Francis J. Townsend
president of the Ocean City City Council · active 1908
President of the Ocean City City Council in 1908, and the officer to whom bidders had to apply for the plans and specifications when the town advertised, in October and November 1908, for a contractor to build the boardwalk on Atlantic Avenue across Somerset, Dorchester, Talbot and Caroline Streets. The notice was issued "by order of the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City" over his signature. His is the first Ocean City council presidency the campaign has documented; the office is not named in the charter texts read so far. — 1934 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: The record has him as president of the Ocean City council in 1908, defeated for mayor by W. B. S. Powell in 1912. A 'Dr. F. J. Townsend' was elected to the Ocean City council on 6 August 1934 with 75 votes, sworn in 10 September, and is recorded present at every council meeting from then to the end of the year; he moved the appointment of the town solicitor on his first night. He also spoke at the dance-hall hearing of 15 August 1934, before taking office. This is very likely the same man twenty-six years on, but the 1908 record carries no 'Dr.' and the campaign has a second Townsend (person:elmer-o-townsend) in the registry, so it should be recorded as a probable identification with the doubt stated, not merged. — 1936 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: 1936 FULL PASS: the record already flags a 'Dr. F. J. Townsend' as an open question. He was a sitting councilman of Ocean City through the whole of 1936, re-elected unopposed by 48 votes on 3 August, and the mover of the tax levy (14 July), the seconder of Resolution No. 7 accepting the amended PWA grant (13 August) and the mover of Ordinance No. 55 on the boardwalk (21 November). He was also in business in the town: the council granted him a permit on 12 May 1936 to build a 'Side Drug Store 22x44'. The campaign should decide whether Dr. F. J. Townsend of the 1934-1938 council is the Francis J. Townsend who was president of the council in 1908 and lost the 1912 mayoralty to W. B. S. Powell, or a younger relation; a twenty-eight-year gap and the medical title argue for separating them, and this pass could not settle it. — 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: 1937 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: the identification with the Dr. F. J. Townsend of the 1930s council is now a good deal harder to resist, but is still not proved. Dr. F. J. Townsend sat on the Ocean City council through the whole of 1937, seconding the boardwalk assessment on 19 January, moving the acceptance of the sewage treatment plant on 8 June, moving the bridge referendum resolution on 30 August and moving the award of the Philadelphia Avenue sewer to George & Lynch on 14 December. He also had his own drug store used as a landmark in the boardwalk's progress reports — 'the lower section from Dr. F. J. Townsend's drug store to the Coast Guard Station has been completed and is guaranteed for twenty years' (21 January 1937) — was assessed twice on his own account in the boardwalk roll he voted for, took a permit on 26 April for a shed beside his garage at $10 a year more rent, and went to the Ocean City Day dinner in Baltimore in October as one of the two council delegates. The registry's Francis J. Townsend is recorded as president of the council in 1908 and defeated for mayor in 1912; the 1930s man is always styled 'Dr.' and the campaign continues to keep the question open. — 1938 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: role / activeYears / bio: president of the Ocean City City Council, 1908 → president of the Ocean City City Council 1908; physician and councilman of Ocean City 1938 - IF THE TWO ARE THE SAME MAN, WHICH IS NOT ESTABLISHED — A Dr. F. J. Townsend sat on the Ocean City council through 1938 and is written out in full on the election return of 1 August 1938 as 'Dr. Francis J Townsend'. The campaign already holds a Francis J. Townsend as president of the same council in 1908. THIRTY YEARS APART, SAME NAME, SAME OFFICE, SAME SMALL TOWN - it is very likely one man with a long public life, and it is possible they are father and son. The 1938 minutes always style him 'Dr.'; the 1908 record does not. NO NEW PERSON RECORD WAS CREATED, DELIBERATELY, because creating one would silently assert that they are two men. What the merge should do is extend the existing record with the 1938 service and record the identification as unresolved. What he did in 1938: moved the health ordinance requiring every food seller to hold a state-approved licence, on 14 March, and could not get a second; moved the borrowing resolutions of February and April; moved the 85-cent tax levy of 21 June; moved the ordinance of 27 July conveying Philadelphia Avenue to the State Roads Commission for the Coastal Highway; moved the 26 May resolution appointing the town's attorney to settle the county liquor profits; and in April raised holding a referendum on a municipal electric plant. He stood for re-election on 1 August 1938, polled 154 votes for three seats, came fourth of six, and lost.
In the record (41)
1908 · 1908-10-31
The Mayor and City Council advertise for sealed bids to build the boardwalk across four street ends — the first documented boardwalk built at the town's own expense.
Running three times in the Democratic Messenger from 31 October 1908: "PROPOSALS FOR BOARDWALK AT OCEAN CITY. Sealed bids for constructing that part of the boardwalk on Atlantic Avenue, Ocean City, Maryland, which crosses Somerset, Dorchester, Talbot and Caroline Streets will be received by the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City up to twelve o'clock noon Wednesday, November 18th, 1908. Plans, specifications and details of requirements will be furnished on application to Francis J. Townsend, President, Ocean City, Maryland. All bids must be marked 'Proposals for Boardwalk' … The right to reject any and all bids is reserved. By order of the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City. FRANCIS J. TOWNSEND, President." This matters to the campaign's long-running boardwalk question. Every earlier notice found — 1894, 1903 — has the town *compelling owners* to lay or renew plank walk in front of their own lots at their own expense. Here the corporation is the builder and the payer, for the four blocks where the walk crosses a public street and no abutting owner exists. It is also the earliest use of the single word "boardwalk" in an official Ocean City document this campaign has found, and it establishes that by the autumn of 1908 a continuous Atlantic Avenue promenade existed on both sides of those crossings. No award was printed in the 1908 corpus. "President" here is the president of the City Council, an office the notice reveals for the first time.
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1909 · 1909-03-22
Ocean City passes Ordinance No. 302 — boardwalks on Atlantic Avenue, cement pavements on Baltimore Avenue, billed to the abutting owners.
The town's answer to the boardwalk question it left open in November 1908 was an ordinance, not a single contract. Ordinance No. 302 provided for improving the sidewalks on Baltimore Avenue, Somerset, Wicomico, South First, South Second, South Division, Dorchester, Talbot, Caroline, North Division, North First, North Second, North Third and Worcester Streets and Philadelphia Avenue "by cement pavements," and those on Atlantic Avenue and the same cross-streets "by boardwalks, according to specifications and plans referred to in said ordinance," and it assessed the cost "to the abutting property owners, (except where the same cross the public streets), in proportion to the frontage of such property." The enacting notice, passed 22 March 1909 over the signatures of FRANCIS J. TOWNSEND, President, and W. LEE CAREY, Mayor, called a special session for Saturday 10 April 1909 at 1.30 p.m. "at Fire Department Room in Ocean City" to consider passage and to hear "all persons that may be interested therein," and required publication in a Worcester County newspaper in two successive issues at least ten days beforehand. A first contractors' notice, published 13 March, had already invited sealed proposals "to build boardwalks at Ocean City" up to noon 22 March. Two things follow. The 1908 model — the corporation paying for the four blocks where the walk crosses a public street — is now the exception written into a general assessment scheme; and the ordinance names a "Fire Department Room" as the council's meeting place, five months before a report that the town had no organised fire company.
The document the whole boardwalk thread has been walking toward: a numbered municipal ordinance, a street list, and a rule for who pays.
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1909 · 1909-05-01
The boardwalk goes out to tender in fifty-foot sections — bids closing 2 p.m., Saturday 1 May 1909.
"CONTRACTORS, TAKE NOTICE. OCEAN CITY BOARD WALK AND PAVEMENT PROPOSALS. Pursuant to an Ordinance passed April 10th, 1909, sealed proposals are invited and will be received by the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City up to 2 o'clock P. M., Saturday, May 1st, 1909, for building board walks at Ocean City, Worcester County, Maryland, on parts of Atlantic avenue, Somerset street, Wicomico street, South First street, South Second street, South Division street, Dorchester street, Talbot street, Caroline street, North Division street, North First street, North Second street, North Third street, and Worcester street, and cement pavements on parts of Baltimore avenue … All proposals must be for sections of 50 feet in length each and must designate the bounds within which each applies. The proposal for each section of 50 feet in length will be considered a separate and distinct proposal and the right is reserved to accept or reject any or all bids." Ordinance No. 302 therefore passed at the special session of 10 April. The fifty-foot rule is the mechanism that ties each length of walk to the frontage assessed for it, and it explains why no single award for "the boardwalk" was ever printed: the work was let in dozens of small lots.
Nobody won the boardwalk contract, because there wasn't one — the town sold the beach front off in fifty-foot pieces.
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1909 · 1909-09-25
Ocean City publishes its accounts for the first time in the campaign's record: $9,709.58 in, $9,348.63 out, $360.95 left in the bank.
"FINANCIAL REPORT OF OCEAN CITY, MD. From September 16th, 1908 to September 16th, 1909," signed JOHN HAGAN, Treasurer, printed in the *Democratic Messenger* of 25 September 1909. Total receipts $9,709.58; total expenses $9,348.63; balance in bank $360.95. This is the itemised August-term accounting that Chapters 561 and 658 of 1904 required of the town, and it is the first time in campaign 2 that a published Ocean City statement has actually been found. Receipts came from three tax collectors working three different tax years simultaneously — E. M. Scott still collecting 1906 and 1907, Chas. Ludlam collecting 1908 and 1909 — plus water rent, $40 of stand licences in August, a $2,947.08 note from the Ocean City Beach Company, and $61.30 from the Ocean City Pier Company for lights for 1907 and 1908. Expenses run gasoline for the water works ($878.77), police salary ($445), water-works engineer ($315), $1,200 of bond interest in two payments of $600, hose, ladders and rent for the Fire Company, quarantine groceries, garbage hauling at $60, lamp-lighting, and one line reading "Thomas Taylor, taxing account of bath tub and toilets 5.00."
A whole town's year of government fits on one newspaper column, and it balances to within $360.
Ocean City Beach CompanyOcean City Pier and Improvement CompanyJohn HaganW. Lee Carey
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1910 · 1910-04-18
Ocean City bills thirty-five property owners for the sidewalks it laid under Ordinance No. 302 — and the notice is a street-by-street roll of who owned the town.
Under Ordinance No. 302, passed and approved 10 April 1909, the Mayor and City Council had improved sidewalks on North First, North Division, Caroline, Talbot, Somerset, Wicomico, Worcester and South Division Streets and on Baltimore and Atlantic Avenues. In April 1910 the town gave notice that it proposed 'to assess the cost thereof to the owners of the abutting property in proportion to the frontage of such property', and warned them to appear before the Mayor and City Council at the Fire Company's Room on 18 April 1910 at 2 o'clock. The notice, signed by FRANCIS J. TOWNSEND, President, names the abutters in order: Harrison and Ellegood, Mrs. Clayton J. Purnell, Samuel Johnson, the Life Saving Station, Miss M. E. Newton, J. L. Johnson, Henry Davis, Mrs. George W. Purnell, Mrs. W. T. Turner, Mrs. J. A. Taliaferro, Francis H. Purnell, A. W. Olliver, Wm. S. McKean, H. C. Spetzler, S. J. Quillen, Hugh Cropper, Lester Adkins, Mrs. A. B. Showell, E. N. Chambers, Mrs. G. R. Bassett, E. Z. Purnell, Williams & Grier, the Ocean City Beach Co., C. F. Coffin, the Granville Stokes Estate, G. B. Cropper, Mrs. S. Clarke, O. M. Purnell, Mrs. E. K. Wilson, J. D. Showell, the estate of D. J. Adkins, Mrs. R. T. Shreve, Mrs. Hanson and W. B. Buell. The federal government's life-saving station is billed alongside the widows and the Baltimore trustees; more than a third of the frontage is held by women.
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1912
Ocean City builds a sewerage system — bids advertised in April, and by August the books are full of pipe, pumps and pay.
From 6 April to 4 May 1912 the Democratic Messenger carried the notice: "Bids for Constructing Sewers. The Mayor and City Council ask for sealed bids for constructing sewers in Ocean City, reserving the right to accept or reject all bids, on April 27th. Plans and specifications on application. FRANCIS J. TOWNSEND, President." No award was printed — but the town's financial report to 1 August 1912 shows the work done: $1,967.24 of sewer pipe from the R. D. Wood Company of Philadelphia, freight bills on pipe and material, William H. Smith surveying the sewer for $45 and hiring a survey instrument, William J. Short laying it and then pumping sewage, Harry J. Cropper's plumbing and corporation stops, a pump station, and better than eighty separate entries of day labour. A June note in the same paper confirms it from the visitor's side: "A new sewerage system is being installed." The whole was carried on borrowed money — bonds sold, $900 of bond interest paid on 1 July 1912, and two bonds retired at about $1,000 each.
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1912 · 1912-08-05
Capt. William B. S. Powell beats council president Francis J. Townsend for mayor in "a warm municipal election" — and Daniel Trimper, Sr. takes a council seat.
W. Lee Carey, mayor since 1908, signed the notice of his own succession: "an election will be held at the usual place for holding municipal elections in Ocean City, Maryland, on MONDAY, August 5th, 1912, for the purpose of electing a Mayor and five City Councilmen. The polls will be open at 1 o'clock P. M. and close at 6 o'clock P. M. W. LEE CAREY, Mayor." The Democratic Messenger reported the result on 10 August: "A warm municipal election was held at Ocean City last Monday... The principal contest was for the Mayoralty, the candidates being Captain William B. S. Powell and Mr. Francis J. Townsend. Captain Powell won out, although the contest was close. The election was non-partisan, both candidates for Mayor being Republicans and the Councilmen being mixed." The council elected was Daniel Trimper, Sr., Ashley M. Gould, William J. Laws, Levin D. Lynch and John M. Mumford — "all residents of Ocean City with the exception of Judge Gould, who is Judge of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia." Powell, the paper said, "is a well-known citizen and a large property holder and will no doubt make a good mayor of Maryland's only seaside resort." Two things are worth noticing: the town elected FIVE councilmen, where the 1908 slate had six names for four or five seats; and it was a contest between two Republicans in a county the Democratic Messenger spoke for.
William B. S. PowellW. Lee CareyLevin D. Lynch
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1914 · 1914-08-03
Capt. W. B. S. Powell is re-elected mayor of Ocean City by thirty-five votes over Dr. Francis J. Townsend, and carries his whole council ticket in with him.
The Evening Star of 4 August 1914, in its Maryland notes: "Capt. W. B. S. Powell was re-elected mayor of Ocean City, Md., defeating Dr. Francis J. Townsend by a majority of thirty-five votes. He carried with him to victory his ticket of councilmen." Ocean City's charter puts municipal elections in even years, so this is the first test of Powell since his election in August 1912 — and it comes with the year's other Powell news in the background: the Atlantic Hotel bought in 1913, the excursion-dumping complaint against the BC&A, and the town's own storehouse serving as the Ocean City polling place. Townsend had been president of the city council in 1908.
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1920
Ocean City had a smallpox outbreak in spring 1920 — 13 cases, and more than 1,000 people, "approximately 99.5 per cent of the entire population," vaccinated in about four days.
The Maryland State Health Department's own statement, printed to settle rumours before the season opened: "There have been no new cases reported for four weeks and as the incubation period of the disease is two weeks, this shows that the danger is well over. It can be safely said that the residents of Ocean City, Md., constitute the most completely vaccinated body of people in any place in the State. More than 1,000 persons, approximately 99.5 per cent of the entire population, were vaccinated in about four days and a list of the names is now on file. In all 13 cases occurred in the town, and while most were of a mild type one very severe confluent case was seen. This latter case was contracted from a mild one. In all cases the disease occurred among un-vaccinated persons." In July the Cambridge Daily Banner reported that Dr. John S. Fulton, secretary of the State Board of Health, had written the town "a highly commendatory letter for the manner in which the recent outbreak of smallpox was stamped out and its spread stopped before any great headway was gained by the disease. The letter compliments the officials in their co-operation with the State Board inspectors and especially for the feat accomplished in vaccinating 99 per cent of the entire population." Note the arithmetic: over 1,000 vaccinated in a town the census had just counted at 711. The town's working population in the shoulder season already exceeded its census.
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1920 · 1920-06-23
A 74-year-old Massachusetts clergyman was pulled unconscious from the Ocean City surf on 23 June 1920 and revived with a pulmotor from Coast Guard Station No. 146.
"During the meeting of the Peninsula Summer School of the Diocese of Delaware and Easton, which recently met at Ocean City, Md., June 21st to 25th, the Rev. Thomas Getz Hill, rector of St. Peter's Church, Smyrna, made a heroic rescue of a fellow minister who was drowning. During the bathing hour, the Rev. Robert K. Smith, of Westfield, Mass., became exhausted from the very strong surf, lost consciousness and sank beneath the water. With difficulty he was rescued and carried to shore by the Rev. T. G. Hill, of Smyrna, and the Rev. P. L. Donaughay of Middletown. Resuscitation methods were tried on the beach, but owing to Mr. Smith's weakened condition, which [was] heightened by his age, he being 74 years old, little response was induced. [Dr.] Townsend arrived, and with [a pulmotor] procured from the U. S. Life Saving Station, No. 146, and operated by Coast Guards from the patrol of that station, succeeded in restoring Mr. Smith to consciousness; and at the time of writing he was resting easily though very weak and nervous." This is the first time the campaign has a station number for Ocean City — No. 146 — and the first appearance of a pulmotor there. The doctor who arrived is the town's health officer, Dr. Francis J. Townsend.
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1920 · 1920-07-14
The State Board of Health put a resident inspector in Ocean City for the rest of the 1920 season and sent an expert from Baltimore to kill the flies.
The Cambridge Daily Banner, 14 July 1920, under "STATE BOARD TO AID OCEAN CITY CLEAN UP — Campaign On Flies To Start. Expert In Stamping Out Winged Pests Will Probably Be Sent From Baltimore — Sanitation And Sewerage To Be Improved": "That the State Board of Health will co-operate with the Ocean City authorities in improving sanitation and sewerage facilities of the resort, so as to eliminate some of the objectionable features complained of, was the statement made yesterday by an official of the board. Dr. John S. Fulton, secretary, with Attorney-General Alexander Armstrong, who is ex-officio a member of the board, were in Ocean City on Sunday in conference with Mayor Edward M. Scott and other officials of the town. It was decided to send a representative of the board to Ocean City who will reside there during the rest of the season and who will co-operate with Dr. Francis J. Townsend, the local health officer, in whatever is contemplated for the amelioration of conditions. One feature already planned is the elimination of flies at the resort and a drive to this end will be undertaken with vigor." Twelve years after the town borrowed $30,000 for waterworks and sewerage, the state was in town on a Sunday telling the mayor his sanitation was an "objectionable feature."
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1920 · 1920-08-15
Frank A. Furst came to Ocean City with U.S. Senator John Walter Smith to inspect the new inlet, and fell down the Atlantic Hotel's porch steps instead.
"Frank A. Furst, who, with United States Senator John Walter Smith, motored to Ocean City, Md., Saturday to inspect a natural inlet in Sinepuxent Bay below Ocean City, fell from the [ninth] step of the porch of the Atlantic Hotel, at the resort, yesterday morning, sustaining a bad bruise over the left eye and a severe shaking up. … After first aid treatment by Dr. F. J. Townsend, of Ocean City, Mr. Furst, accompanied by Dr. Townsend, Senator Smith and others, was taken in Mr. Furst's limousine to Berlin, Md., about 7 miles from Ocean City, where arrangements had been made by telephone with Horace F. Harmonson, proprietor, to receive him at the Atlantic Hotel." Dr. J. McFadden Dick of Salisbury was hunted across two counties by telephone, found bathing, and driven to Berlin in the Internal Revenue Collector's car. "Mr. Furst and Senator Smith, with State Senator Orlando Harrison and Ocean City residents, were to start at about 9.30 o'clock for a boat ride to inspect the natural inlet which last winter's storm opened in the Sinepuxent, when Mr. Furst fell. … Saturday night's rain had made the hotel steps slippery." Furst kept joking: Senator Smith had called him "Exhibit A" in his Senatorial campaign the day before, and Furst told him "Senator, your Exhibit A has been out." He was back in Baltimore by Monday evening, having driven home by way of Elkton "because the road was good all the way." Read past the slapstick: a sitting United States Senator, the state senator for Worcester, and one of Baltimore's largest contractors all went to Ocean City in August 1920 to look at a hole the sea had made in February.
Atlantic HotelAtlantic Hotel BerlinJohn Walter SmithOrlando Harrison
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1921
E. E. Collins is named Mayor of Ocean City in a contemporary newspaper - the first primary source the campaign has for Collins in office.
The Democratic Messenger of 23 April 1921 reports an Ocean City delegation before the Maryland State Board of Health in Baltimore and names it: "E. E. Collins, Mayor of Ocean City; W. Lee Carey, Jefferson D. Staton and Dr. F. J. Townsend represented Ocean City at this conference." Governor Ritchie attended the meeting. Until now the campaign's only authority for Elbridge E. Collins's 1920-1922 mayoralty was the Maryland State Archives' retrospective roster of mayors. This is a contemporary Worcester County newspaper naming him in office, in the middle of the term, doing municipal business - and it also supplies three of the men who acted with him.
Elbridge E. CollinsW. Lee Carey
Source · checked 2026-08-10
1923
An influenza winter at Ocean City: two Coast Guard captains down, whole households ill, and an infant dead of pneumonia.
The Worcester Democrat's Ocean City column tracked the town's health through the winter of 1923. 20 January: "Mr. L. Franklin Purnell has been ill with the grip, of which there is quite an epidemic in this community." 17 February: "Captain William I. Hudson of the Isle of Wight station, and Captain Henry Richardson of North Beach, have both been home and confined to their beds for the past two weeks. Captain Hudson is suffering from an acute case of rheumatism, and Captain Richardson with the flu." The same column: "The entire community was saddened last week by the sudden death from pneumonia of Hazel Baker, the infant daughter of Leonard Baker. She was ill only a few days, and every effort to break the fever was in vain… There are several severe cases of pneumonia here at this time, and it seems to be developed chiefly among the children. Dr. Townsend, however, is rapidly getting it under control." 17 March: "The flu[e] is still with us, and there are a great many ill. The whole family of L. D. Lynch, with the exception of the hardy and enduring head of the household himself, are ill with it… In most cases it is light; but in the case of the children it has been very serious."
The 1922 pass found no health story at all in 410 pages. 1923 has one in almost every winter column, and it is the same story: influenza, pneumonia, and one druggist holding the line.
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1923
The Baltimore Sun's Boys Band spends a weekend at Ocean City and gives concerts in front of the drug store and the Plimhimmon.
Worcester Democrat, 28 July 1923: "The Boys Band of the Baltimore Sun paid a week-end visit to Ocean City last week, stopping at the New Avalon… They represent almost every department of the Sun office, and their band is a well organized and capable institution. While not in bathing or pursuing other seaside amusements, they paraded on the Boardwalk in fine marching order playing the latest popular and national airs, and also gave a number of concerts in front of Dr. Townsend's drug store, the Plimhimmon and other hotels."
Ocean City BoardwalkPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim Plaza
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1923
Dr. Francis J. Townsend opens the Washington Pharmacy on the boardwalk, and the rest of the boardwalk follows him.
Worcester Democrat, 28 April 1923: "Dr. Francis J. Townsend has opened the Washington Pharmacy on the Boardwalk for the season; and many of the Boardwalk proprietors are following his example and making preparations for an early opening this spring." The Washington Pharmacy is the landmark by which the 1922 pass located Ocean City's first jetty — "opposite Somerset avenue, between the Washington Pharmacy and the Ocean City Pier." Dr. Townsend also appears in the same year's columns treating the town's pneumonia cases and hosting concerts outside his store.
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1934 · 1934-08-06
Twelve years of Mayor McCabe ended in an uncontested election: four names, seventy-five votes each
The council gave notice on 17 July 1934 of a nominating meeting in the State School Building on Wednesday 25 July at 8:30, 'for purpose of nominating Mayor & three Councilmen for to be elected Aug 6th for term of two years.' On 31 July the secretary was ordered to have ballots printed and judges arranged for polling from 2 to 6 p.m. on 6 August. On 7 August the secretary reported the result: 'Thomas W. Elliott for Mayor 75 votes; Dr. F. J. Townsend for Council 75; Preston Laws 75; William H. Scott 75.' Four candidates, four seats, an identical count for each — a nominating meeting that produced a single slate. The judges of election were Stephen J. Quillin, Joseph Elliott and Thomas Savage. William C. McCabe, mayor since 1922 and the man who had spent 1933 lobbying Washington for an inlet, does not appear on the ballot; he chaired his last meetings through August and served, in his own secretary's phrase, 'to Sept 1934'. The new officials were sworn in by Magistrate Hall at four o'clock on the afternoon of Monday 10 September and met at 7:30 that evening to organise.
The mayor who had the inlet handed to him by a hurricane left office eleven months later without a contest — and without, in the minutes, a single word of thanks recorded.
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1934 · 1934-08-07
A doctor complained about the noise, and the council shut the dance halls at 12.15 and told the police to arrest the drunks on the walk
On 7 August 1934 'Dr. Purnell was present asking something be done to have better order in his neighborhood and Secretary instructed to have the Dance Halls to Close at 12.15 and order police to arrest all drunks keeping noise on the walk.' The order did not stick. Eight days later, on 15 August, 'Question of Closeing Dance Hall was again taken up and after hearing from Mr Rubles, Dr. F. J. Townsend, F. W. Truitt, Dr. C. W. Purnell, Mr Parks and other the Council asked Mr Purnell and Rubles to get together on a closeing time suitable to them.' The complainant was Dr. Charles Washington Purnell, proprietor of the Atlantic Hotel; Townsend, who spoke at the hearing, had been elected to the council nine days earlier and would be sworn in three weeks later.
The oldest argument in Ocean City, in its first documented form: the hotel that wants its guests to sleep against the hall that wants them dancing — and a council that, having ordered a closing time, promptly told the two men to work it out between themselves.
Atlantic HotelOcean City BoardwalkDr. Charles Washington Purnell
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1934 · 1934-09-10
On its first night in office the new council appointed a city manager — the first the minutes ever name
The organising meeting of 10 September 1934 did four things in about seventy-five minutes: elected Wm. H. Scott president of the council and W. Preston Laws treasurer; appointed Edmund Johnson attorney for the city on Dr. Townsend's motion, seconded by Scott; and then, in a line of its own, 'J. M. Mumford was appointed as City Manager.' Mumford had been the council's secretary throughout the McCabe years — he signs every 1934 minute — and the December letterhead still styles him 'Sec. and Treas.', so the manager title sat on top of the clerkship rather than replacing it. Across the twenty-four pages of 1934 minutes this is the only appearance of the office. — 1935 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: The office does not recur. J. M. Mumford is present at and signs every one of the 26 meetings of 1935, but the title 'City Manager' appears nowhere in the year's 43 pages: in his own hand he signs 'Secretary', and on every typed federal document — the two clerk's certificates, the bond resolution, the election notice and the appointment of judges — he is styled 'Clerk of the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City'. A full-text search of 2,667 pages of the Salisbury Times for 1935 returns six pages carrying the phrase 'city manager' and every one of them is Oklahoma City, Pasadena, Kansas City or Cincinnati. So the 1934 appointment stands as recorded, but the claim it implies — that Ocean City had an operating city-manager government — is not supported for 1935. The manager title sat on the clerkship for one line in one minute and was not used again.
A resort of a few hundred year-round residents that had just acquired an inlet, a federal harbour project and a rebuilt boardwalk decided, on the same evening it swore in a new mayor, that somebody should be running the place full time. It gave the job to the man who already knew where everything was.
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1937 · 1937-01-19
Seven weeks after Ordinance No. 55 the council put a figure on every ocean-front lot: $369.57 for fifty feet of twenty-four-foot boardwalk
On Tuesday evening 19 January 1937 Councilman W. H. Scott offered a resolution 'that Atlantic Ave. properties be assessed for Cost of Board walk as follows' and then read the town, lot by lot, down the whole ocean front. Two rates ran through the list, and they are the width of the walk in front of the door. Where the new walk was twenty-four feet wide the charge was $369.57 for a fifty-foot lot - $7.3914 a running foot; where it was sixteen feet the charge was $257.83 for fifty feet, $5.1566 a foot. Ernest E. Purnell, the Lizzie R. Hearn estate, Mollie E. Bassett, Frank Nikirk, the H. C. Spitzler estate and E. K. Wilson each paid $369.57 on fifty feet; the Del-Mar-Va Mortgage Company $739.14 on a hundred; Mrs. Layfette Johnson $1,108.71 on a hundred and fifty; the largest single charge on the roll, $1,546.98, fell on three hundred feet held by what the clerk wrote as the 'Dominican School'. Dr. F. J. Townsend, who was sitting as a councilman, was assessed twice on his own account. Dr. Townsend seconded, 'vote was unanimous', and the secretary was 'instructed to send bills for walk fronts as it was completed.' On 19 March the council went further and authorised the Mayor 'to borrow enough money to settle for Board walk when needed' - the town would front the cash and collect from the owners afterwards.
The 1936 pass left the boardwalk story on a promise: $7 a foot on 7,700 feet, owners who had organised to refuse, and no way to know whether anyone was ever billed. This is the bill. It is $7.39 a foot, not $7, it is itemised by name, and the vote to send it out was unanimous.
Ocean City BoardwalkWilliam H. ScottW. Thomas ElliottJohn M. Mumford
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1937 · 1937-02-08
Ocean City borrowed its own $8,250 share of the sewer by issuing eight more thousand-dollar bonds at 4 per cent
'Whereas, in addition to funds granted and loaned to Mayor and City Council of Ocean City by the United States for the construction of sewers and disposal plant at Ocean City under P.W.A. Project No. Md. 1065-R, the municipality must furnish the sum of eight thousand two hundred fifty dollars ($8250.00)' - so on 8 February 1937 the council resolved to borrow $8,000 on the full faith and credit of the town and to issue 'eight negotiable interest bearing coupon bonds ... said bonds to be Nos. 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 and 69 of the issue known as "Sewerage Bonds", to be in the denomination of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) each, to be dated November 1, 1935, to bear interest at the rate of 4% per annum payable semi-annually on May 1st and November 1st of each year until maturity.' They were to be 'sold privately at par plus accrued interest.' W. Preston Laws moved it; the vote was unanimous and the Mayor approved it.
Federal Emergency Administration of Public WorksW. Preston LawsW. Thomas ElliottWilliam H. ScottJohn M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-03-11
Ocean City rebuilt its two-mile boardwalk on eighteen-foot creosoted piling in a single winter, and the owners paid for it themselves rather than take federal money
'Replacement of the two-mile boardwalk, demolished in last September's storm, with a walk that will be practically stormproof, is nearing completion at Ocean City,' the Democratic Messenger reported on 11 March 1937 under the head '$100,000 Ocean City "Stormproof" Boardwalk Is Nearly Built'. 'Fine creosoted-treated piles with the specially chemical-treated sills and stringers placed on the pilings, have been driven. Fourteen-inch drift iron pins have been used in the construction of the sub-walk. The boardwalk will be so strongly built, according to Mayor W. Thomas Elliott and the Council members, that it will take a very severe storm to tear it from the 18-foot pilings.' And on the question the 1936 pass could not answer: 'The construction has wholly been done by property owners on the ocean front, who placed the matter of purchasing materials and building in the hands of the Mayor and Council, refusing to accept Federal or other financial aid.' The work had begun in the winter: on 21 January 'the lower section from Dr. F. J. Townsend's drug store to the Coast Guard Station has been completed and is guaranteed for twenty years. The piling and the cap-sills have been completed to Ninth Street.' Top decking was Southern pine and the shipments were held up by floods in the middle West. On 29 April a storm hit the coast and 'Ocean City's new boardwalk withstood the onslaught of the ocean and little damage of consequence was done.'
The town that refused $75,000 of WPA money in October 1936 got its walk back before the season, built it stronger than the one the hurricane took, and had it storm-tested inside seven weeks of finishing.
Ocean City BoardwalkW. Thomas Elliott
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-04-26
Ocean City gave its Chamber of Commerce $1,000 to advertise the resort for the 1937 season
'Motion was Carried to give Chamber Commerce $1000 towards Advertising' - 26 April 1937, six weeks before the season. The same meeting granted Dr. Townsend a permit to build a 12-by-24 shed at the side of his garage 'and to pay 10.00 additional a year making 35.00 year Rent', and approved building permits for Herman Parsons and E. E. Dennis.
Ocean City Chamber of Commerce
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-04-26
Ocean City passed an ordinance on the occupancy of buildings a week before it settled its biggest permit fight
'An ordinance Relating to Occupancy of Buildings known as Ordinance #30A was read and after discussion motion was offered by Councilman W. P. Laws, Seconded by Dr. F. J. Townsend that Ordinance be passed. Vote was unanimous.' A week later, on 3 May, 'Attorney Edwin Johnson was present and read Ordinance #30 A relating to Building & Business' - the town solicitor reading his own instrument back to the council on the night it granted John Lambros his permit. The two entries describe the same ordinance by two different subjects, which is as close as the 1937 minutes come to saying what it did. The council had also, on 19 March, discussed a pasteurised milk ordinance and rejected it, and on 7 June it instructed Johnson to prepare an ordinance forbidding reckless driving on Baltimore and Philadelphia Avenues.
Edmond H. JohnsonW. Preston Laws
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-04-30
Ocean City accepted its intercepting sewers from A. Stanley Mundy & Co. on 30 April 1937
At a meeting in the Municipal Building on 30 April 1937 the Mayor and City Council unanimously adopted a Resolution of Acceptance declaring that they had 'accepted as satisfactory - subject to prior acceptance by the Consulting Engineer - a system of Intercepting Sewers and Appurtenances recently constructed at Ocean City, Maryland, by the A. Stanley Mundy Company, Inc., of Woodbridge, New Jersey, under Contract No. 1, PWA Docket No. Md.1065-R', and directed the Clerk to notify the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. W. H. Scott moved it, Dr. F. J. Townsend seconded, and the motion carried. The council had signed Mundy's contract on 27 December 1935 and had given him a thirty-day extension in 1936 for 'the unusually arduous winter'; sixteen months later the pipe was in the ground and signed off.
A. Stanley Mundy & Co., Inc.Federal Emergency Administration of Public WorksW. Thomas ElliottWilliam H. ScottJohn M. MumfordClark Gardner
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-05-03
Three meetings, a public hearing and a 2-1 vote: how John Lambros got permission to put fourteen apartments and a soda fountain on Atlantic Avenue
On 15 April 1937 Councilman Scott moved 'that Permission be granted John Lambros to drive piling for a building 45 X 96 on Lot #9 Block #5 North', the building to be kept back of the present Atlantic Avenue building and porch lines, 'it being understood that the building to be erected is not yet Approved for lack of Sufficient information Nor are the purposes for which the building is to be used approved.' Townsend and Scott voted aye, Laws no. On 26 April the council set a hearing for Friday evening and the secretary notified the neighbours by name - the Shoreham Hotel, Percy Hickling, R. E. and Bertha Rouse, Chas. Seybold, Dale Showell, Mrs. Fooks, Elsie Seeger Barton, Fred Wolf for the Wheatton estate, L. E. Neal Jr. and Hattie Cropper. At the hearing on 30 April, Frank W. Truitt 'spoke opposing the restaurant, on behalf of Wheatton & Barton Property'; Mrs. H. J. Cropper spoke for granting the permit; letters against came from L. E. Neal Jr. and R. E. Rouse. A new application was then filed 'stating That Building was for 2 upper floors for 14 Apartments lower floor for Restaurant Soda Fountain, novelty store, notions & Confections are only business to be operated on the premises.' On 3 May the permit was granted, Scott and Townsend yes, Laws no. Two months later Lambros was assessed $8,000 on personal property, the largest such figure on the 1937 book.
The Shoreham Hotel / Shenanigan's Irish PubJohn LambrosWilliam H. ScottW. Preston LawsF. W. TruittHarry J. Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-06-07
Ocean City, Berlin and Pocomoke met to go after the county's liquor profits, and Ocean City authorised its solicitor to sue
The town solicitor 'reported on meeting held in Pocomoke City "Subject Liquor Profits" which he & Mayor Elliott attended at which were present Senator Veasey & Council from Berlin & Pocomoke at which meeting the legal Situation regarding old liquor profits Act were discussed'. On W. Preston Laws's motion, seconded by Dr. Townsend, 'the Council were Unanimous in Authorizeing Mr. Johnson to appear for the City in any legal Proceeding relating to liquor profits and endeavour to obtain Cities Share of Profits.' Three Worcester County towns acting together against the county over the proceeds of the state liquor dispensary is the largest piece of inter-municipal politics in Ocean City's 1937 record, and the town's own minute is the only account of it the campaign holds.
Edmond H. JohnsonW. Thomas ElliottW. Preston Laws
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-06-08
On 8 June 1937 Ocean City accepted its sewage treatment plant, and the two-year job the town had voted 104 to 1 for was finished
Dr. F. J. Townsend offered the resolution and W. Preston Laws seconded it, and it passed unanimously: the Mayor and City Council 'have accepted as satisfactory - Subject to prior acceptance by the Consulting Engineer - Sewerage Treatment Plant, Force mains, and Appurtenances recently Constructed at Ocean City, Maryland, by M. J. McDermott, of Georgetown, Delaware, under Contract #2 PWA Docket NO Md. 1065-2R.' The clerk was again to notify the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. McDermott had bid $74,510.48 as the low bidder on 26 June 1936 and started work on 26 August 1936; the plant was in the ground in ten months and had been running long enough by 15 April 1937 for the council to decide it did not need the manufacturer's man to stay on and give instruction. The system had cost the town $61,000 of federal bonds, an $8,250 cash contribution of its own and a federal grant that had been raised to $56,659.
The 1936 pass closed with the sewer '70 per cent complete' and a hole where the answer should be. This is the answer, in the town's own hand: accepted, 8 June 1937, from the low bidder of the previous June.
M. J. McDermottFederal Emergency Administration of Public WorksM. J. McDermottW. Preston LawsW. Thomas ElliottJohn M. MumfordClark Gardner
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-06-24
The rebuilt boardwalk cost $38,945.63 — and the ocean-front owners paid $17,377.92 of it, less than half
The Messenger's annual survey of Ocean City's assessable basis, 24 June 1937, printed the settled account: 'the new Ocean City boardwalk, which cost a total of $38,945.63. The boardwalk cost was divided between city taxpayers whose properties lie adjacent to the walk and the administration. Taxpayers paid $17,377.92 while the city paid the remaining cost of $21,567.71.' That is 44.6 per cent to the assessed owners and 55.4 per cent to the town. Three figures had been in the air: the paper's own $100,000 in March for the whole repair bill; $23,000 from an unnamed source; and Mayor Elliott's revised $50,000, published on 18 March after he had 'figur[ed] detailed costs of the project, including discounts on material saved'. The final number is well under all of them, and it is a long way under what Ordinance No. 55 contemplated: $7 a running foot on about 7,700 feet is roughly $54,000, and the assessment roll of 19 January charged $7.39 a foot. The same article gives the town's assessable basis as $2,961,494, up $150,000 in the year and up from $800,000 in 1922, with the tax rate at $1 per $100.
Ordinance No. 55 was written to make the owners pay for the boardwalk. In the event the owners paid for a bit under half of it and the town quietly picked up the rest — which is the oldest arrangement in Ocean City and the one the town has never stopped renegotiating.
Ocean City BoardwalkW. Thomas ElliottJohn M. MumfordWilliam H. ScottW. Preston Laws
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-06-28
Ocean City ran its 1937 season on short notes from a Berlin bank - $3,000 in May and $3,000 in June
On 25 May 1937 the council resolved 'that the city under the signature of its Clerk and Mayor be and hereby is authorized to borrow from The Exchange and Savings Bank of Berlin Maryland the sum of Three Thousand ($3,000) dollars binding the full faith and credit of the City therefor by promissory note in appropiate form', and on 28 May the clerk sent the bank a note for 120 days with a cheque for the interest. On 28 June the council passed the identical resolution again, and on 29 June sent the bank a second note, this one for ninety days. A resort whose whole income arrived between June and September borrowed its way to the season twice in five weeks, on the town's letterhead and over the mayor's signature.
Exchange and Savings Bank of BerlinW. Thomas ElliottJohn M. MumfordW. Preston Laws
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-09-09
Ocean City voted 275 to 97 for Worcester Street as the landing of its new highway bridge, and Congress had already written the choice into federal law
By an Act of the first session of the 75th Congress the State Roads Commission of Maryland was authorised 'to construct, maintain and operate a free highway bridge and approaches thereto across Sinepuxent Bay, at Worcester Street, or South Division Street or Wicomico Street, in Worcester County, Maryland, at Ocean City' - and the Act further provided that if the town's voters designated a preference for some other point, 'then such designation shall be the point fixed for the building of said bridge.' The council called a special meeting on 30 August 1937 and, on F. J. Townsend's motion seconded by W. Preston Laws, resolved 3-0 to put the question to the voters on 9 September, polls at the Municipal Building from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., ballot listing Worcester, Wicomico, South Division and North Division Streets with a blank line for a write-in. The judges of election were Wm. G. Rounds, Edwin P. Calhoun and Edward Kurtz, and the result the clerk entered was: Worcester 275, North Division 83, Wicomico 7, South Division 6, North 1st Street 1. Worcester Street is where the bridge was built and where the causeway still lands.
A town of a few hundred voters was handed, by federal statute, the power to overrule Congress on where its own bridge would touch the island - and used it to confirm the obvious.
Maryland State Roads CommissionW. Thomas ElliottW. Preston LawsWilliam H. ScottJohn M. MumfordWilliam G. RoundsEdwin P. CalhounEdward Kurtz
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1937 · 1937-12-14
Ocean City ended 1937 by buying a second sewer: $6,921.15 to put an eight-inch line down the west side of Philadelphia Avenue
The PWA system had served the ocean side. On 9 November the secretary was ordered to ask the engineer Clark Gardner when he could meet the council 'and decide on what could be done on Connecting sewer on west side of Phila. ave'. On 16 November Gardner and Dallas went over the plans and it was decided to ask for bids 'for Connecting up with new Sewer 8" leaving present lines for Storm Drains'. On 14 December the bids were opened in front of the three contractors themselves - 'Mr. McDermott of Georgetown Del., Munday of Bridgeton N.J., Clark Gardner, Dallas of Salisbury' were all present - and read: A. Stanley Mundy $7,625.30, M. J. McDermott $7,373.50, George & Lynch $6,921.15, each with a certified cheque for $500. Dr. Townsend moved and Laws seconded, and the contract went to George & Lynch. The same evening the council released W. C. Pool from a sewer easement taken on his land in November 1929, 'as the City has no use for a sewer crossing any of the property on West Side of Phila ave', and told Mrs. Kuhit it would put in the necessary sewer on 8th Street when she was ready to build.
George & LynchA. Stanley Mundy & Co., Inc.M. J. McDermottClark GardnerM. J. McDermottW. Preston LawsW. C. Pool
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-12-14
The town's own online minute archive lists 21 Ocean City council meetings for 1937; the minute pages themselves record 24
The IQM2 calendar returns 21 meetings for 1 January to 31 December 1937, each with exactly one document, all of them Type=15 summary minutes, 21 PDFs carrying 32 scanned page images between them. Reading those 32 images turns up three sittings that have no calendar entry at all: a regular meeting on 25 May 1937, known only from a letter to the Exchange and Savings Bank quoting a resolution 'passed at our regular meeting of May 25th 1937'; a meeting on 13 September 1937 that awarded the winter garbage contract, written into the same page as the 9 September election result; and a meeting on 23 November 1937 that awarded the comfort station contracts, written in behind the minute of 16 November. The council did not meet at all between 13 July and 30 August, or in October, or in December before the 14th. Ocean City's councillors through 1937 were W. Preston Laws, Dr. F. J. Townsend and William H. Scott, with W. Thomas Elliott as mayor, J. M. Mumford as clerk and Edmond Johnson as solicitor - the same five men, unchanged, as in 1936.
The archive is an index to the minute book, not a copy of it. Three meetings out of twenty-four are invisible to anyone who trusts the calendar - which is a nine per cent error rate on a source this campaign is about to run through ninety more years.
W. Thomas ElliottW. Preston LawsWilliam H. ScottJohn M. MumfordEdmond H. Johnson
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-03-14
Ocean City's doctor-councilman moved that every food seller in town hold a licence approved by the state, and nobody would second him
'Health Ordinance was presented by Dr. F. J. Townsend asking that all food places have to obtain License from City to sell foods of any kind which license was not to be granted until Approved by the State Health Authority. Motion was made by Dr Townsend that ordinance be passed but there was no second of his motion so ordinance was laid on the table.' The year before, in March 1937, the same council had discussed requiring pasteurised milk and voted it down. In March 1938 it would not even second the motion. The proposal that did pass in 1938 was Ordinance No. 100 on cesspools and privies - sanitation aimed at the shanties on the bay shore rather than at the restaurants on the boardwalk.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-04-12
Ocean City discussed holding a referendum on building its own electric plant in 1938, and never held it
The town had been buying its light from a private company for decades and had spent 1937 arguing with it - the power company wanted a five-year contract to light the new sewage plant and Ocean City signed for one. On 12 April 1938 the last item of a long meeting is this: 'Dr. F. J. Townsend discussed the advisability of the City holding Election on whether the City should build its own Electric plant if the Government passes the law loaning municipalities money to finance such projects with no interest.' The federal loan he was waiting on is the Public Works Administration's municipal power programme. No election was called in 1938, and Townsend himself was voted off the council in August. On 4 April the treasurer had been 'ordered to pay all bills except Electric Light Co.'
Eastern Shore Public Service Company
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-05-10
Ordinance No. 100 forbade cesspools and privies anywhere in Ocean City, and the town went after the shanties first
The sewer was accepted in 1937. In 1938 it became compulsory. On 10 May 1938 'Ordinance #100 was unanimously passed forbidding use of Cesspools and Privys in corporate limits of Ocean City and Secretary instructed to notify owners of land where shanties were that they must connect to sewer.' The push had come from the state. On 4 April Dr. Wallace Spring of the Board of Health had appeared and 'recommended the Passing of an Ordinance Compelling all dwelling places Especially shanties to Connect to sewer and have flush toilets with water under pressure', described 'unsanitary conditions existing along bay Shore' and suggested 'place be provided in West Ocean City for shanties & trailers with proper sanitary facilities'. On 12 April he came back 'in interest of Ordinance compelling the Elimination of Outdoor toilets and taken Copy of Ordinance for their Engineers to study before passage'; at the same meeting F. W. Truitt told the council he would cooperate in removing shanties from his lots.
A town that had argued for a decade about whether to build a sewer spent 1938 discovering the other half of the bargain: once you own the pipe, you have the power to make people join it - and the first people made to join were the ones living in shanties on the bay shore.
Maryland State Board of HealthDr. Wallace SpringF. W. Truitt
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-05-31
Ocean City's fight for the county's liquor profits ended in a cheque, and the lawyer who won it charged $915 and was mayor by September
In 1937 Ocean City, Berlin and Pocomoke went after the Worcester County Liquor Control Board's profits and a court took possession of $25,517.55. On 26 May 1938 the council met in special session and unanimously adopted a resolution appointing Edmond H. Johnson 'its true and lawful attorney for it and in its name to examine the Audit of the books of the Liquor Control Board of Worcester County for the Fiscal Year Ending April 30, 1938 and if in the opinion of said attorney the said Audit shall be found Correct to receive from said Liquor Control Board the amount due', to give a receipt and release, and the payment was to be 'a full and Complete satisfaction of any and all claims which said Mayor & City Council of Ocean City might have for the fiscal year Ending April 30, 1938, to the liquor profits'. Five days later, on 31 May, 'Check was delivered by Attorney Edmund Johnson for the Licor money with bill for legal service of 915.00 and check was drawn to pay Mr Johnson.' The town's share is not stated in the minute; the lawyer's fee is. Nine weeks later he was elected mayor.
Worcester County Liquor Control BoardEdmond H. JohnsonWilliam H. Scott
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-06-21
After four straight years at a dollar, Ocean City cut its tax rate to 85 cents in June 1938 - six weeks before an election
The dollar on the hundred had held since 1934. On 31 May 1938 'a discussion was had on reducing the tax rate 20% and no decision was reached leaving until a later date.' On 21 June, on Dr. Townsend's motion seconded by Preston Laws, 'levy was passed for 1938 at 85 Cents per $100' - a cut of fifteen per cent, not twenty. Six weeks later the mayor who presided over it did not stand for re-election and the councilman who moved it was beaten. In November the new council was asked by F. W. Truitt, Cecil Blake, Parker Smith and Dr. Buhrman to put enough back on the rate to raise $4,000 for the Chamber of Commerce to advertise with, and had to answer that 'for present year the tax levy was made and there could be very little done'.
W. Preston LawsW. Thomas Elliott
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1938 · 1938-07-27
On 27 July 1938 Ocean City handed Philadelphia Avenue north of Ninth Street to the State of Maryland, and the Coastal Highway was born out of a town street
At a special meeting on the evening of Wednesday 27 July 1938 - the mayor and two councilmen present, moved by Dr. Townsend and seconded by Preston Laws - Ocean City passed an ordinance granting the State Roads Commission 'the title in and to the bed of Phila. Ave and the intersecting streets from south Side of Ninth Street to the northerly Corporate limits of Ocean City, and the title to a portion of Lots # 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11 in Block 53 of a plat of Ocean City', for the purpose of 'Constructing a Costal highway leading from Ocean City to the Delaware line', under the Commission's Contract No. WO-171-1-1019 and its plats Nos. 3250 and 3251. The recital is explicit that the lots the state wanted were the town's own and were 'used in Connection with their Water System'. A week earlier, on 20 July, the council had already voted to deed the state eighteen to twenty feet off Baltimore Avenue frontage of the same lots 'for the widening of Phila. Ave. from 9th to 15th St.' and to grant the easement in the street bed from 9th to 15th. The State Roads Commission accepted the whole grant at its Baltimore meeting on 28 July 1938, again on Jarboe's motion seconded by Luthardt, and the resolution was copied into the town's minute book. Section 3 kept the town's police power, its traffic rules and its parking rules over the road - which is why parking on Coastal Highway has been an Ocean City question ever since. — 1938 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: The purpose and price of the road the town gave Philadelphia Avenue for are now attested from outside the minute book. The Worcester Democrat and the Ledger-Enterprise of 8 July 1938, page 2, file 0391, gives it as a $200,000 coastal highway to meet the Delaware seacoast road at the state line, one lane to be built that summer, a dual highway only hoped for. The State Roads Commission's own operating report for fiscal 1939-1940 subsequently records the highway as COMPLETED and Rehoboth as thirty miles from Ocean City by road.
Everything north of Ninth Street in Ocean City is built along a road the town gave away in a single evening in July 1938 to get a concrete highway to Delaware. It cost the town its own street, part of its waterworks lot, and nothing else - and it is the single decision that made the modern island possible.
Maryland State Roads CommissionW. Thomas ElliottW. Preston LawsJ. M. Mumford
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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. CropperStephen J. QuillenHorace O. CropperC. Parker Smith
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1941 · 1941-12-11
Four days after Pearl Harbor and on the day Germany declared war, the Ocean City council sat down and organised a home defence council — eleven departments, twenty-two names, and a Department of Evacuation.
The 1940 minute book does not mention the war once, in the year of the fall of France. The 1941 book does not mention it either — until 11 December. The council met at 7:15 on Thursday evening with Mayor C. P. Cropper and Councilmen Harold Rayne and Raymond Bounds, granted a building permit to Chas. S. Powell for a two-apartment dwelling on the alley between 11th and 12th Streets, let the English Diner move to a site next to the Post Office on Dr. Chas. W. Purnell's ground, and resolved to borrow from the Bank of Ocean City to meet bonds and coupons due 1 January. Then: 'Mr. S. Earl Tromley, John I. Timmons and Miss Lena Riggin were present to help in organizeing home defence council and the following were selected to head the orginization.' Those three were not helpful neighbours. As the Worcester Democrat printed a week later, they were the entire executive of the Worcester County Council of Defense — Tromley its Executive Director, Timmons its Chief Air Raid Warden, and Miss Lena H. Riggin its Executive Secretary, all three of Snow Hill — going town to town. They were carrying an order. The same paper prints the telegram that sent them: 'Supplementing my telegram December 10, immediate arrangements must be made to hold blackouts just as quickly as possible. No delay in this matter, as conditions are very serious. Let me know when ready. Col. Henry Barrett, Director of air raid Precaution Service for Maryland.' The roster Ocean City adopted that night, verbatim from the minute: John B. Lynch, Commander. Harold Rayne and L. B. Cropper, Dept. of Public Safety. J. M. Mumford and Robert Allen, Dept. of Public Works. Dr. F. J. Townsend and Guy R. P. Dennis, Dept. Public Health. Archie Davis and Morris Peacock, Dept. Fire Protection. D. Trimper Sr. and Denard Baker, Dept. Transporation. Arthur Davis and Preston Laws, Dept. Gen. Supplies. Rev. Dewees and F. W. Truitt, Dept. Evacuation. Willie Ludlam and Gladys Jackson, Red Cross. E. M. Scott and Chas. J. Jackson, Communication. Bob Jackson and Wm. H. Purnell, Air Wardens. The council adjourned at eleven. Pocomoke City's mayor and council met specially the same Thursday evening and resolved to organise a Civilian Defense Corps of their own, and Pocomoke's published department list — Public Safety, Evacuation, Transportation, Communications, Public Works, Fire Protection, General Supply, Public Health — is the same scheme under the same headings. So the eleven departments were a template handed down, not a local invention; what Ocean City supplied was twenty-two names, and the names are the whole value of the document. By 18 December the county could report that Home Defense Corps in Snow Hill, Pocomoke City, Berlin and Ocean City were 'now complete in every detail', and Mayor Clifford P. Cropper sat on the county council himself.
Ocean City Home Defense CouncilWorcester County Council of DefenseBank of Ocean CityClifford P. CropperHarold J. RayneE. Raymond BoundsJohn B. LynchS. Earl TromleyMiss Lena H. RigginGladys JacksonMorris PeacockWillie LudlamArchie DavisL. B. CropperRobert AllenJ. M. MumfordDaniel Trimper, Sr.W. Preston LawsF. W. TruittEdward M. ScottWilliam H. Purnell
Source · checked 2026-08-11