Christine Fox
summer resident · active 1908
Washington summer resident who led the women of the bucket brigade at the Ocean City fire of Saturday 26 September 1908, when the Oriental Hotel and two stores burned and the railway depot caught a dozen times. The Democratic Messenger credited the brigade — "composed of men, residents and many women, the women being led by Miss Christine Fox, of Washington" — with saving the town. She and her mother were still occupying their cottage near the upper end of the boardwalk at the end of September; the family had kept a cottage at Ocean City for many seasons.
In the record (2)
1908 · 1908-09-26
A Saturday-night fire burns the Oriental Hotel and two stores, and a bucket brigade led by a Washington girl saves the rest of the town.
"OCEAN CITY THREATENED! Hotel And Two Stores Burned — Women In Bucket Brigade. Little Insurance." The fire broke out about five in the afternoon of Saturday 26 September 1908 in the kitchen of the Oriental Hotel, between the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway depot and the post office and near both the Atlantic and Seaside Hotels, and was under control in about an hour. The Oriental, the dwelling adjoining occupied by Capt. E. R. Cropper, and L. S. Brittingham's store and dwelling were destroyed. Rayne's Ocean Front Hotel, Cropper's grocery, Hamblin's photograph gallery and the Ocean View House all caught but were only slightly damaged; the railway depot took fire "a dozen times" and was saved by hard work, and two cases of dynamite were carried out of the freight shed while sparks fell. "The 'Bowery,' or lower portion, and the new pier seemed in great danger early." Capt. John B. Jones and his life-saving crew "gave signal service, as did the ladies" — the brigade was "composed of men, residents and many women, the women being led by Miss Christine Fox, of Washington," a long-time summer resident whose family cottage stood near the upper end of the boardwalk. The report is also the campaign's best description of the town's fire defences: "Ocean City has a water system supplied by a large tank more than 100 feet high, and the pressure from this is supposed to throw water over the tallest buildings in the town. The fire apparatus was gotten out quickly, considering the fact that there is no regular organized fire company. After the hose was connected to the fire plugs and water turned on from the main, several sections of the hose were found defective, couplings blew off and some burst. This caused serious delay." There was little wind, or the fire would have run up or down the beach. By 7 November Lambert Brittingham was rebuilding his store.
Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic RailwayCapt. John Jones
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1909 · 1909-07-25
Washington society writes a musical burlesque, "The Dress Rehearsal," for an August show at the Ocean City Casino — and the hotels are besieged for rooms.
"AMATEUR PLAY AT OCEAN CITY — Washingtonians on Vacation Will Give Performance at Casino. The announcement last week of the plans for the coming August society show at Ocean City, Md., has awakened lively interest among those who are already at that popular seaside resort, and especially among the young men and women of Washington and Baltimore who expect to spend several weeks there during the season. In anticipation of seeing or taking part in the performance, the hotels and cottages have been besieged with requests for accommodations during the middle of August, and this season promises to be a gala one for Ocean City. The title of the musical burlesque which will be used is 'The Dress Rehearsal' … the work of Mr. George A. Bentley, Mr. Donald M. McLeran, and Mr. Kirkus Dugdale, all of whom are well known in this city. Mr. Bentley and Mr. McLeran are responsible for the book and lyrics, and Mr. Dugdale is the composer of the musical numbers." The *Washington Herald*'s society columns that summer place Washingtonians at the **Plimhimmon**, the **Hamilton** (where the Third Assistant Postmaster General, A. L. Lawshe, joined his family) and the **Mount Vernon Hotel**, and record a sailing party and picnic on Synepuxent Bay from the Plimhimmon that included Miss Christine Fox — the woman who led the women's bucket brigade at the 1908 fire.
A Washington-written musical staged in an Ocean City casino: the resort as the capital's summer annex, forty years before the Boardwalk was a boardwalk in the modern sense.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Source · checked 2026-08-06