John F. Waggaman

In the record (58)

1. 1890

   December 1890: the Sinepuxent Beach Company is incorporated to lay 2,000 acres of beach out into building lots — the plat that made modern Ocean City.

   'The Sinepuxent Beach Company has been incorporated by Robert G. Keene, Dr. J. Pembroke Thom, Samuel C. Rowland and Charles A. Coombs,' the Democratic Advocate of Westminster reported on December 6, 1890. 'The company owns eight miles of beach at Sinepuxent Bay, the terminus of the Baltimore and Eastern Shore Railroad, adjacent to Ocean City. The land, which contains 2,000 acres, has been topographically surveyed and laid out into [6],000 building lots, divided by streets and avenues. The plan of development contemplates the building of wharves and an electric railway... The capital stock of the company is $60,000, which represents the purchase price of the land.' Its directors for the first year were the four incorporators together with Joseph B. Seth — president of the Baltimore & Eastern Shore — Edward Austin Jenkins, John F. Waggaman of Washington, and Gabriel E. Duvall. Dr. Thom was elected president, Theophilus Tunis (the railroad's secretary) vice-president, and J. Frank Turner secretary and treasurer. The men who had just consolidated the railway into Ocean City in July had, by December, bought the beach it ran to and cut it into lots. The street grid north of the original town descends from this survey.

   The town below 4th Street was built by hoteliers; everything north of it was drawn by a railroad syndicate with a plat book.

   The BeachAtlantic HotelSinepuxent Beach CompanyBaltimore and Eastern Shore Railroad

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

2. 1892 · 1892-06-20

   The 1892 bathing season opens on a Monday in June with the beach "entirely free from shell and all the usual jetsams," the Seaside and Eastern Shore open, and the Atlantic still shut.

   The Democratic Messenger's first Ocean City letter of the year, June 25, 1892: "The bathing season here was regularly opened last Monday. Quite a number of ladies and gentlemen were in the ocean, and, by the way they disported themselves and the length of time they remained in, one might judge that the water must have been very pleasant. The beach is hard and in fine condition, being entirely free from shell and all the usual jetsams of the season, while the sea has very generously carried away or buried the ordinary mementoes of excursionists. The Seaside and Eastern Shore hotels are now open. The Atlantic will be opened Saturday next. Mr. J. M. Schryver, assistant general passenger agent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; G. E. Duvall, superintendent of the dining-car service; General Sweitzer, United States army; Mr. Ramsey, president Mechanics' Bank, Baltimore; John F. Waggaman, of Washington, D. C., and a company of others who arrived on a special train Saturday night, returned by the early train Monday morning. Mr. Lee Hearn, of the firm of Twilley & Hearn, of Salisbury, arrived here on Monday last to open a barber shop. Mr. Hearn will have quarters at the Hotel Purnell, and will be glad to see all his old customers. Contractor T. M. Slemons is just completing a large, new station house and platforms for the B. & E. S. R. R. here."

   Baltimore and Eastern Shore Railroad

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

3. 1892 · 1892-07-09

   The Sinepuxent Beach Company buys the Atlantic Hotel for $15,000 — the deed chain runs Holland to the hotel company to Waggaman to the beach company inside four months.

   Worcester County land records, printed week by week in the Democratic Messenger, settle a question campaign 1 and the 1890 pass both left open. In the week ending March 31, 1892: "Atlantic Hotel Company from Charles F. Holland all those tracts, lots and parcels of land with the buildings and improvements situate at Ocean City." In the transfers printed July 9, 1892, two deeds in sequence: "John F. Waggaman from Atlantic Hotel Company of Ocean City, Md., all those tracts, parts of tracts, lots and parcels of land together with the buildings and improvements... Consideration $15,000" and "The Sinepuxent Beach Company, from John F. Waggaman and wife, all those tracts, parts of tracts, lots and parcels of land together with the buildings and improvements situate in Ocean City, Md. Consideration $15,000." The company said so itself in a Messenger advertisement of May 21: "The Sinepuxent Beach Company, having recently purchased the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, Md., and intending to re-furnish the same throughout with new and modern furniture, will sell by public auction all the contents" — a sale held in the hotel on Tuesday, May 24, 1892 at 10 o'clock.

   Sinepuxent Beach CompanyAtlantic Hotel CompanyJudge Charles F. Holland

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

4. 1892 · 1892-07-09

   John F. Waggaman takes 400 acres called "the Isle of Wight" for a dollar, and sells it on within four months.

   In the same Real Estate Transfers column that recorded the Atlantic Hotel passing through his hands, the Democratic Messenger of July 9, 1892 recorded another Waggaman purchase: "John F. Waggaman from Wm. S. Johnson and wife a tract of land situate in Worcester county, Md., called the 'Isle of Wight,' containing 400 acres. Consideration $1.00." On November 19 it went out again: "Edward T. Kellar from John Waggaman and wife certain land situate in Worcester county called 'Isle of Wight.' $10.00." The nominal considerations mark these as conveyances within a syndicate rather than arm's-length sales. The Isle of Wight is the marsh island and neck at the head of Isle of Wight Bay, north of Ocean City — the same water the Isle of Wight Inlet and Oyster Planting Company had just been rechartered to cut into, and the same water a correspondent that May said was the right place for an inlet: "He says before Ocean City, I say above Ocean City, for there is located the largest body of water — the Isle of Wight Bay."

   Isle of Wight Inlet and Oyster Planting Company of Worcester CountySinepuxent Beach Company

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

5. 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 CompanyDr. J. Pembroke Thom

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

6. 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 KeeneHarvey L. PageWilliam Sydney Wilson

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

7. 1895

   "Still Booming" — the Sinepuxent Beach Company raises fresh capital in the depths of the depression and re-elects a board of Baltimore, Washington and Snow Hill men.

   The Sinepuxent Beach Company, incorporated in December 1890 [fact:1890-sinepuxent-beach-company-incorporated] and by now the owner of the Atlantic Hotel and most of the beach [fact:1892-sinepuxent-beach-company-buys-the-atlantic-hotel], spent 1895 trying to build its way out of the slump. The Democratic Messenger of February 16 reported the annual meeting: an electric road on the ocean front was to be begun as soon as the weather permitted and finished for the coming season, improvements were promised to the hotels the company owned, but "no additional hotel accommodations will be provided by the company for the present." The board was re-elected entire — "Chas. Goldsborough, Gen. John Gill, R. Goldsborough Keene, James Bates, John A. Hambleton, Willard Toulson, of Baltimore; John F. Waggaman, Harvey L. Page, of Washington, and W. Sidney Wilson of Snow Hill." The mayor of Ocean City sat on the board of the company that owned it. On April 6 the paper ran the story again under the headline "STILL BOOMING. Steam Railway, Electric Light Plant and Ice Factory": stockholders were "rapidly subscribing the additional [stock] of the capital stock authorized by the meeting of March 20," the proceeds "to be used in improving the property," the company having concluded "that certain improvements were absolutely necessary to insure the success of the resort."

   Sinepuxent Beach CompanyRobert Goldsborough Keene

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

8. 1895 · 1895-01-19

   The Sinepuxent Beach Company's stock is locked up in John F. Waggaman's option, and the stockholders talk of a receiver.

   The Democratic Messenger of 19 January 1895 reports that John F. Waggaman had bought an option on a majority of the Sinepuxent Beach Company's stock, paying as much as $110 a share for some of it, and had sold it on to various parties while retaining the voting privilege on every share. The stock called in under a pending offer had been deposited with the Mercantile Trust Company of Baltimore, which was to arrange a transfer to Philadelphia buyers, and there the transaction stuck. Waggaman, the paper says, did not himself own a share. The Philadelphia party had visited the beach and 'come to the conclusion that its possibilities are good'; the bulk of the stockholders, some of whom lived at Ocean City, were 'much worried over Mr. Waggaman's delay,' and several said the matter might be taken to court, a receiver appointed, and the property sold despite him. The same paragraph dates the company's incorporation to 1890.

   Sinepuxent Beach Company

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

9. 1895 · 1895-03-23

   Having refused to sell, the beach company doubles its own stock and lets a five-mile railway the length of Ocean City on Baltimore Avenue — by steam, because the directors found steam cheaper than electricity.

   The Messenger of 2 March 1895 reported the Sinepuxent Beach Company 'receiving bids for the construction of the railroad which is to traverse the length of Ocean City, north and south, along Baltimore avenue,' five miles long, its northern terminus on the beach opposite Isle of Wight Bay and its southern terminus 'a beautiful high bluff' where a spacious pavilion for picnic parties was intended. On 23 March the paper printed the decisions: the additional stock unsubscribed at the end of the subscription period would go into the company's treasury; the proceeds were to improve the Ocean City property, 'the most important of these improvements' being the five-mile Baltimore Avenue railway; a committee of John F. Waggaman, Robert G. Keene and Charles Goldsborough was appointed to contract for the work; and 'the road will be operated by steam as the directors concluded this to be cheaper than electricity.' It was to be finished by 15 June, when the resort opened. James Bates and W. J. Warrington of Berlin were named a committee to provide a new steam laundry and an ice-making machine, and 'additional dynamos for supplying electricity to light the town' were to be provided. On 6 April the paper ran the story again under the heading 'STILL BOOMING — Steam Railway, Electric Light Plant and Ice Factory,' with the stockholders 'rapidly subscribing the additional $60,000 of the capital stock.'

   Sinepuxent Beach CompanyRobert Goldsborough KeeneCharles Goldsborough

   Source · checked 2026-08-11

10. 1896 · 1896-05-04

    A year after the sale was reported "completed," the B.C.&A. still cannot buy the Sinepuxent Beach Company — and John E. Searles, its president, is the reason the town election was fought.

    The 4 May 1896 election dispatch explains why the Beach Company's directors cared so much about a municipal ballot: "It has been known for some time past that the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company have wanted to get control of Ocean City, but were unable to complete the deal, as certain influences which had charge of the property were not in accord with the proposed sale, and it was largely for this purpose that the fight to-day was so hot. There is now a good prospect that the people controlling the Beach Company and the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Company will soon come to terms whereby there will be a consolidation of the two interests. The popularity of Ocean City and the successful seasons have, it is said, greatly impressed Mr. Searles, president of the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Company, who is eager to get control of the beach." A near adviser of Searles is quoted promising that if the sale went through he "will expend large sums of money to make this resort the leading one of all seaside places," and noting that Searles, "in charge of Rehoboth Beach when the new railroad is completed, will be making bids for Maryland support." John Waggaman answered for the company that "Ocean City will be able to compete with any of the seaside resorts." This is the same John E. Searles, secretary of the American Sugar Refining Company, whose syndicate was reported in July 1894 as about to "boom Ocean City" [fact:1894-syndicate-plans-to-boom-ocean-city]: by 1894 he was behind the consolidation that formed the B.C.&A. [fact:1894-bca-formed-by-consolidation-under-searles], and by 1896 he was its president and still had not got the beach.

    Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic RailwaySinepuxent Beach Company

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

11. 1896 · 1896-05-04

    Ocean City's first contested election is "a fight between the people of the south end against the members of the Sinepuxent Beach Company" — and the losing ticket is led by Edward Hobbs and Daniel Trimper.

    The dispatch of 4 May 1896 printed in the Democratic Messenger of 9 May gives what the election result alone does not. "There were two tickets in the field and the contest was hot throughout. The opposition ticket was led by Messrs. Edward Hobbs, Daniel Trimper and others, while Messrs. John Waggaman and others looked after the interest of the candidates on the successful ticket. The polls were opened at 11 o'clock and closed at 2." And plainly: "The campaign started some weeks ago and was a fight between what is known as the people of the south end of Ocean City against the members of the Sinepuxent Beach Company." Non-residents who owned property could vote, which "brought a large influx of visitors from all parts of the State as well as from Washington, D. C. These interested parties stood around the polls all day and canvassed for votes for their ticket" — including "Mr. A. Marcus, secretary of the Northern Pacific Railroad," who "came to vote and after casting his ballot left on a special train for New York." The dispatch adds that the majority of the Beach Company's stock was held in Washington, and that its Washington stockholders and lot owners, "disbarred from voting at elections" in the District, "were here in full force today and seemed to enjoy the privilege of casting ballots in a free country." This is the earliest documented factional politics in Ocean City, and it names two men the campaign had placed in the town's government only much later: Edward Hobbs, of the Eastern Shore House, and Daniel Trimper.

    Sinepuxent Beach CompanyDaniel Trimper, Sr.George M. Upshur

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

12. 1897 · 1897-05-01

    John F. Waggaman buys the Sinepuxent Beach Company's entire Ocean City estate for $65,000 — hotel, bath houses, electric light plant, artesian well, nine miles of ocean front.

    The single transaction the campaign has hunted since 1896, with a buyer, a seller, a date and a price. The Sinepuxent Beach Company told a Baltimore court it was insolvent in November 1896; in February 1897 "the receivers of the Sinepuxent Beach Company visited Ocean City to make an inspection of the property"; in March the state-news columns reported it "thought that Mr. John F. Waggaman, of Washington, D. C., and a syndicate will buy the Ocean City property of the Sinepuxent Beach Company"; and on 1 May 1897 the Cecil Whig printed the result: "A Washington capitalist has purchased for $65,000 all the property of the Sinepuxent Beach Company, at Ocean City, Worcester county, Maryland, including the Atlantic Hotel, with its furniture and equipments, the ladies' bath houses, electric light plant, artesian well, nine miles of ocean front, embracing several thousand building lots and two farms of 700 acres each on the mainland. … John F. Waggaman, the purchaser, indicates that a new stock company will be formed for the purpose of carrying on the business and reviving the fortunes of this old-time interesting resort." By 5 June the Washington Evening Star was running "Improvements at Ocean City": Waggaman "has recently purchased Ocean City, on the eastern shore of Maryland", H. P. Burney of the Arlington Hotel would run the Atlantic that summer and "the general management of the property is in the hands of Mr. A. F. Childs." The 1898 pass had the sale second-hand, from a March 1898 sentence naming no price; this is the contemporary report, and the $65,000 is the number nobody had. The promised new stock company is not attested anywhere afterwards — Waggaman held the plat in his own name.

    Ocean City did not change hands at a courthouse door. It changed hands for sixty-five thousand dollars, and the inventory reads like a deed to a whole town: a hotel, the bath houses, the electric plant, the well, the beach and two farms.

    Atlantic HotelSinepuxent Beach Company

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

13. 1897 · 1897-06-15

    Congress Hall reopens as "New Congress Hall", remodelled at a cost of $10,000, with electric lights and electric bells.

    From the hotel's own standing advertisement in the Washington Evening Star through the summer of 1897: "NEW CONGRESS HALL, OCEAN CITY, Worcester county, Maryland. Remodeled at a cost of $10,000. Electric lights, electric bells and every modern convenience. Is now open for season 1897. For terms and particulars address KELLEY & SEE[?], Props., Ocean City, Md. Or THOS. COBURN, 515 14th st. n.w., Washington, D. C." The proprietors' surname is damaged in every surviving impression of the advertisement. This is the second Ocean City hotel the campaign can put under electric light — the Atlantic was refitted in 1892 — and the Sinepuxent Beach Company's own electric light plant passed to John F. Waggaman in the same season. Five months later the ocean took Congress Hall's front porches and, by one out-of-town account, part of the building.

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

14. 1897 · 1897-07-15

    Three days of southeast wind in July wash the sand out from under the board walk — and the season is still called the best in the town's history.

    A dispatch datelined "Ocean City, Md., July 15" in the Wilmington Evening Journal: "There has been a strong wind blowing from the southeast for three days, and the surf became so high that in some places the sand was washed away to such an extent as to encroach on the boardwalk. The temperature of air and water is very pleasant and many people are [arriving] for the season, which promises to be more prosperous than ever before in the history of Ocean City." The same column reports a yachting party on Sinepuxent Bay given by John F. Waggaman.

    July took the sand out from under the walk; October took the walk. The 1897 board walk had a bad year.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

15. 1897 · 1897-08-04

    John F. Waggaman advertises Ocean City in the Washington Evening Star: 50 x 142-foot lots "as low as $100," cottages to rent for the season at $150 to $200.

    A standing advertisement in the Evening Star's Seashore Real Estate column, signed "JNO. F. WAGGAMAN, 700 14th st., or ATLANTIC HOTEL, Ocean City, Md.": "OWN A COTTAGE BY THE SEA. RENT A COTTAGE BY THE SEA. No place on the ATLANTIC OCEAN affords so many attractive features as a place of residence or offers greater inducements for profitable investment than OCEAN CITY, MD. — only 4 1/2 hours from Washington. Cottages for sale, $7[--] to $4,000 — For Rent, for season, $150 to $200. Lots for sale, 50x142 ft., as low as $100. ... THE SOCIAL LIFE at Ocean City is delightful, and surrounded as it is by as productive a country as is in the world, one can live like a [prince] for little money. Special Excursions every Saturday, 3 o'clock, B. & O." The bottom of the cottage price range is illegible in the OCR ($7-something to $4,000) and is not recorded as a figure. — 1897 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [reviewed]: Extends the price list from Waggaman's own standing Evening Star advertisement, which ran from 8 July 1897: besides lots 50 x 142 feet as low as $100, cottages were for sale at $700 to $4,000 and to rent for the season at $150 to $200, and the advertised journey was "only 4 1/2 hours from Washington" with a personally conducted excursion leaving the B. & O. depot every Saturday at 3 p.m. via Bay Ridge for a $3 round trip. By November the same advertising was promising "Ocean City will be reached next season in about 3 1/2 hours."

    A hundred dollars for a lot on the island — the same bottom rung the county paper quoted in 1892 — five years and one depression later, still a hundred dollars. And the town's pitch to Washington was not the ocean; it was the timetable.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

16. 1897 · 1897-08-26

    Maryland's Republican state convention meets at Ocean City and repudiates its own United States senator, 61 votes to 3.

    On Thursday 26 August 1897 the Republican State Convention of Maryland sat at Ocean City to nominate a comptroller and a clerk of the Court of Appeals — the first state political convention the campaign can place in the town, two years before the press began calling it "Convention City". It became a factional war. Delegates went down by train all week; the Malster men of Baltimore considered chartering a boat and a special; admission to the convention hall was by ticket issued by the organisation secretary. State Chairman and U.S. Senator George L. Wellington called it to order a few minutes after noon, and the convention then ordered new primaries in Baltimore and, by 61 votes to 3, refused to endorse him. Sydney E. Mudd was the victor. The Washington Evening Times, writing the next morning, called it "the Ocean City Waterloo" and observed that "it is Wellington whose name is mud." The county paper's own note of the week is the flat one: "Both conventions sent delegates to the Ocean City Convention."

    The hall that made Ocean City a convention town is usually dated to Waggaman's Convention Hall of 1899. The state Republican party was already tearing itself apart here in 1897.

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

17. 1897 · 1897-11-15

    A hundred Ocean City lots are auctioned without reserve in a Washington saleroom, four hours from the beach, with the town's transport problem printed in the advertisement.

    Waggaman's first winter as owner: "100 choice alternating lots at Ocean City, Md., will be sold WITHOUT RESERVE at Sloan's Auction Rooms, 1407 G St., commencing Monday night, Nov. 15, at 8 o'clock. Sale will be continued nightly until all the lots are sold. One-fourth cash, balance in 6 and 12 months, WITHOUT INTEREST." The advertisements carried signed testimonials, and one of them says the quiet part out loud: "If Ocean City could obtain proper transportation facilities it would enjoy brighter prospects than any resort on the Atlantic coast" — W. H. Rapley; to which the advertisement answers, "Ocean City will be reached next season in about 3 1/2 hours." Waggaman's season advertising the same year priced the estate: cottages for sale $700 to $4,000, cottages to rent for the season $150 to $200, lots 50 x 142 feet as low as $100, and a personally conducted excursion leaving the B. & O. depot every Saturday at 3 p.m. via Bay Ridge, home Sunday 10 p.m., round trip $3. Sloan's, 1407 G Street, is the same room in which he auctioned Ocean City lots again in April 1899.

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

18. 1897 · 1897-12-08

    December, and the Atlantic Hotel serves dinner to a special-train party over the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic.

    "A PARTY AT OCEAN CITY. Ocean City, Md., Dec. 9. — John F. Waggaman, accompanied by C. M. Buse[ll?], of Washington, D. C.; Henry J. Taylor, of East Liverpool, Ohio; Dr. John W. Cox, of New York; Levin L. Waters, Jr., H. J. Waters, Miss Eliza N. Waters, Miss Emily R. Waters, Miss Annie Page and Miss Louise Page, of Princess Anne, and Miss Julia Newton Clark, of Delaware City, came to Ocean City by special train yesterday over the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic route. Dinner was served at the Atlantic Hotel. The party left at 2.30 in the afternoon for Salisbury, Md. The gentlemen expect to go to Old Point Comfort on Mr. [Busch]'s steam yacht Alga, which is now at Salisbury, Md." Waggaman had given a yachting party on Sinepuxent Bay in July and spent the December off-season here too — the pattern of a promoter, not a guest.

    Six weeks after the sea came over the island, the Atlantic Hotel was opening its dining room for a chartered train of New Yorkers and Washingtonians on their way to a steam yacht. The off-season had a business model.

    Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

19. 1898

    The Atlantic Hotel adds a banquet and convention hall, a new theater and an enlarged dancing pavilion, and advertises 300 rooms open all year.

    Planned in January and delivered by May. The Evening Star of 24 January 1898 reported that 'changes and improvements are being made to the Atlantic Hotel. It is proposed to refit one of the buildings for use as an auditorium, so that theatrical performances can be given.' The March dispatch from Ocean City added that 'the dancing pavilion of the Atlantic Hotel is to be raised and enlarged and underneath, on the first floor, is to be constructed a women's and men's [bath house].' By 14 May the season advertisement could claim: 'ATTRACTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS. "The Atlantic" has added this year a large BANQUET and CONVENTION HALL and a NEW THEATER. Among the attractions are an orchestra composed of young ladies, special dramatic company, large dancing pavilion, large, airy rooms, excellent cuisine and rates as low as compatible with luxury and good living.' The hotel advertised '300 rooms' and 'Open all the year' under Theo. L. Page, manager. In July the season's music was 'Miss Smoot's orchestra, from New York city.' The convention hall paid for itself within two months: the Maryland Bankers' Association held its third annual convention in the hotel that July.

    A convention hall and a theater on a barrier beach in the first season under new ownership. Waggaman was not buying a hotel; he was buying a season, and he built the rooms that would fill it in June and September as well as August.

    Atlantic Hotel CompanyTheodore L. Page

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

20. 1898

    Ocean City has its own newspaper: the Ocean City News, quoted by the Washington press in February 1898.

    The Washington Evening Star of 9 February 1898: 'The Ocean City (Md.) News says that steps have been taken looking to a regatta on Sinepuxent Bay at Ocean City during the week following the National Association regatta at Philadelphia, July 22 and 23.' The Wilmington Evening Journal's Ocean City dispatch of 4 March identifies the man behind the regatta scheme as an officer of 'the News' who was also 'manager for John F. Waggaman' — so the town paper and the town's principal owner shared a hand. This is the earliest reference this campaign has found to a newspaper published at Ocean City itself; the county's news had until now come entirely from Snow Hill, Berlin and Pocomoke City. No file of the Ocean City News is known to be digitised. — 1898 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [reviewed]: Moves the paper's first attestation back a year and names its proprietor. The Washington Times of 14 August 1897 quotes it and says who ran it: "The Ocean City News, owned and very ably edited by Mr. John F. Waggaman, who has recently bought the Eastern Shore of Maryland, declares with emphasis and hauteur that there are no mosquitoes at Ocean City big enough to kill a man by one bite in his jugular vein." So the paper existed by August 1897, within four months of Waggaman buying the town, and it was his — a house organ for the estate he was auctioning in Washington that winter, not an independent local sheet. It should be read as advertising.

    For twenty-three years everything we know about Ocean City has come from somebody else's paper. In 1898 the town finally had one of its own — and not a page of it survives online.

    Ocean City News

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

21. 1898

    The Colonial opens a block north of the life-saving station — a hundred-guest ocean-front hotel wired for electric bells and lights.

    Advertised in the Washington Evening Star from 3 June and reported open for guests by 1 July 1898: 'OCEAN CITY, MD. — THE COLONIAL, now open for guests, situated one block north of the United States life-saving station, and directly on the ocean front, is one of the most attractive new hotels at Ocean City. It has a capacity of about one hundred guests. It is beautifully and tastefully furnished with brass beds, hair mattresses and maple furniture, and is wired for electric bells and lights. Inquire 700 14th St., or W. J. Warrington, Ocean City, Md.' The Star's resort notes of 16 July called its interior 'quite as attractive as its exterior appearance.' Warrington — the Baltimore man who incorporated the Steel Pier and Railway Company of Ocean City in 1896 and built one of the 1896 cottages — was the proprietor; enquiries also went to 700 14th Street, John F. Waggaman's Washington office, which handled the whole resort's bookings that season. — 1898 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [reviewed]: Flags a date conflict rather than resolving it. The Washington Evening Star's Ocean City correspondence of 14 July 1897 reports that "The Colonial is being largely remodeled and will open on the 15th" — of July 1897, a full season before the opening this fact records. Either the house opened in 1897 and was enlarged for 1898, or the 1897 reference is to a different building of the same name. The 1898 record should not be published as a first opening without checking the 1897 Evening Star correspondence. Adds the house's own advertisement, which settles both its ownership and its fittings: "OCEAN CITY, MD. — THE COLONIAL, NOW OPEN for guests, situated one block north of the United States life-saving station, and directly on the ocean front, is one of the most attractive new hotels at Ocean City. It has a capacity of about one hundred guests. It is beautifully and tastefully furnished with brass beds, hair mattresses and maple furniture, and is wired for electric bells and lights. Inquire 700 14th st., or W. J. WARRINGTON, Ocean City, Md." 700 14th Street is John F. Waggaman's Washington office, so the Colonial was his house from the start, run for him by W. J. Warrington — as it still was in 1899. Note that it is wired for electric light in 1898, in a town whose electric plant Waggaman had bought with the Atlantic the year before.

    Two years after the Sinepuxent Beach Company admitted it was insolvent, a new hundred-bed hotel went up on the ocean front with electric light in every room. The failure was the company's, not the beach's.

    William J. Warrington

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

22. 1898

    The Sinepuxent Beach Company's collapse is settled: the Atlantic Hotel and the unsold building lots are John F. Waggaman's, sold to him out of the wreck in 1897.

    The Wilmington Evening Journal's Ocean City dispatch of 4 March 1898: 'Word comes to us here to-day that the Atlantic Hotel will be managed this year by Theodore L. Page, who was in charge of the hotel for several seasons prior to the sale by the Sinepuxent Beach Company last year to John F. Waggaman, of Washington.' Waggaman's own advertising through the 1898 season confirms it and shows the scope of what he took: the Washington Evening Star carried, from late May, 'OCEAN CITY, MD. ATLANTIC HOTEL, directly on the beach. Open all the year. Modern improvements. 300 rooms. Finest bathing, boating and fishing, both bay and deep sea... THEO. L. PAGE, Mgr. BUILDING LOTS for sale, low. Easy terms. Own your own seaside cottage. Apply to JOHN F. WAGGAMAN, 700 14th St., Washington, D. C.' Waggaman's Washington office also sold the excursion tickets, and on Saturday 25 June 1898 he held 'a grand and unreserved sale of LOTS at auction' at Ocean City; a March auction of Ocean City building lots had already been held at Sloan's, 1407 G Street, Washington. So the hotel, the resort's promotion and the unsold plat all passed from a Baltimore development company that went into receivership in November 1896 to one Washington real-estate man, who ran them as a single business.

    The receivership question that has hung over this decade has a plain answer: the town was bought by a Washington realtor, and for the next several years Ocean City was, commercially, an annex of an office at 700 14th Street NW.

    Sinepuxent Beach CompanyAtlantic Hotel CompanyTheodore L. Page

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

23. 1899

    "Convention City": in a single July, Ocean City hosts more than 300 Maryland schoolteachers and the Governor, the state's bankers, the druggists and the Democratic editors — in a hall seating a thousand.

    The 32nd annual assembly of the Maryland State Teachers' Association convened at eight o'clock on the evening of 11 July 1899 at the Atlantic Hotel, its business sessions in Convention Hall, and ran through the 13th. "Gov. Lloyd Lowndes and the entire state board of education occupied the platform. President J. T. White of Cumberland presided … James E. Ellegood of Salisbury cordially welcomed the association to the eastern shore, and Prof. E. B. Prettyman of the State Normal School responded." Der Deutsche Correspondent of 12 July counted "more than 300 teachers." The Maryland Bankers' Association held its fourth annual convention there on 20 July, William F. Johnson of Snow Hill giving the address of welcome "Representing the Mayor of Ocean City" and noting it was their second year running. The druggists met the same week; the Maryland Democratic Editors' Association had come down on 18 June on the Pennsylvania Railroad superintendent's private train and been entertained by Waggaman at the Colonial. The county paper's verdict: "That the name of Worcester's favorite summer resort, Ocean City, might appropriately be changed to Convention City becomes more apparent each succeeding season." The hall that made it possible was new, owned by John F. Waggaman, and seated about a thousand. — 1899 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: SHARPENED, and a fourth convention added. The Ocean City column of 22 July names the season's run in one sentence: "last week the Teachers Association and Druggists convention both met here, this week the Bankers of Maryland are now in session and next week the MARYLAND BAR ASSOCIATION will meet here, and so it goes on throughout the season." That is four state bodies in three consecutive weeks, not three. The same column names the county's bankers who attended — I. T. Matthews, Geo. S. Payne, Levi A. Purnell, L. L. Dirickson, Calvin B. Taylor, Wm. Dale, Wm. F. King and E. G. Polk, 'every bank in the county.' The teachers' choice of Ocean City is now documented as a lobbying campaign rather than an invitation accepted: see fact:1899-worcester-lobbies-the-teachers-away-from-the-mountains. The meeting-number conflict is NOT resolved and should stand. — 1899 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [corrected]: THE MEETING-NUMBER CONFLICT CAN NOW BE RESOLVED IN FAVOUR OF 'THIRTY-SECOND', and the DataConflict should be closed. The Prince George's Enquirer of 30 June 1899 prints the association's own official announcement over the name of its executive chairman: "John D. Worthington, chairman of the executive board of the State Teachers' Association of Maryland, has officially announced the 32nd annual meeting of that body, which will assemble at Ocean City, Md., July 11, 12 and 13. The headquarters of the association will be at the Atlantic Hotel, and the business sessions will be held in Convention Hall." That is the same officer whose committee chose Ocean City in May, announcing the meeting number himself, and it agrees with the Evening Star's dispatch. The Messenger's 'twenty-third' should be recorded as an error of its own or of its compositor. Provenance confidence can move from conflicting to verified.

    Before it was a boardwalk town, Ocean City was a conference town — and it got there by owning the only room on the lower Eastern Shore that could hold a thousand people.

    Atlantic HotelState Teachers' Association of MarylandMaryland Bankers AssociationPeninsular Press Association

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

24. 1899

    In 1899 two railroads were selling Ocean City, Maryland, to the Ohio Valley and the Alleghenies — the B&O out of Wheeling at $10 the round trip, the Pennsylvania out of Pittsburgh — and the Wheeling papers carried the resort on 162 pages of the 205 that mention it.

    "The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad have arranged a series of popular seashore excursions, to be run Thursdays, July 13 and 27, August 10 and 24, to Atlantic City, Cape May, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, N. J., and Ocean City, Md. Tickets will be good fifteen (15) days, including day of sale. Stop overs will be allowed on return trip at Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington on tickets sold to New Jersey resorts, and at Baltimore and Washington on tickets sold to Ocean City, Md." From Wheeling the round trip was $10.00; from Charles Town, $5.00. The Pennsylvania Railroad ran its own competing series on Thursdays 6 and 20 July and 3 and 17 August, out of Pittsburgh by special train of Pullman parlor cars at 8.55 in the morning, to the same New Jersey list plus "Rehoboth, Del., or Ocean City, Md.", with connections advertised in the Valley of Virginia via the Norfolk & Western. And through the same summer the Atlantic Hotel took display advertising in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer — "Open June 21. Accommodations for 350. Directly on the beach… apply to Geo. D. De Shields, Mgr. Dewey Hotel, or Jno. F. Waggaman, 700 14th St., Washington, D. C." — running beside the Deer Park Hotel's, as an alternative to the mountains.

    The campaign has treated West Virginia and Pennsylvania as corpora full of the wrong Ocean City. In 1899 they are not: 162 of the 205 West Virginia pages that mention any Ocean City name Ocean City, MARYLAND, because two trunk railroads were selling this beach four hundred miles inland and the man who owned the beach was buying space in Wheeling to help them.

    Atlantic HotelPennsylvania Railroad CompanyMaj. George D. De Shields

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

25. 1899

    Two centrally located lots are given for a new Episcopal church at Ocean City, the old one south of the depot is advertised for sale, and the parish that becomes St. Paul's by-the-Sea starts building.

    The Delaware Gazette and State Journal of 20 July 1899: "[John] Floyd Waggaman has given two valuable lots, centrally located, in Ocean City, upon which it is intended to build a Protestant Episcopal Church. The present church is not favorably situated, and the Rev. J. Gibson Gantt of Berlin, Md., who is rector of the parish which includes this charge, has for some time [been] very anxious to make a change … Every season the number of members of the Protestant Episcopal Church visiting Ocean City is large, and it is thought the new church will be much larger and a much finer building than the one now in use." The Messenger's Ocean City column of 15 July had the local end: "Active steps are being taken by Rev. Gibson Gantt toward securing a new lot and building a handsome church at this place. The old church and lot south of the railroad station are advertised for sale August 22d. It is a valuable piece of property and should command a good price." The building committee was Robert J. Showell, L. L. Dirickson, Jr., and Edward M. Scott. The Middletown Transcript's Maryland column of 19 August summed it up: "A larger Episcopal church is to be erected at Ocean City, the present one being too small to accommodate summer visitors." The cornerstone of St. Paul's by-the-Sea was laid on 6 June 1900.

    Waggaman's gift of the lots is dated 1898 by the National Register form and reported as news in July 1899 — the deed may predate the announcement.

    St. Paul's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

26. 1899

    The answer to the Sinepuxent Beach Company's collapse: by 1899 Col. John Floyd Waggaman of Washington owns the Atlantic Hotel, the Colonial, Convention Hall and much of Ocean City — and he sells its lots from an office on 14th Street.

    The 1896 receivership of the Sinepuxent Beach Company left open who ended up with the Atlantic Hotel and the unsold plat. The 1899 record answers it, and the answer is not the railway. The Wilmington Evening Journal of 27 July 1899 wrote that "Ocean City has improved very much within the past few years, since so much of the property passed into the hands of Colonel John Floyd Waggaman, of Washington, who owns the Atlantic Hotel, and is an enterprising business man, experienced in handling large enterprises" — adding that Washington people now made up a large share of both cottagers and transient guests. The Evening Star's standing summer advertisement for "The Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, Maryland" gave the address for lots, cottages and terms as "JOHN F. WAGGAMAN, 700 14th st., Washington, D. C." The Salisbury Courier called him "proprietor of the Atlantic Hotel" and owner of "the new Convention Hall … seating about one thousand." He also owned the Colonial, run for him by W. J. Warrington. The Worcester County land records printed monthly in the Democratic Messenger show Ocean City lots being conveyed out of his hands, not the company's: lot 447 in block 12 north for $385, lots 7 and 8 in block 67 south for $110, lot 9 in block 7 for $105. And on 12 April 1899 "choice Ocean City lots" were sold at auction at Sloan's, 1407 G Street, Washington — the town's building lots being retailed four hours away by rail. — 1899 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: A fifth register, and a name variant worth logging. The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer carried the Atlantic Hotel's display advertisement over Waggaman's Washington address through the summer of 1899, and the Richmond Dispatch carried it from June to mid-July — so his advertising reach in 1899 runs from Norfolk to the Ohio river. Two Maryland papers name him differently on the same occasion: the Prince George's Enquirer of 23 June calls him "Mr. John F. Waggaman, of Washington, who has large interests at this attractive watering place", while the Saint Mary's Beacon of 6 July, describing the same editors' excursion, calls him "Col. John LLOYD Waggaman, of Washington." Given that the campaign has already had to correct Thomas E. to John Floyd, the Lloyd variant should be recorded and not followed.

    Ocean City spent the 1890s owned by a Baltimore company that went broke. It began the twentieth century owned, in large part, by one man from Washington — who would be its mayor by 1902.

    Atlantic HotelSinepuxent Beach Company

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

27. 1899

    $150 to $400 for a furnished cottage for the year, and a hotel that slept 350: the 1899 Ocean City season, priced in the Washington papers.

    Three Ocean City houses advertised all season in the Washington Evening Star. The Colonial — "converted into an ideal spring and summer hotel … over 150 feet of glass-inclosed veranda, with heated sun parlors for invalids … purest artesian water. Gunning, fishing and sailing are the popular sports" — was run by W. J. Warrington and offered "Lots for sale. Summer cottages for rent, furnished, $150 to $400 per year. Stores and boarding houses for rent." The Atlantic Hotel opened 22 June with "accommodations for 350. Directly on the beach. First class throughout, with all modern improvements. Dancing pavilion; excellent music. The newest and most delightful health and pleasure resort on Atlantic coast" — under Maj. Geo. D. De Shields, manager of the Dewey Hotel in Washington. The Hotel Plimhimmon and Casino advertised under R. T. Shreve's name: "Fine surf bathing. Good fishing and sailing. Excellent cuisine. Grand piazza. Orchestra."

    Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaRosalie Tilghman Shreve

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

28. 1899 · 1899-02-04

    The Sinepuxent Beach Company is still alive on the land records in February 1899, leasing Hammock Point to William Warrington — while the Ocean City lots pass out of John F. Waggaman's own hands.

    The county paper's monthly abstract of the Worcester County land records, printed 4 February 1899, carries in one column both halves of the ownership question. On one side: "Lease, William Warrington from the Sinepuxent Beach Company of Baltimore City, all that certain piece or parcel of land, situate in Worcester county west of Ocean City, commonly known as 'Hammock Point,' yearly rent." On the other, three conveyances out of Waggaman personally — lot No. 447 in Block 12 north to Frederick W. Pilling; lots 7 and 8 in a south block to Andrew Hemmerle for $110; lots in Block 68 south to Charles G. Sloan. Two years and two months after the company told a Baltimore court it was insolvent, it was still a landlord on the mainland shore, and the beach lots were being sold by a man.

    The campaign has been looking for the moment the Sinepuxent Beach Company handed Ocean City to John Floyd Waggaman. This is the first document that shows the two of them existing side by side — which means the handover was a transfer of some of the property, not the winding-up of the company.

    Sinepuxent Beach Company

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

29. 1899 · 1899-04-27

    Ocean City's first jetties work: trial groins driven off the Atlantic Hotel in the autumn of 1898 build four to five feet of new sand over a seventy-foot front by April 1899.

    Under the head "OCEAN CITY JETTY — GRATIFYING SUCCESS OF THE EXPERIENCE ON SINEPUXENT BEACH," a dispatch datelined Ocean City, Md., April 27 reported that "the trial jetties driven last fall by John F. Waggaman in front of the Atlantic have proved to be a gratifying success. As a material safeguard to the terra firma of the city they accomplish all that can be desired, and insure permanence to real estate along the front" — between four and five feet of substantial sand had filled in over the seventy feet between the jetty, which ran parallel to the coast, and the Atlantic Hotel. "Those having property on Atlantic avenue will now erect jetties for protection." The same dispatch reported that Waggaman had had piling driven in the form of a sixty-foot square off the Atlantic, extending from the hotel out into the ocean, over which he would erect a covered platform "arching overhead," and that he also expected to build a dancing pavilion facing the hotel and the ocean. This is the earliest documented shore-protection engineering at Ocean City that this campaign has found, and it comes two and a half years after the ocean took the board walk from Congress Hall south.

    Ninety years before the federal beach-replenishment programme, a Washington real-estate man paid out of pocket to make sand stay put in front of his hotel — and it worked well enough that his neighbours copied him within the season.

    Atlantic Hotel

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

30. 1899 · 1899-08-31

    $3.60 from Washington to Ocean City and back for the Labor Day weekend of 1899, booked not through a railroad office but through the man who owned the town.

    In the Evening Star's excursion column on 31 August and 1 September 1899: "$3.60 — TO THE SEASHORE AND RETURN — $3.60. Spend Labor day at Ocean City, Md. Train leaves SATURDAY at 1:15. Special rates at hotel. Inquire of JOHN F. WAGGAMAN, 700 14th st." It ran directly above a steamer excursion to Colonial Beach at fifty cents the round trip. Set it against the county's own scale the same summer: the Thursday excursion charged Snow Hill 75 cents and Franklin City $1.05, and the Baltimore & Ohio charged Wheeling $10.00. Ocean City in 1899 was a four-hour, $3.60 weekend from the capital — and the ticket, the train and the hotel were all being sold from one real-estate office at 700 Fourteenth Street.

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

31. 1899 · 1899-09-08

    With the railroad sold, Waggaman opens negotiations to sell the Pennsylvania his Ocean City hotels too — having first been asked to buy the railroad himself.

    The Wilmington Evening Journal of 8 September 1899: "The report comes from Ocean City that John Floyd Waggaman is in negotiation with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for the sale of valuable hotel and other properties owned by him at Ocean City. Mr. Waggaman was approached to purchase the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railroad Company before its sale to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He then contemplated building an annex to the Atlantic Hotel, which he owns, and which is one of the leading hotels in Ocean City. This addition would give about 150 extra rooms to the hotel." The Smyrna Times reprinted it on 13 September. Nothing in the rest of the year records a sale, and Waggaman was still the owner — and became mayor — afterwards.

    For a few weeks in 1899 the whole of Ocean City's hotel front and its railroad were nearly under one owner. It did not happen, and no source in this corpus says why.

    Atlantic HotelBaltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic RailwayPennsylvania Railroad Company

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

32. 1900

    Board at the Dennis House costs $6 to $8 a week, and a Washington man builds a new hotel on the board walk.

    The Evening Star's summer-resort columns and the town's own correspondents give the fullest hotel roster this project holds for the turn of the century. The Atlantic Hotel opened Saturday 23 June, "thoroughly refurnished and refitted, private baths attached," rates from Geo. D. De Shields at 700 14th St NW, Washington — John F. Waggaman's address of the year before, and Waggaman himself was abroad for much of the summer. The Plimhimmon Hotel and Casino opened 9 June "greatly enlarged": ocean front, dining room capacity 200, "orchestra and ball room; surf bathing, sailing, fishing, gunning, etc.; bath houses connected with hotel; bowling alleys, pool tables, etc.; Chattolanee spring water served," over Mrs. R. T. Shreve's name, with a large ocean-front dining room added as an annex that spring. The one house that printed a price was the Dennis House, Mrs. R. J. Dennis: "Unobstructed view of ocean and bay; excellent table. Terms, $6 to $8 per week. Also furnished cottage for rent." Also advertising: the Seaside Hotel (Mrs. A. B. Showell, proprietor; John L. Streeper, manager), Ocean Swell Cottage (J. D. Showell, open from 1 May, "one of the best places at Ocean City, Md., to have a royal good time"), the Colonial (W. J. Warrington), Sutton Lodge (Mrs. M. K. Michael), Tarry Awhile Cottage (Mrs. Mason), and Neptune Villa, advertised in the Washington Times as "direct on sea ... fruits, vegetables, butter and milk from Eastern Shore. Terms moderate. Address Manager, Box 45." John F. Waggaman advertised the town itself over his own name in the Evening Star through June — "Spend the summer in the cool breezes at Ocean City, Md. Directly on the Atlantic. Always cool ... splendid bathing, fishing and boating. Living is remarkably cheap" — with furnished cottages for rent, cottages and lots for sale and "money loaned to build." Congress Hall, the Gordon and the Ocean Wave appear in the Black correspondence. And new for the season: "Mr. W. E. Buell of Washington has erected a large hotel on the board walks near the United States life saving station, to be known as the Mt. Pleasant" — opening 20 June, "directly on the beach; comfortable rooms, wide verandas, ocean front, dining room, sun parlor, bath rooms" — one of "as many as a dozen smaller buildings ... built this spring." By late July it was "thinking about putting out the 'standing room only' sign."

    Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaOcean City BoardwalkMaj. George D. De ShieldsRosalie Tilghman ShreveWilliam Warrington

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

33. 1900 · 1900-04-10

    Chapter 682 charters the Ocean City Steel Pier Railway and Amusement Company — an ocean pier plus an electric railway the whole length of the beach.

    Approved 10 April 1900, Chapter 682 of the Acts of 1900 incorporates George J. Records, John F. Waggaman, William Lee Carey, Henry J. Anderson, William J. Warrington and John M. Carter, Jr. of Maryland; Louis F. Doyle of New York; Claud M. Johnson of the District of Columbia; and Nathaniel F. Wilds of Delaware. The company may build "a steel or iron, or partly steel or iron, and partly wooden pier, projecting into the Atlantic Ocean from the shore, beginning ... from some suitable point south of Wicomico street, in said Ocean City, above high-water mark," fit it with "such appliances for amusement or use as the said incorporators may determine," and charge for them. It may also build an electric or compressed-air railway that "shall begin within the corporate limits of Ocean City, and shall run north and south from such points of beginning, the northern terminus to be at or near Fenwick's Island Lighthouse ... and the southern terminus to be at or near North Beach Life-Saving Station" — roughly the entire Maryland barrier beach, with powers of condemnation. Capital: 1,000 shares of $50, expandable by vote to 4,000. Two guards were written in: no use of Ocean City's streets or public property without "the consent and authority of the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City," and if only part of the works were ever built the charter would not be forfeited. The bill was introduced by Mr. Anderson of Worcester and reported from Annapolis on 1 March: "A new amusement pier and railroad will probably be the outcome." Neither the pier nor the railway was built; this is the third Ocean City pier company in five years to be chartered and vanish. — 1900 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [reviewed]: Adds the act's substance, read off the volume. Chapter 682, pp. 1074-1079, approved 10 April 1900. Incorporators: George J. Records, John F. Waggaman, William Lee Carey, Henry J. Anderson, William J. Warrington and John M. Carter Jr. of Maryland; Louis F. Doyle of New York; Claud M. Johnson of the District of Columbia; Nathaniel F. Wilds of Delaware. Section 2 authorises "a steel or iron, or partly steel or iron, and partly wooden pier, projecting into the Atlantic Ocean from the shore, beginning… from some suitable point south of Wicomico street, in said Ocean City, above high-water mark", with amusement appliances and tolls — AND an electric or compressed-air railway whose "northern terminus [is] to be at or near Fenwick's Island Lighthouse, in Worcester County, and the southern terminus to be at or near North Beach Life-Saving Station": a trolley the whole length of the barrier island. Capital 1,000 shares at $50, expandable to 4,000; organisable on 100 shares subscribed and $1 a share paid; nine directors; power to borrow, mortgage, consolidate with or lease to connecting railways; and nothing touching Ocean City's streets or public property effective "until the consent and authority of the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City are first obtained." That North Beach reference is the only mention of a life-saving station in the entire 1900 session-law volume.

    Ocean City Steel Pier Railway and Amusement CompanyW. Lee CareyWilliam J. Warrington

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

34. 1900 · 1900-07-10

    The old St. Paul's by-the-Sea is sold to Capt. Ludlam and its price put into the new church up the beach.

    "The old Church of St. Paul's by the Sea and the ground attached have been sold," the town's column reported on 10 July 1900. "Capt. Ludlam, the purchaser, will shortly build a residence there, and the proceeds of the property will be used toward the building of the Episcopal Church a mile further up the beach." The buyer was Christopher Ludlam, who would be mayor of Ocean City from 1903 to 1908. The new church — on the two lots John F. Waggaman had given in 1899, with its cornerstone laid on 6 June 1900 — was "rapidly nearing completion" by early August, when an entertainment was given for its benefit in the Plimhimmon Casino: "pretty young women from Baltimore and Washington will pose for the Gibson pictures and Professor Solmson's pupils will present a series of fancy and amusing" turns. It was expected to be dedicated in August 1900; the first public service was in fact held on 7 June 1901.

    St. Paul's by-the-Sea Episcopal ChurchPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaChristopher Ludlam

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

35. 1901

    Washington developer John F. Waggaman is credited with beautifying Ocean City "at great expense" — a year before he becomes its mayor.

    A July 1901 profile of Washington's Waggaman brothers, quoted in the Suburban Citizen of July 13, 1901, singles out John F. Waggaman as 'a large real estate owner' who 'originated features of great attraction' at Ocean City, 'which he has beautified at great expense, and which is one of the most desirable summer resorts around any of the cities of the Union.' The paper adds that the resort's 'beauty and other attractive features are wholly the result of lavish expenditures of cash by Mr. Waggaman,' and that 'through the efforts... of the numerous influential men who have purchased property there, low excursion rates are made over all lines.' The Waggaman family had donated the lots for St. Paul's by-the-Sea in 1898; John F. Waggaman succeeded Clayton J. Purnell (mayor 1900-02) as Ocean City's mayor in 1902.

    St. Paul's by-the-Sea Episcopal ChurchClayton J. Purnell

    Source · checked 2026-08-05

36. 1901

    Ten dollars bought a Washingtonian three days at the Atlantic Hotel - John F. Waggaman's Friday excursions to Ocean City, August 1901.

    Through August 1901 John F. Waggaman ran his own excursion out of Washington over his own name: "SPECIAL EXCURSIONS TO Ocean City, Maryland, FRIDAYS IN AUGUST, LEAVING WASHINGTON AT 3 P.M. Three Whole Days at the Atlantic Hotel, DIRECTLY ON THE ATLANTIC OCEAN... Fare, round trip, including board and lodging at the Atlantic Hotel, $10." The route was a special train from the Baltimore and Ohio station at three, a thirty-mile steamer sail down the Chesapeake from Baltimore to Claiborne, and a fast express across the Eastern Shore, arriving about nine; tickets were good to return Monday evening, and the Star's puff added that "the golf course is open to those going on this special excursion." A Labor Day trip closed the series. It is the campaign's clearest 1901 price: ten dollars, all found, for three days and nights - against $6 to $10 a week for a room at the Dennis and $164 to $300 for a whole cottage for the season.

    Atlantic Hotel

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

37. 1901 · 1901-01-19

    The Seaside Hotel is sold for $2,755 and absorbed into the Atlantic Hotel as an annex - the Waggaman interest tightening its grip on the beachfront.

    In the third week of January 1901 "Hon. George M. Upshur as attorney for James D. Massey was in Berlin last week and sold the following property: Seaside Hotel Ocean City, to Mr. N. F. Wilds a business partner of John F. Waggaman of Washington; consideration $2,755. The Seaside Hotel will be improved and used as an annex to the Atlantic Hotel." Nathaniel F. Wilds of Delaware had been one of the nine incorporators of the Ocean City Steel Pier Railway and Amusement Company the previous April. Three months later the Delaware Gazette's peninsula column reported the sale differently - "John F. Waggaman has bought the Seaside Hotel, Ocean City" - and the two accounts are recorded as a conflict rather than reconciled. Either way the effect was the same: the largest boarding house on the beach that was not already Waggaman's became an annex of the hotel that was.

    Atlantic HotelGeorge M. Upshur

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

38. 1901 · 1901-05-04

    A Washington classified advertises an Ocean City cottage "on board walk facing ocean" - the board walk used as an address, for rent by the season.

    In the Evening Star's seashore real-estate column of 4 May 1901: "FOR RENT - FOR SEASON - FURNISHED cottage, Ocean City, Md., on board walk facing ocean; wide verandas, awnings, &c. For particulars see owner. FRED. W. PILLING, 1536 15th st. n.w." A private owner in Washington could describe his Maryland cottage by its position on the board walk and expect a stranger to know what that meant. The walk is a fixed line with frontage on it, not a seasonal convenience - the same reading the 1900 pass drew from a hotel advertised as standing "on the board walks". The same column through May and June carried "TWO COTTAGES FOR RENT Ocean City, Md.; ocean front, near 'Plimhimmon;' 7 rooms each", a cottage "located in best part of city on ocean front" from T. M. Purnell of Snow Hill, "18 fine lots at Ocean City, Maryland, directly on ocean", and John F. Waggaman's own line: "SEVERAL NICELY FURNISHED cottages at Ocean City, Md., $164 to $300 for the season."

    Ocean City Boardwalk

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

39. 1901 · 1901-07-18

    Ocean City gets a golf course: the Ocean City Golf and Country Club is incorporated at the Atlantic Hotel in July 1901.

    "A meeting of the incorporators of the Ocean City Golf and Country Club was held at the Atlantic Hotel Thursday morning" - Thursday 18 July 1901. The articles were signed by six incorporators: H. A. Godfrey of Baltimore; Charles Webb of J., of Hagerstown; John F. Waggaman of Anne Arundel County; I. Edgar Ijams of Baltimore; George M. Upshur of Baltimore; and John P. Moore of Snow Hill. Godfrey took the chair, and the officers elected for the year were George M. Upshur president, Charles Webb of J. vice-president, and H. E. Waggaman secretary and treasurer, over a board of governors including Godfrey, F. H. Purnell, J. F. Waggaman, Showell Myers and Ijams. The course was "within twenty minutes of the most distant hotels" and "promises a fine sea bath at the end of the eighteen holes"; the Atlantic's management marked its formal opening with an entertainment on Saturday 27 July. This is the earliest golf course this campaign can document at Ocean City, and the men who chartered it are the men who owned the town.

    Atlantic HotelOcean City Golf and Country ClubGeorge M. UpshurJohn P. MooreJ. Edgar Ijams

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

40. 1901 · 1901-08-03

    The first open golf tournament at Ocean City is decided on the thirty-sixth hole before a gallery of over a hundred.

    The Ocean City Golf and Country Club's first open tournament ran 1-3 August 1901. In the qualifying round Thomas Slidell of New York - a Knickerbocker Club man entered from the Ocean City club - went round in 86, Dwight Mallory of the Baltimore Country Club in 88 and James P. McShane, also of Baltimore, in 90. In the semi-finals McShane beat Victor Wilson of the Ocean City club 2 up and 1 to play and was then beaten by Slidell 1 up, while Mallory beat John F. Waggaman of the Columbia Golf Club 7 up and 6 to play. The final, thirty-six holes at match play on Saturday 3 August, went to Slidell: three up after the morning eighteen, all square at the thirty-fifth, and the championship won at the thirty-sixth, with Mallory taking the runner-up trophy. H. E. Waggaman of Chevy Chase won the consolation cup from E. B. Showell Myers of Torresdale, Pennsylvania, 5 up and 3 to play. "A gallery of over a hundred" watched. Mixed foursomes followed the next week, twelve couples, the cup won by Mr. John Reynolds and Mrs. Barreda Turner of Baltimore.

    Ocean City Golf and Country ClubE. D. Showell Myers

    Source · checked 2026-08-11

41. 1902

    The mayor Waggaman replaced was Clayton J. Purnell, who had served four years and did not stand again.

    The Evening Star's election report of 5 August 1902 adds what no Maryland Manual roster in the campaign's files supplies: "The present mayor, Mr. Clayton J. Purnell, who has served for four years, will remain in office until the middle of September. Mr. Purnell was not a candidate for re-election." Four years back from 1902 puts the start of his mayoralty at 1898 — the year Ocean City was reincorporated. The mid-September handover matches Chapter 569's provision that terms begin on the second Monday in September.

    The town's own books were stolen in 1896 and its court house burned in 1893, so Ocean City's turn-of-the-century mayors survive largely in out-of-town newspapers. This one survives in a Washington evening paper's filler paragraph.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

42. 1902

    Shirt-waist dances at the Plim, the first "Atlantic german," euchres in the Pagoda, a marshmallow roast and a yacht race with Waggaman's prize money.

    Both Washington dailies ran weekly Ocean City, Md. special correspondence through the 1902 season, and between them they record a social calendar the county paper never touched. The Plimhimmon's management gave the first shirt-waist dance of the season on Friday 1 August, "the most successful function of its kind yet given, as the younger set seems to appreciate the rare privilege of being cool at a dance"; the response was such that the paper expected shirt-waist balls to become weekly events. The first "Atlantic german" was danced the following night, led by Mr. Ennals Waggaman of Washington with Miss Sara Applegarth of Baltimore. Sunday-night sacred concerts alternated between the Atlantic ball room and the Plim casino, with the Hollywood Mandolin Orchestra. Matinee euchres were held weekly in the Pagoda, eight tables at the third. An athletic tournament was got up on the beach by the bath house on a Saturday in early August. Mrs. H. R. Smoot gave a marshmallow roast round a bonfire at the water's edge. And in the last week of August a yacht race was sailed for prize money put up by John F. Waggaman, with the wharves along the bay crowded and "every available craft from the large sailboats down to the most rickety" turned out to watch. Ping-pong arrived the same summer: new tables at the Atlantic Casino, the Atlantic Hotel and the Mount Pleasant sun parlor.

    The Messenger reported Ocean City's business; the Washington papers reported its evenings. Put the two together and 1902 stops being a year of statutes and drownings and becomes a season.

    Plimhimmon Hotel / Plim Plaza

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

43. 1902

    "Much the largest property owner in Ocean City": the Atlantic and Seaside hotels, the electric light works, four miles of beach front and two mainland farms.

    The Evening Star, reporting the 4 August 1902 election, appends the fullest contemporary inventory of John F. Waggaman's Ocean City holdings the campaign has found: "Mr. Waggaman is much the largest property owner in Ocean City, being the proprietor of the Atlantic and Seaside hotels and the electric light works, in addition to owning a number of cottages and about four miles of beach front and two large farms on the mainland." The electric light works is new to the record — the campaign had no owner, and no date, for Ocean City's electric plant.

    Four miles of beach front is most of the island the town sat on. When the Star calls him "much the largest property owner" it is not flattery; it is close to a description of sole ownership.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

44. 1902 · 1902-05-17

    Ocean City building lots in the spring 1902 land records: $300 for two from the mayor-to-be, $200 for one, and $5 for another.

    From the Worcester County land records printed in the Messenger of 17 May 1902: "James E. Thomas from John F. Waggaman and wife, two lots, No. 3 and 11, at Ocean City; consideration $300." "Rosser & Castoe from Isaac Ulman and wife, a lot situated in Ocean City, known as Lot No. 83; consideration $200." "Beverdy S. Dennis from Robert G. Keene, lot situated at Ocean City and known as lot No. 40; consideration $5." On 19 April a trustee sold five parcels of the late Robert G. Keene's Ocean City property on the premises — lots on Dorchester Street a hundred feet off Atlantic Avenue, two on Wicomico Street west of Philadelphia Avenue, one at Atlantic Avenue and South First Street running back a hundred and twenty-five feet to Congress Street, and lot 7 block 1 South "on the plat of Synepuxent Beach Company of Baltimore City."

    Sinepuxent Beach CompanyRobert Goldsborough Keene

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

45. 1902 · 1902-08-04

    The 4 August 1902 election was contested — "Regular" against "Citizens" — and Waggaman beat William T. Taber 74 votes to 60.

    A telegram from Ocean City printed in the Washington Evening Star of 5 August 1902 gives the whole return, which the county paper reduced to a single line. Waggaman's ticket was known as the "regular," the opposing one as the "citizens." For mayor: John F. Waggaman 74, William T. Taber 60. For council: Capt. Christopher Ludlam 99, James Z. Powell 73, Reverdy J. Dennis 73, John D. Showell 70, Thomas J. Cropper 69, Lambert P. Ayres 34, Gilbert B. Cropper 34, Samuel J. Massey 30, Willard B. Buell 30. Ludlam stood on both tickets, which is why his vote is half again the next man's. The Star's own summary that the regulars won "by about 2½ to 1" fits the council figures but not the mayoral ones. Roughly 134 votes were cast in all — the first measurement the campaign has of the electorate Chapter 569 created. Read from the page image on 6 August 2026; the OCR had dropped two of the vote totals and mangled Cropper's surname.

    Ocean City's most consequential election of the decade turned on 134 votes, and fourteen of them decided who owned the town and governed it at the same time.

    Christopher LudlamJohn D. Showell

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

46. 1902 · 1902-08-04

    On 4 August 1902 Ocean City elected John F. Waggaman — owner of the Atlantic Hotel and most of the plat — mayor of the town he already owned.

    The Democratic Messenger's Ocean City column of 26 July announced the first election under the new charter: "On Monday, the 4th of August, we will have an election for Mayor and City Council, and there is already considerable interest and feeling being manifested in the matter. One ticket has been placed in the field headed by John F. Waggaman, for Mayor, with Captain Ludlum, James Z. Powell, John D. Showell, Calvin B. Taylor and Thomas Crow[ell] ..." — five councilmen, exactly as Ch. 569 required. The paper's state-news column of 9 August reported the result in one line: "An election for mayor and city council of Ocean City was carried by the ticket headed by Mr. John F. Waggaman for mayor." The Maryland Manual dates his term 1902-1903 and gives Clayton J. Purnell 1900-1902; Purnell was still being called mayor in the county paper in late May 1902, which fits.

    A proprietor-mayor. Waggaman had owned the ocean front since 1897, driven the town's first jetties in 1898 and been credited with beautifying the place in 1901; in 1902 the legislature widened the franchise to non-resident property owners and the property owner took the chair.

    Clayton J. PurnellJames Z. PowellJohn D. ShowellChristopher LudlamCalvin B. Taylor

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

47. 1902 · 1902-08-07

    The Ocean City Golf and Country Club ran its second annual tournament, 7–9 August 1902, drawing clubs from Washington, Baltimore, Salisbury, New York and Chicago.

    Secretary Thomas E. Waggaman announced the meeting in late July; three silver cups were offered — winner, runner-up and consolation — inscribed "Ocean City Golf and Country Club, Second Annual Tournament, August 7, 8 and 9, 1902, Ocean City, Md." Entries came from the Columbia, Chevy Chase and Dumbarton clubs of Washington, the Baltimore Country Club, Salisbury Country Club, the Exmoor Club of Chicago, the Flushing Country Club of New York, the New York Athletic Club and the home club. Dr. L. L. Harban of Columbia and John C. Davidson met in the final for the main cup; the surprise of the meeting was Clement Smoot, "a boy of seventeen," beating Ormsby McCammon. The tournament ran on into a mixed foursome finished on 12 August, won by Miss Sarah Applegarth of Baltimore and Smoot over Dr. William Penn Compton and Mrs. John F. Waggaman, 4 up and 3 to play, before what the Washington Times called an extraordinarily large gallery, with a dinner and presentation of trophies at the clubhouse. Ocean City's own entrants included John F. Waggaman, Floyd P. Waggaman, Lawrence Burford and David Moore.

    "Second annual" is the useful word: the club was already running tournaments in 1901. The 1902 pass recorded that the year's sports lens produced nothing. It produced a week-long interstate golf meeting on the beach, reported daily in two Washington papers.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

48. 1903 · 1903-02-01

    A February 1903 Ocean City dispatch orders the town's board walks torn up for cement on Baltimore Avenue — and "all the boardwalks of the town and the one on Atlantic avenue" renewed at the expense of the property owners they front.

    Under the head "OCEAN CITY PLANS — New Depot And Other Improvements To Be Made," datelined Ocean City, Md., Feb. 1 and printed by the Snow Hill Democratic Messenger on 7 February 1903: "After years of patient waiting the Town Council and the railroad authorities have contracted for such work as will place Ocean City, by the end of May, far in advance of any previous year in its history as a summer resort. A large and convenient station will be built on Philadelphia avenue, west of the Seaside Hotel. All tracks are to be taken from Baltimore avenue and laid on Philadelphia avenue. Baltimore avenue from Third street south, which reaches to Ayres packing houses, to Third street north, which reaches to the Church of St. Paul's by the Sea, will be graded. The boardwalks will be removed and cement pavement substituted. The grading and paving of the other streets leading from the new station to Baltimore avenue will also be done. All the boardwalks of the town and the one on Atlantic avenue will be renewed and kept in good condition at the expense of the holders of the property on which these boardwalks shall front... Already property is changing hands at advanced prices as the result of these improvements." Read against the 1902 pass, which searched the whole 1902 Messenger run and found no board walk at Ocean City at all [fact:1902-no-board-walk-in-the-record], this is the campaign's first unambiguous municipal statement of what the walks actually were: plural street walks, one of them distinctly "on Atlantic avenue" — the ocean front — and every one of them maintained not by the town but by the abutting owners. That is the hotel-owners' walk of legend, described in 1903 as an existing standing obligation being *renewed*, not as a thing being founded.

    The received "first Boardwalk, 1902" story wants a birth certificate. What 1903 hands over is a maintenance order.

    Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

49. 1903 · 1903-03-14

    Mayor Waggaman offers the Maryland National Guard his own bayside farm and clubhouse for the 1903 summer encampment — and the railway's vice-president offers to carry them.

    Democratic Messenger, 14 March 1903, under "The Most Desirable Place for Holding the Annual Encampment of the State National Guard": "Col. John Floyd Waggaman, the Mayor of Ocean City, has invited the Maryland National Guard to that town for the summer encampment, and Capt. Willard Thompson, vice-president of the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railroad, promises to give the best facilities for reaching the proposed camp ground. Colonel Waggaman has offered his fine place on the Sinepuxent bay, across the bridge from Ocean City, as a site for the camp, and his clubhouse for the use of the officers. On this place there is said to be an abundance of fine water, fine shade trees, a level field for drilling, and well drained ground for the tents. The camp would be only a few minutes walk from the ocean beach... The hotels at Ocean City can furnish accommodations for the families of officers and men." Queenstown, in Queen Anne's County, was lobbying the Governor for the same encampment the same week. No source in the 1903 corpus reports where the Guard actually camped. The offer is also the first record this campaign holds of Waggaman owning mainland ground across the bay — what would now be West Ocean City — and of a clubhouse there.

    Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

50. 1904 · 1904-04-12

    Ocean City gets the power to force every Atlantic Avenue lot owner to build a sea wall — and to build it for them and send the bill.

    Chapter 658 of the Acts of 1904 added sections 8A-8D to the 1898 charter (Ch. 528 of 1898) and re-enacted section 12. Section 8A authorises and empowers the Mayor and City Council 'for the protection of said city to require the owner or owners of lots fronting on Atlantic avenue in said city to build, construct, erect and maintain a breakwater or sea-wall of such nature and kind as in the discretion of the said Mayor and City Council may seem proper along Atlantic avenue, or any part thereof, in front of the respective lots of such property owners.' If an owner fails to build or repair within sixty days of written notice, the town may do the work and assess the cost against the abutting property in proportion to frontage, collected as municipal taxes. Section 8C gives the town power to enter dwellings, yards and buildings to inspect for health, cleanliness and safety, to take down dangerous structures or compel owners to make them safe, and to regulate party walls, flues, chimneys, stovepipes, building construction and inspection and building height — Ocean City's first building and sanitary code. The re-enacted section 12 requires the town to publish an itemised statement of all money received and spent in the first week of August each year. Approved 12 April 1904.

    In 1899 John F. Waggaman drove trial jetties in front of the Atlantic at his own expense and the neighbours copied him voluntarily. Five years later the state made it compulsory. Shore protection at Ocean City begins as one man's experiment and becomes, in 1904, a legal obligation running with the land — eighty-four years before the first federal beach replenishment.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

51. 1904 · 1904-10-10

    The Waggaman failure begins in Washington: the man who owned Ocean City is listed for $80,000 in his brother's bankruptcy.

    In October 1904 the Washington Evening Star was printing creditor lists in the bankruptcy of the Waggaman real-estate house. Among the additional creditors reported was 'John F. Waggaman, notes to T. E. Waggaman, $80,000' and a further 'John F. Waggaman to Thomas E. Waggaman, $7,00[0].' A deed recorded the same day showed that Alfred D. Jessup of Philadelphia, 'through Thomas E. Waggaman as its agent, purchased from John F. Waggaman, owner and holder, $25,000 of the notes … secured by [a deed] of trust on the Highlands, in Prince George's county, Md.,' with a one-eighth interest in Woodley conveyed to Thomas E. Waggaman in trust as additional security, and John F. Waggaman standing as indorser. A director of the Riggs Bank denied publicly that his institution held 'a dollar's worth of the Waggaman securities.' Judgment by default went against H. Pierre Waggaman on a promissory note the same day.

    Ocean City's landlord — owner of the Atlantic Hotel, the Colonial, the Convention Hall and most of the ocean front since 1897, and the town's mayor from 1902 — is not the bankrupt here. He is the brother who indorsed the paper. This is the first crack; the fortune that had rebuilt the resort was tied to a Washington real-estate house that failed in the autumn of 1904.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

52. 1905 · 1905-09-16

    John F. Waggaman sells his entire Ocean City estate to a Baltimore syndicate, which incorporates in Delaware as the Ocean City Development Company with $300,000 of stock.

    "JOHN F. WAGGAMAN SELLS OCEAN CITY HOLDINGS — Purchased By A Syndicate Of Prominent Baltimore Business Men Who Will Spend Thousands On Improvements." The purchasers, who had "paid over to Mr. Waggaman the purchase money," organised with John W. Woodland president, E. S. Johnson vice-president, W. D. Allen secretary and W. S. McKean general manager, a full board of fifteen directors to follow. The new body was incorporated at Dover under Delaware law as the Ocean City Development Company, capital stock $300,000 — $100,000 preferred and $200,000 common. What it bought from Waggaman: the Atlantic Hotel and Casino; the Seaside Hotel; the electric light plant; a steam laundry plant; and 4,400 building lots platted 50 by 150 feet, of which 1,000 were on the ocean front, the whole extending eight miles along the ocean and nine miles along the Synepuxent Bay shore. The Pennsylvania Railroad "is said to be prominently identified with the new interests." The paper added that 1905 "has been the most successful in the history of Ocean City" — every cottage occupied and the boarding cottages up the beach turning away four times as many guests as they could take — and listed the syndicate's plans: a trolley from Ocean City to Fenwick Island and on to Rehoboth, another to Berlin and Pocomoke City, a fast vestibuled express from Claiborne, a second B.C.&A. station two squares north of the Plimhimmon, and a modern hotel near the Catholic Home at the north end of the beach.

    The 1904 pass found Waggaman's name on a Washington bankruptcy creditor list for $80,000. Eleven months later he is out of Ocean City altogether — and the town he had owned since 1897 belongs to a Delaware corporation floated in Baltimore.

    Ocean City Development CompanyPennsylvania Railroad CompanyBaltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic RailwayAtlantic Casino Company

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

53. 1905 · 1905-12-09

    Lemuel J. Cropper, George W. Lewis and others petition Worcester County to open eleven public roads running from the bay shore across the barrier beach to the ocean, from Zippy's Creek to the Virginia line.

    A road notice dated 9 December 1905 gave thirty days' warning that the petitioners would ask the County Commissioners to open eleven roads "all running from the bay shore across the beach to the Atlantic Ocean": at Zippy's Creek; at Broad Marsh; a quarter-mile below the Three Mile Key Post; at Wild Hog Slough; at Jones's Old Salt Works off Sandy Point; at North Beach; at Birch's Salt Works off Tingle's Island; at the old landing at Winter Quarter Slough; midway between Scott's old hotel and George Merritt's house at Green Run; at Middlemoor; and just north of the Maryland–Virginia state line. The lands crossed belonged largely to the Atlantic Coast Improvement Company, with John F. Waggaman, Zadok P. Henry, E. Kate Purnell Whaley, Joshua Carey, Capt. John Hudson and Capt. William B. S. Powell also named. It is the fullest surviving inventory of who owned the Maryland barrier beach south of Ocean City at the turn of the century.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

54. 1906

    John F. Waggaman sells everything he owns at Ocean City to the Ocean City Development Company of Maryland.

    The Messenger of 12 May 1906: "The Ocean City Development Co., of Maryland has issued a card stating that the Company has purchased all the holdings of Mr. John F. Waggaman at Ocean City, and that the Atlantic and Seaside Hotels will be open to the public on June 16th. The card also states that the hotels will be under the management of Mr. Theodore L. Page, who had charge of the Atlantic for several years." The transfer can be dated more closely than the card: the county road examiners' notice published on 6 January 1906 describes two proposed beach roads as crossing "the lands of John F. Waggaman," and the identical notice re-published on 3 February 1906 describes the same two roads as crossing "the lands of the Ocean City Development Company of Maryland." The man who had owned the Atlantic Hotel, the Colonial, the Convention Hall and most of the ocean front since 1897, and who was the town's mayor in 1902, is out.

    The single largest change of ownership in the town's first fifty years, announced on a printed card and confirmed by a road notice.

    Atlantic HotelOcean City Development CompanyTheodore L. Page

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

55. 1907

    In the year of the Panic, Ocean City's landlord takes a cottage in June and is still giving dinner parties at the Atlantic in September.

    The Washington society columns follow John F. Waggaman through the 1907 season without a hint of trouble. 11 June, the Washington Herald: "Mrs. Louise Alexander and her son, Mr. Paul Alexander, with Mr. and Mrs. John Waggaman and family, have taken a cottage at Ocean City, Md., and left Washington Sunday to be gone until the autumn." 27 July, the Washington Times: "John E. Waggaman has returned to Washington after spending several weeks with his family at Ocean City." 4 August, the Herald: "Mr. and Mrs. John F. Waggaman are spending the month of August at Ocean City, Md." 18 August, the Herald's Ocean City column: "An anniversary dinner party was given by Mrs. John F. Waggaman, of Washington, at the Atlantic last Monday." 2 September, the Herald: "Mrs. John F. Waggaman, of Washington, entertained a company at bridge last week at Ocean City, Md." The family's news that autumn was a wedding, not a failure: on 2 October Henry Elliot Waggaman, son of Mr. and Mrs. John F. Waggaman, married Viola Powell Rocap in the Church of the Good Shepherd at Silver City, New Mexico. The Panic of 1907 broke in New York in the third week of October, after the season closed - and no notice of any Waggaman failure, foreclosure or forced sale at Ocean City appears anywhere in the 1907 material read.

    Atlantic Hotel

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

56. 1908 · 1908-01-04

    The Ocean City Development Company is in bankruptcy, and a federal judge stops the foreclosure of John F. Waggaman's $59,000 mortgage on its land.

    Under the head "SALE OF LAND STOPPED — Trustee Of The Ocean City Company Granted An Injunction," the Democratic Messenger of 4 January 1908 reported that on the petition of Frank H. Phelps, trustee in bankruptcy of the Ocean City Development Company, Judge Morris of the United States District Court had granted an injunction "restraining the sale of property of the company on January 8 next under foreclosure of a mortgage to John F. Waggaman, of Washington. The mortgage is for $59,000." The sale had been advertised by John W. Brawner of Washington and John W. Staton of Snow Hill, trustees, on a petition filed in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County. Phelps swore the property could not fetch its full value at that moment and that creditors would do better if the trustee sold later; Nicholas P. Bond deposed that "it would be practically impossible to obtain any bidder for it now other than the mortgagee." The company had been adjudicated bankrupt, with its own consent, on 9 November 1907 — three weeks into the Panic of 1907. This is the clearest Ocean City evidence of the panic yet found, and it fixes Waggaman's position at the start of 1908: no longer the town's proprietor but its largest mortgage creditor, about to be told by a federal court that nobody but him would bid. By December 1908 Phelps was conveying the company's Atlantic Avenue frontage — one parcel to Robert D. Grier for $1,500. In the same year's Berlin column, "Mr. and Mrs. John Waggaman and family, of Washington, have rented a cottage on Sinepuxent avenue for the summer," and a "Miss Waggaman" was working as stenographer at the Atlantic Hotel.

    Ocean City Development CompanyFrank H. Phelps

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

57. 1923 · 1923-07-28

    Senator John Walter Smith and Mrs. John Waggaman sign the Plimhimmon's register, and the Coast Guard keeper gives a terrapin dinner for the mayor.

    Worcester Democrat, 28 July 1923: "Captain William I. Purnell gave a terrapin dinner to a number of his friends at the Maryland Inn, among whom were Messrs. F. W. C. Webb, W. G. Gordy, Marion Humphreys, Graham Gunby, of Salisbury, and Mayor Wm. W. McCabe of Ocean City. Recent visitors at the Plimhimmon during last week were Senator John Walter Smith, of Baltimore; Mrs. John Waggeman, of Annapolis, and Mrs. McCallum of Philadelphia; Mrs. William Price of Centreville, and Mr. and Mrs. Walter V. Harrison, of Baltimore." Earlier in July the Plimhimmon had registered "Mrs. Charles E. Bentley, of New York… for the summer," entertaining friends from New York.

    Plimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaJohn Walter SmithCapt. William I. PurnellWilliam W. McCabe

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

58. 1934 · 1934-12-24

    The town secretary sat down and wrote out every mayor Ocean City had ever had — 1892 to 1934, on one page

    On 24 December 1934, on Mayor and Council letterhead, secretary and treasurer J. M. Mumford typed a circular beginning: 'I occasionly have an inquiry as to who had served our city as Mayor and their election. So thinking probally others might be interested I have carefully gone over our old records and listed the names and years each served.' What follows is the town's own succession list: three commissioners elected 2 May 1892 — John F. Waggamon, William C. Franklin and William B. Wilson, with Wilson president of the board and Franklin secretary-treasurer; then Wilson elected mayor 7 May 1894; George M. Upshur 1 May 1896; James Z. Powell 1 August 1898; Clayton J. Purnell 6 August 1900; John F. Waggamon 1902, 'Resigned Oct. 20th 1903 remainder of term filled by Capt. Cristropher Ludlam'; Ludlam 1904 and 1906; W. Lee Carey 3 August 1908 and 1 August 1910; William B. S. Powell 1912 and 3 August 1914; Capt. John B. Jones 7 August 1916; Edward M. Scott 5 August 1918; E. E. Collins 2 August 1920; 'William C. McCabe served to Sept 1934'; and 'Aug. 6th 1934 William T. Elliott, 2 years.' The document survives because Mumford filed a copy in the minute book, where it sits as the last item of the 1934 record.

    The most useful thing in the 1934 minute book is not a decision at all. It is a clerk answering the same question often enough that he finally wrote the answer down — and in doing so he left the campaign a primary-source succession list for forty-two years of a town whose own books were supposed to have been mutilated in 1896.

    John M. MumfordWilliam W. McCabeClayton J. PurnellW. Lee CareyWilliam B. S. PowellEdward M. ScottElbridge E. CollinsJames Z. Powell

    Source · checked 2026-08-11