History

George R. Dennis

U.S. Senator from Maryland

Somerset County Democrat, United States Senator from Maryland 1873-1879, and one of the officeholders who walked the Synepuxent strand in July 1873 to look at a site for a summer hotel. He had been in the Senate four months. His presence is the clearest sign that the beach scheme was, from its first day, a Maryland political project as much as a commercial one.

In the record (3)

  1. 1875 · 1875-08-31

    August 31, 1875: a blindfolded boy pulls names from a hat and Ocean City's first 111 lots are handed out to the Atlantic Hotel Company's stockholders.

    On Tuesday, August 31, 1875, excursion trains brought about two hundred people over to Ocean City and the directors of the Atlantic Hotel Company arranged the drawing for lots. "It was decided that each stockholder was entitled to a lot, those having the greater number of shares having the first choice. The names of each stockholder having an equal amount of stock were put into the hat at a time, and the names drawn out by a boy who was blindfolded." Hon. James U. Dennis's name came out first; he was absent, and his brother U. S. Senator George R. Dennis chose Lot No. 11 for him. Hon. William T. Hamilton's name came next, and Col. Lemuel Showell chose Lot No. 10 for him. Subscribers were sorted into nine classes by the size of their holding — $500 down to $50 — and among them were Governor W. Pinkney Whyte, Comptroller Levin Woolford, E. K. Wilson, E. E. Jackson & Co., Harrison Bro., the Barnum's Hotel Co. of Baltimore, and Wilmington's Wm. Lea & Sons. "One hundred and eleven lots in all" were taken. Afterwards the Wicomico & Pocomoke directors held a meeting, the Salisbury Brass Band played, and the day "wound up by a grand hop at night."

    Ocean City's first property transfer was a raffle. The lots weren't sold to the public — they were dealt out to the men who had subscribed the hotel, in order of how much they'd put in.

    Atlantic Hotel CompanyWicomico and Pocomoke RailroadWilliam T. HamiltonCol. Lemuel ShowellLevin WoolfordEphraim King Wilson II

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  2. 1882 · 1882-08-03

    The Atlantic Hotel Company reports its first mortgage paid off and property worth twice what the stockholders put in.

    At the stockholders' meeting at Ocean City on Thursday, August 3, 1882, the Board of Directors reported: "The first mortgage of $3,000 is paid in full, leaving the second mortgage of $6,500 to be paid out of the rents. This is expected to be extinguished in the next two or three years. The company now has property worth from $25,000 to $30,000 that cost the stockholders $15,000." The directors elected were Dr. H. R. Pitts, B. Jones Taylor, R. J. Henry, Col. Lemuel Showell, Dr. Geo. R. Dennis, Dr. S. P. Dennis and E. Stanley Toadvine — six of the seven from the circle of Berlin, Snow Hill and Somerset men who conceived the resort on the beach in July 1873 and bought the land in 1875.

    Seven years after the founding syndicate spent $15,000 on a sandbar, the sandbar was appraised at twice the money and the first mortgage was gone. The resort had stopped being a gamble.

    Atlantic HotelAtlantic Hotel CompanyDr. Hilary R. PittsB. Jones TaylorCol. Lemuel Showell

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  3. 1882 · 1882-08-13

    Ten days after his last trip to the town he helped invent, ex-U.S. Senator George R. Dennis dies.

    Dr. George R. Dennis of Somerset County — U.S. senator from Maryland 1873-1879, and one of the men at the July 1873 meeting on the beach that resolved to build a $25,000 hotel here — attended the Atlantic Hotel Company's stockholders' meeting at Ocean City on Thursday, August 3, 1882, as a director of the corporation. His obituary in the Democratic Messenger of August 19 records it as his last outing: "As late as last Thursday two weeks he was able to visit Ocean City to attend a meeting of the stockholders of the Atlantic Hotel Company, of which corporation he was a director." He died at noon on Sunday, August 13, 1882, at his home near Kingston, Somerset County, of "a general breaking up of the system" after two years of failing health. Three weeks later the Messenger was advertising the sale of his personal property.

    The founder's generation begins to go. Dennis got one more look at the beach.

    Atlantic HotelAtlantic Hotel Company

    Source · checked 2026-08-06