William B. S. Powell
mayor, businessman · active 1912–1918 (mayor); on the council thereafter
Mayor of Ocean City 1912-1916 and an incorporator and part owner of the McGregor Building that housed the Bank of Ocean City; he sold his interest in the building to bank president L. D. Lynch in 1921. He was elected on Monday 5 August 1912 in what the county paper called "a warm municipal election," defeating council president Francis J. Townsend — both Republicans in a non-partisan contest. He ceased to be mayor in August 1918, when Edward M. Scott was elected in his place; Powell went onto the council. In 1921 he was proprietor of the Atlantic Hotel — "OCEAN FRONT; European Plan; Garage Accommodations. W. B. S. POWELL, Prop." in the Evening Star all season, the hotel opening to the public on Sunday 12 June. — 1934 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11: Add a death terminus. The minutes of 16 January 1934 record J. Dale Showell elected 'to fill the remainder of term as Councilman in place of W B S Powell, deceased'. Powell was therefore dead by 16 January 1934 — the campaign has had no death date for him at all. His property was still on the town's assessment roll that August ('W B S Powell arena off, $2,000', 15 August 1934). The exact date and cause are not in the minutes.
In the record (31)
1906
Ocean City lots in 1906: $200 for a bare corner on Baltimore Avenue, $1,060 for oceanfront next to the Life-Saving Station.
The Worcester County real-estate transfer column gives a run of 1906 Ocean City prices. In March, John D. Showell bought from Elizabeth R. Talty et al. a lot "situate in Ocean City, fronting on Atlantic Avenue and immediately north of the Government Life Saving Station" for $1,060. In February, Daniel Trimper, Jr. bought from Edward M. and Elizabeth M. Scott a lot with improvements on Caroline Street for $1,200. In November, Clayton J. Purnell bought from Joshua J. Dunton — the Ocean City life-saving keeper — the vacant lot at Baltimore Avenue and North Division Street for $200, and announced he would "erect thereon a two story house before next summer"; the same column records Robert L. Purnell buying the lot at the south-east corner of Baltimore Avenue and Caroline Street from the Markoes for $500, and Joshua J. Dunton buying a lot in or near Ocean City on the Sinepuxent Beach from Joseph C. S. Blackburn, Trustee. In January, Mary L. Dean bought a piece of ground with buildings in Ocean City from Katherine E. Malone for $6,500 and William B. S. Powell a tract in Ocean City on Synepuxent Beach for $1,400, while William J. Quillin, Jr. paid $375 for a house and lot at Talbot Street and St. Louis Avenue. And in December, William B. S. Powell bought from Joshua J. Dunton and wife a lot with buildings "in or near Ocean City, on the Sinepuxent Beach" for $1,000, while Edward M. Scott bought a lot with buildings on Sinepuxent Beach from the Ocean City Development Company for a nominal consideration.
John D. ShowellDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.Clayton J. PurnellCapt. Joshua J. DuntonJoseph C. S. Blackburn
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1908
The Sinepuxent Salt Water Inlet Company dykes the bay and dredges through the beach — a private inlet, built for oysters, twenty-five years before the storm.
The whole of 1908 in the Democratic Messenger is the story of this company. February: "A meeting of the stockholders of the Sinepuxent Salt Water Inlet Co. will be held at Dirickson's Hall in Berlin, Md., on February 12th, 1908 … The plans are prepared for your inspection. ORLANDO HARRISON, President." April: "WORK ON INLET COMMENCED — Under Guidance Of Competent Civil Engineers Who Are Sure of Success … At a meeting of the stockholders in Berlin last Monday the old directors were re-elected. Mr. O. D. Collins was elected in place of Lambert Ayres, deceased. Dodge & Day, civil engineers of Philadelphia, have been employed to plan the work and Mr. John T. Keas has been appointed superintendent. Work of constructing bulkheads from the bayside to the beach will start at once. $10,000.00 worth of stock has been subscribed for, about one-fourth of which has been paid in." June: "THE SALT WATER WILL SOON FLOW — Workmen Pushing Ahead On The Inlet — Piling All Driven … All of the piling has been driven across the Sinepuxent Bay for the dyke, and a large number of men are at work under the supervision of Capt. W. B. S. Powell, putting down the brush" — brush cut from the beach lands near Green Run Life-Saving Station and delivered by a fleet of monitors, with "hundreds of people … visiting the grounds where the work is being done." August: the piling all down, the cutting through the beach under way, a 12-inch sand blower contracted for at $1,200, and boat-loads of Snow Hill people taken down to see it on the day of the Democratic congressional convention. December: "CUTTING THE INLET NEAR OCEAN CITY, MD. The steam dredge which has been recently built by the Sinepuxent Salt Water Inlet Company is cutting its way through the beach from bay to ocean with great rapidity," illustrated with a cut showing the dredge and "a portion of the dyke which has been constructed from the bayside to within a few feet of the beach, with the purpose of concentrating at the beach side all the force of the water banked up against this dyke." On 26 December the paper printed a letter from F. C. Warrener, assistant engineer of the War Department, who had "came to Ocean City on a special train to view the inlet," saying he was glad of the progress and had already given his opinion that it would succeed. The object was never navigation: "its first object was to promote the welfare of the oystermen and increase the oyster industry of Worcester County."
Sinepuxent Salt Water Inlet CompanyOrlando HarrisonJohn T. Keas
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1909 · 1909-07-24
At 4.20 p.m. on Saturday 24 July 1909, Orlando Harrison cuts the last strip of sand with a shovel and the Atlantic runs into Sinepuxent Bay.
"INLET CUT FROM BAY TO OCEAN. Water of the Atlantic Now Flowing in Sinepuxent Bay. Will be Success." The Sinepuxent Salt Water Inlet Company finished the work it began in April 1908. "At the opening where the dam was cut, the water is at least four feet deep with a width of over sixty feet, and as it is gradually deepening and widening, there is every encouragement to believe that the enterprise will be a success. Hundreds of people were present at the opening, among the number being Mr. Orlando Harrison, president of the Salt Water Inlet Company; Oliver D. Collins, John T. Keys, Capt. W. B. S. Powell, Capt. George S. Scarborough, Robert J. Showell, William Whaley, C. L. Vincent, editor of the Messenger, and hundreds of others. Mr. Orlando Harrison cut the last strip of land with his shovel and let the water from the bay to the ocean amid the cheers of the people witnessing the event." At 11 o'clock Sunday morning Capt. W. B. S. Powell sailed a government boat out of the inlet to the ocean and back through it to Ocean City. The paper reported that the State of Maryland would likely be asked to help maintain it, and that Senator John Walter Smith and Congressman J. Harry Covington would be asked to seek a federal appropriation, "because it is conceived by everyone who visits it that if this inlet can be made permanent it will be the means of making Ocean City one of the greatest health resorts along the Atlantic coast." Two weeks earlier the Messenger's Berlin column had reported the government engineer's "official permission to dike the inlet, without which it could not be permanent," and by mid-August "the crabs in Sinepuxent Bay, since the opening of the Inlet, are the finest ever seen there, and the most abundant."
Twenty-four years before the 1933 storm did it for nothing, a stock company of Berlin businessmen cut an inlet through this beach by hand and by dredge — and for one month it worked.
Sinepuxent Salt Water Inlet CompanyOrlando HarrisonJohn T. Keas
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1912 · 1912-08-05
Capt. William B. S. Powell beats council president Francis J. Townsend for mayor in "a warm municipal election" — and Daniel Trimper, Sr. takes a council seat.
W. Lee Carey, mayor since 1908, signed the notice of his own succession: "an election will be held at the usual place for holding municipal elections in Ocean City, Maryland, on MONDAY, August 5th, 1912, for the purpose of electing a Mayor and five City Councilmen. The polls will be open at 1 o'clock P. M. and close at 6 o'clock P. M. W. LEE CAREY, Mayor." The Democratic Messenger reported the result on 10 August: "A warm municipal election was held at Ocean City last Monday... The principal contest was for the Mayoralty, the candidates being Captain William B. S. Powell and Mr. Francis J. Townsend. Captain Powell won out, although the contest was close. The election was non-partisan, both candidates for Mayor being Republicans and the Councilmen being mixed." The council elected was Daniel Trimper, Sr., Ashley M. Gould, William J. Laws, Levin D. Lynch and John M. Mumford — "all residents of Ocean City with the exception of Judge Gould, who is Judge of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia." Powell, the paper said, "is a well-known citizen and a large property holder and will no doubt make a good mayor of Maryland's only seaside resort." Two things are worth noticing: the town elected FIVE councilmen, where the 1908 slate had six names for four or five seats; and it was a contest between two Republicans in a county the Democratic Messenger spoke for.
Francis J. TownsendW. Lee CareyLevin D. Lynch
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1913
The BC&A had been paying the Atlantic Hotel $500 a year for the right to "dump" its excursionists on hotel ground — and in 1913 it stopped.
The Messenger of 12 July 1913: "Another complaint against the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company was filed with the Public Service Commission last week, the complainant being Manager W. B. S. Powell of the Atlantic Hotel, at Ocean City. Manager Powell alleges that the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic [dumps] — that's the term used — its excursionists on the property of the hotel company. Prior to this season the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic, says the complaint, paid the hotel $500 for the privilege of 'dumping' the excursionists there. This year there has been no payment. Hence, the complaint." It is the only price the campaign has for what the excursion trade was worth to a single Ocean City hotel, and it is a rare glimpse of the friction between the railroad that made the town and the houses that took its passengers. The word "another" matters too: the BC&A was already a standing defendant before the Public Service Commission, the same forum in which W. Ashbie Hawkins had pressed the Jim Crow steamer complaints of 1911.
Atlantic HotelBaltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1913
The mayor buys the Atlantic Hotel: Capt. W. B. S. Powell and Capt. John H. Long take the town's founding house.
The Democratic Messenger of 26 April 1913 reported in a single sentence what closes a thread the campaign has followed since 1899: "The Atlantic Hotel property at Ocean City was sold this week to Capt. B. S. Powell, mayor of Ocean City, and Captain John H. Long, of Frankford." The Atlantic had been John F. Waggaman's, then the Baltimore syndicate's, then the Ocean City Development Company's through its 1908 bankruptcy; in 1913 it passes to the sitting mayor of the town and a Frankford, Delaware, captain. By July Powell was signing himself "Manager W. B. S. Powell of the Atlantic Hotel" in a complaint to the Public Service Commission, and by December he was buying two more lots on the north side of Worcester Street at $125 and $25. The same year the Maryland Press Association met in the hotel and Governor Goldsborough's callers filled it.
Atlantic HotelCapt. John H. Long
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1913
The town's legally required August accounts, printed in 1912, are not printed in 1913.
Chapters 561 and 658 of 1904 require the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City to publish an itemised statement of receipts and disbursements each August, and the 1912 pass found one — "FINANCIAL REPORT OF OCEAN CITY, MD., From August 1st, 1911, to August 1st, 1912," signed by treasurer J. W. Quillen, in the Messenger of 10 August 1912. No such statement appears anywhere in the 1913 file. All 147 pages of the Snow Hill Democratic Messenger that mention Ocean City in 1913 were read in full, including every August issue, and none carries a financial report, a levy, or a rate. What the year does yield of municipal money is indirect: the county levy pays the Ocean City Bridge Company its $500 appropriation, and pays W. B. S. Powell $70.00 and John Hagan $54.70 as registration officers and judges of Ocean City's own election precinct, with Daniel Trimper, Jr., $18.20 as judge and Edwin P. Calhoun $17.60 as clerk.
Ocean City Bridge CompanyDaniel W. Trimper, Jr.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1913
"The lid was on tight": Mayor Powell hires a Salisbury ex-deputy and enforces Sunday closing on the boardwalk.
Under the head LID ON TIGHT AT OCEAN CITY the Messenger of 5 July 1913 reported that ex-Deputy Sheriff Frank Waller of Salisbury "has been engaged by the authorities at Ocean City to serve on the police force this summer, with strict instructions to preserve order and break up the [speakeasies] which are said to be flourishing at that resort." Worcester County had voted dry in 1908 and Ocean City had failed to win an exemption. On the first Sunday of July, "Mayor William [B. S.] Powell, assisted by the Sheriff and his deputies, started in Sunday to enforce the Sunday closing law. The lid was on tight. Officers were stationed at the doors of alleged speak easies; and several plain-clothes men were on the lookout." The mayor's own statement is the clearest thing any Ocean City mayor has said on the record in this decade: "It is my purpose to see that Ocean City is run on business principles and that women can appear on the boardwalk at all times without being insulted or molested. I ordered the police to arrest every person Sunday under the influence of liquor, and I will see that these orders are carried out."
Ocean City BoardwalkFrank Waller
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1914
Washington's summer-resort column carries fourteen Ocean City, Md. houses in 1914 — more than double 1913's six.
The Evening Star's SUMMER RESORTS block, under the standing line "Ocean City, Md. Finest beach in world. Ocean on one side, bay on other. Cool & healthful. Ex. boating & fishing," advertised through the 1914 season: **The Atlantic** ("most modern on beach. Elevators, etc. Large porches. Ocean front. SAVAGE & POWELL"); **Plimhimmon Hotel and cottages** (R. T. Shreve); **The Oceanic & Mt. Vernon** (J. D. Showell); **The Shelburne** ("Large, cool rooms; excellent cooking; reasonable rates," Brewington & Trealoar); **The Dennis** ("Porticos overlooking Ocean and Bay," R. J. Dennis); **The Nordica** ("On the Boardwalk; 3 squares from depot; 1 square above new piers," Mrs. G. R. Bassett); **The Colonial** ("On Boardwalk. Bathing from Hotel. First-class table. New management. N. C. Dean"); **Seaside Hotel** ("Under new management," Miss J. M. Friel); **The Belmont** ("New addition, with ocean view," L. R. Hearne); **New Avalon** (K. C. Hastings); **The Mervue** (T. W. Taylor); **The Mount Pleasant** (Mrs. W. E. Buell, "Opens June 27"); **Wetipquin Hall** ("Directly on Boardwalk," S. H. Dashiell); **The Breakers** ("Directly on Beach," M. E. Newton, 1309 17th St. N.W.); **The Lin-Mar** (new management, Mrs. Thos. T. Moore); and **Adams Hotel** (R. B. Adams). The Atlantic Hotel's proprietorship line has changed: in 1913 mayor W. B. S. Powell bought it with Capt. John H. Long of Frankford, Del.; in 1914 it advertises as **Savage & Powell**.
Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaOcean City BoardwalkRosalie Tilghman ShreveJohn D. Showell
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1914 · 1914-08-03
Capt. W. B. S. Powell is re-elected mayor of Ocean City by thirty-five votes over Dr. Francis J. Townsend, and carries his whole council ticket in with him.
The Evening Star of 4 August 1914, in its Maryland notes: "Capt. W. B. S. Powell was re-elected mayor of Ocean City, Md., defeating Dr. Francis J. Townsend by a majority of thirty-five votes. He carried with him to victory his ticket of councilmen." Ocean City's charter puts municipal elections in even years, so this is the first test of Powell since his election in August 1912 — and it comes with the year's other Powell news in the background: the Atlantic Hotel bought in 1913, the excursion-dumping complaint against the BC&A, and the town's own storehouse serving as the Ocean City polling place. Townsend had been president of the city council in 1908.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1914 · 1914-11-07
Mayor Powell petitions the Public Service Commission to make the BC&A fix its service to Ocean City — old equipment, a bad roadbed, and accommodation "inadequate for the summer visitors."
The Democratic Messenger of 7 November 1914, under "Ocean City Files Complaint": "The Public Service Commission held a hearing on the petition of **Capt. William B. S. Powell, Mayor of Ocean City, Md.**, that the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway be ordered to improve its service to Ocean City. It is claimed by the petitioners that the equipment of the railroad is old and out of date, that the roadbed is not in good condition, and that the accommodation for travellers at Ocean City is inadequate for the summer visitors. It is also claimed that the road discriminates in favor of Rehoboth and Atlantic [City]." This is the second year running Powell has taken the BC&A to the commission — in July 1913 it was over the $500 the railroad had stopped paying his hotel for dumping excursionists on its ground. In July 1914 the same railroad had run the heaviest travel in its history to Ocean City. The town is now suing the line that made it, in the same year the state is paving the road that will replace it.
Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1915
For the third year running Ocean City did not publish the annual statement of receipts and disbursements its charter requires, and 1915 leaves no trace of the mayor and council at all except the lawsuit they brought.
Chapters 561 and 658 of 1904 require the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City to publish an itemised statement of receipts and disbursements each August. The 1912 pass found one, signed by treasurer J. W. Quillen. The 1913 pass found none. 1915 has none either: fifty-six Democratic Messenger pages matching "Ocean City" were read in full and no municipal accounts, no council proceedings, no ordinance and no mayor's name appear in any of them. Mayor W. B. S. Powell, elected in 1912 and re-elected under a charter that puts town elections in even years, is visible in 1915 only as "W. B. S. Powell, Prop." at the head of the Atlantic Hotel's advertisement in the Washington Evening Star. The one place the corporation appears in its own right all year is as plaintiff in a sheriff's sale. The town's own paper trail, twice destroyed before 1900, is still not being replaced by print.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1915
The Evening Star's summer-resort page carried thirteen Ocean City, Md. houses in 1915 against six in 1913, under a standing slogan: "Finest beach in world. Ocean on one side, bay on other."
Through the 1915 season the Washington Evening Star ran an "OCEAN CITY, MD." block on its SUMMER RESORTS page, headed with the town's own line — "Ocean City, Md. Finest beach in world. Ocean on one side, bay on other. Cool & healthful. Ex. boating & fishing." The houses advertising in it: THE ATLANTIC HOTEL, ocean front, W. B. S. Powell, Prop.; MT. VERNON AND OCEANIC, ocean front, J. D. Showell; THE COLONIAL, on Boardwalk, "Bathing from Hotel", J. M. Ames & N. C. Dean; THE BELMONT and Cottages, L. R. Hearne; THE DENNIS, "porticos overlooking ocean ... bathing free", Mrs. R. J. Dennis; TOURIST INN, on the boardwalk, rooms single or en suite with private bath, M. E. Miller; THE MOUNT PLEASANT, ocean front, Mrs. W. E. Buell; HOTEL DELMAR, "newly built and newly furnished; unobstructed view of ocean and bay", Mrs. B. F. Barker; PLIMHIMMON HOTEL and Cottages, R. T. Shreve; "The Breakers", M. E. Newton, 1309 17th st. [Washington]; WETIPQUIN HOTEL, "directly on Boardwalk", S. H. Dashiell; ADAMS HOTEL, "open all the year around", R. B. Adams; and TARRY AWHILE, ocean view, B. Kinnamon. Two things have changed since the 1913 block. There are thirteen houses where there were six, three of them new to this registry (the Colonial, the Delmar and the Wetipquin) — and the Adams advertises itself as open all the year around, the first year-round hotel the campaign has recorded at Ocean City. The mayor's own Atlantic heads the list.
Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaOcean City BoardwalkJohn D. ShowellRosalie Tilghman Shreve
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1917
The Evening Star's summer-resort column carries a dozen Ocean City houses in 1917 — and the Atlantic Hotel now advertises garage accommodations.
Through June, July and August 1917 the Evening Star ran a standing "OCEAN CITY, MD." block under a fixed slogan — "Finest beach in world. Ocean on one side, bay on other. Cool & healthful. Ex. boating & fishing." The houses advertising in it: the Plimhimmon Hotel and Cottages ("Ocean front. Best service. Booklet. R. T. Shreve"); The Colonial ("On boardwalk. Bathing from hotel. First-class table. N. C. Dean, Owner and Manager"); The Mount Pleasant ("On ocean front. Comfortable rooms. Fine table. Mrs. W. E. Buell"); The Belmont and Cottages ("New addition, with ocean view... L. R. Hearne"); the New Avalon; the Oceanic; the Hastings; Hotel Hamilton; The Virginia; Hotel Tudor; Mrs. Jennie A. Harbin's house; and "THE ATLANTIC HOTEL, OCEAN FRONT. Garage Accommodations. W. B. S. Powell, Prop." That last line is 1917 in four words: the hotel the town was founded to build, owned by the sitting mayor, selling parking. In 1913 the same column carried six houses; in 1917 it carries twelve, and the guests in the Star's society notes arrive by motor car.
Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaRosalie Tilghman Shreve
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1917 · 1917-03-26
The Ocean City and Fenwick Island Railway Company opens subscription books — the mayor among its five incorporators.
A legal notice in the Democratic Messenger of 17 and 24 March 1917: "The Ocean City and Fenwick Island Railway Company, Inc. Notice is hereby given that the undersigned incorporators of the above mentioned Railway Company will open books of subscription to the capital stock of said Company at the office of Edward Shute and B. Frank Wagamon in Ocean City, Worcester County, Maryland, Monday, March 26th, 1917. C. EDWARD SHUTE. B. FRANK WAGAMON. WILLIAM B. S. POWELL. HENRY T. MOORE. SHERMAN E. AYARS." The proposal is a beach railway running north from Ocean City to Fenwick Island — the line Rev. W. C. Poole would still be arguing for in December, and the same corridor the county had been talking about since the 1890s. Two of the five incorporators, Shute and Wagamon, are the men who found the German bottle on the beach seven weeks later; the third is the sitting mayor and proprietor of the Atlantic Hotel. No evidence has been found that the line was ever built.
The Ocean City and Fenwick Island Railway Company, Inc.C. Edward ShuteB. Frank Wagamon
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1918 · 1918-04-11
A 48-hour northeaster submerges Ocean City, wrecks five cottages and washes away 1,000 feet of the Board Walk.
The Cambridge Daily Banner of 15 April carried an Ocean City dateline of 14 April: "A heavy surf, which submerged this city last week, as the climax of a 48-hour storm, wrecked five cottages, washed away 1000 feet of the boardwalk, damaged the fisheries to the extent of more than $20,000, tore down all the telephone and telegraph wires and caused much lesser damage." The surf began breaking over the town at eight o'clock Thursday night; the board walk, already submerged for several hours, was carried away just before midnight. Parts of the town were still under water at the end of the week and no one could yet total the loss. Three of the five wrecked cottages belonged to Baltimoreans -- Chas. Crooks ($2,000), Miss Etta H. Maddox ($2,500) and Dr. C. B. Matthews ($1,500); the other two were Howard Mumford's ($3,000) and W. B. S. Powell's ($1,500), and Mumford and Powell were living in theirs with their families and "got out when they saw the sea rising." Cottages badly damaged but not wrecked belonged to C. T. Marston, D. G. Fleuharty and Dr. L. E. Neale of Baltimore, R. C. Quillin of Ocean City and Dr. J. B. Baggott of Washington. No lives were lost and no one was injured. The Snow Hill Democratic Messenger of 13 April, under the headline "BIG STORM DEVASTATES OCEAN CITY," put the losses in sight at $25,000 and added the Ocean City Pier "very badly damaged," the Schmidt, Billing, Walker and Wetipquin cottages, and county roads and bridges damaged "to the extent of many thousand dollars." This is the largest single loss to the board walk in the campaign's record before 1933.
the April 1918 storm wrecked about five ocean-front cottages and took roughly 1,000 feet of board walk; the two contemporary damage lists differ
Ocean City BoardwalkOceanic Fishing Pier
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1918 · 1918-08-05
Edward M. Scott is elected mayor of Ocean City, and W. B. S. Powell -- mayor since 1912 -- goes onto the council.
The Messenger of 27 July 1918: "New Mayor And Council For Ocean City. Last Tuesday night a Citizens' meeting held at Ocean City [nominated the] following ticket to be voted for at the election to be held Monday, August 5th. For Mayor, Edward M. Scott. For Councilmen: William B. S. Powell, Christopher Ludlum, E. E. Collins, Dr. Frank Harmonson, L. D. Lynch." Two weeks later the paper's page-five headline: "Scott Elected Mayor Of Ocean City, Md." This matters beyond the town: the campaign's registry has carried W. B. S. Powell as mayor of Ocean City from 1912 to 1921, and the 1918 election ends that. Powell did not leave public life -- he stood on the same ticket for councilman, and won -- but from August 1918 the mayor of Ocean City is Edward M. Scott. Note also that the whole thing is settled by a single "Citizens' meeting" nominating one uncontested ticket: this is a town of a few hundred winter residents running itself by acclamation.
W. B. S. Powell was mayor from 1912; in August 1918 Edward M. Scott was elected mayor and Powell became a councilman
The Commissioners of Ocean CityEdward M. ScottChristopher LudlamDr. Frank J. Harmonson
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1919
The mayor of Ocean City in 1919 is Edward M. Scott — not W. B. S. Powell.
Three independent papers name him in the same week. The Democratic Messenger of 10 May, the Annapolis Evening Capital of 7 May and the Cambridge Daily Banner of 6 May all list the first party over the new bridge as including "Edward M. Scott, Mayor of Ocean City." The Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum's own chronology likewise places the 4 July 1919 bridge opening in Scott's mayoral term. This corrects a date the campaign has carried: William B. S. Powell, who bought the Atlantic Hotel in 1913 and was mayor from 1912, was still advertising as the Atlantic's proprietor in the Washington Evening Star all through the summer of 1919 — but he was no longer mayor. Ocean City votes in even years, so the election that put Scott in was 1918 or earlier; the town has published no municipal accounts since 1912 and no 1918 or 1919 election return has been found.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1919
Ten Ocean City houses advertise in the Washington Evening Star under the same slogan as 1917 — and two of them are new.
The Evening Star's standing "Ocean City, Md." resort block ran all summer under the unchanged banner "Finest beach in world. Ocean on one side, bay on other. Cool & healthful. Ex. boating & fishing." The houses in it: the Plimhimmon Hotel and cottages ("Ocean front. Best service. Orchestra." — R. T. Shreve); The New Avalon ("Terms moderate. Home cooking. Special weekly rates; bath houses attached." — Stout & Stout); The Dennis ("Comfortable and homelike. Porticos overlooking ocean and bay. Excellent table. Modern improvements. Bathing free." — Mrs. R. J. Dennis); The Lin-Mar ("Running water in rooms" — Mrs. H. F. Boyd); Wetipquin Hall ("Special rates for July" — Mrs. S. H. Dashiell); The Belmont and Cottages (L. R. Hearne); The Del-Mar ("Low rates for June. Large porches" — Mrs. Harry Forman); The Hastings ("Newest hotel on Boardwalk; excellent rooms and private bath" — Mrs. K. C. Hastings); Hotel Hamilton (J. L. Massey & Son); and "THE ATLANTIC HOTEL, OCEAN FRONT. Garage Accommodations. W. B. S. POWELL, Prop." The Lin-Mar, the Del-Mar and Wetipquin Hall are new to the registry since 1917.
Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaRosalie Tilghman Shreve
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1920
The Evening Star's "Ocean City, Md." block grew from ten houses in 1919 to fifteen in 1920, and six of them were new to this registry.
Under the same standing banner as 1917 and 1919 — "Finest beach in world. Ocean on one side, bay on other. Cool and healthful. Ex. boating and fishing" — the Washington Evening Star carried through the 1920 season: THE RIDEAU, "On boardwalk. Ocean front dining room. Excellent table. La Fayette Johnson, Prop."; SEA SIDE HOTEL, "Under new management. Good, wholesome home cooking. Vegetables from our own farm. Dr. J. H. Botz, prop."; THE BREAKERS, "Ocean front. Under new management. Home cooking. Bathhouses attached. Reasonable rates. Apply Mrs. C. Timmons, Prop." — and later in the season, under a second banner, "Only boardwalk hotel. Diet kitchen attached for convalescents. Garage. K. A. Young, Mgr."; THE COLONIAL, "On Boardwalk; remodeled and enlarged; private baths; running water; booklet. Ownership management."; OCEAN VIEW COTTAGE, "on 3d ave. near boardwalk. Rooms with or without board. Modern conveniences."; THE GABLES, "Rooms without board; cool and comfortable. Mrs. A. E. Cropper."; MONROE HOUSE, "Formerly the Sherman. Cool rooms. 3 acres of lawn. Excellent table." Returning from 1919: The Dennis (Mrs. R. J. Dennis, "Bathing free" — and, from August, "Apply for September rates"), The Belmont and Cottages (L. R. Hearne), Plimhimmon Hotel and cottages ("Ocean front. Best service. Orchestra." R. T. Shreve), The Atlantic Hotel ("OCEAN FRONT. Garage Accommodations. W. B. S. Powell, Prop."), The Lin-Mar (Mrs. H. F. Boyd), Hotel Hamilton (J. L. Massey & Son), The Hastings ("Newest hotel on Boardwalk", Mrs. K. C. Hastings). Every one of the seven February storm-damage names that was a hotel is back in the advertising by June. And still not one of the fifteen prints a price.
Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaOcean City BoardwalkRosalie Tilghman ShreveLafayette Johnson
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1921
The Atlantic Hotel opens for the season on Sunday 12 June 1921 - on the European plan, with W. B. S. Powell, the former mayor, as proprietor.
"The Atlantic Hotel at Ocean City, Md., was opened to the public Sunday last. We understand this will be run this season on the European plan" (Worcester Democrat, 18 June 1921). The Evening Star's Ocean City advertising block through that summer confirms it: "THE ATLANTIC HOTEL - OCEAN FRONT; European Plan; Garage Accommodations. W. B. S. POWELL, Prop." The European plan - room without meals - was a departure for a resort hotel of the period, and the garage line is the other half of the same story: the town's oldest and best-known house was fitting itself to motorists rather than to the trainload. William B. S. Powell had been mayor of Ocean City from 1912 to 1916.
Source · checked 2026-08-10
1921
The Bay View Orchard Company goes bankrupt: six hundred acres and sixteen thousand apple trees in Synepuxent Neck sold at auction, 7 July 1921.
"By virtue of an order of the Honorable John C. Rose, passed in the matter of Bay View Orchard Company, bankrupt, the undersigned Trustee... will sell at public auction to the highest bidder in front of the Atlantic Hotel in Berlin, Worcester County, Maryland, THURSDAY July 7th, A. D., 1921, at 2.30 o'clock P. M., all those tracts, parts of tracts or parcels of land situate in Synepuxent Neck in the Third Election District of Worcester County, Maryland, called Genezer, Pleasant, Mayfield and Goshen... containing approximately six hundred acres be the same more or less, of which about two hundred acres are in woodland, about two hundred acres in marsh and the balance in orchard aggregating about sixteen thousand trees, the majority of which are apples, being the same lands which were conveyed to the said Bay View Orchard Company, by Della K. Powell and William B. S. Powell, her husband, by deed dated February 27, 1915." The land had come from the former mayor of Ocean City and his wife six years earlier. The agricultural depression of 1921 closes over the whole county in the same columns: farmers cutting spring acreage against high fertilizer prices, holding out for wartime wages, and a low market.
Source · checked 2026-08-10
1921
The 1921 hotel roster, from the Evening Star's summer advertising block: eleven Ocean City houses, their proprietors, and what each was selling.
Washington's Evening Star carried a standing Ocean City, Md. block every summer Sunday of 1921 under the slogan "Finest beach in world; ocean on one side, bay on other; cool, healthful; boating and fishing." The houses and their proprietors: THE ATLANTIC HOTEL, ocean front, European plan, garage accommodations, W. B. S. Powell, prop.; PLIMHIMMON HOTEL and cottages, ocean front, "Best service. Ballroom. 'Morris' novelty' string orchestra"; THE COLONIAL, "On boardwalk; remodeled & enlarged; private baths, running water... Open June 15th to October 1. Ownership management"; THE HASTINGS, "Newest hotel on Boardwalk; excellent rooms and private bath," Mrs. K. C. Hastings; THE HASTINGS COTTAGE, Mr. Graves; THE RIDEAU, "On boardwalk. Ocean front dining room. Excellent table," La Fayette Johnson, prop.; HOTEL HAMILTON, ocean front, J. L. Massey & Son; THE LIN-MAR, "Running water in rooms. All conveniences. Bath houses attached," Mrs. H. F. Boyd; THE DENNIS, "Comfortable and homelike. Porticos overlooking ocean and bay. Terms reasonable. Bathing free," Mrs. R. J. Dennis; THE BELMONT and Cottages, "With ocean view. Cool, delightful rms. Rates reasonable. Excellent table," L. B. Hearne; THE BREAKERS, ocean front, "Phone connection. Excellent cooking. Bathhouses attached," Mrs. C. Timmons, prop. The county papers add three more trading names that summer. The Hamilton took the Eastern Shore Society of Baltimore's touring party in July. The Herring Cottage on the boardwalk, "only a few doors from the Atlantic Hotel," was run in 1921 by Isaac H. West of Pocomoke City. And the Hastings housed the Philadelphia family whose father drowned in August.
Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaOcean City BoardwalkMrs. K. C. HastingsLafayette Johnson
Source · checked 2026-08-10
1921
Bank of Ocean City president L. D. Lynch buys out former mayor William B. S. Powell's share of the McGregor Building, the bank's Baltimore Avenue home.
The Bank of Ocean City (opened January 3, 1916) shared the first floor of the former McGregor Building with a general store; two of the bank's incorporators, L. D. Lynch and William B. S. Powell, were part owners of the building. In 1921 Lynch, the bank president, bought out Powell's interest (and John Hallett's in 1927, giving him full ownership). The 1921 Sanborn fire-insurance map captures the block at its commercial peak: four adjoining bays on the east side of Baltimore Avenue - the two-story corner building holding the bank and general store, with a market, a dry goods store and a hardware store in the three attached bays.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Source · checked 2026-08-05
1921
Who was buying and selling in Ocean City in 1921, street by street - including a town lot sold by former Governor John Walter Smith.
The Democratic Messenger printed Worcester County's real-estate transfers every week, and the 1921 Ocean City entries are the closest thing the year has to a town record: Sarah M. Collin from Clinton Coffin, real estate on Baltimore Avenue in Ocean City (January); William Larson from Gustavus Larson and wife, "house and lot at the foot of Wicomico Street, in Ocean City," $400 (March); Harry Williams from Daniel P. Lynch and wife, 7.72 acres "on the mainland opposite Ocean City and on the southerly side of the State stone road leading from Berlin to Ocean City," $1,600 (March); Daniel P. Lynch from William J. Cropper and wife, 1.47 acres "on the mainland opposite Ocean City" (June); and in November, Wm. J. Quillen from Wm. B. S. Powell and wife, real estate near Ocean City; Louisa M. Mumford from James D. Fallow and wife, "real estate on the westerly side of Philadelphia Ave., in Ocean City"; and John W. Hudson from John Walter Smith et al., "real estate on the north side of Dorchester Street, in Ocean City." Two things stand out. The mainland strip along the Berlin road is being broken up and sold in 1921 - the first sign of the mainland development the bay bridge made possible. And the former Governor and United States Senator John Walter Smith was still holding, and now selling, Ocean City town lots.
Source · checked 2026-08-10
1922
Captain W. B. S. Powell sells the Atlantic Hotel — the house he had advertised as proprietor through the whole rail-resort era — to Dr. Charles W. Purnell of Pocomoke City.
The Democratic Messenger of 20 May 1922: "The announcement of the purchase of the Atlantic Hotel at Ocean City by Dr. Charles W. Purnell has been received with a great deal of interest by the patrons of this well known hostelry, as well as by the large number of visitors to this popular summer resort, to whom the Atlantic Hotel is a notable landmark. Dr. Purnell plans extensive improvements to the property, and in the conduct and management of the hotel he will be satisfied to give his patrons nothing short of the best in accommodations and service, while the culinary department will be kept up to a high degree of excellence." The paper's local column added the seller's name and the buyer's history: "Dr. C. W. Purnell, of Pocomoke City, has purchased the Atlantic Hotel at Ocean City from Captain W. B. S. Powell. Dr. Purnell expects to give his personal attention to the management of the hotel. He will make extensive improvements to this well known old house and Mrs. Purnell will also give her time to seeing that things are in good order. They ran the hotel at Chincoteague until it was burned." By June the Washington Evening Star's resort block was carrying "Atlantic Hotel — Ocean front. New management. New steward. Running water in rooms. American plan. C. W. PURNELL, Prop." — 1922 RECTIFICATION, 2026-08-10: The Worcester Democrat of 27 May 1922 carried the sale a week after the Messenger, from Purnell's own home town: "Dr. C. W. Purnell of this city has recently purchased the Atlantic Hotel at Ocean City… and will take immediate possession… having had charge of the **Atlantic Hotel at Chincoteague**, several years prior to its destruction by fire." The existing fact says only "the hotel at Chincoteague"; it was that town's Atlantic Hotel too. On 3 June: "Dr. and Mrs. Purnell left Wednesday of this week for Ocean City and will take charge of the Atlantic Hotel recently purchased by them" — i.e. 31 May 1922. And on 16 and 23 September: "Dr. and Mrs. C. W. Purnell have closed their hotel in Ocean City and are now occupying their home on Market street." A full season, mid-June to mid-September, and then the proprietor goes home to another county.
Powell had been mayor, hotel keeper and landlord of the town's oldest house. In 1921 he sold his share of the bank building; in 1922 he sold the Atlantic.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1934 · 1934-01-16
William B. S. Powell, twice mayor and proprietor of the Atlantic Hotel, was dead by the first council meeting of 1934
The first item of business of 1934, after the boardwalk, was a vacancy. On 16 January 'Dale Showell was nominated by C. P. Cropper, seconded by John B. Lynch to fill the remainder of term as Councilman in place of W B S Powell, deceased, and question was voted on by Council and Mr Dale Showell was elected to fill the remainder of term as Council.' Powell had been mayor from 1912 to 1918 and had sat on the council ever since; he had owned the Atlantic Hotel until he sold it to Dr. C. W. Purnell in 1922. The minute gives no date or cause of death, only that it had happened by 16 January 1934. His name survives in the town's books for the rest of the year: the assessment revision of 15 August carries the line 'W B S Powell arena off, $2,000.'
Atlantic HotelClifford P. Cropper
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1934 · 1934-08-15
One August night the council walked the assessment roll and took tens of thousands of dollars off the town's own tax base
The meeting of 15 August 1934 ended at 11.10 p.m. after an item headed 'Assessments were ordered changed as follows'. What follows is a list of the town's property in the fifth year of the Depression: Raymond Quillin (Hamilton) $5,000 taken off; W. R. Rayne $500; Dr. C. W. Purnell $7,000 marked off for 1930-31-32-33, being $5,000 on the hotel and $2,000 on its furniture, plus a half-year interest charge of $126.50 on $2,300; Anthony H. and Mattie Purnell, $100 added for a smith house; 'W B S Powell arena off' $2,000; a shed or shop building $2,000 and $1,000; C. S. Powell, new house on 13th Street, $1,500 added; 'Manor Real estate south of hotel'; 'L. Kress & Friedlander stand off' $1,000; Chas. J. and Lides Jackson, addition to a hall, $200; Guy R. and Virginia D. Ayres $2,000; Raymond Quillin $5,000. Six days later O. M. Chandler was allowed rebates of $20 each on $2,000 of 1930, 1931 and 1932 taxes and $12 on $1,200 for 1933, and on 31 July Stacy Ludlam had been allowed $8 for overpaid 1929 water tax with his 1932 water bill marked off.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Dr. Charles Washington Purnell
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1934 · 1934-12-24
The town secretary sat down and wrote out every mayor Ocean City had ever had — 1892 to 1934, on one page
On 24 December 1934, on Mayor and Council letterhead, secretary and treasurer J. M. Mumford typed a circular beginning: 'I occasionly have an inquiry as to who had served our city as Mayor and their election. So thinking probally others might be interested I have carefully gone over our old records and listed the names and years each served.' What follows is the town's own succession list: three commissioners elected 2 May 1892 — John F. Waggamon, William C. Franklin and William B. Wilson, with Wilson president of the board and Franklin secretary-treasurer; then Wilson elected mayor 7 May 1894; George M. Upshur 1 May 1896; James Z. Powell 1 August 1898; Clayton J. Purnell 6 August 1900; John F. Waggamon 1902, 'Resigned Oct. 20th 1903 remainder of term filled by Capt. Cristropher Ludlam'; Ludlam 1904 and 1906; W. Lee Carey 3 August 1908 and 1 August 1910; William B. S. Powell 1912 and 3 August 1914; Capt. John B. Jones 7 August 1916; Edward M. Scott 5 August 1918; E. E. Collins 2 August 1920; 'William C. McCabe served to Sept 1934'; and 'Aug. 6th 1934 William T. Elliott, 2 years.' The document survives because Mumford filed a copy in the minute book, where it sits as the last item of the 1934 record.
The most useful thing in the 1934 minute book is not a decision at all. It is a clerk answering the same question often enough that he finally wrote the answer down — and in doing so he left the campaign a primary-source succession list for forty-two years of a town whose own books were supposed to have been mutilated in 1896.
John M. MumfordWilliam W. McCabeClayton J. PurnellW. Lee CareyEdward M. ScottElbridge E. CollinsJames Z. PowellJohn F. Waggaman
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1935 · 1935-05-17
Maryland had been buying land to dig its own inlet four miles south of Ocean City — and in 1935 it gave the land back, because the storm had dug a better one
Chapter 343 of the Acts of 1935, approved 17 May and made an emergency law effective at once, is titled “AN ACT to authorize Lewis C. Merryman and John S. Whaley to re-convey certain lands and rights of way located on Sinepuxent Beach ... granted to them for the use of the State of Maryland for the construction of a canal or inlet South of Ocean City.” Three deeds are recited, all of 1933 and all recorded in Worcester County Liber B.B. No. 17 — from Powell and others on 20 January, from the Delaware Mortgage Investment Company on 24 May, and from Carey, Shockley and others on 30 March, the last two each conveying a perpetual right of way plus “a second right of way for the use of a railroad.” The two men held it in trust to hand on to the Board of Public Works, the United States or the War Department “as soon as the necessary appropriation is passed by the United States Government for the purpose of construction an inlet.” Then the recital that undoes it all: “WHEREAS, the War Department of the United States has selected a new site for, and begun construction, of an inlet on the Beach south of Ocean City in Worcester County, about 4 miles North of the proposed inlet in the deed from William B. S. Powell and wife ... and the Government of the United States and the State of Maryland have no further use or need for the lands and rights of way granted by the said several deeds and have abandoned the same.” Seven months before the hurricane of August 1933 cut the inlet by accident, the State of Maryland was quietly assembling land — with a railroad right of way attached — to cut one on purpose, four miles further south. The storm made the whole scheme worthless, and it took the legislature until 1935 to give the ground back.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Ocean City Inlet & JettyBoard of Public Works of Maryland
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1935 · 1935-07-30
For the second year running the town held its tax rate at a dollar per hundred — and marked another page of assessments off the books
On 30 July 1935 W. H. Scott offered a resolution “that tax rate for 1935 remain same as 1934 $1.00 per hundred”, and it passed. The same meeting ordered property marked off the 1935 tax books — Elizabeth Powell personal $2.00, Anna Melbrun $3.00, the W. B. S. Powell estate $5,900, J. D. Ahmed per Mt. Vernon $5.00, the City Laundry $5,500, Josephine Bowden $5.00, Howard Turner reduced to $2,000, C. B. Prettyman $3,000 — and charged off assessments from earlier years for J. Edward White, Mrs. Charles Ludlam, Jessie Hastings, R. J. Dennis, Jester & Bluford, the Dominican School and Granville Cropper. A month earlier, on 25 June, new property had been added for July 1935: Hoyer L. Bean a new building at $500 and personal $200, John H. Elliott a garage $500, Charles S. Powell a new cottage on Philadelphia Avenue $1,500, Anthony Purnell the Purnell House $150, Chas. Powell store stock $1,000, and Irma Mumford $1,500. The estate of a man dead since before January 1934 was still being written down.
Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.
Source · checked 2026-08-11