History

Charles & Louisa Henry

hotelier · active 1926–

Entrepreneurs who renamed and expanded the Henry Hotel in 1926, adding a restaurant and nightclub. They hosted legendary jazz musicians including Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie during the segregation era. — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: ⭐ 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: THE FIRST CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENTS OF THE HENRYS THE CAMPAIGN HAS FOUND IN ANY YEAR. On 7 September 1937 the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City recorded, in the clerk's longhand: 'Permit was granted Chas Henry to build addition to his property on Balto Ave and South Division street.' Ten weeks later Mayor W. Thomas Elliott's published account of the winter's building, printed in the Democratic Messenger of 18 November 1937, listed among the private projects 'Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500' — the town's own administration counting the Black hotel at Baltimore Avenue and South Division Street as part of the resort's building boom, in the language of 1937, forty-two years after the building opened. It is the smallest item on a list headed by a $60,000 apartment house, and it is the first source in the whole campaign that names the Henry establishment as a hotel. Note the name form: both sources give 'Chas. Henry' alone and neither names Louisa. Note also what is NOT there: the Baltimore Afro-American, all fifty-two 1937 issues of which were searched with 312 targeted queries, places no Henry and no hotel anywhere in Ocean City, Maryland, and the Salisbury Times does not mention the hotel once in 2,766 pages.

In the record (4)

  1. 1937 · 1937-09-07

    On 7 September 1937 the council granted Chas. Henry a permit to build an addition to his property at Baltimore Avenue and South Division Street

    The whole entry reads: 'Permit was granted Chas Henry to build addition to his property on Balto Ave and South Division street.' It is one line in a Tuesday evening minute between a rejected porch and a motion to buy six hundred feet of fire hose, and it is the first contemporary document of the Henry Hotel the campaign has found in any year. Baltimore Avenue and South Division Street is the hotel's address; the building had been open since 1895 and Charles and Louisa Henry had been running it under their own name since 1926. Eleven days earlier the same council had put the location of the new State Highway Bridge to a referendum in which South Division Street was one of the four choices on the ballot - the street the Henrys' hotel stands on - and it drew six votes out of 372.

    Two thousand facts about this town, a POI with an address and an opening year, and not one line of evidence that the Henry Hotel existed. Here it is: the man is named, the corner is named, and he is building on.

    The Henry HotelW. Thomas ElliottJohn M. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  2. 1937 · 1937-11-18

    Ocean City counted $112,000 of building under way in November 1937, more than half of it one apartment house

    Mayor Elliott's winter building list, printed on 18 November 1937 under '$112,000 Building Boom Makes Things Hum At Ocean City', is the clearest snapshot of the resort's private capital in the year: 'Calvin P. Pruitt Apartment House, $60,000; J. Dale Showell, Jr., Oceanic Hotel improvements, $10,000; John B. Lynch, cottage, $10,000; Charles Powell double houses, $6,000; William E. Gibbs apartment, $4,000; Elliott Bros., yacht harbor, $3,000; Mrs. John Lynch cottage improvements, $1,500; Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500.' The public side of the same list carried a $4,000 comfort station, a new 370-foot boardwalk section between South First and Somerset Streets 'of which the Windsor Resort Company is bearing part of the cost', the sewer extension west of Philadelphia Avenue, the Frank Magee bay-front anchorage basin and docks, and proposed sidewalks off North Philadelphia Avenue. In the same year the town's assessable basis rose $150,000 to $2,961,494. Elliott Bros. 'finished digging their yacht harbor north of North Division Street' in November, four months after the council gave them leave to dike the ground.

    Ocean City BoardwalkThe Henry HotelW. Thomas ElliottJohn B. LynchWilliam E. Gibbs

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  3. 1937 · 1937-11-18

    Ocean City's Black hotel appears on the mayor's own 1937 building list: 'Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500'

    On 18 November 1937 the Democratic Messenger printed Mayor W. Thomas Elliott's itemised account of the winter's construction under the head '$112,000 Building Boom Makes Things Hum At Ocean City'. The private projects ran: 'Calvin P. Pruitt Apartment House, $60,000; J. Dale Showell, Jr., Oceanic Hotel improvements, $10,000; John B. Lynch, cottage, $10,000; Charles Powell double houses, $6,000; William E. Gibbs apartment, $4,000; Elliott Bros., yacht harbor, $3,000; Mrs. John Lynch cottage improvements, $1,500; Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500.' It is the smallest item on the list and it is on the list — the Black hotel at Baltimore Avenue and South Division Street counted by the town's own administration as part of the resort's building boom, forty-two years after it opened. It is also the corroboration of the building permit the council had granted Chas. Henry on 7 September for 'an addition to his property on Balto Ave and South Division street', and it is the first time in the whole campaign that a source names the Henry establishment as a hotel. The same article lists the public works of the winter: a $4,000 comfort station, the 370-foot boardwalk section between South First and Somerset Streets, and the sewer extension west of Philadelphia Avenue.

    Two thousand facts, and the Henry Hotel had never been mentioned in one of them. Here it is twice in ten weeks — in the permit book and on the mayor's list — described in the language of 1937 and counted in the town's own money.

    The Henry HotelOcean City BoardwalkW. Thomas ElliottJohn B. LynchWilliam E. Gibbs

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

  4. 1987 · 1987-07-14

    Jim Hall took Councilman Duggan's seat in a July special election with 646 votes of 1,670 cast

    The Supervisor of Elections reported the official tally of the 13 July special election: Jim S. Hall 646, Jim W. Whittemore 600, Henry B. Westfall 194, Louise Gulyas 180, Brent Ashley 50. Hall was sworn the following evening by the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Worcester County.

    Source · checked 2026-09-02