John B. Lynch

In the record (35)

1. 1937 · 1937-02-08

   Ocean City granted at least twenty building permits in 1937, and the first seven of them came in February

   On 8 February 1937 the council granted permits to Curtis W. Long (Block 24, dwelling, 30 by 42), Ethel Kelly (addition to hotel, 34 by 62), Chas. S. Powell (apartment, 28 by 40), Sam Ayers (two buildings, 13 by 27), E. H. Benson (apartment, 36 by 42), Ed Lee Carey (dwelling) and Ada Cox (addition, 18 by 28). More followed through the year: Ella E. Dennis's two apartments and a 46-by-96 three-storey Curtis property with a restaurant on the ground floor taken under consideration on 31 March; J. M. Mumford, John H. Price, the C & D Garage and Rudolph Dolle in March; Violet C. Davis, Mrs. P. C. Dennis and Mrs. Bedowick in May; Herman Parsons and E. E. Dennis in April; and on 9 November Wm. Gibbs (apartment on Philadelphia Avenue between Second and Third), C. S. Powell (two apartments at the corner of Third), Calvin Pruitt (apartment and rooming house on Ninth Street) and John B. Lynch (a dwelling back of his hotel in Block 54). Two applications were refused or withdrawn - B. D. Mason's on 16 June, after his neighbours objected, and J. D. Showell's application to close a porch at the Oceanic on 7 September.

   Ethel KelleyRudolph DolleJohn M. MumfordWilliam E. GibbsCurtis W. Long

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

2. 1937 · 1937-03-19

   Eleven men of the Ocean City Yacht Club came to the council in March 1937 to ask for Fourteenth Street

   'Delegation from Yacht Club were present asking for 14th street improvement, those present were, F. W. Truitt, Dr. C. R. Laws, J. B. Lynch, Cecil Blake, Wm. Bennett, H. Gundy, D. Trimper Jr., Parker Smith, Dr. Burkman, Josh Bunting. Dr. Laws Explained what they wanted & Council promised to let them know in few days.' The council did not let them know: on 31 March a 'Letter from Yacht Club read asking that answer be given on grading 14th street', and no answer is recorded that night either. The delegation is a roll of the resort's establishment - a former president of the Board of Trade, a Trimper, the man who had chaired the citizens' boardwalk committee in 1936 - turning up in a body over the grading of one bayside street.

   Ocean City Yacht ClubF. W. TruittCecil BlakeDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.C. Parker Smith

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

3. 1937 · 1937-11-18

   Ocean City counted $112,000 of building under way in November 1937, more than half of it one apartment house

   Mayor Elliott's winter building list, printed on 18 November 1937 under '$112,000 Building Boom Makes Things Hum At Ocean City', is the clearest snapshot of the resort's private capital in the year: 'Calvin P. Pruitt Apartment House, $60,000; J. Dale Showell, Jr., Oceanic Hotel improvements, $10,000; John B. Lynch, cottage, $10,000; Charles Powell double houses, $6,000; William E. Gibbs apartment, $4,000; Elliott Bros., yacht harbor, $3,000; Mrs. John Lynch cottage improvements, $1,500; Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500.' The public side of the same list carried a $4,000 comfort station, a new 370-foot boardwalk section between South First and Somerset Streets 'of which the Windsor Resort Company is bearing part of the cost', the sewer extension west of Philadelphia Avenue, the Frank Magee bay-front anchorage basin and docks, and proposed sidewalks off North Philadelphia Avenue. In the same year the town's assessable basis rose $150,000 to $2,961,494. Elliott Bros. 'finished digging their yacht harbor north of North Division Street' in November, four months after the council gave them leave to dike the ground.

   Ocean City BoardwalkThe Henry HotelW. Thomas ElliottWilliam E. GibbsCharles & Louisa Henry

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

4. 1937 · 1937-11-18

   Ocean City's Black hotel appears on the mayor's own 1937 building list: 'Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500'

   On 18 November 1937 the Democratic Messenger printed Mayor W. Thomas Elliott's itemised account of the winter's construction under the head '$112,000 Building Boom Makes Things Hum At Ocean City'. The private projects ran: 'Calvin P. Pruitt Apartment House, $60,000; J. Dale Showell, Jr., Oceanic Hotel improvements, $10,000; John B. Lynch, cottage, $10,000; Charles Powell double houses, $6,000; William E. Gibbs apartment, $4,000; Elliott Bros., yacht harbor, $3,000; Mrs. John Lynch cottage improvements, $1,500; Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500.' It is the smallest item on the list and it is on the list — the Black hotel at Baltimore Avenue and South Division Street counted by the town's own administration as part of the resort's building boom, forty-two years after it opened. It is also the corroboration of the building permit the council had granted Chas. Henry on 7 September for 'an addition to his property on Balto Ave and South Division street', and it is the first time in the whole campaign that a source names the Henry establishment as a hotel. The same article lists the public works of the winter: a $4,000 comfort station, the 370-foot boardwalk section between South First and Somerset Streets, and the sewer extension west of Philadelphia Avenue.

   Two thousand facts, and the Henry Hotel had never been mentioned in one of them. Here it is twice in ten weeks — in the permit book and on the mayor's list — described in the language of 1937 and counted in the town's own money.

   The Henry HotelOcean City BoardwalkCharles & Louisa HenryW. Thomas ElliottWilliam E. Gibbs

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

5. 1938 · 1938-11-22

   Ocean City was twice asked to buy the Yacht Club Island in 1938 and twice said it could not - the second time to keep it out of 'undesirable Hands'

   On 10 May 1938 'John B Lynch & F. W. Truitt were before Council asking for advice on what to do about the Yacht Club Island and Council heard their story & decided they could not help.' On 10 November Truitt came back: he 'asked the Council if the city did not want to buy the Yacht Club Island as the present owners could not carry on much longer and thought the City should own the Island and keep it out of undesirable Hands. The Council promised to think it over.' Twelve days later, on 22 November, 'The Purchase of Yacht Club Island was next disposed of by refusing owing to the City's finances.' The Ocean City Yacht Club had been founded in 1928 and in March 1937 eleven of its members had come to the same council asking for Fourteenth Street to be graded. — 1939 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [corrected]: THE 1938 PASS'S OPEN QUESTION IS HALF ANSWERED, AND THE ANSWER IS THE TAX BOOKS. In 1938 the council was asked about the Yacht Club Island three times and declined three times - it 'could not help' in May, 'promised to think it over' in November, and on 22 November disposed of the purchase 'by refusing owing to the City's finances'. On 24 March 1939 a delegation including John Lynch, John D. Ayer and Frank Truitt asked for an extension of sewer and water to the island, and on 31 March the council resolved that 'if they wanted sewer & water City would run sewer & water to East Side Chicago Ave, they to connect there and put them on tax books for $15,000 assessment. Carried.' The new-assessment list of 21 June then carries 'Yacht Club 12000'. So the town's interest was rateable value, and it named its price the moment one was available. STILL NOT ESTABLISHED, and still the live question: WHERE the Yacht Club Island was, who owned it, and what the 1938 council meant by keeping it 'out of undesirable Hands'.

   Ocean City Yacht ClubF. W. Truitt

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

6. 1939 · 1939-03-31

   After refusing three times in 1938, Ocean City agreed in 1939 to run sewer and water to the Yacht Club Island - for a $15,000 assessment

   On 24 March John Lynch, John D. Ayer, Frank Truitt and others came before the council 'in interest of Yacht club island asking for Extension of Sewer & water', and the question arose whether the sewage would run by gravity, the city engineer having figured the 14th Street sewer as reaching only St. Louis Avenue underground. On 31 March: 'Yacht Club Island Sewer discussed and decided that if they wanted sewer & water City would run sewer & water to East Side Chicago Ave, they to connect there and put them on tax books for $15,000 assessment. Carried.' In the new-assessment list of 21 June the clerk entered 'Yacht Club 12000'.

   In 1938 the council was asked about this island three times and would not touch it - it 'could not help' in May, 'promised to think it over' in November, and on 22 November refused to buy it 'owing to the City's finances'. In 1939 it named a price. What changed was not the island but the answer to the question the 1938 pass could not settle: the town's interest in the Yacht Club Island was, in the end, the tax books.

   Clark GardnerG. Bertrand Cropper

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

7. 1944 · 1944-04-19

   Ocean City voted the Chamber of Commerce $1,850 for 1944, asked for in person by John B. Lynch, Dr. C. W. Purnell and C. Parker Smith.

   John B. Lynch, Dr. C. W. Purnell and C. Parker Smith came before the council asking a continuance of money to finance the Chamber of Commerce - $1,850 for the year - and the council agreed. Lynch was elected to the council four months later and made its president; Purnell became secretary of the town's first Zoning Commission in 1945. In April 1945 the same Chamber asked $3,500.

   Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

   Ocean City Chamber of CommerceDr. Charles Washington Purnell

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

8. 1944 · 1944-08-07

   Ocean City cast 452 votes on 7 August 1944, turned out its wartime mayor and both sitting councilmen, and made Daniel Trimper Jr. mayor.

   The municipal election was held in the Engine Room of the Fire House, polls open 2 to 6 PM, with Clarence Wright, Joseph Elliott and Charles Clark as judges. 452 votes were cast. For mayor: Daniel Trimper Jr. 231, Clifford P. Cropper 160. For council: John B. Lynch 268, Rudolph Dolle 200, Cranford O. Savage 199, Henry J. Burbage 175, Harold J. Rayne 159, Herman D. Parsons 102. The sitting mayor lost and both sitting councilmen finished last. Dolle and Savage had both stood against the Red Star bus terminal as private citizens three months earlier. Trimper, Lynch, Dolle and Savage took office on 1 September 1944 for a two-year term. Bound with the return is a typed letter of 3 August 1944: 'Gentlemen kindly accept my resignation from being a member of your Council as of August 3 1944, AS my duties are of such nature they so compel me too.' - E. Raymond Bounds, resigning four days before the poll.

   Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Clifford P. CropperRudolph DolleHarold J. RayneE. Raymond Bounds

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

9. 1944 · 1944-09-11

   Ocean City's new mayor and council were sworn in by Judge James B. Robins on 11 September 1944 and organised with John B. Lynch as president, Rudolph Dolle secretary and Cranford O. Savage treasurer.

   'New Mayor & Council met promptly at 7:30 PM in Council Room at Municipal Building.' Mayor-elect Daniel Trimper Jr. was sworn first by Judge James B. Robins, then the three councilmen-elect all at one time. They discussed the handling and disposition of garbage, Board Walk repairs and improvement, the Chamber of Commerce's attempt to buy a truck fit to haul garbage, a police car, and other improvements. The clerk was instructed to order a spray of flowers for Edward Powell and to pay his family ten days' vacation and the balance of salary due him - Powell, one of the policemen voted $100 for the use of his car on 9 September, had died between the 9th and the 11th. Three days later the hurricane came.

   Ocean City Chamber of CommerceDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Rudolph Dolle

   Source · checked 2026-08-12

10. 1944 · 1944-10-03

    Ocean City paid $3,990 for the Railroad Lot in October 1944, four months after refusing the railroad's price, and $10 to Daniel Trimper for the money he had put up to hold it.

    On motion by Lynch, seconded by Savage, the Railroad Lot purchased from Frank Magee was to be paid for at $3,990.00, with $10 to D. Trimper for money paid by him to hold the lot. In June the old council had told the B. & E. Railroad Company's real-estate man it was not interested in the freight lots at the price asked; in September the new council sent the mayor and Councilman Dolle to try to buy the freight house lot between South Division Street and Worcester Street. The same October meeting had Surveyor Thomas before it showing charts and maps of the Survey and how the sand was shifting from certain areas of the Inlet.

    Ocean City Inlet & JettyDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

11. 1944 · 1944-10-24

    Ocean City's property owners were invited to say how the Boardwalk should be rebuilt, and what they asked for was concrete.

    The council left the City office for the Firemen's room to debate the best means of building boardwalk and to hear the invited property owners: Thomas Shill and wife, Elizabeth Strohecker and daughter, Dale Showell, A. M. Jackson, Chas. J. Jackson, F. W. Truitt, H. J. Cropper and wife, Cullen Jenkins, John Hagan, Dr. C. W. Purnell, Jr. Evans, Harry Gunby, Earl Conley and A. W. Ball. Mayor Trimper gave a financial statement, then handed the hearing to the President of Council, John B. Lynch, who gave the estimated cost of building the walk at present prices and asked the owners for the best method and materials. Dr. Purnell, Earl Conley, Tom Shill, Frank Truitt and John Hagan spoke, wanting to investigate the cost of a cement walk, which they said could be built much cheaper and last longer. The council agreed to investigate the concrete idea. The record of the storm broadcast was played for the gathering. Earlier the same evening the council had ruled that any pile driven east of the walk in front of the 16th Street walk was to be driven 8 feet 6 inches from it.

    Ocean City BoardwalkDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Dr. Charles Washington PurnellHarry J. Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

12. 1944 · 1944-12-19

    Ocean City's post-war water main extension began with a $200 agreement in December 1944: Clark Gardner would survey it and get it approved for the flat fee.

    A letter with an agreement from Clark Gardner was read at the last meeting of 1944: he was to prepare plans and submit them to the Commission of Post War Planning on water main extension, agreeing to make a full survey and do all work pertaining to getting the project approved, for $200. On motion by Lynch, seconded by Savage, it was accepted and signed. The project ran the whole of 1945 - the plans were signed and forwarded in January, the State accepted the project in September and agreed to pay half the engineer's expenses, and on 26 December 1945 the council opened two bids, found the price too high and rejected them both. The same December 1944 meeting told the clerk to submit the cement walks needing laying, wrote to P. A. Morrison asking him to order materials to resurface and oil the side streets, and heard Mr. Insley offer a lot of lumber the town could not use because it was not cut to fit the boardwalk.

    Clark Gardner

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

13. 1945 · 1945-02-14

    About seventy people came to Ocean City's bus terminal hearing on 14 February 1945: the property owners within 250 feet voted 14 to 4 for it, and the room voted 26 to 14 against.

    The council recessed to the firemen's room to hold a hearing on the Red Star application for a terminal on the site of the North Garage, of which every property owner within 250 feet had been notified. About 70 people were present. Mayor Trimper explained the object of the meeting and the President of Council, John B. Lynch, presided. A vote of the property owners within 250 feet was taken and there were 14 for and 4 against, with 8 not present and one who wanted to see plans. Frank Sacca, Lewis Hardcastle, Dr. Guy Dennis and Mrs. Harriet Cropper spoke against the terminal, and Sacca insisted a vote be taken of the people present: 14 voted for and 26 opposed. Two rival applications were read at the same sitting - James D. Jarman's to build on a lot in rear of the Rideau Hotel, and one from the Union Buss Station Co., signed by Frank Sacca, on the old railroad station lot, 120 by 250 feet. Nine days later the council granted the Red Star permit anyway.

    Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Frank SaccaJames D. Jarman

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

14. 1945 · 1945-02-23

    Ocean City granted the bus terminal 2-1 at a Friday morning meeting nine days after a public hearing voted 26 to 14 against it - the only vote against coming from the man who had opposed it as a citizen.

    The council met at 11:30 on the morning of Friday 23 February with Mayor Trimper and all three councilmen present. Cranford O. Savage moved that the permit be granted to Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc. to build a bus terminal on the site of the North Garage as applied for on 8 February and amended on 20 February. John B. Lynch seconded. The mayor asked for the vote: Savage yes, Lynch yes, Rudolph Dolle no, and Mayor Trimper expressed his sentiment as yes. The application was signed by Lynch as President of Council with Savage as witness, and the meeting adjourned at 12:20. Savage and Dolle had both stood before the old council as private citizens in May 1944 to oppose the same company's terminal; the council refused it then. On 20 February the council had been unable to agree, had made the company strike the gasoline station off its application, and had gone to Salisbury to talk it over with the bus officials.

    Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.Cranford O. SavageRudolph DolleDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

15. 1945 · 1945-05-15

    Ocean City's 1945 licence ordinance took three readings and two passages: adopted on 20 March, rewritten and passed again on 15 May as Ordinance #100.

    The council went over Ordinance L-3 item by item on 10 January, spending two and a half hours and setting a further debate; gave the fee schedule a second reading on 13 March and ordered it posted; and on 20 March, with Dale Showell, Elizabeth Strohecker and Chas. and Lee Jackson present wanting to know what the fees would be, made the third reading and passed it on motion by R. Dolle seconded by C. O. Savage, unanimously, ordering it printed. On 5 April Attorney Whaley was instructed to write the ordinance up as passed. On 15 May the secretary read a letter from Whaley about it, and the ordinance was rewritten as of 15 May and passed as Ordinance #100, signed by President of Council John B. Lynch and Mayor Daniel Trimper and tested by J. M. Mumford, Secretary.

    Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.J. M. MumfordJohn S. WhaleyRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

16. 1945 · 1945-05-28

    A state senator brought Ocean City a Sunday amusements ordinance he had written for it: movies after eight on Sunday nights, dancing to 12:30 on Saturdays, doors locked by one.

    State Senator Thomas F. Johnson was present with an ordinance he had prepared for the council with reference to the government of Sunday amusements. The council agreed to allow Sunday movies after 8 o'clock PM, and to allow dancing until 12:30 AM on Saturday nights with lights out and doors locked by one o'clock AM. On motion by John B. Lynch, seconded by C. O. Savage, the ordinance was passed as of that date, and the clerk numbered it Ordinance #21 - a fortnight after numbering the rewritten licence ordinance #100. The closing hour was contested at once: on 5 June the Jacksons asked for 12:45 and were refused, though the council said it would accept music stopping at 12:40 with the room clear by one; and on 31 July it made exactly that the rule for every night club in town.

    Thomas F. JohnsonCranford O. Savage

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

17. 1945 · 1945-06-05

    Ocean City agreed in June 1945 to license up to six jitneys, deferred its first permit to the unfinished zoning law, and appointed a Planning Commission with a woman on it.

    Dr. G. P. R. Dennis, Lewis Hardcastle, Frank Sacca and Mr. Harris came before the council asking for jitney service, and the council agreed to grant permits up to six for jitneys recommended by them. The application of Roark for a permit at Philadelphia Avenue and 1st Street was left until the zoning law was completed - the first Ocean City permit deferred to zoning. John B. Lynch recommended that a Planning Commission be appointed, and at the next meeting the council appointed Mr. Harris as chairman with John P. Whaley, Lewis Hardcastle, Talbot Bunting, Mr. Anthony, Mr. Huber, A. M. Ball and Mrs. Andersen - the only woman named to either of the town's two new commissions in 1945. That meeting also carried a motion to grant permits for taxis and wrote to the Liquor Control Board asking it to keep the store open until nine o'clock on week days.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Ocean City Planning CommissionFrank SaccaJohn P. Whaley

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

18. 1945 · 1945-11-05

    Ocean City voted on 5 November 1945 to widen its Boardwalk to thirty feet from North Division to South Division Street.

    On motion by Savage, seconded by Lynch, it was decided to widen the Board walk from N. Div. to South Div. Street to 30 foot. The council had discussed the widening on 15 October and reached no final agreement. It is the answer to the argument the hurricane started: the walk wrecked on 14 September 1944, replaced 'as it was' in wood that September because concrete was prohibitive, and now, with the war over and the town borrowing, widened through the centre of the resort instead of rebuilt in a different material. The same meeting decided to use what 6-inch sewer pipe was on hand by running sewer on South First Street as far as the material would go. On 26 November the council raised Bob Allen to $50 a week until the Boardwalk was finished.

    Ocean City BoardwalkCranford O. Savage

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

19. 1945 · 1945-11-05

    Thirteen Ocean City property owners objected to a $15,000 filling station at Philadelphia Avenue and 2nd Street, not one spoke for it, and the council refused it.

    The council gave Magee Oil Co.'s application a hearing on Wednesday 31 October at 8 PM, having written to every property owner within 250 feet. Present were S. J. Quillin, Wm. Gibbs, Joe and Jennie Elliott, Paul Quillin and wife, Gertrude Koenig, Frank Tyre, and Irma Krueger who came late. Paul and Raymond Magee appeared for the company and Raymond Magee described the building proposed - all steel porcelain construction. John B. Lynch, President of Council, acted as chairman and asked each owner present their views: Frank Tyre not in favour; Gibbs, S. J. Quillin, the Elliotts, the Quillins and Gertrude Koenig all objecting; Wm. Cropper objecting by letter; Irma Krueger objecting after the meeting. Mayor Trimper asked how much the station was to cost and was told $15,000. The hearing closed at 9 PM without any action taken. On 5 November the council took the application up, the clerk read letters from Tom Spencer, Alice Parker, Mrs. Harry Parsons, James Phillips and Beulah Farson - all out of the city when the hearing was had, all opposed - and on motion duly carried the application was refused.

    Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

20. 1945 · 1945-12-26

    Ocean City opened two bids for its post-war water main extension five days before the end of 1945 and threw them both out as too dear.

    The council met on the evening of Friday 21 December to open bids on the water main extension, with Clark Gardner, Purnell and Messick of the engineers present, a Mr. McDermott representing George & Lynch, and two men representing a second contractor. Bids were opened from the two bidders and, after reading, held for consideration until Thursday 27 December, the certified checks with them. But on 26 December the council discussed them and decided the price was too high; on motion by John B. Lynch, seconded by R. Dolle, the bids were rejected and the certified checks returned to the bidders. The project had begun with a $200 survey agreement in December 1944 and had the State's acceptance and half its engineering paid; Ocean City entered 1946 with plans, an unadopted zoning ordinance and no water contract.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    George & LynchM. J. McDermottClark GardnerRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-12

21. 1946 · 1946-03-19

    Ocean City licensed a summer bus route the length of the built town in 1946 - 15th Street to South Division, seventeen hours a day, May to October, for $100 or $50 a bus.

    'Frank A. Colonell request for permit to operate Buss service during season from May to October, from 15th Street to South Div. Street, from 7 A.M. to 12 P.M. daily was considered, and on motion by John B. Lynch, sec. by C. O. Savage, permit was granted one year for service of $100.00 or $50.00 for each Buss.' It is a town transit line rather than an intercity one, and its two termini are the two ends of the town as the zoning map drew it a few weeks later - 15th Street, where the heavy boundary ran bay to ocean, and South Division Street in the middle of the amusement core. The same evening the council resolved the boundary question in principle and summoned the dock owners for the following night. By September the buses had quit.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Cranford O. Savage

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

22. 1946 · 1946-03-20

    Ocean City summoned its party-boat dock owners over what they charged boatmen, listened for two hours, and decided the prices were not too high.

    The council met on the evening of Wednesday 20 March with no mayor present and John B. Lynch, President of Council, in the chair, 'to discuss with the party Dock owners the prices charged boatmen at their docks'. Mr. Chittenberger of Mayor's Dock, Talbot Bunting and Wm. Bunting attended. 'After 2 hour discussion and explanation of cost to operate dock, the Council felt the prices were not too high, and meeting adjourned at 10:20 P.M.' No motion, no vote, no rate schedule and no figure of any kind is entered - the council's opinion is the whole of the outcome. What the Washington papers reported that summer supplies the numbers the minute withholds: large party boats charged $5 a person for the ride, bait and a handline over a seven-hour day, and deep-sea trolling boats, which were scarce, went at $70 and up.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

23. 1946 · 1946-04-03

    Five weeks before adoption the Ocean City council sat down with the zoning map and moved district lines by hand, enlarging one business area to the ocean and turning half of another into residential.

    The full board met with Attorney Wm. Price on the evening of Wednesday 3 April 1946 'to go over the Zoning ordinance & map', and the meeting proceeded by reading the map. Approval was made of areas 7 and 11 as Industrial as outlined; of the B.B. area as laid down on the map; and of B areas 4 to 9. Then two changes: 'B area 4 enlarged to a point midway between First Street & Second Street, north to extend to Ocean', and 'Line dividing area 10 from area 9 moved South half a block, and remainder of area 9 created as residential area'. The one formal motion of the night, by John B. Lynch seconded by C. O. Savage, abolished all distinction as to side and rear yard regulation in residential use districts and made it uniform as prescribed for A Area district in the Zoning Commission's final report. The meeting rose at 11:20. The council met again the following evening, read on, and the clerk recorded that 'nothing definitely done', adjourning at 11:30.

    Ocean City Zoning CommissionCranford O. SavageDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Rudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

24. 1946 · 1946-04-25

    Ocean City's rebuilt Boardwalk cost the town $18.00 a running foot and the abutting owners were billed $15.50 - $775 for a fifty-foot lot.

    'Board Walk Cost was presented and Secretary ordered to bill the property owners $775. for 50 ft lot, which is $15.50 running foot, and the Walk cost $18.00 per foot.' The figures are internally consistent - fifty times $15.50 is $775 exactly - and the town absorbed $2.50 a foot. It is the first per-foot figure the campaign has for the walk wrecked by the hurricane of 14 September 1944, rebuilt in wood because concrete was prohibitive, and widened on 5 November 1945 to thirty feet from North Division to South Division Street. The same meeting granted building permits to two sitting councilmen without any recusal recorded - R. Dolle to build next to the Comfort Station and five feet from the Barber Shop, with a cement wall next to the Comfort Station, and J. B. Lynch for an ice box - voted $5,000 to the Chamber of Commerce, and heard Bob Cropper ask for somewhere for teen-age children to meet, 'after much debate nothing was decided on'.

    Ocean City Chamber of CommerceRudolph DolleRobert Lee CropperMiss Elizabeth Laws

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

25. 1946 · 1946-04-25

    Ocean City voted the Chamber of Commerce five thousand dollars 'to operate on' in April 1946 - five times what it had budgeted the Chamber the summer before.

    Bob Cropper, Mr. Harris and Elizabeth Laws were present in the interest of finances for the Chamber of Commerce, and after going over the several items the council, on motion by John B. Lynch seconded by C. O. Savage, passed an order to give them $5,000 to operate on. In July 1945 the town's own reckoning had budgeted the Chamber $1,000 against the $3,500 it asked. Three weeks later, on 14 May, Dale Showell and Chas. Jackson got another $500 out of the council for the Business Men's Association, to be matched by them for an advertising fund to be used in 1947 and paid by 1 September. By 26 November the town had taken the Chamber onto its own books entirely.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Ocean City Chamber of CommerceOcean City Business Men's AssociationRobert Lee CropperMiss Elizabeth LawsCranford O. Savage

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

26. 1946 · 1946-05-03

    On the evening of Friday 3 May 1946 Ocean City read its zoning ordinance through one last time, declared it 'as they wanted it', and fixed its passage for the following Tuesday.

    The full board met with Wm. H. Price, attorney for Zoning, and the engineer. 'The entire Zoning ordinance was read over and changes in map were noted. Council agreed that the Ordinance was as they wanted it, and Attorney Price was instructed to prepare the Ordinance so it could be finally passed at next regular monthly meeting to be held on May 7th 1946.' The meeting rose at 10:30. The sequence from there is complete: the commission's report signed over 20 November 1945, public hearings 19 and 22 December 1945, the council reading and amending on 3, 4, 11 and 25 April 1946, the final read-through on 3 May, counsel's draft minute on 4 May, and passage on 7 May. This is the meeting at which the town's mayor is first written 'D. Trimper Jr.' in the 1946 book.

    The engineer of the 1946 zoning map is printed CLARKE GARDNER on the map and written 'Clark Gordon' by the clerk four days earlier - almost certainly the Clark Gardner who had been Ocean City's consulting engineer since 1935.

    Staton, Whaley & PriceDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Cranford O. SavageRudolph DolleClark Gardner

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

27. 1946 · 1946-05-07

    Ocean City passed its first zoning ordinance 3-0 on the evening of 7 May 1946, and it was in force that night.

    The Mayor and City Council met in regular monthly session at 7:30 P.M. with the whole board present - Mayor Daniel Trimper Jr., Councilmen John B. Lynch, Rudolph Dolle and Crawford O. Savage, and John M. Mumford, City Clerk. The President of the City Council laid before the council the form of The Zoning Ordinance of Ocean City, Maryland, 'as recommended by the Zoning Commission and revised following public advertised hearings before the Mayor and City Council and numerous sessions of the Mayor and City Council to consider suggestions and objections adduced at said hearings and at the hearings held by the Zoning Commission.' On motion by Councilman Rudolph Dolle, seconded by Councilman Crawford O. Savage, it was unanimously passed as Ordinance No. 99. Section II provides that the ordinance 'shall take effect from the date of its passage' - no delay, no publication period, no referendum. Trimper approved it the same day. The whole of the 39 manuscript pages and the map that follow are the ordinance; the clerk records no other motion, no correspondence, no bills and no adjournment. Dolle - who cast the lone dissenting vote on the bus terminal in February 1945 - moved it, voted for it, signed it as councilman and attested it as Secretary to the City Council.

    Ocean City Zoning CommissionDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Rudolph DolleCranford O. SavageJ. M. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

28. 1946 · 1946-05-07

    The 1946 zoning map ran from the Inlet to North 26th Street and stopped dead: everything platted beyond it was drawn, left blank and unzoned.

    Read from the Inlet northward, the adopted map goes: the ocean side from the southern limit to Wicomico Street is BB-40-A, the amusement class; Wicomico Street to North First Street is B-40-A, general business with amusements absolutely prohibited; the whole bay side from the southern limit up to about North First Street is I-40-A, industrial, its ocean-side edge a line 150 feet behind Philadelphia Avenue stepping north-east behind St. Louis Avenue, with the causeway marked TO BERLIN coming ashore inside it; the ocean front from North First to North Fifteenth carries district 3 with a B-40-A block interrupting it between North Eighth and North Tenth; a heavy line runs bay to ocean down North Fifteenth Street and everything north of it to about North Twenty-Second is R-30-B, residential, the height limit dropping from forty feet to thirty; North Twenty-Second to North Twenty-Sixth is BB-30-B, the town's other amusement-capable district; and a heavy line down North Twenty-Sixth Street ends the zoned town. The blocks of North Twenty-Seventh Street and northward are platted on the sheet and left entirely blank, unhatched and unnumbered. The scale is one inch to four hundred feet and the sheet is signed in ink over the print by John B. Lynch as President of the City Council, Rudolph Dolle and Crawford O. Savage as councilmen, and attested by Dolle as Secretary.

    Rudolph DolleCranford O. SavageClark Gardner

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

29. 1946 · 1946-06-02

    Ocean City's Honor Roll for its service men was unveiled on 2 June 1946, paid for in part by a hundred dollars from the council - and the two women who had asked for it in 1945 were left to find their own speaker.

    On 14 May 1946 Elizabeth Laws and Gladys Hastings were before the council asking advice as to a speaker for the unveiling of the Honor Roll for service men on June 2nd, and for a donation towards the expense of it. 'Council gave them $100 and left them to secure their own speaker.' It is the end of a thread that runs back three and a half years: the $25 service flag of February 1943; 'Monument for Service Men was discussed and no decision reached' in January 1945; the permit to Frank Sacca in April 1945 for a board on the Electric Light lot to carry the names; the same two women asking for help planning an Honor Roll on 18 September 1945; and the War Memorial Building with proposed sites in October 1945. The unveiling is the only war-related event in the whole of the 1946 minute book. The site, the speaker, the form of the thing and the names on it are still nowhere in the record.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Miss Elizabeth LawsMrs. Gladys HastingsRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

30. 1946 · 1946-06-04

    Ocean City appointed George Bert Cropper its first Building Inspector on 4 June 1946 - the engineer who had spent 1939 trying to give the town a building code got the office four weeks after zoning gave him one.

    'On motion by J. B. Lynch, seconded by R. Dolle, Geo. Bert Cropper was appointed Building Inspector to carry out the Zoning ordinance.' Ordinance No. 99 had created the office in function on 7 May and named nobody to it; every permit, every certificate of occupancy and every referral to the Board of Zoning Appeals runs through it. Four days before the appointment, William H. Price had ended a letter to the clerk on an unrelated sewer question with a postscript: 'Will you please write me the name of the Building Inspector under the Zoning Ordinance when appointed?' Cropper was already the town's working surveyor - it was his field notes that started the boundary fight in March, and the same meetings that made him Inspector sent him out to give the grade for a sidewalk and to mark the line of 6th Street. By 22 October the council had told him to go ahead towards making a unified grade for the streets of the entire City.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    Staton, Whaley & PriceG. Bertrand CropperRudolph Dolle

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

31. 1946 · 1946-06-11

    One week after appointing a Building Inspector, Ocean City turned its new zoning ordinance on the unpermitted building going up north of 15th Street.

    'John B. Lynch brought up the class of building that was going up above 15th Street, and it was decided to notify the owners to get permits before going any farther with building.' It is the first recorded enforcement action of the 1946 zoning regime, and the phrase 'class of building' is the ordinance's own vocabulary. North of Fifteenth Street is exactly where the adopted map had just dropped the height limit from forty feet to thirty and made the whole town residential as far as Twenty-Second Street; it is also the stretch where the front-yard setback falls to eight feet, and where in 1946 the building was actually happening. No owner is named and no penalty is mentioned. On 18 September the council went further and put a notice in the paper telling the town to do no building or repairs until a permit had been secured.

    G. Bertrand Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

32. 1946 · 1946-07-16

    Ocean City raised its tax rate to $1.40 per hundred in July 1946 - the first move in seven years, after six straight years at $1.20.

    Finances were discussed with the Treasurer and, on motion by Rudolph Dolle seconded by both J. B. Lynch and C. D. Savage, the tax rate for 1946 was set at $1.40 per hundred on assessment, with the secretary told to set the books up on that basis. The rate had stood at $1.20 since July 1940 and had held there through the whole of the war. The town had borrowed $15,000 from the Bank of Ocean City on 5 March and another $5,000 on a thirty-day note on 30 April to get itself to the season, had voted $5,000 to the Chamber of Commerce and $500 to the Business Men's Association, was billing property owners for the Boardwalk at $15.50 a foot, and had a $1,324.24 legal bill for zoning on the table at the same meeting.

    Bank of Ocean CityRudolph DolleCranford O. Savage

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

33. 1946 · 1946-08-05

    Ocean City returned its whole government at a four-hour poll in the fire house on 5 August 1946: Trimper beat Robert Lee Cropper 344 to 135, and the three sitting councilmen all beat the only challenger.

    'An election was held in the Engine room of Fire House on Monday August 5, 1946 for purpose of electing one person for Mayor and three persons for City Councilmen.' The polls opened at two and closed at six, kept by Election Judges Joseph Elliott, Horace H. Richardson and Chas. T. Jackson with J. M. Mumford as clerk, and 494 votes were cast. For Mayor: Daniel Trimper Jr. 344, Robert Lee Cropper 135. For City Council: Rudolph Dolle 403, Cranford D. Savage 341, John B. Lynch 335, John Sacca 165. The returns were properly made to the City Clerk and Trimper, Dolle, Lynch and Savage were declared duly elected for a two-year term to take office on 9 September 1946. It was held on a Monday in the first week of August, at the height of the season, in the engine room.

    The clerk recorded 494 votes cast and a mayoral tally that adds to 479 - the two figures in the same return do not close.

    Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Robert Lee CropperRudolph DolleCranford O. SavageCharles T. JacksonJ. M. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

34. 1946 · 1946-08-27

    Twenty-two days after being re-elected, the President of the Ocean City Council laid a note on the table resigning both his remaining term and his new one, and walked out of a meeting that had never been called to order.

    The council met at eight on the evening of 27 August with Mayor Trimper, Lynch and Dolle present and Savage absent. While they waited for Savage, Robert Lee Cropper came in as President of the Chamber of Commerce and discussed the winter operating of the Chamber: he wanted to keep a girl on part time all winter to answer correspondence and wanted the City to put up the money for it, and he wanted to put on one or more exhibits in Washington or Boston at about $500 each. 'Nothing definite was promised on this.' Then, in the clerk's words: 'The meeting was not called to order or any minutes read when John B. Lynch said he wanted the attention of the Mayor & Council, and at that time laid on the table a note saying he was resigning as a member of Council both for the remaining term and the newly elected term. The members were taken by surprise at this and Mr. Lynch left the room, with Mayor Trimper and Dolle following soon thereafter, at about 9:15 o'clock.' Lynch had been President of the Council, had signed Ordinance No. 99 in that capacity three months earlier, and had polled 335 votes on 5 August. No reason is recorded and the note is not copied into the book. The seat was still empty at the last meeting of the year.

    Ocean City Chamber of CommerceDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Rudolph DolleRobert Lee Cropper

    Source · checked 2026-08-15

35. 1946 · 1946-10-22

    With the council a man short since August, a townsman wrote in asking to be appointed - and the minutes record no answer.

    'Letter from Talbot Bunting asking to be appointed as a member of City Council was read.' No action is recorded, and the seat John B. Lynch resigned on 27 August was still vacant at the last meeting of the year on 26 November. Bunting was one of the party-boat dock owners the council had summoned in March to explain their charges to boatmen, and in December 1944 he had come before an earlier council with Frank Sacca in the interest of advertising Ocean City by radio. The same 22 October meeting read letters from the Public Service Commission about a bus permit, from Arthur Harris on the Inlet, and from Clarke Gardner on bonds for water extensions, and told Bert Cropper to go ahead towards a unified grade for the streets of the entire City.

    Public Service Commission of MarylandG. Bertrand CropperClark Gardner

    Source · checked 2026-08-15