Harry R. Ayres
Lessee and manager of the Ocean City Pier, 1909– · active 1909–1914
A young man who in the spring of 1909 took a five-year lease of the pier from the Ocean City Pier and Improvement Company, remodelled it, and reopened it to the public on 24 June 1909 with "new amusements, a splendid orchestra" and a "fine dancing pavilion." By July the pier was being described as "the equal, as an amusement feature, of any pier on the coast." The Messenger printed his name both Ayres and Ayers; his own advertisement reads AYRES. Joseph G. Morgan of Snow Hill and "Base" Lane were among those he hired for the 1909 season.
In the record (2)
1909 · 1909-06-24
The pier survives, is advertised for rent by its own company in January, and reopens on 24 June under a five-year lease to Harry R. Ayres.
"FOR RENT. The Ocean City Pier and Improvement Company of Ocean City, Maryland, will rent their Pier for one or five years. Bids to be in hands of Secretary by February 1st, 1909. CALVIN B. TAYLOR, Sect'y, Berlin, Maryland" — *Democratic Messenger*, 30 January 1909. By 12 June the paper reported that "Mr. Harry R. Ayres, who has leased the Ocean City Pier for five years, is making great improvements to the pier and has arranged for new amusements, a splendid orchestra and other attractions," and his own advertisement ran the same week: "THE OCEAN CITY PIER OPENS JUNE 24th. Under new management. With new amusements. Full orchestra in attendance afternoon and evening. Fine dancing pavilion. H. R. AYRES, Manager." In May the pier was "being put in fine shape for the coming season"; in July it was described as "entirely remodeled … now the equal, as an amusement feature, of any pier on the coast." The pier built in 1906–07 therefore stood through 1909, and the company that built it had become a landlord rather than an operator.
Ocean City's pier answered the question every pier on this coast eventually answers — it was still there — and promptly stopped being run by the men who built it.
Ocean City Pier and Improvement CompanyCalvin B. Taylor
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1910 · 1910-06-18
'Carpenters, painters and laborers are working day and night': the boardwalk repaired, cement sidewalks going in, and the railway planning a second station up the beach.
'These days are busy ones at Ocean City, the famous Eastern Shore resort. Carpenters, painters and laborers are working day and night to get things ready for the opening of the season. The boardwalks are being repaired and several new cement sidewalks are being put in. The hotels are being overhauled and the boarding houses fixed up so as to be ready to accommodate the big crowds which are expected. From present indications all the hotels will be open and most of the cottages along the boardwalk have been rented. There are still a few on Baltimore Avenue for rent ... Mr. Ayers, manager of the big Ocean Pier, is making arrangements to add several new attractions to his pier this Summer ... Last season this pier was a great attraction to Ocean City and Mr. Ayers made a great success of the enterprise. The Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway Company are making some improvements in their facilities to handle the big crowds expected. The Company have been figuring for some time to PLACE A PASSENGER STATION FURTHER UP THE BEACH so as to accommodate the cottagers and people stopping at the hotels up the boardwalk.' Three things fall out of one paragraph: the boardwalk in 1910 is long enough to have an 'up' end with its own hotels and cottages; the town is beginning to build in cement (a Berlin correspondent noted in March that 'at Ocean City the use of these blocks for foundations and whole structures is likely to become general'); and the railway is thinking about a second, uptown depot a full six years before the highway bridge.
Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic RailwayOcean City Pier and Improvement Company
Source · checked 2026-08-06