Harvey L. Page
Washington cottager · active 1893
A Washington man who owned a cottage at Ocean City near the north end of the board walk in 1893. His young cousin Mary Bowen of Philadelphia drowned in the surf in front of it on July 31, 1893.
In the record (5)
1891 · 1891-08-31
Washington architects offer for nineteen lots and a club house, and the beach company's buyers are named — most of them women.
An Ocean City correspondent of the Snow Hill Press, quoted in the Wilmington Evening Journal of August 31, 1891: 'W. J. Warrington, the representative of the Synepuxent Beach Company here, has received an offer from Harvey L. Page & Co., architects of Washington, for nineteen lots to be utilised and improved with a club house and cottages. In addition to this a number of lots have been recently sold. Among the purchasers being Miss Carrie D[unn] and Miss Alice Van Bibber of Baltimore; Mrs. Commodore Terry of Annapolis; Commander Joshua Bishop, of the navy; Mrs. Mordecai of Baltimore; Dr. Fry and others.' Harvey L. Page would be the beach company's vice-president by March 1892 and Warrington its assistant secretary; in 1891 they are the architect making an offer and the man on the ground taking it.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1892 · 1892-07-23
A Kentucky senator, a general's widow, a Sherman relative and a Washington architect buy Ocean City lots in one paragraph.
The Democratic Messenger, July 23, 1892: "It is stated that Senator Joe Blackburn, Kentucky; Mrs. Belknap, widow of Gen. Grant's Secretary of War; Mrs. Ewing, a relative of Gen. Sherman and Harvey L. Page, of Washington, have purchased lots at Ocean City, and will soon begin the erection of handsome cottages." Harvey L. Page was the Sinepuxent Beach Company's vice-president, elected that March. The county's own men were buying too, in the same weekly deed column: George M. Upshur took a half interest in a house and lot for $700; Nelson B. Switzer of Baltimore took lots 7 to 12 in one block for $1,700; James Bates of Baltimore took two lots in Block 5 South for $1,100 and another parcel for $400; Samuel Maddox of Washington took lot 10 in Block 10 North for $200; Robert G. Keene — the beach company's own president — took lot No. 10 "designated on the plat of Ocean City" for $150.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Sinepuxent Beach CompanyRobert Goldsborough Keene
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1892 · 1892-12-21
The Sinepuxent Beach Company re-elects in December with a new president, and Ocean City's mayor on the board.
The Washington Evening Star, December 22, 1892: "The Sinepuxent Beach Company of Baltimore city, at its annual meeting yesterday, elected Charles Goldsborough president; Harvey L. Page of Washington, D. C., vice president; Robert Goldsborough Keene, secretary and treasurer; Wm. J. Warrington, assistant secretary. The following directors were elected for the ensuing year: Charles Goldsborough, Harvey L. Page, R. G. Keene, J. F. Waggaman, W. S. Wilson, [—] Nutt, James Bates, [—] and B. K. Plain." Nine months after the March reorganisation, Keene had moved from the presidency to secretary and treasurer — the seat Thomas E. Waggaman was reported to hold in March — and Charles Goldsborough had the chair. Two names on the board matter for the town. J. F. Waggaman is John Floyd Waggaman, the Washington principal through whose hands the Atlantic Hotel had passed in July. W. S. Wilson is W. Sydney Wilson, the man the newspapers had been calling the mayor of Ocean City all summer: the town's chief magistrate was a director of the company that owned its biggest hotel and sold its building lots, and by December he was formally re-elected to that board. James Bates of Baltimore had been buying the company's lots in Block 5 South earlier that year.
Sinepuxent Beach CompanyRobert Goldsborough KeeneJohn F. WaggamanWilliam Sydney Wilson
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1893 · 1893-07-31
Mary Bowen of Philadelphia, sixteen, drowns in the surf in front of her cousin's cottage.
"Miss Mary Bowen, of Philadelphia, aged sixteen years, was drowned in the surf at Ocean City to-day while bathing," ran the dispatch of July 31, 1893. "She was a guest of her cousin, Mr. Harvey L. Page of Washington city, and in company with Mr. Page's daughter and a daughter of Dr. Carr went into the water about 11:30 o'clock" in the morning, in front of Mr. Page's cottage, near the north end of the board walk. "The three young women ran out of the cottage in advance of Mr. Page who was to attend them." The body, swept a considerable distance up the beach, was brought ashore by Gustavus Ober of Baltimore and the captain of the life-saving station; Alan P. Smith of Baltimore tried and failed to resuscitate her. — 1893 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: The Washington account adds the detail that makes the drowning legible, and it is worse than the campaign has it. The Evening Star of 9 August 1893: "Mr. Harvey Page of Washington... had a distressing experience at Ocean City, Md., last week. Hearing a cry for help while he was in a bath house he dashed into the water, rescued a young girl with her face down and leaving her on shore returned for another who was also in danger, when he discovered they were his own daughters, whom he had saved by the merest chance. A Miss Bowen, who was with the Misses Page, was drowned." So Harvey L. Page — the Capitol architect who designed many of the cottages at Ocean City — pulled two drowning girls out of the surf without recognising them, and only then learned they were his own; the third girl, his cousin, was the one who died. This is the same Harvey L. Page who three weeks later sailed down on the Vice-President's steamer.
United States Life-Saving Service
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1893 · 1893-07-31
Mary Bowen of Philadelphia, sixteen, drowns in the surf in front of Harvey L. Page's cottage 'near the north end of the board walk.'
'Drowned at Ocean City. Ocean City, Md., July 31. — Miss Mary Bowen, of Philadelphia, aged sixteen years, was drowned in the surf at Ocean City today while bathing. She was a guest of her cousin, Mr. Harvey L. Page of Washington city, and in company with Mr. Page's daughter and a daughter of Dr. Carr went into the water about 11.30 o'clock this morning in front of Mr. Page's cottage, near the north end of the board walk. The three young ladies ran out of the cottage in advance of Mr. Page, who was to attend them. They were sporting in the water while Mrs. Dr. Carr was walking on the beach observing them. Mrs. Carr heard a cry of distress...' — The Cecil Whig, Elkton, 5 August 1893. The 1893 pass read all 180 surviving pages of the county paper and reported the board walk mentioned only twice, both times by accident. This is a third mention, from outside the county, and it is the most useful of the three: it gives the walk a NORTH END, and it fixes that end against a named cottage whose owner is already in the registry.
Source · checked 2026-08-11