William E. Gibbs
property owner · active 1937
Ocean City property owner. On 9 November 1937 he came before the council 'asking that the walk front of Brittingham & Misses Purnell be put in to complete the walk from 2 to 3rd street' — the one recorded gap in the rebuilt boardwalk — and was granted a permit the same evening for an apartment on Philadelphia Avenue between Second and Third Streets. Mayor Elliott's building list of 18 November 1937 valued it at $4,000.
In the record (4)
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 Two applications were refused or withdrawn - B. D. Mason's on 16 June, after his neighbours objected, and J. D. Showell's application to close a porch at the Oceanic on 7 September.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 KelleyRudolph DolleJohn M. MumfordJohn B. LynchCurtis W. Long
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-11-09
In November 1937 one block of the rebuilt boardwalk was still missing, and a neighbour had to come to the council to ask for it
'Wm Gibbs was present asking that the walk front of Brittingham & Misses Purnell be put in to complete the walk from 2 to 3rd street,' the minute of 9 November 1937 records. The secretary was ordered 'to communicate with W. E. Brittingham and Miss Purnell regards to walk.' Eleven months after the assessment roll went out and more than a year after the hurricane of 18 September 1936 took the old walk away, two ocean-front owners between Second and Third Streets had still not built their share, and the gap was being complained of by the man next door rather than enforced by the town.
Ordinance No. 55 made the boardwalk the owners' problem, and this is what that looks like on the ground: a continuous public promenade with a hole in it, and a town whose remedy is to write a letter.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-11-18
Ocean City counted $112,000 of building under way in November 1937, more than half of it one apartment house
Mayor Elliott's winter building list, printed on 18 November 1937 under '$112,000 Building Boom Makes Things Hum At Ocean City', is the clearest snapshot of the resort's private capital in the year: 'Calvin P. Pruitt Apartment House, $60,000; J. Dale Showell, Jr., Oceanic Hotel improvements, $10,000; John B. Lynch, cottage, $10,000; Charles Powell double houses, $6,000; William E. Gibbs apartment, $4,000; Elliott Bros., yacht harbor, $3,000; Mrs. John Lynch cottage improvements, $1,500; Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500.' The public side of the same list carried a $4,000 comfort station, a new 370-foot boardwalk section between South First and Somerset Streets 'of which the Windsor Resort Company is bearing part of the cost', the sewer extension west of Philadelphia Avenue, the Frank Magee bay-front anchorage basin and docks, and proposed sidewalks off North Philadelphia Avenue. In the same year the town's assessable basis rose $150,000 to $2,961,494. Elliott Bros. 'finished digging their yacht harbor north of North Division Street' in November, four months after the council gave them leave to dike the ground.
Ocean City BoardwalkThe Henry HotelW. Thomas ElliottJohn B. LynchCharles & Louisa Henry
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1937 · 1937-11-18
Ocean City's Black hotel appears on the mayor's own 1937 building list: 'Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500'
On 18 November 1937 the Democratic Messenger printed Mayor W. Thomas Elliott's itemised account of the winter's construction under the head '$112,000 Building Boom Makes Things Hum At Ocean City'. The private projects ran: 'Calvin P. Pruitt Apartment House, $60,000; J. Dale Showell, Jr., Oceanic Hotel improvements, $10,000; John B. Lynch, cottage, $10,000; Charles Powell double houses, $6,000; William E. Gibbs apartment, $4,000; Elliott Bros., yacht harbor, $3,000; Mrs. John Lynch cottage improvements, $1,500; Chas. Henry Hotel for Negroes, $1,500.' It is the smallest item on the list and it is on the list — the Black hotel at Baltimore Avenue and South Division Street counted by the town's own administration as part of the resort's building boom, forty-two years after it opened. It is also the corroboration of the building permit the council had granted Chas. Henry on 7 September for 'an addition to his property on Balto Ave and South Division street', and it is the first time in the whole campaign that a source names the Henry establishment as a hotel. The same article lists the public works of the winter: a $4,000 comfort station, the 370-foot boardwalk section between South First and Somerset Streets, and the sewer extension west of Philadelphia Avenue.
Two thousand facts, and the Henry Hotel had never been mentioned in one of them. Here it is twice in ten weeks — in the permit book and on the mayor's list — described in the language of 1937 and counted in the town's own money.
The Henry HotelOcean City BoardwalkCharles & Louisa HenryW. Thomas ElliottJohn B. Lynch
Source · checked 2026-08-11