to serve one year, and it was proposed "to erect the pier at once and to capitalize the company at $20,000." By 8 July R. Lee Purnell reported plans to build "just below the Atlantic Hotel, extending [900] feet into the Ocean."
capitalised at $10,000–$20,000 — the two Messenger reports disagree
Ocean City Pier and Improvement CompanyOcean City Steel Pier Railway and Amusement CompanyChristopher LudlamCol. L. L. DiricksonDavid J. AdkinsRobert Lee PurnellJ. Edgar Ijams
Source · checked 2026-08-06