'Tip' Rayne
hotel proprietor · 1865–1937
Hotel proprietor of Ocean City and Berlin who 'for years owned and operated hotels at the resort and at Berlin'. In 1893 he bought the old Congress Hall hotel at Ocean City; he later built and managed Raynes Hotel, afterwards known as Adam's Hotel. He died in 1937 aged 72.
In the record (1)
1937 · 1937-05-28
An obituary in 1937 is the only place the campaign has ever found Ocean City's Congress Hall hotel
'Tip' Rayne, 72, 'who for years owned and operated hotels at the resort and at Berlin', died in the spring of 1937, and his obituary in the Worcester Democrat of 28 May carries a sentence that fills a hole in the registry: 'in 1893 [he] purchased the old Congress Hall hotel at Ocean City', and 'later built and managed Raynes Hotel (later as Adam's Hotel)'. Congress Hall is a name this campaign has had to warn its own researchers about for years, because Cape May, New Jersey has one and it produces false hits in the New Jersey papers. Ocean City, Maryland had one too, it was already called 'old' in 1893, and until now not one source in the whole record had said so.
The registry had a standing note that 'Congress Hall is not a Maryland marker'. It turns out to have been half wrong for the whole campaign, and the correction arrived in a death notice.
Source · checked 2026-08-11