Col. Wm. B. R. Selby
hotelier · active 1880–1881+
Proprietor of Congress Hall in Ocean City, which opened for its first season in June 1880 with Thomas Farley as manager. By August 1881 the Middletown Transcript called Congress Hall 'the most popular hotel on the beach' under his proprietorship — about 160 guests at once, full nearly all season, with an addition planned. Contemporary papers describe him hosting the Evergreen Lodge Masonic excursion (July 1881) and the Peninsula editors' meeting (August 1881). Advertisements give his initials as Wm. B. R.; two printings of the same standing ad disagree, so the middle initials are recorded as a conflict.
In the record (15)
c. 1869
Isaac Coffin is said to have opened the Rhode Island Inn on the beach — the first cottage on the future Ocean City strand to take paying guests.
By the received account, Isaac Coffin built a beachfront lodge around 1869 near what is now South 1st Street and the Boardwalk, catering to hunters and fishermen on the otherwise empty barrier island. Variously called the Rhode Island Inn and later the Ocean House, it was sold in 1880 to Philadelphian William Selby, who renamed it Congress Hall and expanded it to some 110 rooms. No contemporary 1869-1875 advertisement or notice for the inn has been located; the founding date rests entirely on later retellings and is recorded here unverified.
Ocean City's first hotel, if the story holds, predated Ocean City by six years.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1880 · 1880-06-23
The Atlantic Hotel adds 100 rooms and a dancing pavilion for a 600-guest capacity, and Congress Hall opens as the beach's third big house — 1880 is the year Ocean City gets a hotel row.
Work on the Atlantic's addition was announced in early March — "the carpenters will soon be at work on the proposed addition to the Atlantic Hotel, which is to make it one of the largest and most" [complete of the resort's houses] — and by June the hotel was advertising the result across Maryland, Delaware and the District: "OPENED for the reception of guests June 23rd, with greatly increased facilities for the accommodation of pleasure seekers. The capacity of the house has been increased to 600 guests by the addition of 100 new rooms, new bath houses and a pavilion for dancing, with eminent musical talent, are among the attractive features." The Smyrna Times version put it plainly: "100 New Rooms have been added. New Bath Houses and Ball Room are among the latest improvements. THE BEST MUSIC That has ever been on the Beach is secured." Terms were $2.50 per day and $10 to $12.50 per week — the same rate card as 1877, three years and a hundred rooms later. John Tracy was still proprietor; S. C. Beckwith was chief clerk. Two days later a brand-new competitor opened: "Congress Hall, Ocean City, Worcester Co., Md. SEASON OF 1880, NOW OPEN. Commanding an Ocean view from all parts of the house. Good Fishing and Boating. An excellent Orchestra will be in attendance during the Season. The table will be supplied with all the delicacies of the season, Oysters, Fish, Crabs and Terrapins being in abundance... TERMS $12.50 and $10.00 per Week, according to location. Transient board, $2.50 per day. WM. B. R. SELBY, Proprietor. THOMAS FARLEY, Manager." The Evening Star's version of the ad dates the opening to June 25, 1880. With S. J. Massey & Co.'s Seaside Hotel opening June 15 "100 yards from the breakers," the July excursion party found three hotels to split among — and by 1881 Congress Hall, in only its second season, would be called the most popular house on the beach.
Atlantic HotelJohn TracyThomas FarleyS. J. Massey
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1880 · 1880-07-14
Fifty prominent Marylanders ride a railroad agent's free special to Ocean City in July 1880 — forty miles in an hour, and dinner at Congress Hall.
"An excursion to Ocean City was given to a number of gentlemen from Maryland and Delaware this week by I. N. Mills, Esq., superintendent of the Delaware division of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad. The company was composed of about fifty gentlemen," among them Congressman Stevenson Archer, Judge J. D. Watters, Major Wm. H. Dallam, Col. Otho S. Lee, Hon. Murray Vandiver, Thos. G. Hayes and a working press contingent from the Harford Republican and the Baltimore Herald. The party left Baltimore about eight in the morning and reached Ocean City at 2:30 in the afternoon "after a run of 237 miles from this city"; the Ocean City correspondent of a Wilmington paper reported that "the train which brought the delegation here made the quick time of forty miles in an hour." On arrival the excursionists split among the three hotels — "the Atlantic Hotel, John Tracy, proprietor; Seaside Hotel, S. J. Massey & Co., proprietors; and Congress Hall, Wm. B. R. Selby, proprietor" — dined together at Congress Hall on Thursday, and held a meeting in the parlors of the Seaside afterwards. The same correspondent: "Crowds are daily arriving, and the season promises to be a remunerative one for the capitalists who have invested their money in Ocean City."
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore RailroadI. N. MillsJohn TracyS. J. Massey
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1881
Congress Hall, under Col. Selby, 'has grown to be the most popular hotel on the beach' — about 160 guests in mid-August, full nearly all season, an addition planned.
Middletown Transcript, Aug. 19, 1881 (letter from Ocean City): Congress Hall, 'under the proprietorship of Mr. Selby and the management of Mr. Farley, is gaining a wide reputation as a model seaside caravansary, has been full nearly all season and is caring for about 160 guests at present... Mr. Selby has had Congress Hall only two seasons and his success has been remarkable. He will have to build another addition before opening time next season.' Congress Hall was one of the hotels that followed the Atlantic Hotel in the late-1870s boom; it also hosted Episcopal services 1878-1881.
Source · checked 2026-08-05
1881
Congress Hall adds a three-storey wing of sixty rooms, a new dining room and new bath houses — built through the spring by Snow Hill painters.
Congress Hall's 1881 advertisement: "The great popularity and gratifying success of Congress Hall last season has induced the proprietor to increase the capacity of his hotel by the addition of a three-story wing, containing sixty well-lighted, large and airy rooms. Among other improvements are a new dining-room, bath-houses, new bathing robes... Notwithstanding the many improvements, the popular prices of last season will be maintained. THOMAS FARLEY, Manager. W. B. R. SELBY, Proprietor." The Messenger watched it go up: on 28 May "a number of our painters have left for Ocean City, to work on Congress Hall", and "the addition being built to 'Congress Hall' is rapidly approaching completion and is now partially in the hands of the painters. Ed. Boehm and his assistants, from your town, have the job of painting. The new 'L' will show the Hall off to good advantage." Alvey W. Smith of Snow Hill ran the hotel's livery stable that summer, and the Wilmington clerk J. Harry Godwin kept its office for a second season.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1881
After dedicating their new Berlin hall, Evergreen Lodge's Masons and their guests ride excursion trains to Ocean City for an illuminated ball at Congress Hall.
Democratic Messenger, July 16, 1881: Evergreen Lodge No. 153, A.F. & A.M., celebrated the completion of its new hall at Berlin 'on Thursday last,' with delegations from adjacent Maryland and Virginia lodges. 'During the afternoon excursion trains conveyed the visitors and members of the lodge to Ocean City, where Col. Selby, the kind hearted proprietor of Congress Hall, welcomed them to the freedom of his house. In the evening the hotel was brilliantly illuminated, and to the inspiring strains of Harry Cook's orchestra dancing was indulged in until midnight,' while Prof. Ford, 'the celebrated elocutionist,' entertained in the parlor.
Source · checked 2026-08-05
1881
The Peninsula's newspaper editors hold their annual meeting at Ocean City in mid-August — waltzing included — and vote it 'the most pleasant and successful meeting they had ever had.'
The Middletown Transcript's editor was among 'the Peninsular editors... here this week' (letter from Ocean City, Aug. 16, 1881). There was dancing at the hotel — 'some of the editors waltzed with the girls' — and the association 'adjourned to-day, after passing some resolutions about advertising agents, and thanking the railroad officials and Mr. Selby for kind treatment.' A press-association convention choosing the six-year-old resort, with the railroad companies comped and thanked, is early destination-marketing at work.
Source · checked 2026-08-05
1881
The 1881 season ran from 11 June to 14 September — and the Atlantic and Congress Hall shut on the same Wednesday.
Congress Hall's Washington advertising promised "Season of 1881 opens June 11", and the Wilmington *Daily Republican* said on 4 June that "all the hotels, the Atlantic House, Congress Hall, and the Ocean House will open wide their doors that day." The Messenger of 17 September closed the books: "The Atlantic Hotel and Congress Hall, at Ocean City, closed for the season on Wednesday. Mr. Selby and family will spend two weeks at their farm before returning to Philadelphia." Ninety-five days.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1881 · 1881-07-04
Col. Selby fires off fireworks in front of Congress Hall on the Fourth of July, and the day passes with "no disturbances".
Democratic Messenger, 9 July 1881: "Those who visited Ocean City on Monday spent the day in a very enjoyable manner. The bathing was 'just splendid,' good accommodations were provided at the hotels, and there were no disturbances during the day. In the evening Col. Selby treated the visitors to a display of fireworks in front of Congress Hall, and those who were fond of the amusement participated in the pleasures of a hop in the spacious and elegantly furnished parlor of the above-named hotel. The Worcester and Wicomico roads did a good business." Excursion trains had been advertised the week before to Rehoboth, Ocean City and the festival at Basket Town.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1881 · 1881-09-16
Selby's plans for 1882: a dancing pavilion, a skating rink, new bathing houses, "new board walks" and an ocean-front addition to Congress Hall.
The Middletown (Del.) Transcript, 16 September 1881, closing out the season: "'Congress Hall,' Mr. Selby's excellent caravansary... has done an excellent business and grown much in favor... He contemplates many improvements for the season of 1882. Among them will be a dancing pavilion and skating rink, new and neater bathing houses, new board walks and an addition to the hotel on the ocean front. The excellent orchestra that made music this year has been engaged for next season." A second, independent 1881 use of "board walks" at Ocean City, four months after the Messenger's.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1882 · 1882-06-14
Congress Hall changes hands: Robert Rennert of Baltimore leases the beach's most popular hotel.
Col. W. B. R. Selby had run Congress Hall since it opened in 1880, and by 1881 it was called "the most popular hotel on the beach." For the season of 1882 it passed to a Baltimore hotelier. The Democratic Messenger of June 10, 1882: "Congress Hall, at Ocean City, which has been leased by Mr. Robert Rennert, of Baltimore, will open for the season on Wednesday next. Two gentlemen from Baltimore, the first instalment of guests this season, registered with Mr. Rennert last evening." By late August the Bel Air Aegis's traveller was listing the beach's houses as "the Atlantic Hotel, kept by Mr. Tracy, Congress Hall, by Rennert & Co., and Massey's Seaside Hotel." Congress Hall thus opened a week ahead of the Atlantic, which did not open until June 21.
Baltimore money arrives on hotel row. Rennert's name would later hang on one of Baltimore's grandest hotels; in 1882 it hung on a frame house on the Ocean City beach.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1884
Congress Hall does not open for the 1884 season, and its owner advertises it for sale in the Washington papers all spring.
From March 24 the Evening Star's summer-resort column carried the same three lines, day after day, between the Saratoga cottages and the Atlantic City boarding houses: "CONGRESS HALL, OCEAN CITY, WORCESTER county, Md., for sale or to let furnished. Apply to the owner, WM. B. R. SELBY, Berlin, Worcester county, Md." Nobody took it. On July 28 the Delaware Gazette's Ocean City correspondent wrote that the hotels were beginning to fill up, "200 each at the Sea Side and Atlantic" — and then: "Congress Hall has not been opened this season." Three summers earlier the same house had been "the most popular hotel on the beach", full nearly all season with about 160 guests at a time; in 1882 Selby had leased it to Robert Rennert of Baltimore and it had opened a week ahead of the Atlantic. In 1884 it stood dark, and the classified gives the owner's initials in full for the first time.
Ocean City's second hotel spent the summer of 1884 as a want ad.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1885
Col. W. B. R. Selby, the man who built Congress Hall, dies at Ocean City in the middle of the season.
The Wicomico Record reported, and the Smyrna Times reprinted on August 5, 1885: 'Wm. B. R. Selby, Esq., died at Ocean City, on Tuesday last. He has resided in Philadelphia for the past thirty years and held the office of Prothonotary of that city. He was a native of Worcester county, where he has a large estate near Ocean City, and the Congress Hall Hotel, at that resort, is a part of Selby's estate. He was about 65 years of age.' Selby had opened Congress Hall in 1880 and it was 'the most popular hotel on the beach' by 1881; he leased it to Robert Rennert of Baltimore for the 1882 season and it remained part of his estate at his death.
He came back from Philadelphia every summer to the hotel he built on a sandbar, and he died in it. Ocean City has been losing its founders on the beach since it had founders.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1889 · 1889-04-03
"OCEAN CITY BOOMING" — by April every hotel is let, every cottage is rented, and the county paper says the boom it predicted has arrived.
A special dispatch datelined Ocean City, April 3, ran in the Democratic Messenger under the headline "OCEAN CITY BOOMING. Hotels all to be in Operation this Summer. COTTAGES ALL RENTED. A Bright Out-Look for our City by the Sea." It reported that "Ocean City has become the centre of extensive real estate speculations of late. The 'boom' the MESSENGER predicted some time ago is in fair prospect of being a reality." Spofford had signed for the Atlantic; the Seaside's proprietor had had several applications and would open under new management; "a party from Baltimore is negotiating with Mr. Selby with the object of renting Congress Hall. It is in a splendid location and is next to the Atlantic in size"; W. Purnell had rented the Ayers Cottage from G. G. Stokes; the Goldsboro Cottage had two applicants; "nearly every house is rented for the coming season"; and the railroad had rented the Excursion House and would "fix it up for use during the summer season" and "put on a first-class fast train service on their road for Ocean City travel." Congress Hall — shut and advertised for sale since 1884 — did open, about July 1, under Selby, Powell & Co.
Three seasons earlier Congress Hall was a hundred empty rooms in a Philadelphia classified. In 1889 the whole beach was spoken for by April.
Atlantic HotelGranville Stokes
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1890 · 1890-07-01
Three hotels advertise the 1890 season: Congress Hall at $8 and $10 a week, and the Atlantic reopening with 'old popular prices restored.'
The Washington Evening Star carried all three of Ocean City's houses through the summer of 1890. The Atlantic, under a new manager, advertised from late May that it would 'open July 1st, 1890. Largest and best located house on the beach. Fine bathing, gunning, fishing and sailing; electric bells; no mosquitoes; good music; old popular prices restored. Address T. P. Welch, Manager' — the sentence about prices appearing only from June 5, after the hotel changed hands twice. Congress Hall was open and specific: 'Bathing Unsurpassed; Good Boating, Gunning and Fishing. Terms $8 and $10 per week. Selby, Powell & Co.' And the Sea Side Hotel advertised simply that it 'is open' — with John Tracy, who had run the Atlantic through the resort's first seasons, now named as its proprietor. Eight dollars a week is two dollars below the Seaside's 1886 rate; in the fifteenth season the Ocean City price of a week at the sea was falling, not rising.
Source · checked 2026-08-06