William J. Warrington
casino and pier promoter · active 1896
Baltimore man, the first-named incorporator of the Steel Pier and Railway Company of Ocean City in May 1896. He was building a cottage at Ocean City that spring, superintended work on the Atlantic Hotel before the season opened, ran a casino at Ocean City whose manager for the summer was Miss Jennie Bowen of Berlin, bought lot No. 10 from the trustees George W. Purnell and George M. Upshur, and sold lot No. 100 on for $115. The Warringtons were an Ocean City family — Virgalyn Warrington and W. J. Warrington, Jr. both appear in the 1896 columns — and Albert P. Warrington of Norfolk, Va. was a co-incorporator of the pier company. By 1898 he was proprietor of the new Colonial hotel at Ocean City.
In the record (5)
1891 · 1891-08-31
Washington architects offer for nineteen lots and a club house, and the beach company's buyers are named — most of them women.
An Ocean City correspondent of the Snow Hill Press, quoted in the Wilmington Evening Journal of August 31, 1891: 'W. J. Warrington, the representative of the Synepuxent Beach Company here, has received an offer from Harvey L. Page & Co., architects of Washington, for nineteen lots to be utilised and improved with a club house and cottages. In addition to this a number of lots have been recently sold. Among the purchasers being Miss Carrie D[unn] and Miss Alice Van Bibber of Baltimore; Mrs. Commodore Terry of Annapolis; Commander Joshua Bishop, of the navy; Mrs. Mordecai of Baltimore; Dr. Fry and others.' Harvey L. Page would be the beach company's vice-president by March 1892 and Warrington its assistant secretary; in 1891 they are the architect making an offer and the man on the ground taking it.
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1898
The Colonial opens a block north of the life-saving station — a hundred-guest ocean-front hotel wired for electric bells and lights.
Advertised in the Washington Evening Star from 3 June and reported open for guests by 1 July 1898: 'OCEAN CITY, MD. — THE COLONIAL, now open for guests, situated one block north of the United States life-saving station, and directly on the ocean front, is one of the most attractive new hotels at Ocean City. It has a capacity of about one hundred guests. It is beautifully and tastefully furnished with brass beds, hair mattresses and maple furniture, and is wired for electric bells and lights. Inquire 700 14th St., or W. J. Warrington, Ocean City, Md.' The Star's resort notes of 16 July called its interior 'quite as attractive as its exterior appearance.' Warrington — the Baltimore man who incorporated the Steel Pier and Railway Company of Ocean City in 1896 and built one of the 1896 cottages — was the proprietor; enquiries also went to 700 14th Street, John F. Waggaman's Washington office, which handled the whole resort's bookings that season. — 1898 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [reviewed]: Flags a date conflict rather than resolving it. The Washington Evening Star's Ocean City correspondence of 14 July 1897 reports that "The Colonial is being largely remodeled and will open on the 15th" — of July 1897, a full season before the opening this fact records. Either the house opened in 1897 and was enlarged for 1898, or the 1897 reference is to a different building of the same name. The 1898 record should not be published as a first opening without checking the 1897 Evening Star correspondence. Adds the house's own advertisement, which settles both its ownership and its fittings: "OCEAN CITY, MD. — THE COLONIAL, NOW OPEN for guests, situated one block north of the United States life-saving station, and directly on the ocean front, is one of the most attractive new hotels at Ocean City. It has a capacity of about one hundred guests. It is beautifully and tastefully furnished with brass beds, hair mattresses and maple furniture, and is wired for electric bells and lights. Inquire 700 14th st., or W. J. WARRINGTON, Ocean City, Md." 700 14th Street is John F. Waggaman's Washington office, so the Colonial was his house from the start, run for him by W. J. Warrington — as it still was in 1899. Note that it is wired for electric light in 1898, in a town whose electric plant Waggaman had bought with the Atlantic the year before.
Two years after the Sinepuxent Beach Company admitted it was insolvent, a new hundred-bed hotel went up on the ocean front with electric light in every room. The failure was the company's, not the beach's.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1900 · 1900-04-10
Chapter 682 charters the Ocean City Steel Pier Railway and Amusement Company — an ocean pier plus an electric railway the whole length of the beach.
Approved 10 April 1900, Chapter 682 of the Acts of 1900 incorporates George J. Records, John F. Waggaman, William Lee Carey, Henry J. Anderson, William J. Warrington and John M. Carter, Jr. of Maryland; Louis F. Doyle of New York; Claud M. Johnson of the District of Columbia; and Nathaniel F. Wilds of Delaware. The company may build "a steel or iron, or partly steel or iron, and partly wooden pier, projecting into the Atlantic Ocean from the shore, beginning ... from some suitable point south of Wicomico street, in said Ocean City, above high-water mark," fit it with "such appliances for amusement or use as the said incorporators may determine," and charge for them. It may also build an electric or compressed-air railway that "shall begin within the corporate limits of Ocean City, and shall run north and south from such points of beginning, the northern terminus to be at or near Fenwick's Island Lighthouse ... and the southern terminus to be at or near North Beach Life-Saving Station" — roughly the entire Maryland barrier beach, with powers of condemnation. Capital: 1,000 shares of $50, expandable by vote to 4,000. Two guards were written in: no use of Ocean City's streets or public property without "the consent and authority of the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City," and if only part of the works were ever built the charter would not be forfeited. The bill was introduced by Mr. Anderson of Worcester and reported from Annapolis on 1 March: "A new amusement pier and railroad will probably be the outcome." Neither the pier nor the railway was built; this is the third Ocean City pier company in five years to be chartered and vanish. — 1900 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [reviewed]: Adds the act's substance, read off the volume. Chapter 682, pp. 1074-1079, approved 10 April 1900. Incorporators: George J. Records, John F. Waggaman, William Lee Carey, Henry J. Anderson, William J. Warrington and John M. Carter Jr. of Maryland; Louis F. Doyle of New York; Claud M. Johnson of the District of Columbia; Nathaniel F. Wilds of Delaware. Section 2 authorises "a steel or iron, or partly steel or iron, and partly wooden pier, projecting into the Atlantic Ocean from the shore, beginning… from some suitable point south of Wicomico street, in said Ocean City, above high-water mark", with amusement appliances and tolls — AND an electric or compressed-air railway whose "northern terminus [is] to be at or near Fenwick's Island Lighthouse, in Worcester County, and the southern terminus to be at or near North Beach Life-Saving Station": a trolley the whole length of the barrier island. Capital 1,000 shares at $50, expandable to 4,000; organisable on 100 shares subscribed and $1 a share paid; nine directors; power to borrow, mortgage, consolidate with or lease to connecting railways; and nothing touching Ocean City's streets or public property effective "until the consent and authority of the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City are first obtained." That North Beach reference is the only mention of a life-saving station in the entire 1900 session-law volume.
Ocean City Steel Pier Railway and Amusement CompanyJohn F. WaggamanW. Lee Carey
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1901
The 1901 hotel roster: eleven Ocean City houses advertised in Washington, from the Atlantic's Venetian doors to the Dennis at $6 a week.
The Evening Star's summer-resort columns carried Ocean City, Md. as a standing heading through 1901, and the year's houses can be listed almost completely from them. THE ATLANTIC HOTEL - "Opens for the season 1901 June 29. Thoroughly renovated. Many newly furnished rooms. Rooms single and en suite, with bath. Venetian doors to every bed room... Rock spring water served to guests at table and rooms. Finest bathing beach on the Atlantic coast. Lots for sale; cottages for rent" - Chas. Webb of J., manager, at 700 14th St NW until June 15 and at Ocean City after. THE PLIMHIMMON - opened 25 April, the earliest opening of the year, "refurnished and enlarged; ocean-front dining room; capacity 200; surf bathing absolutely safe; bath houses connected with the house; Chattolanee Spring water served at table", Mrs. R. T. Shreve. THE MT. PLEASANT - W. E. Buell, "directly on the beach... porches and sun parlor; new sanitary plumbing". THE COLONIAL - W. J. Warrington, "ocean front. Sanitary plumbing. Buena Vista water." THE DENNIS - Mrs. R. J. Dennis, "home comforts; unobstructed view of ocean and bay; excellent table; terms, $6 to $10 per week; use of bath rooms free of charge." THE GLENMORE - Miss Mary A. Bennett, "ocean front. Large new house." THE GABLES - Mrs. D. J. Barry, "under new management." THE LINDEN COTTAGES - Paul & Hanson, "directly on beach." TARRY-A-WHILE - advertised in June under A. W. Lyman, manager, and in July as a "new house; full ocean view; double piazzas; soft beds" over the name of Geo. W. Dietrick of Washington. NEPTUNE VILLA - "sea front; electric lights; modern improvements." Congress Hall, the Hotel Hamilton and the Isle of Wight Hotel appear in guest lists and in the Delaware papers.
Atlantic HotelPlimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaRosalie Tilghman ShreveReverdy J. Dennis
Source · checked 2026-08-11
1901
Mrs. A. B. Showell, wife of Col. Lemuel Showell, takes over a second Ocean City house - and the Delaware papers cannot agree which.
On 29 May 1901 the Smyrna Times reported that "it is reported that Mrs. Lemuel Showell will operate the Colonade Hotel at Ocean City"; on 14 August the same paper stated flatly that "Mrs. A. B. Showell, wife of Col. Lemuel Showell, is now proprietress of the Isle of Wight Hotel, at Ocean City, Md." She had kept the Isle of Wight Cottage in 1896 and the 88-room Seaside Hotel by 1898 - and the Seaside was sold out from under the family in January 1901 to become an annex of the Atlantic. The Showells' hotel interest at Ocean City in 1901 is therefore real, but which house it was is not settled: "Colonade" is most likely the OCR or the reporter's version of the Colonial, which was advertised all season by W. J. Warrington.
Sources disagree on this.
Mrs. A. B. ShowellCol. Lemuel Showell
Source · checked 2026-08-11