History

C. Parker Smith

Proprietor of the Majestic Hotel, Ocean City, Md. (capacity 150). For five weeks after the hurricane of 23 August 1933 he bought space in the Washington Evening Star to insist that 'extent of damage to the Majestic Hotel is very slight and I am serving old and new guests as usual. All guests okay' — against an AP eyewitness who said the Majestic was in worse shape than the Atlantic and its front door could not be opened.

In the record (3)

  1. 1937 · 1937-03-19

    Eleven men of the Ocean City Yacht Club came to the council in March 1937 to ask for Fourteenth Street

    'Delegation from Yacht Club were present asking for 14th street improvement, those present were, F. W. Truitt, Dr. C. R. Laws, J. B. Lynch, Cecil Blake, Wm. Bennett, H. Gundy, D. Trimper Jr., Parker Smith, Dr. Burkman, Josh Bunting. Dr. Laws Explained what they wanted & Council promised to let them know in few days.' The council did not let them know: on 31 March a 'Letter from Yacht Club read asking that answer be given on grading 14th street', and no answer is recorded that night either. The delegation is a roll of the resort's establishment - a former president of the Board of Trade, a Trimper, the man who had chaired the citizens' boardwalk committee in 1936 - turning up in a body over the grading of one bayside street.

    Ocean City Yacht ClubF. W. TruittJohn B. LynchCecil BlakeDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  2. 1938 · 1938-05-10

    Ocean City's new assessments for 1938 ran from $400 for a house on an alley to $25,000 for John Lambros's building at South and Atlantic

    On 10 May 1938 the council ordered notices of new assessment sent to twenty-six owners for the 1938 levy, and the clerk wrote the list into the book. The largest were John Lambros, $25,000, for a building at South and Atlantic Avenue; Harry and Ethel Kelly, $11,000, for an addition to the Royalton; C. H. and Mary F. Benson, $11,000, for an apartment on Ninth Street; Bay Heights Development Co., $10,000; and C. Parker Smith, $10,000 for an apartment and its furniture. In the middle: Mrs. J. Ada Beardsworth's bungalow on Tenth at $5,000, John A. Price's apartment at $5,000, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Johnson's house on Sixth at $7,500, Curtis W. Long at $4,500, Carroll H. and Marion Mumford at $3,600, three Baltimore Avenue houses in the Dennis and Carroll families at $3,000 to $3,500, Chas. Arthur Holloway at $2,800, Capt. Elisha V. Bunting's bungalow at $1,000. The smallest was Sam and Della Ayres, $400, 'House on alley'. A second and shorter list followed on 21 June, and five assessments were 'marked off' - R. R. Dennis $2,000 of personal stock, Davis & Lynch $1,000, Howard Truitt $1,000, J. D. Jarman $900 personal, and the R. C. Quillen estate.

    John LambrosEthel KelleyElisha Victor BuntingJames D. Jarman

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  3. 1938 · 1938-08-01

    Ocean City turned out its mayor of four years in August 1938 and elected its own lawyer, on 323 votes cast between two o'clock and six

    The minute of 1 August 1938 records 'A Special town Election was held in Firemans Building for purpose of Electing one person for mayor and three persons for Councilmen to serve two Years'. The returns, filed by the election judges Stephen J. Quillen, Horace O. Cropper and Williams, were: 'For Edmund H Johnson for Mayor 323 Votes. Harold J Rayne for Councilman 219 Votes. E Raymond Bounds 216. C.P. Cropper 199. John D Ayres 149. C Parker Smith 136. Dr. Francis J Townsend 154. No other Votes were Cast. Election held from 2 O'Clock P.M. Until 6 O'Clock P.M.' Six men ran for three council seats and the sitting councilman, Dr. Francis J. Townsend, came fourth and lost. W. Thomas Elliott, mayor since 1934, does not appear on the return at all - no votes were cast for him, and he did not stand. The man who replaced him was the town's own solicitor, Edmond H. Johnson, who nine weeks earlier had been appointed the council's attorney to collect Ocean City's share of the Worcester County liquor profits and had been paid $915 for the work on 31 May.

    A four-hour poll in the firehouse, 323 votes, and the resort changed hands. Ocean City did not so much elect an outsider as promote its lawyer - and the councilman who had spent the year pushing sanitary ordinances the council would not second was the one the voters removed.

    Edmond H. JohnsonW. Thomas ElliottHarold J. RayneE. Raymond BoundsClifford P. CropperFrancis J. TownsendStephen J. QuillenHorace O. Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-11