Cranford O. Savage

In the record (24)

1. 1945 · 1945-02-23

   Ocean City granted the bus terminal 2-1 at a Friday morning meeting nine days after a public hearing voted 26 to 14 against it - the only vote against coming from the man who had opposed it as a citizen.

   The council met at 11:30 on the morning of Friday 23 February with Mayor Trimper and all three councilmen present. Cranford O. Savage moved that the permit be granted to Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc. to build a bus terminal on the site of the North Garage as applied for on 8 February and amended on 20 February. John B. Lynch seconded. The mayor asked for the vote: Savage yes, Lynch yes, Rudolph Dolle no, and Mayor Trimper expressed his sentiment as yes. The application was signed by Lynch as President of Council with Savage as witness, and the meeting adjourned at 12:20. Savage and Dolle had both stood before the old council as private citizens in May 1944 to oppose the same company's terminal; the council refused it then. On 20 February the council had been unable to agree, had made the company strike the gasoline station off its application, and had gone to Salisbury to talk it over with the bus officials.

   Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.John B. LynchRudolph DolleDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

2. 1945 · 1945-05-28

   A state senator brought Ocean City a Sunday amusements ordinance he had written for it: movies after eight on Sunday nights, dancing to 12:30 on Saturdays, doors locked by one.

   State Senator Thomas F. Johnson was present with an ordinance he had prepared for the council with reference to the government of Sunday amusements. The council agreed to allow Sunday movies after 8 o'clock PM, and to allow dancing until 12:30 AM on Saturday nights with lights out and doors locked by one o'clock AM. On motion by John B. Lynch, seconded by C. O. Savage, the ordinance was passed as of that date, and the clerk numbered it Ordinance #21 - a fortnight after numbering the rewritten licence ordinance #100. The closing hour was contested at once: on 5 June the Jacksons asked for 12:45 and were refused, though the council said it would accept music stopping at 12:40 with the room clear by one; and on 31 July it made exactly that the rule for every night club in town.

   Thomas F. JohnsonJohn B. Lynch

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

3. 1945 · 1945-07-24

   Ocean City set its 1945 tax rate at $1.20 per hundred - the sixth straight year at that figure, and the first of the peace.

   On motion by C. O. Savage, seconded by R. Dolle, the tax rate for 1945 was set at $1.20 on one hundred dollars and the treasurer was to set the books up on that basis; the motion carried. A second motion carried to collect all licence due the city by 1 August. The rate had gone to $1.20 in July 1940 and had not moved since. On 31 July the council decided the best way to collect the licence on machines was to have the chief of police notify the owners, and on 22 August it instructed the clerk to collect in full on machines.

   Rudolph Dolle

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

4. 1945 · 1945-08-27

   Ocean City's Zoning Commission delivered its preliminary report on 27 August 1945, and the council voted only to receive it.

   The council met at 8:30 PM with the Zoning Commission - Mayor Trimper, Councilmen Dolle and Savage for the town, and Attorney Wm. Price with chairman Frank Waller, Harland Huston, C. W. Purnell and J. P. Whaley for the commission. Attorney Price read a report of the work done by the commission and discussion followed, after which R. Dolle moved and C. O. Savage seconded that the Zoning Commission's preliminary report be received and that it receive consideration. Receiving is all the council did. The report itself is not bound into the minutes, and within eight weeks its zoning map was being used to decide a night-club permit.

   Ocean City Zoning CommissionDr. Charles Washington PurnellRudolph DolleJohn P. Whaley

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

5. 1945 · 1945-09-12

   Maryland accepted Ocean City's post-war water main extension in September 1945 and agreed to pay half the engineer's expenses.

   On 6 September a notice from the Commission on Post War Reconstruction was read in which the project for extending water mains was accepted, and the clerk was told to forward the papers to Engineer Clark Gardner. On 12 September Gardner came with the acceptance papers to be signed, on terms under which the State would pay one half the engineer's expenses; on motion by C. O. Savage seconded by R. Dolle the council agreed to accept the terms and Gardner was told to prepare the plans. The project had begun with a $200 agreement in December 1944 and Gardner had forwarded signed plans to the commission in January 1945. It ended the year unbuilt: two bids opened on 21 December were rejected as too high on 26 December.

   Clark GardnerRudolph Dolle

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

6. 1945 · 1945-10-15

   Ocean City made a councilman a committee of one in October 1945 to collect the signatures of boat owners who would use the Inlet if it were deepened.

   C. O. Savage was appointed a committee of one to get the signatures of boat owners that would use the Inlet if it was deepened. It is the town assembling evidence of demand - twelve years after the 1933 storm cut the inlet, five years after the jetties settled below sea level, and two years after the council wrote to both Maryland senators, its congressman and the Army Engineers asking for its jetties back. In October 1944 a Surveyor Thomas had been before the council showing charts and maps of the survey and how the sand was shifting from certain areas of the Inlet. The list of signatures is not in the minute book and no later 1945 minute reports the result.

   Ocean City Inlet & Jetty

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

7. 1945 · 1945-11-05

   Ocean City voted on 5 November 1945 to widen its Boardwalk to thirty feet from North Division to South Division Street.

   On motion by Savage, seconded by Lynch, it was decided to widen the Board walk from N. Div. to South Div. Street to 30 foot. The council had discussed the widening on 15 October and reached no final agreement. It is the answer to the argument the hurricane started: the walk wrecked on 14 September 1944, replaced 'as it was' in wood that September because concrete was prohibitive, and now, with the war over and the town borrowing, widened through the centre of the resort instead of rebuilt in a different material. The same meeting decided to use what 6-inch sewer pipe was on hand by running sewer on South First Street as far as the material would go. On 26 November the council raised Bob Allen to $50 a week until the Boardwalk was finished.

   Ocean City BoardwalkJohn B. Lynch

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

8. 1945 · 1945-12-04

   On its regular December meeting night, only Ocean City's mayor and one councilman came, and the sitting was called off at a quarter past eight.

   'The Mayor Daniel Trimper and Councilman C. O. Savage were the only ones present at regular meeting night.' The two of them granted Anthony Purnell a permit to build on 5th Street on another lot, and then, as no other member of council had come, the meeting was called off at 8:15. It is the third such failure in two years: on 29 July 1944 the clerk could get only Mayor Cropper and Herman Parsons, and on 12 August 1944 he could get no meeting at all and was instructed over the telephone. It falls in the busiest fortnight of the town's year - between the signing over of the zoning ordinance and its two public hearings.

   Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

9. 1945 · 1945-12-19

   About twenty-five people came to Ocean City's first zoning hearing on 19 December 1945, and a stenographer took down every objection - and the transcript is not in the town's record.

   The mayor and city council met at 2 PM in the Firemen's Room to hold a public hearing on the proposed zoning ordinance and zoning map, with Attorney Wm. Price and a stenographer, and a Mr. McAveney and a second man from Baltimore representing the Fire Board. About twenty-five people were present; the ordinance was read and objections noted by Mr. Price, and the meeting adjourned at 5 PM to reconvene on the Saturday morning. On 22 December the hearing resumed at 10 AM, called to order by Mayor Trimper, with Savage the only councilman present - Dolle absent through sickness and Lynch called out of town. Price conducted it and had his stenographer take the minutes of the meeting and the names of those present; all who wished to be heard made their statements, and it adjourned at 12:05. Neither transcript, nor any list of who objected, is in the portal. The minute book closes four days later with the ordinance still unadopted.

   Ocean City Zoning CommissionDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

10. 1946 · 1946-03-19

    Ocean City licensed a summer bus route the length of the built town in 1946 - 15th Street to South Division, seventeen hours a day, May to October, for $100 or $50 a bus.

    'Frank A. Colonell request for permit to operate Buss service during season from May to October, from 15th Street to South Div. Street, from 7 A.M. to 12 P.M. daily was considered, and on motion by John B. Lynch, sec. by C. O. Savage, permit was granted one year for service of $100.00 or $50.00 for each Buss.' It is a town transit line rather than an intercity one, and its two termini are the two ends of the town as the zoning map drew it a few weeks later - 15th Street, where the heavy boundary ran bay to ocean, and South Division Street in the middle of the amusement core. The same evening the council resolved the boundary question in principle and summoned the dock owners for the following night. By September the buses had quit.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    John B. Lynch

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

11. 1946 · 1946-04-03

    Five weeks before adoption the Ocean City council sat down with the zoning map and moved district lines by hand, enlarging one business area to the ocean and turning half of another into residential.

    The full board met with Attorney Wm. Price on the evening of Wednesday 3 April 1946 'to go over the Zoning ordinance & map', and the meeting proceeded by reading the map. Approval was made of areas 7 and 11 as Industrial as outlined; of the B.B. area as laid down on the map; and of B areas 4 to 9. Then two changes: 'B area 4 enlarged to a point midway between First Street & Second Street, north to extend to Ocean', and 'Line dividing area 10 from area 9 moved South half a block, and remainder of area 9 created as residential area'. The one formal motion of the night, by John B. Lynch seconded by C. O. Savage, abolished all distinction as to side and rear yard regulation in residential use districts and made it uniform as prescribed for A Area district in the Zoning Commission's final report. The meeting rose at 11:20. The council met again the following evening, read on, and the clerk recorded that 'nothing definitely done', adjourning at 11:30.

    Ocean City Zoning CommissionJohn B. LynchDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Rudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

12. 1946 · 1946-04-25

    Ocean City voted the Chamber of Commerce five thousand dollars 'to operate on' in April 1946 - five times what it had budgeted the Chamber the summer before.

    Bob Cropper, Mr. Harris and Elizabeth Laws were present in the interest of finances for the Chamber of Commerce, and after going over the several items the council, on motion by John B. Lynch seconded by C. O. Savage, passed an order to give them $5,000 to operate on. In July 1945 the town's own reckoning had budgeted the Chamber $1,000 against the $3,500 it asked. Three weeks later, on 14 May, Dale Showell and Chas. Jackson got another $500 out of the council for the Business Men's Association, to be matched by them for an advertising fund to be used in 1947 and paid by 1 September. By 26 November the town had taken the Chamber onto its own books entirely.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Ocean City Chamber of CommerceOcean City Business Men's AssociationRobert Lee CropperMiss Elizabeth LawsJohn B. Lynch

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

13. 1946 · 1946-04-30

    Ocean City settled its 1946 garbage problem by deciding 'to employ five colored help to load trucks' and sending the clerk out to find the men.

    'The handling of garbage was discussed, and decided to employ five colored help to load trucks, and Secretary ordered to contact men and employ them.' It is the whole of the entry, and it is the only reference to Black labour or to Black Ocean City in the first two thirds of the 1946 minute book - a decision to hire five men, by race, with no man named, no wage entered and the finding of them left to the town clerk. It answers the question the council had left open five days earlier, when 'what to do about getting crew to move garbage was discussed but left for further thought'. The same meeting borrowed $5,000 from the Bank of Ocean City on a thirty-day note to get the town to the season.

    Bank of Ocean CityRudolph DolleJ. M. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

14. 1946 · 1946-05-03

    On the evening of Friday 3 May 1946 Ocean City read its zoning ordinance through one last time, declared it 'as they wanted it', and fixed its passage for the following Tuesday.

    The full board met with Wm. H. Price, attorney for Zoning, and the engineer. 'The entire Zoning ordinance was read over and changes in map were noted. Council agreed that the Ordinance was as they wanted it, and Attorney Price was instructed to prepare the Ordinance so it could be finally passed at next regular monthly meeting to be held on May 7th 1946.' The meeting rose at 10:30. The sequence from there is complete: the commission's report signed over 20 November 1945, public hearings 19 and 22 December 1945, the council reading and amending on 3, 4, 11 and 25 April 1946, the final read-through on 3 May, counsel's draft minute on 4 May, and passage on 7 May. This is the meeting at which the town's mayor is first written 'D. Trimper Jr.' in the 1946 book.

    The engineer of the 1946 zoning map is printed CLARKE GARDNER on the map and written 'Clark Gordon' by the clerk four days earlier - almost certainly the Clark Gardner who had been Ocean City's consulting engineer since 1935.

    Staton, Whaley & PriceDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.John B. LynchRudolph DolleClark Gardner

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

15. 1946 · 1946-05-07

    Ocean City passed its first zoning ordinance 3-0 on the evening of 7 May 1946, and it was in force that night.

    The Mayor and City Council met in regular monthly session at 7:30 P.M. with the whole board present - Mayor Daniel Trimper Jr., Councilmen John B. Lynch, Rudolph Dolle and Crawford O. Savage, and John M. Mumford, City Clerk. The President of the City Council laid before the council the form of The Zoning Ordinance of Ocean City, Maryland, 'as recommended by the Zoning Commission and revised following public advertised hearings before the Mayor and City Council and numerous sessions of the Mayor and City Council to consider suggestions and objections adduced at said hearings and at the hearings held by the Zoning Commission.' On motion by Councilman Rudolph Dolle, seconded by Councilman Crawford O. Savage, it was unanimously passed as Ordinance No. 99. Section II provides that the ordinance 'shall take effect from the date of its passage' - no delay, no publication period, no referendum. Trimper approved it the same day. The whole of the 39 manuscript pages and the map that follow are the ordinance; the clerk records no other motion, no correspondence, no bills and no adjournment. Dolle - who cast the lone dissenting vote on the bus terminal in February 1945 - moved it, voted for it, signed it as councilman and attested it as Secretary to the City Council.

    Ocean City Zoning CommissionDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Rudolph DolleJohn B. LynchJ. M. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

16. 1946 · 1946-05-07

    The 1946 zoning map ran from the Inlet to North 26th Street and stopped dead: everything platted beyond it was drawn, left blank and unzoned.

    Read from the Inlet northward, the adopted map goes: the ocean side from the southern limit to Wicomico Street is BB-40-A, the amusement class; Wicomico Street to North First Street is B-40-A, general business with amusements absolutely prohibited; the whole bay side from the southern limit up to about North First Street is I-40-A, industrial, its ocean-side edge a line 150 feet behind Philadelphia Avenue stepping north-east behind St. Louis Avenue, with the causeway marked TO BERLIN coming ashore inside it; the ocean front from North First to North Fifteenth carries district 3 with a B-40-A block interrupting it between North Eighth and North Tenth; a heavy line runs bay to ocean down North Fifteenth Street and everything north of it to about North Twenty-Second is R-30-B, residential, the height limit dropping from forty feet to thirty; North Twenty-Second to North Twenty-Sixth is BB-30-B, the town's other amusement-capable district; and a heavy line down North Twenty-Sixth Street ends the zoned town. The blocks of North Twenty-Seventh Street and northward are platted on the sheet and left entirely blank, unhatched and unnumbered. The scale is one inch to four hundred feet and the sheet is signed in ink over the print by John B. Lynch as President of the City Council, Rudolph Dolle and Crawford O. Savage as councilmen, and attested by Dolle as Secretary.

    John B. LynchRudolph DolleClark Gardner

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

17. 1946 · 1946-05-28

    Ocean City used its own ordinances to keep a 'Beach Ball' concession off the Atlantic Hotel lot in 1946, on the ground that it was not a permanent building - and five men came in the following week to object to it anyway.

    J. E. Collins and a partner asked the council on 28 May for the privilege of placing a 'Beach Ball' on the Atlantic lot opposite the City Comfort Station. 'Much discussion was had as to merits of the granting the privilege and was objected to by Councilmen R. Dolle and C. D. Savage because it was not a permanent building and did not conform to City Ordinances.' No grant is recorded. A week later Mr. English, Evans, Buckman, Jarvis and Shaw were before the council objecting to the Beach Ball being placed on the Atlantic Hotel lot. Collins had already been refused twice in March - once when he asked to lease part of the city parking lot for a lunch stand and was told the City did not want to lease it, and once when he asked to erect a Beach Ball on Red Star Bus property to serve lunches. Three weeks into the first zoning summer, an amusement concession is being refused on the ground that it does not conform.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.Rudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

18. 1946 · 1946-07-16

    Ocean City raised its tax rate to $1.40 per hundred in July 1946 - the first move in seven years, after six straight years at $1.20.

    Finances were discussed with the Treasurer and, on motion by Rudolph Dolle seconded by both J. B. Lynch and C. D. Savage, the tax rate for 1946 was set at $1.40 per hundred on assessment, with the secretary told to set the books up on that basis. The rate had stood at $1.20 since July 1940 and had held there through the whole of the war. The town had borrowed $15,000 from the Bank of Ocean City on 5 March and another $5,000 on a thirty-day note on 30 April to get itself to the season, had voted $5,000 to the Chamber of Commerce and $500 to the Business Men's Association, was billing property owners for the Boardwalk at $15.50 a foot, and had a $1,324.24 legal bill for zoning on the table at the same meeting.

    Bank of Ocean CityRudolph DolleJohn B. Lynch

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

19. 1946 · 1946-08-05

    Ocean City returned its whole government at a four-hour poll in the fire house on 5 August 1946: Trimper beat Robert Lee Cropper 344 to 135, and the three sitting councilmen all beat the only challenger.

    'An election was held in the Engine room of Fire House on Monday August 5, 1946 for purpose of electing one person for Mayor and three persons for City Councilmen.' The polls opened at two and closed at six, kept by Election Judges Joseph Elliott, Horace H. Richardson and Chas. T. Jackson with J. M. Mumford as clerk, and 494 votes were cast. For Mayor: Daniel Trimper Jr. 344, Robert Lee Cropper 135. For City Council: Rudolph Dolle 403, Cranford D. Savage 341, John B. Lynch 335, John Sacca 165. The returns were properly made to the City Clerk and Trimper, Dolle, Lynch and Savage were declared duly elected for a two-year term to take office on 9 September 1946. It was held on a Monday in the first week of August, at the height of the season, in the engine room.

    The clerk recorded 494 votes cast and a mayoral tally that adds to 479 - the two figures in the same return do not close.

    Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Robert Lee CropperRudolph DolleJohn B. LynchCharles T. JacksonJ. M. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

20. 1946 · 1946-09-09

    Ocean City organised its new government on 9 September 1946 two councilmen strong, made Rudolph Dolle President and Cranford Savage Secretary-Treasurer, and hired the lawyer who had written its zoning ordinance as City Attorney.

    Judge Jones Robins was called in and swore in Daniel Trimper as Mayor for a two-year term and R. Dolle and C. D. Savage as councilmen for two years; Lynch's seat stayed empty. The council elected Rudolph Dolle President and Cranford D. Savage Secretary and Treasurer, appointed Joe Savage Police Chief, and appointed John S. Whaley City Attorney - the Snow Hill partner who had cited the deeds in the boundary fight in April and rewritten an ordinance in May. The same meeting was told that the busses had quit and ordered the secretary to write Mr. Colonell asking why he quit before 1 October, and decided to have Geo. Bert Cropper present at the next meeting to settle about the price for charging for permits. It also read and approved the minutes of 'Aug. 5, Aug 10th & August 27th'.

    Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Rudolph DolleJohn S. WhaleyG. Bertrand Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

21. 1946 · 1946-09-18

    Ocean City fixed its first building-permit fees on 18 September 1946: ten dollars for a garage, fifteen for a dwelling, or a quarter of one per cent of the cost of the building.

    Bert Cropper was present and discussion was had as to cost, and on motion by R. Dolle seconded by C. D. Savage it was agreed: $10.00 minimum for a garage; $15.00 for a dwelling, or one quarter of one per cent of the cost of the building. Counsel had advised on 4 May that permit charges 'should be incorporated in a separate ordinance', and four and a half months later the council set them by motion instead. The same meeting ordered fifteen survey markers put in the centre of the street from South First Street to Fifteenth, every other street; held the grade on 5th Street to Cropper's grade, four inches above the centre of the street; and put a notice in the paper that no building or repairs were to be done until a permit was secured. The town had been running a permit regime for four months and had not been charging for it: on 9 September the council had to decide to have Cropper present at the next meeting 'to settle about price for charging for permits'.

    G. Bertrand CropperRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

22. 1946 · 1946-11-15

    Parking meters entered Ocean City's record in November 1946, as an instruction to arrange a meeting with a salesman.

    'Secretary was told to make arrangements to have [a] meeting with Rex Gries on the purchase of Parking Meters.' No price, no number and no street is named, and no later 1946 minute reports the meeting. It comes at the end of a year in which the town had also ordered No Parking signs (1 October), spent the spring fixing up the parking-lot building with toilets and sewer, refused to lease the parking lot to J. E. Collins for a lunch stand, and paid the Seaford company $800 to stone it. The same meeting awarded a well contract, refused wood shingles, routed small repair permits around the Appeal Board, and had Councilman Savage ask what it would cost to make places where the fire trucks could get water from the Bay.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

23. 1946 · 1946-11-15

    Ocean City contracted for two artesian wells at its north end in November 1946 and was taking advice on bonds to pay for extending its water mains.

    'Letter from Shannahan Artesian Well Co. Inc. with proposal for driving two wells at [the] North End was read, and on motion by R. Dolle, seconded by Savage, contract was awarded to Shannahan for the work.' No price is entered. Three weeks earlier the clerk had read a letter from Clarke Gardner on bonds for water extensions - the same engineer who drew the zoning map, and the same man who had carried the town's post-war water main extension through 1945 until the council rejected both bids five days before Christmas as too dear. The 1946 answer is not to let the contract but to drill at the north end and think about borrowing. The same meeting had Councilman Savage ask the town to look into making places where the fire trucks could get water from the Bay, and what that would cost.

    Shannahan Artesian Well Co. Inc.Clark GardnerRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

24. 1946 · 1946-11-26

    At its last meeting of 1946 Ocean City took the Chamber of Commerce onto its own books - salary, rent, booklets, postage and telephone - and named the woman who would run it through the winter.

    'On motion by Rudolph Dolle, seconded by Cranford D. Savage, that the City would pay Miss Elizabeth Laws [Salary], pay rent, booklets, postage, telephone; and to give Miss Laws [the] privilege of spending up to $50.00, and on bills over that to get [the] OK of City Council.' The word 'Salary' is interlined above the line in the clerk's hand. It grants, three months late, what Robert Lee Cropper had asked for on 27 August as President of the Chamber - to keep a girl on part time all winter to answer correspondence - and it names her: Elizabeth Laws, who in May had been raising the Honor Roll for the town's service men and in April had come before the council in the interest of the Chamber's finances. Cropper's other request, one or more exhibits in Washington or Boston at about $500 each, is not mentioned and was not funded in 1946.

    Ocean City Chamber of CommerceMiss Elizabeth LawsRudolph DolleRobert Lee Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-15