The Purnell Family

In the record (1)

1. 1925 · 1925-12-29

   Days after the fire, Dr. C. W. Purnell said he would not build another Atlantic and the Seaside's owners were not expected to rebuild — the pier, they thought, would come back.

   Worcester Democrat, 2 January 1926: "Ocean City is now in darkness, but is promised lighting facilities in a very short while. Seaside Hotel, on which there was an insurance of $10,000 will likely not be rebuilt; and Dr. C. W. Purnell is reported as saying that he will not erect another Atlantic hostelry. The Pier, it is thought, will be re-built as will also the other structures destroyed." The paper closed with the obituary of the building: "A landmark has been removed from Ocean City's water front in the burning of the Atlantic Hotel. Recently it celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of [its] erection, and is probably the ol[dest]…" Officials of the Eastern Shore Gas and Electric Company said the town would be in darkness "for possibly ten days." RESOLVED: he rebuilt. "The NEW ATLANTIC HOTEL" advertised for Easter 1927, and through that summer "Hotel Atlantic … Season, Easter to Thanksgiving. Dr. C. W. Purnell, Prop." In August its dining room held a hundred-guest banquet closing the second annual convention of the Atlantic Coast Guard. He said it in the shock of the week after the fire and did the opposite within eighteen months.

   The Atlantic was rebuilt in 1926 anyway, and the Purnell family has run it ever since — so the most quotable line in the whole story is a man saying, four days out, that he was done.

   Atlantic HotelEastern Shore Gas and Electric CompanyDr. Charles Washington Purnell

   Source · checked 2026-08-06