M. V. B. Twichell

In the record (3)

1. 1881

   The Synepuxent Hotel, 'on the European Plan,' advertises all summer — M. V. B. Twichell proprietor, gunning and fishing, bar 'stocked with Choicest Liquors,' meals at all hours.

   A standing advertisement in the Democratic Messenger (Snow Hill) through the summer of 1881: 'SYNEPUXENT HOTEL, On the European Plan, OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND. M. V. B. Twichell, Proprietor. GUNNING. FISHING. Bar stocked with Choicest Liquors. MEALS AT ALL HOURS.' A European-plan house pitching gunning and fishing shows the young resort already courting sportsmen beyond the summer bathing trade.

   Source · checked 2026-08-05

2. 1884

   The storm report is the earliest known description of plank "board walks" at Ocean City — including a walk from Twichell's hotel to the railroad depot built of heavy bridge timber.

   The January 1884 damage list names three separate walkways: "all the board walks on the beach", the latticework in front of Tracy's hotel, and "part of the walk from Twitchell's to the depot, which [was] built of heavy bridge stuff and supposed strong enough [for] any storm". These are private plank walks laid by the hotels between the beach, the houses and the depot — not the municipal Boardwalk, whose first planks are conventionally dated to about 1900–1902. But they establish that by the winter of 1883–84 Ocean City already walked on wood, that the wood ran all the way inland to the train, and that a storm could take all of it in a night. — 1895 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: Unchanged as to 1884, but the intervening record is now denser at both ends of the 1890s: a north end at a named cottage in July 1893 (Cecil Whig), the town relaying the front walk in June 1894 (Messenger), and a stretch south of Congress Hall carried away by a December 1895 storm (Annapolis Evening Capital). The walk is continuously attested from 1884 to 1895 and never once described as being built.

   The Boardwalk's grandfather: a bridge-timber sidewalk from the sportsmen's hotel to the train station, and it lasted until the first big tide.

   Train Depot SiteAtlantic HotelJohn Tracy

   Source · checked 2026-08-06

3. 1884

   A January storm puts the whole island under water, washes out the railroad and destroys every board walk on the beach.

   The Salisbury Advertiser's report, reprinted in the Delaware Gazette and State Journal of January 24, 1884: "On Tuesday night of last week a severe storm passed [over the] whole island [at] Ocean City. The [island was] covered by several feet of water and in the post office building the water stood 4 or 5 inches above the floor. The railroad above Tracy's ice house, all the board walks on the beach and the latticework in front of Tracy's hotel were washed away. Part of the walk from Twitchell's to the depot, which [was] built of heavy bridge stuff and supposed strong enough [for] any storm, also washed away. For a long distance the sand is washed from under the railroad and it is impossible for trains to pass." One of the life-saving station men was knocked down by the wind and carried a number of yards before he could regain his feet. A week later the Port Tobacco Times carried the same story for its own readers: "the beach at Ocean city was several feet under water, and the floor of the post office building was overflowed. The board walks were demolished and part of the railroad was washed away."

   Forty-nine years before the storm that made the inlet, a January nor'easter walked straight over the island and took the trains with it. Nobody died and nobody wrote a book about it.

   Atlantic HotelOcean City Life-Saving Station MuseumTrain Depot SiteJohn Tracy

   Source · checked 2026-08-06