Louis A. Drexler

In the record (2)

1. 1927

   Ocean City joins a peninsula-wide resorts bureau, and its Board of Trade has a new president.

   A Resorts Commission of the Del-Mar-Va Eastern Shore Association, called by chairman State Senator Louis A. Drexler of Delaware, met in early February 1927 and again at The Dennis, Ocean City, on Tuesday 29 March 1927, "for the purpose of taking immediate action on the permanent organization of a Resorts Bureau, to operate in conjunction with the Del-Mar-Va Eastern Shore Association; for the outlining of a cooperative advertising program and to consult with a sub-committee of the Transportation and Communication Division regarding the securing of better railroad transportation to resorts." Twenty-five representative resort men attended. Ocean City's delegation was Mayor W. W. McCabe; F. W. Truitt, president of the Board of Trade; Chas. Ludlum of the Hastings Hotel; and Dr. C. W. Purnell of the Atlantic Hotel. The transportation asks, put to former Senator E. Dale Adkins, chairman of the Transportation Committee, were week-end excursion fares Friday to Monday to both Ocean City and Rehoboth; special week-end trains from Philadelphia and Baltimore from 1 July to 15 September; and ten- to seventeen-day excursion fares from the Pittsburgh territory to Rehoboth and Ocean City, with Pullman cars running through.

   Two things fall out of a routine trade-body notice. The Board of Trade still exists under that name in 1927 and its president is no longer Dr. Purnell but F. W. Truitt — Purnell attends as a hotelier, not as the town's spokesman. And the town's growth strategy in 1927 was not local at all: it was a peninsula-wide advertising co-operative asking the Pennsylvania for a Pullman from Pittsburgh.

   Board of Trade of Ocean CityDel-Mar-Va Eastern Shore AssociationPennsylvania Railroad CompanyWilliam W. McCabeDr. Charles Washington PurnellF. W. Truitt

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

2. 1931 · 1931-03-25

   The Del-Mar-Va Eastern Shore Association, a thousand businessmen strong, endorses state construction of a permanent inlet at Ocean City while the bill is still pending.

   The Smyrna Times of 25 March 1931, under the headline "[DEL-MAR-]VA TO BACK INLET AT OCEAN CITY, MD.": "A proposal for state construction of a permanent inlet between the ocean and Sinepuxent Bay, at Ocean City, has been given the endorsement of the Del-Mar-Va Eastern Shore Association, whose membership consists of more than a thousand of the leading business and professional men of the Peninsula... Action on these two proposals was taken at the meeting of the executive committee of the association at Salisbury recently. The inlet proposal was put before the executive group by Colmore E. [surname lost to the trimmed page edge], of Pocomoke, representing the Worcester County Chamber of Commerce and city official of Ocean City, Md. A measure to authorize construction of such an inlet for this purpose is now pending in the General Assembly." The same meeting appointed a committee to weigh a TUNNEL under the Chesapeake instead of a bridge, on a proposal from the Denton Chamber of Commerce. The association's president, Louis A. Drexler, reviewed a plan for a peninsula business directory.

   Three weeks before Chapter 511 was approved, the inlet had a peninsula-wide business lobby behind it and a named sponsor from Pocomoke speaking for Worcester County's Chamber and for Ocean City's own town government. The campaign has never been able to see the town lobbying for the inlet from the inside; this is the closest it has come.

   Ocean City Inlet & JettyDel-Mar-Va Eastern Shore AssociationOcean City Chamber of Commerce

   Source · checked 2026-08-10