Rudolph Dolle
confectioner · active 1914
Proprietor of Dolle's Original Salt Water Taffy on the Ocean City board walk, advertising in 1914 from a stand "BOARD WALK OPPOSITE THE PIER" — "DOES NOT STICK TO THE TEETH. Guaranteed Under the Pure Food and Drugs Act. Made Fresh Every Hour at Ocean City, Md." This is the earliest advertisement for the Dolle name found in the campaign, and it places the business on the boardwalk facing the pier by the summer of 1914. — 1944 FULL PASS, 2026-08-12: Elected to the Ocean City council on 7 August 1944 with 200 votes and made its Secretary on 11 September, serving through 1945. He owed the town $243.90 in 1940-41 taxes on the balance sheet of 18 January 1944. In May 1944 he stood before the council as a private citizen opposing the Red Star bus terminal; on 23 February 1945, as councilman, he cast the ONLY VOTE AGAINST the permit that granted it. In December 1944 he presented plans for a trailer camp and parking lot, and in June 1945 the parking lot was voted to hold 24 trailers if he could get it done. He was absent through sickness from the second zoning hearing on 22 December 1945. — 1946 FULL PASS, 2026-08-15: OCEAN CITY'S ZONING ORDINANCE IS HIS AT EVERY STAGE: he moved it on 7 May 1946, voted for it, signed it as councilman and attested it as Secretary to the City Council, and signed the zoning map in both capacities - the same man who cast the lone dissenting vote on the Red Star bus terminal in February 1945. He topped the poll at the election of 5 August 1946 with 403 votes, the highest figure recorded for anyone that day, and was elected PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL on 9 September in succession to the resigned John B. Lynch. In 1946 he also moved the town's $1.40 tax rate and its first building-permit fees, was put in charge of getting the parking-lot building fixed up with toilets and sewer, objected with Savage to the Beach Ball concession on the Atlantic Hotel lot 'because it was not a permanent building and did not conform to City Ordinances', moved the award of the well contract at the north end, and took a building permit from his own council on 25 April to build next to the Comfort Station and five feet from the Barber Shop, the wall next to the Comfort Station to be cement, with no recusal recorded.
In the record (35)
1914 · 1914-06-27
Ten cents on the pier, seventy-five cents for a seafood dinner: the Messenger's "Ocean City (Md.) Business Directory" prices a 1914 day at the beach.
From late June 1914 the Democratic Messenger carried a standing block of Ocean City advertising — the first such directory the campaign has found — and it prices the town. **The Pier**: "Admission to Pavilion Free. **10c admits to Pier, with privilege of fishing and dancing.** SEASON TICKETS AT SPECIAL PRICES"; the moving pictures were 5c. **The Colonial**, "directly on the Board Walk … Under Entirely New Management," advertised "Excellent Seafood Dinners and Suppers, **75c**," wholesome Maryland cooking, bath houses attached to the hotel, and special rates to excursionists and automobile parties, N. C. Dean proprietor. The other advertisers: **Dolle's Original Salt Water Taffy** — "DOES NOT STICK TO THE TEETH … Made Fresh Every Hour at Ocean City, Md. **Rudolph Dolle, BOARD WALK OPPOSITE THE PIER**"; **Jimmy's Alleys**, where you played "the fascinating Japanese Ball Game" and kept your score for a premium of hand-painted china, bric-a-brac and Japanese pictures; **Tibbitt's Oyster and Chop House**, opposite the Atlantic Hotel; **The Atlantic Pool Parlor** with Baltimore and Washington papers, C. H. Hildebrandt; **Joseph Schaefer the Baker**; **John D. Showell's** Oceanic Bath Houses, Oceanic Hotel and Mt. Vernon Hotel; and **The Virginia** on the ocean front, B. Kinnamon, whose famous Maryland chef had come from the Hotel Norris at Easton.
Oceanic Fishing PierDolle's CandylandOcean City BoardwalkAtlantic HotelJohn D. ShowellN. C. Dean
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1916
A weekly "Patronize These Ocean City Advertisers" column gives the 1916 board walk a business census: Dolle's taffy, Schaefer the baker, Mead's Cafe, Conner's Restaurant, the Thoroughgood Co. in the new Perskie Building — and Jimmy's Alleys, kept by James H. Yoshihiro.
From the *Democratic Messenger*, running weekly through the summer of 1916. **Rudolph Dolle**, "BOARD WALK, OPPOSITE THE PIER": "Dolle's Original Salt Water Taffy — AND IT DOES NOT STICK TO THE TEETH. Guaranteed Under the Pure Food and Drugs Act. Made Fresh Every Hour at Ocean City, Md." **Joseph Schaefer, The Baker**: ice cream, plain and fancy cake, layer and pound cake, pies, rolls and buns — "Will ship you any quantity." **Mead's Cafe**, on the Board Walk opposite the Pier. **Conner's Restaurant**, on the Board Walk — "Sea Food Dinners Are Our Specialty." **The Thoroughgood Co.**, merchant tailoring and furnishing goods, "In the New Perskie Building ON THE BOARD WALK." **The Maryland Pharmacy**, Dr. Paul Jones proprietor, with a soda fountain, novelties, souvenirs and post cards. **Seaside Hotel**, Dashiell & Bounds props., "OPENED JUNE 19th ... Terms are Very Reasonable." **"Homewood,"** Mrs. H. E. Collins and Miss Blanch Riggin managers, at Baltimore Avenue and Caroline Street, with special rates for Summer School students and teachers. **Ross B. Geisbert**, auctioneer, Ocean City. And **"Visit Jimmy's Alleys — Play the Fascinating Japanese Ball Game. Keep Your Score and Get a Prize. Hand-painted China, Bric-a-Brac, Japanese Pictures, Luncheon Sets, etc. JAMES H. YOSHIHIRO."** Cambridge visitors that August are recorded at the Hotel Hamilton, the Hotel Belmont, the Tarry-a-While, the Plimhimmon and the Atlantic.
Two names on this list are still on the board walk a century later, and one of them — a Japanese proprietor running a Japanese ball game and selling hand-painted china in 1916 — is the first non-European merchant the campaign has found in Ocean City.
Ocean City BoardwalkDolle's CandylandPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaAtlantic HotelJoseph SchaeferJames H. Yoshihiro
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1917
Ten cents to walk out on the Ocean City pier in 1917; the pavilion is free, and William Taylor is manager.
The pier advertised weekly in the Democratic Messenger through the 1917 season: "The Pier — Ocean City's Greatest Attraction. OPEN DAY AND NIGHT. New Bowling Alleys, Pool Tables, Soda Fountain and Museum. Go out on the Pier and enjoy the best fishing to be found anywhere in this section. Admission to the Pier is only 10 cents. Admission to the Pavilion is Free. PIER SEASON TICKETS AT SPECIAL PRICES. William Taylor, MANAGER." The same page carries the other boardwalk trade: "Dolle's Original Salt Water Taffy... does not stick to the teeth. Guaranteed Pure and Clean. Made Fresh Every Hour at Ocean City, Maryland. Rudolph Dolle, Board Walk, Opposite Pier"; Schaefer's Ocean City Bakery, "supplied to hotels, cottages, private families, picnics, parties, and retailed at our table"; a gents' furnishing shop "in New Perskie Building, Opposite Pier"; and Red Hills, "open July 4th, 1917, for the season — Baseball and Other Amusements." This is the first admission price for the pier in the campaign's record.
Dolle's CandylandWilliam Taylor
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1937 · 1937-02-08
Ocean City granted at least twenty building permits in 1937, and the first seven of them came in February
On 8 February 1937 the council granted permits to Curtis W. Long (Block 24, dwelling, 30 by 42), Ethel Kelly (addition to hotel, 34 by 62), Chas. S. Powell (apartment, 28 by 40), Sam Ayers (two buildings, 13 by 27), E. H. Benson (apartment, 36 by 42), Ed Lee Carey (dwelling) and Ada Cox (addition, 18 by 28). More followed through the year: Ella E. Dennis's two apartments and a 46-by-96 three-storey Curtis property with a restaurant on the ground floor taken under consideration on 31 March; J. M. Mumford, John H. Price, the C & D Garage and Rudolph Dolle in March; Violet C. Davis, Mrs. P. C. Dennis and Mrs. Bedowick in May; Herman Parsons and E. E. Dennis in April; and on 9 November Wm. Gibbs (apartment on Philadelphia Avenue between Second and Third), C. S. Powell (two apartments at the corner of Third), Calvin Pruitt (apartment and rooming house on Ninth Street) and John B. Lynch (a dwelling back of his hotel in Block 54). Two applications were refused or withdrawn - B. D. Mason's on 16 June, after his neighbours objected, and J. D. Showell's application to close a porch at the Oceanic on 7 September.
Ethel KelleyJohn M. MumfordJohn B. LynchWilliam E. GibbsCurtis W. Long
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-07-13
Ocean City held its tax rate at a dollar on the hundred for a fourth straight year, and exactly one taxpayer turned up to complain
On 29 June 1937 the council listed the year's new and increased assessments and sent notice to every owner on it of a meeting on 13 July 'for to hear any complaints of why the property should not be assessed as listed for year of 1937 taxes'. Among them: Wallace & Jarman, improvements on restaurant and apartments, $3,000; S. Dodd Shuster, bungalow and garage, $4,000; Clarence Carey, dance hall, $1,000; Samuel and Belle Adams, house, $4,800; John Lambros, personal, $8,000 - the largest personal assessment on the page; W. C. Pool, floating houses on lots, $100 each, $600 in all; 'Royalton (Kelly)', personal, $2,000; Rudolph Dolle, body shop, $650; Harry J. Cropper, work shop, $1,000; and Elizabeth Hufford's apartments raised from $3,000 to $4,800. A shorter list of property 'marked off for 1937' cut the Jester, Kelly, Magel, Mumford and Massey books. On 13 July, 'Sam Ayers was only one appeared asking for reduction of 100 on personal in small house and reduction was made.' The council then made 'tax levy for 1937 ... 10.00 Thousand' - one dollar on the hundred, unanimously, the same rate it had held in 1934, 1935 and 1936. — 1938 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: And then it did not. The run of four years at a dollar on the hundred ended on 21 June 1938, when the Ocean City council passed the 1938 levy at 85 cents per $100 on Dr. Townsend's motion seconded by Preston Laws - a cut of fifteen per cent, after a discussion on 31 May of cutting twenty that reached no decision.
W. Preston LawsWilliam H. ScottJohn LambrosHarry J. CropperW. C. PoolClarence CareyEthel Kelley
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1939 · 1939-10-03
The same council that refused the Colored Recreation Hall refused a white man's building on 9th Street in 1939 - and had granted him one in March
Thomas Shill appears three times in 1939. On 21 February his permit for a building on 9th Street drew Mrs. Della K. Powell, P. C. Dennis and Mr. and Mrs. Benson to the council room; 'Mr. Shill was very indefinite as to just what he proposed to build and finally said it was unimportant to him whether he built or not and he left the Council room & no further action was taken.' On 31 March he and Rudolph Dolle applied to build on the Ayers lot at 9th Street for retailing popcorn; the same objectors attended - Mrs. Della Powell, Mr. and Mrs. Benson, H. O. Cropper, Phil Dennis and Mrs. Virginia Ayers - and 'Permits were granted to applicants with understanding they were to comply with building line and operate as requested in applications.' On 19 September he came back with C. H. Clark to enlarge and roof the entire structure, and the mayor sent him away to fill in an application so the clerk could notify everyone within 250 feet. On 3 October the application 'was taken up and discussed with adjoining owners of property Mr & Mrs Benson, P. C. Dennis & Della K. Powell & letters from H. O. Cropper and application refused.'
This complicates the 1938 case and it should. The notice-and-hearing machinery refused white men too, and it refused this one after granting him a permit on the same block six months before. What it does not show is a single instance in 1939 of a Black applicant being put through it at all - which is the more exact indictment: the procedure was real, and Black Ocean City had already been taught what it produced.
Thomas ShillDella K. PowellHorace O. Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1944 · 1944-01-18
Ocean City's balance sheet of 18 January 1944 put the town's total resources at $42,819.97, of which $14,155.53 was taxes and water four years unpaid.
A typed balance sheet bound into the minutes lists uncollected taxes and water back to 1940: 1940, $153.00 in taxes and $76.46 in water; 1941, $804.30 and $480.87; 1942, $3,201.44 and $1,224.29; 1943, $5,841.48 and $2,364.69 - $14,155.53 in all. Against that stood a book account of $33.50, a government bond of $5,000.00, a note of Harrison's for $200.00 and $23,430.94 cash in bank, making $28,664.44, and a total of $42,819.97. A second list names fourteen people owing 1940 and 1941 taxes, among them a sitting councilman-to-be, Rudolf Dolle, at $243.90, and Florence Jackson at $174.40. The sheet ends: 'WE DO NOT OWE ANY BILLS EXCEPT JIM KELLY AND HIS BILL SHOULD NOT BE OVER $125.00.'
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1944 · 1944-05-02
Ocean City refused Red Star Motor Coaches a bus terminal in May 1944 with eleven citizens standing against it - two of whom were on the council that granted it nine months later.
Red Star Motor Coaches Inc. applied for a building permit for a bus terminal in Block 20, lots 2-3-4-5. Mr. Bennett and Attorney Robbins appeared for the company. Opposing in person were Rudolf Dolle, Frank Sacca, H. D. Cropper, C. D. Savage, Owen Mumford, Mrs. Torpy, Myrtle Brittingham, Savannah Dennis, Elizabeth Powell, Thelma Dennis and Marion Elgin 'representing Citizens', with a letter from Dodd Shuster read against it. On motion by Harold Rayne, seconded by H. D. Parsons, the application was refused. Bennett and Robbins then discussed arrangements to handle loading and unloading of their buses for the season, which was left open. Dolle and Savage, who stood against the terminal here as citizens, were elected to the council three months later; on 23 February 1945 Savage moved the permit that granted it and Dolle cast the only vote against.
Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.Harold J. Rayne
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1944 · 1944-08-07
Ocean City cast 452 votes on 7 August 1944, turned out its wartime mayor and both sitting councilmen, and made Daniel Trimper Jr. mayor.
The municipal election was held in the Engine Room of the Fire House, polls open 2 to 6 PM, with Clarence Wright, Joseph Elliott and Charles Clark as judges. 452 votes were cast. For mayor: Daniel Trimper Jr. 231, Clifford P. Cropper 160. For council: John B. Lynch 268, Rudolph Dolle 200, Cranford O. Savage 199, Henry J. Burbage 175, Harold J. Rayne 159, Herman D. Parsons 102. The sitting mayor lost and both sitting councilmen finished last. Dolle and Savage had both stood against the Red Star bus terminal as private citizens three months earlier. Trimper, Lynch, Dolle and Savage took office on 1 September 1944 for a two-year term. Bound with the return is a typed letter of 3 August 1944: 'Gentlemen kindly accept my resignation from being a member of your Council as of August 3 1944, AS my duties are of such nature they so compel me too.' - E. Raymond Bounds, resigning four days before the poll.
Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Clifford P. CropperJohn B. LynchHarold J. RayneE. Raymond Bounds
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1944 · 1944-09-11
Ocean City's new mayor and council were sworn in by Judge James B. Robins on 11 September 1944 and organised with John B. Lynch as president, Rudolph Dolle secretary and Cranford O. Savage treasurer.
'New Mayor & Council met promptly at 7:30 PM in Council Room at Municipal Building.' Mayor-elect Daniel Trimper Jr. was sworn first by Judge James B. Robins, then the three councilmen-elect all at one time. They discussed the handling and disposition of garbage, Board Walk repairs and improvement, the Chamber of Commerce's attempt to buy a truck fit to haul garbage, a police car, and other improvements. The clerk was instructed to order a spray of flowers for Edward Powell and to pay his family ten days' vacation and the balance of salary due him - Powell, one of the policemen voted $100 for the use of his car on 9 September, had died between the 9th and the 11th. Three days later the hurricane came.
Ocean City Chamber of CommerceDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.John B. Lynch
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1944 · 1944-12-12
Ocean City told Edward Evans Jr. in December 1944 to prepare papers for a two-year bus franchise inside the city limits, and heard a proposal to advertise the town by radio.
Edward Evans Jr., with his attorney Franklin Upshur, asked a franchise to operate bus service in the city limits; the council told him to prepare papers and they would consider a two-year permit. On 2 January 1945 Evans got a permit to run a bus service from 15 June to 15 September each year for four years, non-transferable, at his own expense for the papers. The same December meeting had Frank Sacca and Talbot Bunting before it in the interest of advertising by radio, asking that finances be appropriated - the council told them to work out a programme with the Chamber of Commerce - and they also wanted the Short Line Buss service invited into Ocean City. R. Dolle presented plans for the building of a trailer camp and parking lot, and Katie Jenkins, Mrs. Willie Ludlam and Mr. Waller and wife came to discuss raising the boardwalk when it was rebuilt.
Ocean City Chamber of Commerce
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-02-23
Ocean City granted the bus terminal 2-1 at a Friday morning meeting nine days after a public hearing voted 26 to 14 against it - the only vote against coming from the man who had opposed it as a citizen.
The council met at 11:30 on the morning of Friday 23 February with Mayor Trimper and all three councilmen present. Cranford O. Savage moved that the permit be granted to Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc. to build a bus terminal on the site of the North Garage as applied for on 8 February and amended on 20 February. John B. Lynch seconded. The mayor asked for the vote: Savage yes, Lynch yes, Rudolph Dolle no, and Mayor Trimper expressed his sentiment as yes. The application was signed by Lynch as President of Council with Savage as witness, and the meeting adjourned at 12:20. Savage and Dolle had both stood before the old council as private citizens in May 1944 to oppose the same company's terminal; the council refused it then. On 20 February the council had been unable to agree, had made the company strike the gasoline station off its application, and had gone to Salisbury to talk it over with the bus officials.
Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.Cranford O. SavageJohn B. LynchDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-05-15
Ocean City's 1945 licence ordinance took three readings and two passages: adopted on 20 March, rewritten and passed again on 15 May as Ordinance #100.
The council went over Ordinance L-3 item by item on 10 January, spending two and a half hours and setting a further debate; gave the fee schedule a second reading on 13 March and ordered it posted; and on 20 March, with Dale Showell, Elizabeth Strohecker and Chas. and Lee Jackson present wanting to know what the fees would be, made the third reading and passed it on motion by R. Dolle seconded by C. O. Savage, unanimously, ordering it printed. On 5 April Attorney Whaley was instructed to write the ordinance up as passed. On 15 May the secretary read a letter from Whaley about it, and the ordinance was rewritten as of 15 May and passed as Ordinance #100, signed by President of Council John B. Lynch and Mayor Daniel Trimper and tested by J. M. Mumford, Secretary.
John B. LynchDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.J. M. MumfordJohn S. Whaley
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-07-24
Ocean City set its 1945 tax rate at $1.20 per hundred - the sixth straight year at that figure, and the first of the peace.
On motion by C. O. Savage, seconded by R. Dolle, the tax rate for 1945 was set at $1.20 on one hundred dollars and the treasurer was to set the books up on that basis; the motion carried. A second motion carried to collect all licence due the city by 1 August. The rate had gone to $1.20 in July 1940 and had not moved since. On 31 July the council decided the best way to collect the licence on machines was to have the chief of police notify the owners, and on 22 August it instructed the clerk to collect in full on machines.
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-08-27
Ocean City's Zoning Commission delivered its preliminary report on 27 August 1945, and the council voted only to receive it.
The council met at 8:30 PM with the Zoning Commission - Mayor Trimper, Councilmen Dolle and Savage for the town, and Attorney Wm. Price with chairman Frank Waller, Harland Huston, C. W. Purnell and J. P. Whaley for the commission. Attorney Price read a report of the work done by the commission and discussion followed, after which R. Dolle moved and C. O. Savage seconded that the Zoning Commission's preliminary report be received and that it receive consideration. Receiving is all the council did. The report itself is not bound into the minutes, and within eight weeks its zoning map was being used to decide a night-club permit.
Ocean City Zoning CommissionDr. Charles Washington PurnellCranford O. SavageJohn P. Whaley
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-09-12
Maryland accepted Ocean City's post-war water main extension in September 1945 and agreed to pay half the engineer's expenses.
On 6 September a notice from the Commission on Post War Reconstruction was read in which the project for extending water mains was accepted, and the clerk was told to forward the papers to Engineer Clark Gardner. On 12 September Gardner came with the acceptance papers to be signed, on terms under which the State would pay one half the engineer's expenses; on motion by C. O. Savage seconded by R. Dolle the council agreed to accept the terms and Gardner was told to prepare the plans. The project had begun with a $200 agreement in December 1944 and Gardner had forwarded signed plans to the commission in January 1945. It ended the year unbuilt: two bids opened on 21 December were rejected as too high on 26 December.
Clark GardnerCranford O. Savage
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1945 · 1945-12-26
Ocean City opened two bids for its post-war water main extension five days before the end of 1945 and threw them both out as too dear.
The council met on the evening of Friday 21 December to open bids on the water main extension, with Clark Gardner, Purnell and Messick of the engineers present, a Mr. McDermott representing George & Lynch, and two men representing a second contractor. Bids were opened from the two bidders and, after reading, held for consideration until Thursday 27 December, the certified checks with them. But on 26 December the council discussed them and decided the price was too high; on motion by John B. Lynch, seconded by R. Dolle, the bids were rejected and the certified checks returned to the bidders. The project had begun with a $200 survey agreement in December 1944 and had the State's acceptance and half its engineering paid; Ocean City entered 1946 with plans, an unadopted zoning ordinance and no water contract.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
George & LynchM. J. McDermottClark GardnerJohn B. Lynch
Source · checked 2026-08-12
1946 · 1946-04-03
Five weeks before adoption the Ocean City council sat down with the zoning map and moved district lines by hand, enlarging one business area to the ocean and turning half of another into residential.
The full board met with Attorney Wm. Price on the evening of Wednesday 3 April 1946 'to go over the Zoning ordinance & map', and the meeting proceeded by reading the map. Approval was made of areas 7 and 11 as Industrial as outlined; of the B.B. area as laid down on the map; and of B areas 4 to 9. Then two changes: 'B area 4 enlarged to a point midway between First Street & Second Street, north to extend to Ocean', and 'Line dividing area 10 from area 9 moved South half a block, and remainder of area 9 created as residential area'. The one formal motion of the night, by John B. Lynch seconded by C. O. Savage, abolished all distinction as to side and rear yard regulation in residential use districts and made it uniform as prescribed for A Area district in the Zoning Commission's final report. The meeting rose at 11:20. The council met again the following evening, read on, and the clerk recorded that 'nothing definitely done', adjourning at 11:30.
Ocean City Zoning CommissionJohn B. LynchCranford O. SavageDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-04-25
Ocean City's rebuilt Boardwalk cost the town $18.00 a running foot and the abutting owners were billed $15.50 - $775 for a fifty-foot lot.
'Board Walk Cost was presented and Secretary ordered to bill the property owners $775. for 50 ft lot, which is $15.50 running foot, and the Walk cost $18.00 per foot.' The figures are internally consistent - fifty times $15.50 is $775 exactly - and the town absorbed $2.50 a foot. It is the first per-foot figure the campaign has for the walk wrecked by the hurricane of 14 September 1944, rebuilt in wood because concrete was prohibitive, and widened on 5 November 1945 to thirty feet from North Division to South Division Street. The same meeting granted building permits to two sitting councilmen without any recusal recorded - R. Dolle to build next to the Comfort Station and five feet from the Barber Shop, with a cement wall next to the Comfort Station, and J. B. Lynch for an ice box - voted $5,000 to the Chamber of Commerce, and heard Bob Cropper ask for somewhere for teen-age children to meet, 'after much debate nothing was decided on'.
Ocean City Chamber of CommerceJohn B. LynchRobert Lee CropperMiss Elizabeth Laws
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-04-30
Ocean City settled its 1946 garbage problem by deciding 'to employ five colored help to load trucks' and sending the clerk out to find the men.
'The handling of garbage was discussed, and decided to employ five colored help to load trucks, and Secretary ordered to contact men and employ them.' It is the whole of the entry, and it is the only reference to Black labour or to Black Ocean City in the first two thirds of the 1946 minute book - a decision to hire five men, by race, with no man named, no wage entered and the finding of them left to the town clerk. It answers the question the council had left open five days earlier, when 'what to do about getting crew to move garbage was discussed but left for further thought'. The same meeting borrowed $5,000 from the Bank of Ocean City on a thirty-day note to get the town to the season.
Bank of Ocean CityCranford O. SavageJ. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-05-03
On the evening of Friday 3 May 1946 Ocean City read its zoning ordinance through one last time, declared it 'as they wanted it', and fixed its passage for the following Tuesday.
The full board met with Wm. H. Price, attorney for Zoning, and the engineer. 'The entire Zoning ordinance was read over and changes in map were noted. Council agreed that the Ordinance was as they wanted it, and Attorney Price was instructed to prepare the Ordinance so it could be finally passed at next regular monthly meeting to be held on May 7th 1946.' The meeting rose at 10:30. The sequence from there is complete: the commission's report signed over 20 November 1945, public hearings 19 and 22 December 1945, the council reading and amending on 3, 4, 11 and 25 April 1946, the final read-through on 3 May, counsel's draft minute on 4 May, and passage on 7 May. This is the meeting at which the town's mayor is first written 'D. Trimper Jr.' in the 1946 book.
The engineer of the 1946 zoning map is printed CLARKE GARDNER on the map and written 'Clark Gordon' by the clerk four days earlier - almost certainly the Clark Gardner who had been Ocean City's consulting engineer since 1935.
Staton, Whaley & PriceDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.John B. LynchCranford O. SavageClark Gardner
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-05-07
Ocean City passed its first zoning ordinance 3-0 on the evening of 7 May 1946, and it was in force that night.
The Mayor and City Council met in regular monthly session at 7:30 P.M. with the whole board present - Mayor Daniel Trimper Jr., Councilmen John B. Lynch, Rudolph Dolle and Crawford O. Savage, and John M. Mumford, City Clerk. The President of the City Council laid before the council the form of The Zoning Ordinance of Ocean City, Maryland, 'as recommended by the Zoning Commission and revised following public advertised hearings before the Mayor and City Council and numerous sessions of the Mayor and City Council to consider suggestions and objections adduced at said hearings and at the hearings held by the Zoning Commission.' On motion by Councilman Rudolph Dolle, seconded by Councilman Crawford O. Savage, it was unanimously passed as Ordinance No. 99. Section II provides that the ordinance 'shall take effect from the date of its passage' - no delay, no publication period, no referendum. Trimper approved it the same day. The whole of the 39 manuscript pages and the map that follow are the ordinance; the clerk records no other motion, no correspondence, no bills and no adjournment. Dolle - who cast the lone dissenting vote on the bus terminal in February 1945 - moved it, voted for it, signed it as councilman and attested it as Secretary to the City Council.
Ocean City Zoning CommissionDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Cranford O. SavageJohn B. LynchJ. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-05-07
The 1946 zoning map ran from the Inlet to North 26th Street and stopped dead: everything platted beyond it was drawn, left blank and unzoned.
Read from the Inlet northward, the adopted map goes: the ocean side from the southern limit to Wicomico Street is BB-40-A, the amusement class; Wicomico Street to North First Street is B-40-A, general business with amusements absolutely prohibited; the whole bay side from the southern limit up to about North First Street is I-40-A, industrial, its ocean-side edge a line 150 feet behind Philadelphia Avenue stepping north-east behind St. Louis Avenue, with the causeway marked TO BERLIN coming ashore inside it; the ocean front from North First to North Fifteenth carries district 3 with a B-40-A block interrupting it between North Eighth and North Tenth; a heavy line runs bay to ocean down North Fifteenth Street and everything north of it to about North Twenty-Second is R-30-B, residential, the height limit dropping from forty feet to thirty; North Twenty-Second to North Twenty-Sixth is BB-30-B, the town's other amusement-capable district; and a heavy line down North Twenty-Sixth Street ends the zoned town. The blocks of North Twenty-Seventh Street and northward are platted on the sheet and left entirely blank, unhatched and unnumbered. The scale is one inch to four hundred feet and the sheet is signed in ink over the print by John B. Lynch as President of the City Council, Rudolph Dolle and Crawford O. Savage as councilmen, and attested by Dolle as Secretary.
John B. LynchCranford O. SavageClark Gardner
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-05-21
In May 1946 Ocean City wrote to Lee Savage to tell him no plane hangar would be allowed at 9th Street.
'Letter ordered sent to Lee Savage to notify him that no plane hangar would be allowed at 9th Street.' It is a refusal made two weeks after Ordinance No. 99 took effect and before any Building Inspector existed to administer it, and the minute cites no provision of the ordinance and gives no reason. Ninth Street sits in the stretch of ocean front whose zoning class was lost with the top of the map legend, so it cannot even be said now what the ground was zoned. Six months later the same council referred the Civil Aeronautics Administration to Robert Lee Cropper's airport. The same meeting discussed the appointment of a Zoning Board of Appeals and decided to ask the same members to serve that were on the Zoning Board, put R. Dolle in charge of getting the parking-lot building fixed up with toilets and sewer, and wrote to Mary B. Cormine about her building on 6th Street standing partly on the sidewalk.
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-05-28
Ocean City used its own ordinances to keep a 'Beach Ball' concession off the Atlantic Hotel lot in 1946, on the ground that it was not a permanent building - and five men came in the following week to object to it anyway.
J. E. Collins and a partner asked the council on 28 May for the privilege of placing a 'Beach Ball' on the Atlantic lot opposite the City Comfort Station. 'Much discussion was had as to merits of the granting the privilege and was objected to by Councilmen R. Dolle and C. D. Savage because it was not a permanent building and did not conform to City Ordinances.' No grant is recorded. A week later Mr. English, Evans, Buckman, Jarvis and Shaw were before the council objecting to the Beach Ball being placed on the Atlantic Hotel lot. Collins had already been refused twice in March - once when he asked to lease part of the city parking lot for a lunch stand and was told the City did not want to lease it, and once when he asked to erect a Beach Ball on Red Star Bus property to serve lunches. Three weeks into the first zoning summer, an amusement concession is being refused on the ground that it does not conform.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc.Cranford O. Savage
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-06-02
Ocean City's Honor Roll for its service men was unveiled on 2 June 1946, paid for in part by a hundred dollars from the council - and the two women who had asked for it in 1945 were left to find their own speaker.
On 14 May 1946 Elizabeth Laws and Gladys Hastings were before the council asking advice as to a speaker for the unveiling of the Honor Roll for service men on June 2nd, and for a donation towards the expense of it. 'Council gave them $100 and left them to secure their own speaker.' It is the end of a thread that runs back three and a half years: the $25 service flag of February 1943; 'Monument for Service Men was discussed and no decision reached' in January 1945; the permit to Frank Sacca in April 1945 for a board on the Electric Light lot to carry the names; the same two women asking for help planning an Honor Roll on 18 September 1945; and the War Memorial Building with proposed sites in October 1945. The unveiling is the only war-related event in the whole of the 1946 minute book. The site, the speaker, the form of the thing and the names on it are still nowhere in the record.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Miss Elizabeth LawsMrs. Gladys HastingsJohn B. Lynch
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-06-04
Ocean City appointed George Bert Cropper its first Building Inspector on 4 June 1946 - the engineer who had spent 1939 trying to give the town a building code got the office four weeks after zoning gave him one.
'On motion by J. B. Lynch, seconded by R. Dolle, Geo. Bert Cropper was appointed Building Inspector to carry out the Zoning ordinance.' Ordinance No. 99 had created the office in function on 7 May and named nobody to it; every permit, every certificate of occupancy and every referral to the Board of Zoning Appeals runs through it. Four days before the appointment, William H. Price had ended a letter to the clerk on an unrelated sewer question with a postscript: 'Will you please write me the name of the Building Inspector under the Zoning Ordinance when appointed?' Cropper was already the town's working surveyor - it was his field notes that started the boundary fight in March, and the same meetings that made him Inspector sent him out to give the grade for a sidewalk and to mark the line of 6th Street. By 22 October the council had told him to go ahead towards making a unified grade for the streets of the entire City.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Staton, Whaley & PriceG. Bertrand CropperJohn B. Lynch
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-07-16
Ocean City raised its tax rate to $1.40 per hundred in July 1946 - the first move in seven years, after six straight years at $1.20.
Finances were discussed with the Treasurer and, on motion by Rudolph Dolle seconded by both J. B. Lynch and C. D. Savage, the tax rate for 1946 was set at $1.40 per hundred on assessment, with the secretary told to set the books up on that basis. The rate had stood at $1.20 since July 1940 and had held there through the whole of the war. The town had borrowed $15,000 from the Bank of Ocean City on 5 March and another $5,000 on a thirty-day note on 30 April to get itself to the season, had voted $5,000 to the Chamber of Commerce and $500 to the Business Men's Association, was billing property owners for the Boardwalk at $15.50 a foot, and had a $1,324.24 legal bill for zoning on the table at the same meeting.
Bank of Ocean CityJohn B. LynchCranford O. Savage
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-08-05
Ocean City returned its whole government at a four-hour poll in the fire house on 5 August 1946: Trimper beat Robert Lee Cropper 344 to 135, and the three sitting councilmen all beat the only challenger.
'An election was held in the Engine room of Fire House on Monday August 5, 1946 for purpose of electing one person for Mayor and three persons for City Councilmen.' The polls opened at two and closed at six, kept by Election Judges Joseph Elliott, Horace H. Richardson and Chas. T. Jackson with J. M. Mumford as clerk, and 494 votes were cast. For Mayor: Daniel Trimper Jr. 344, Robert Lee Cropper 135. For City Council: Rudolph Dolle 403, Cranford D. Savage 341, John B. Lynch 335, John Sacca 165. The returns were properly made to the City Clerk and Trimper, Dolle, Lynch and Savage were declared duly elected for a two-year term to take office on 9 September 1946. It was held on a Monday in the first week of August, at the height of the season, in the engine room.
The clerk recorded 494 votes cast and a mayoral tally that adds to 479 - the two figures in the same return do not close.
Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Robert Lee CropperCranford O. SavageJohn B. LynchCharles T. JacksonJ. M. Mumford
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-08-27
Twenty-two days after being re-elected, the President of the Ocean City Council laid a note on the table resigning both his remaining term and his new one, and walked out of a meeting that had never been called to order.
The council met at eight on the evening of 27 August with Mayor Trimper, Lynch and Dolle present and Savage absent. While they waited for Savage, Robert Lee Cropper came in as President of the Chamber of Commerce and discussed the winter operating of the Chamber: he wanted to keep a girl on part time all winter to answer correspondence and wanted the City to put up the money for it, and he wanted to put on one or more exhibits in Washington or Boston at about $500 each. 'Nothing definite was promised on this.' Then, in the clerk's words: 'The meeting was not called to order or any minutes read when John B. Lynch said he wanted the attention of the Mayor & Council, and at that time laid on the table a note saying he was resigning as a member of Council both for the remaining term and the newly elected term. The members were taken by surprise at this and Mr. Lynch left the room, with Mayor Trimper and Dolle following soon thereafter, at about 9:15 o'clock.' Lynch had been President of the Council, had signed Ordinance No. 99 in that capacity three months earlier, and had polled 335 votes on 5 August. No reason is recorded and the note is not copied into the book. The seat was still empty at the last meeting of the year.
Ocean City Chamber of CommerceJohn B. LynchDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Robert Lee Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-09-09
Ocean City organised its new government on 9 September 1946 two councilmen strong, made Rudolph Dolle President and Cranford Savage Secretary-Treasurer, and hired the lawyer who had written its zoning ordinance as City Attorney.
Judge Jones Robins was called in and swore in Daniel Trimper as Mayor for a two-year term and R. Dolle and C. D. Savage as councilmen for two years; Lynch's seat stayed empty. The council elected Rudolph Dolle President and Cranford D. Savage Secretary and Treasurer, appointed Joe Savage Police Chief, and appointed John S. Whaley City Attorney - the Snow Hill partner who had cited the deeds in the boundary fight in April and rewritten an ordinance in May. The same meeting was told that the busses had quit and ordered the secretary to write Mr. Colonell asking why he quit before 1 October, and decided to have Geo. Bert Cropper present at the next meeting to settle about the price for charging for permits. It also read and approved the minutes of 'Aug. 5, Aug 10th & August 27th'.
Daniel W. Trimper, Jr.Cranford O. SavageJohn S. WhaleyG. Bertrand Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-09-18
Ocean City fixed its first building-permit fees on 18 September 1946: ten dollars for a garage, fifteen for a dwelling, or a quarter of one per cent of the cost of the building.
Bert Cropper was present and discussion was had as to cost, and on motion by R. Dolle seconded by C. D. Savage it was agreed: $10.00 minimum for a garage; $15.00 for a dwelling, or one quarter of one per cent of the cost of the building. Counsel had advised on 4 May that permit charges 'should be incorporated in a separate ordinance', and four and a half months later the council set them by motion instead. The same meeting ordered fifteen survey markers put in the centre of the street from South First Street to Fifteenth, every other street; held the grade on 5th Street to Cropper's grade, four inches above the centre of the street; and put a notice in the paper that no building or repairs were to be done until a permit was secured. The town had been running a permit regime for four months and had not been charging for it: on 9 September the council had to decide to have Cropper present at the next meeting 'to settle about price for charging for permits'.
G. Bertrand CropperCranford O. Savage
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-11-15
Ocean City contracted for two artesian wells at its north end in November 1946 and was taking advice on bonds to pay for extending its water mains.
'Letter from Shannahan Artesian Well Co. Inc. with proposal for driving two wells at [the] North End was read, and on motion by R. Dolle, seconded by Savage, contract was awarded to Shannahan for the work.' No price is entered. Three weeks earlier the clerk had read a letter from Clarke Gardner on bonds for water extensions - the same engineer who drew the zoning map, and the same man who had carried the town's post-war water main extension through 1945 until the council rejected both bids five days before Christmas as too dear. The 1946 answer is not to let the contract but to drill at the north end and think about borrowing. The same meeting had Councilman Savage ask the town to look into making places where the fire trucks could get water from the Bay, and what that would cost.
Shannahan Artesian Well Co. Inc.Clark GardnerCranford O. Savage
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1946 · 1946-11-26
At its last meeting of 1946 Ocean City took the Chamber of Commerce onto its own books - salary, rent, booklets, postage and telephone - and named the woman who would run it through the winter.
'On motion by Rudolph Dolle, seconded by Cranford D. Savage, that the City would pay Miss Elizabeth Laws [Salary], pay rent, booklets, postage, telephone; and to give Miss Laws [the] privilege of spending up to $50.00, and on bills over that to get [the] OK of City Council.' The word 'Salary' is interlined above the line in the clerk's hand. It grants, three months late, what Robert Lee Cropper had asked for on 27 August as President of the Chamber - to keep a girl on part time all winter to answer correspondence - and it names her: Elizabeth Laws, who in May had been raising the Honor Roll for the town's service men and in April had come before the council in the interest of the Chamber's finances. Cropper's other request, one or more exhibits in Washington or Boston at about $500 each, is not mentioned and was not funded in 1946.
Ocean City Chamber of CommerceMiss Elizabeth LawsCranford O. SavageRobert Lee Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-15
1950 · 1950-08-01
Ocean City voted for mayor on 1 August 1950 with three men before it, and the result was not printed in the pages read
Councilman Hugh T. Cropper filed first; Rudolph Dolle, a businessman, filed in July; and the incumbent Mayor Daniel Trimper, Jr. — elected in the 452-vote upset of 1944 — was "being strongly urged by his supporters to file for re-election." Cropper would be mayor by the Ash Wednesday storm of 1962, when he ordered the town evacuated.
Source · checked 2026-09-02