Dr. J. Pembroke Thom

In the record (4)

1. 1891 · 1891-07-13

   The Sinepuxent Beach Company holds its first lot auction: 470 people off a nine-coach special, and every lot offered is sold.

   'The first sale of lots by the Synepuxent Land and Improvement Company at Ocean City took place to-day and was attended by 470 people from Washington and Baltimore,' ran a dispatch datelined Ocean City, Md., July 13, 1891. The party left Camden Station at seven, picked up a train of nine coaches, and reached the beach at 1.20. At three the auctioneer, W. C. Beckenbaugh, moved the sale into the pavilion at the Atlantic Hotel because it looked like rain; the Acme Cornet Band filled the wait. Bidding opened on 'lot No. 14, block No. 6... situate[d on] Atlantic avenue, and is 50 by 150 deep, to a 10-foot alley.' The first bid was $150, raised $25 at a time, and it was struck off to Talbott W. Jenkins of Baltimore at $300 — the highest price paid that day. All lots offered sold, some bidders took whole blocks, a number of the buyers were women, and the sale closed at 5.30 having realised about $20,000.

   Atlantic HotelThe Beach

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

2. 1891 · 1891-07-13

   Twenty-five thousand dollars is subscribed on the beach in one afternoon for a new hotel that was never built.

   Speaking to the auction crowd at the Atlantic Hotel pavilion on July 13, 1891, Dr. J. Pembroke Thom, president of the Sinepuxent Beach Company, 'set forth the many natural advantages offered by Ocean City as a summer resort, and said there was no question but what the place would rival Cape May and Atlantic City. He concluded his remarks by announcing that $25,000 had been subscribed on the beach to-day for the purpose of building a new hotel. The cost of the hotel will be $60,000, and the site has been selected.' The announcement was received with applause and the band was asked to play 'Dixie.' The company also meant to 'shortly ask for bids to erect an electric light plant, and a railway is also talked of.' No such hotel appears in 1892's sources; what the Washington money actually bought the following spring was the Atlantic Hotel itself, which it wired for electric light and fitted with an elevator.

   Atlantic Hotel

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

3. 1892 · 1892-03-14

   A Washington real-estate broker takes control of the Sinepuxent Beach Company, and the whole Atlantic Hotel with it.

   The Democratic Messenger of March 19, 1892: "The Synepuxent Beach Company Monday elected the following officers: President, R. G. Keene; vice president, Harvey L. Page; secretary and treasurer, Thomas E. Waggaman; assistant secretary W. J. Warrington. Mr. Waggaman, who is a Washington real estate broker, has bought a controlling interest. The Atlantic Hotel has been purchased by a Washington syndicate that will remodel and improve the building. The treasurer reported a balance of $23,000 after paying [dividends] last October. A party of twenty-five interested in the beach will visit Ocean City Sunday, leaving Baltimore Saturday and returning Monday." Robert Goldsborough Keene, one of the four incorporators of December 1890, replaced Dr. J. Pembroke Thom as president. A week later the paper watched the new money arrive: "A special train passed through Berlin Saturday night en route for Ocean City with a large party of capitalists and mechanics from Washington who propose to develop this favorite summer resort. A material change may be expected in its appearance ere the season opens." — 1892 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [corrected]: THE CONFLICT IS RESOLVED AND THE FLAG SHOULD COME OFF. The Washington real-estate man who took control of the Sinepuxent Beach Company in March 1892 was JOHN FLOYD WAGGAMAN of 700 14th St. N.W., not his brother Thomas E. Waggaman of 917 F St. N.W. The evidence, in order of weight: (1) The Snow Hill paper corrects itself twice within four months. Its own Ocean City column of 25 June 1892 has “John F. Waggaman, of Washington” arriving by special train with the B&O officers; its own Real Estate Transfers column of 9 July 1892 records “John F. Waggaman from Atlantic Hotel Company of Ocean City, Md.… Consideration $15,000” and “The Sinepuxent Beach Company, from John F. Waggaman and wife… Consideration $15,000”, and in the same column “John F. Waggaman from Wm. S. Johnson and wife a tract of land… called the ‘Isle of Wight,’ containing 400 acres.” (2) The Washington Evening Star of 22 December 1892 lists the company’s directors for the coming year and the Waggaman on the board is “J. F. Waggaman”; the Star of 8 February 1895 gives the full board with “John F. Waggaman”. (3) The Star of 21 August 1895, reporting John S. Larcombe’s stockholder suit, narrates the founding: “Some time in 1891… a majority of the stock was to be put into a pool… to be voted by Page and John F. Waggaman, as trustees… In the spring of 1892, Mr. Larcombe says, he received a paper…” That places John F. as the controlling Washington principal at the exact moment the Messenger wrote Thomas E. (4) Across the entire Evening Star run, ‘Sinepuxent’ and ‘Waggaman’ co-occur on only seven pages, the earliest in 1895, and every one names John F. There is no source anywhere putting Thomas E. Waggaman with the company other than that single Messenger paragraph. (5) The two men were different people and were brothers, both sons of John Henry Waggaman: Boyd’s Directory of the District of Columbia for 1893 (compiled late 1892), printed p. 933, lists “WAGGAMAN JOHN F, real estate, 700 14th nw, h Woodley pk” and “WAGGAMAN THOMAS E, real estate broker, loans and auctioneer, 917 F nw, h 3300 O nw” — separate offices and separate firms in every year checked (1875, 1893, 1894, 1898). The brotherhood is stated in the Star of 7 July 1910, p. 1, on Thomas E.’s estate settlement: “John F. Waggaman, brother of the deceased.” AND THE ERROR IS EXPLICABLE, which is worth printing rather than hiding: the Messenger’s descriptor — ‘a Washington real estate broker’ — is verbatim THOMAS E.’s directory line (‘real estate broker, loans and auctioneer’), while John F. is listed simply as ‘real estate’. A Snow Hill compositor working from a Baltimore wire item, with two Waggaman brothers both in Washington real estate, reached for the better-known name. SEPARATELY, the illegible dividend figure is legible in the portal’s scan of the same page: “The treasurer reported a balance of $23,000 after paying 10 per cent dividends last October.” And the company styles itself ‘of Baltimore City’ in every 1892 Worcester County deed abstract and in the Evening Star’s December report, against the ‘Washington syndicate’ framing.

   Sinepuxent Beach CompanyAtlantic Hotel CompanyRobert Goldsborough KeeneThomas E. Waggaman

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

4. 1892 · 1892-09-24

   Ocean City building lots, $100 to $1,000 — "thousands turned away this season for want of accommodation."

   John F. Waggaman's advertisement in the Washington Evening Star of September 24, 1892: "SECURE A SEASIDE HOME WHILE YOU CAN THAT WILL ALSO PROVE A FIRST CLASS INVESTMENT. Lots at Ocean City, Md., on the Atlantic ocean, 5 hours' ride from Washington; $100 to $1,000, or leased for [a term of] years to secure builders. The growth and popularity of Ocean City is assured, offering as it does a grand beach on one side and the most picturesque bay on the other... Thousands turned away this season for want of accommodation. Let us refer you to a number of prominent purchasers who have built cottages." The recorded deeds bear the range out: the Sinepuxent Beach Company sold Charles B. Ziegler a tract on the south side of town for $50 in July, Maria C. Peet a lot for $600 and Mary A. Peet lot No. 5 in block No. 6 for $500, and James Bates of Baltimore lots 13 and 11 in block 5 south for $1,100. Dr. J. Pembroke Thom — the company's own former president — bought lots 10, 11 and 12 in block 111 south from Charles E. Stewart for $1,000 in November. — 1892 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: Confirmed against its own cited page and an image attached. The Evening Star advertisement of 24 September 1892 runs from “FOR SALE AND LEASE—” to the signature “SINEPUXENT BEACH CO., 808 17th st. n.w.” and offers lots “on the Atlantic ocean, 5 hours’ ride from Washington; $100 to $1,000, or leased for 99 years to cottage builders,” with “thousands turned away this season for want of accommodation.” Two sharpenings: the company’s Washington address is 808 17th St. N.W., and the ninety-nine-year GROUND LEASE alternative to purchase is not currently in the fact — it matters, because a leasehold rather than a sale is how a land company keeps the reversion.

   Sinepuxent Beach CompanyJohn F. Waggaman

   Source · checked 2026-08-06