History

Thomas W. Jenkins

Baltimore furniture dealer and Ocean City developer · active 1896

Baltimore furniture dealer who put money into Ocean City through the 1896 season: an incorporator of the Steel Pier and Railway Company, "at Ocean City taking active measures for improvements," a buyer of three lots from Alvaro F. Gibbens with two cottages to be finished at a cost of $3,000 by July 15, and a purchaser of a parcel from Mary B. Gibbens for $2,000 and of a lot from the Sinepuxent Beach Company. He brought his own force of workmen down from Baltimore. In November he sold his Ocean City lots to David J. Adkins, the Berlin contractor and councilman, for $2,000.

In the record (1)

  1. 1903 · 1903-05-09

    In 1903 a Baltimore Avenue corner lot in Block 1 North was advertised at $400 on terms, while the county's land records show whole Ocean City lots changing hands for $90 to $380.

    The Snow Hill real-estate agent O. M. Purnell ran the same three-line advertisement all summer: "$400 will buy Baltimore Avenue Corner lot in Block 1, N., Ocean City, on time to suit purchaser." The Worcester County land records, printed monthly in the same paper, give the transactions behind it: on 9 May, "Oscar M. Purnell from Thomas W. Jenkins, 2 lots at Ocean City. Consideration $380," and "John E. Lynch, from Abigail Keen, Lot No. 160, Ocean City. Consideration $90"; on 7 February, "John D. Showell, from Edwin F. Abell et al., two lots in Ocean City. Consideration $250." In March, "T. M. Purnell, Esq., has purchased the lot on Baltimore Avenue, adjoining his cottage at Ocean City, of Thos. W. Jenkins, of Baltimore." At the other end of the ledger, the town was selling lots for unpaid corporation taxes: James H. Mumford, Collector of Corporation Taxes for Ocean City, advertised lot No. 7 in Block 17 North (assessed to Miss Mary M. Semmes, taxes of 1900 and 1901 in arrears) and lots 196, 200, 203 and 205 North (assessed to Albert C. Carey, taxes of 1901) for sale on the premises on 7 February 1903, and lot No. 3 in Block 6 South (assessed to George W. Hoffman) for 13 June. Compare 1899, when Waggaman's lots sold at $105 to $385 [fact:1899-waggaman-owns-the-town].

    Albert C. CareyJames H. Mumford

    Source · checked 2026-08-06