Cape Island

  1. Cape Island Creek flowing by the Lobster House.

    Where is Cape Island?

    Text by | Published May 1st, 2011 in Cape Island • Cape May

    Cape Island received its name because it was separated from the mainland by a small creek. An island is, by definition, a tract of land completely surrounded by water, but not large enough to be called a continent.

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    Vintage Cape May Postcards

    Text by | Published October 6th, 2010 in Cape Island • Cape May • Then and Now

    Ah, a postcard from Cape May. Is there anything that makes you more jealous? Visitors to Cape May have been sending postcards for decades. Feast your eyes on these vintage postcards dating from 1908 to 1914.

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    The Passing of the Christian Admiral

    Text by | Published July 1st, 2010 in Architecture • Cape Island • Cape May • Hotels • Restoration and Preservation

    From the beginning, the Hotel Cape May was doomed. It opened in 1908, several years behind schedule and 100 percent over budget – its final cost of $1 million was nearly unimaginable in those days.

  4. A bit of controversy at Columbia and Stockton

    Jackson’s Club House: A little controversy at Columbia and Stockton

    Text by | Published March 1st, 2009 in B&Bs • Cape Island • Cape May • Innkeeping

    The gambling, prostitution, heavy drinking and carousing male visitors the clubhouse hosted were just the sort of activities Cape May was hoping to attract during the Victorian era. Or not.

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    150 Years of Firefighting

    Text by | Published November 1st, 2004 in Architecture • Cape Island • Cape May • Hotels

    If any one ever tells you that history doesn’t make a difference, tell them to come to Cape May. Yes, it would have been a seaside resort no matter what, given it’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, but who knew that a fire in 1878 would ensure National Historic Landmark status nearly 100 years later? And, who knew that the impact of that same fire that occurred on Nov. 9, 1878 leveling 39 acres of land right in the heart of the city could still be felt on a sunny Sunday afternoon in October, 2004?

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    Which house is the oldest house on Cape Island?

    Text by | Published October 1st, 2004 in Architecture • Cape Island • Cape May

    Which house is the oldest house on Cape Island? Is it the house at 653½ Washington Street, also known as The Colonial House? Or is it the old “Whilldin-Miller House” at 416 South Broadway where Daniels on Broadway Restaurant currently resides?

  7. The outlined area on this copy of an 1878 map that appeared in the Philadelphia Bulletin days after the fire shows the extent of the devastation caused by the blaze that began in the Ocean House on Perry St.

    Cape May on Fire

    Text by | Published November 1st, 2003 in Cape Island • Cape May

    Cape Island, NJ, Nov. 9, 1878 — Fire broke out yesterday morning in the summer city of Cape May around 7 a.m. in the attic of the new wing at Ocean House on Perry Street. By the time the flames could be contained, some 11 hours later, 40 acres of prime property lay in a pile of charred ruins. Arson is suspected. No one was injured.

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    What if it all burned again?

    Text by | Published November 1st, 2003 in Accommodations • Cape Island • Cape May

    The fire that started on November 8, 1878 and spread from the Ocean House on Perry Street to engulf 40 acres of hotels, stores and houses in flames was one of the most devastating and furious fires of the era. If the same acreage were destroyed today, what would no longer exist in Cape May?

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    The Abbey: Gurney Street and Columbia Avenue

    Text by | Published February 1st, 2002 in Accommodations • Architecture • B&Bs • Cape Island • Cape May • Restoration and Preservation

    If Senator John McCreary were somehow to return to Cape May today, he wouldn’t have much trouble recognizing his summer residence. Standing proudly at the corner of Gurney Street and Columbia Avenue, his home, in its most recent incarnation as renowned bed and breakfast inn, The Abbey, appears very much as it did when McCreary and his family occupied it one hundred and thirty years ago during their summer holidays.

  10. 1917 Photo Courtesy of the Borough of Cape May Point

    At Mother Nature’s Mercy

    Text by | Published October 1st, 2000 in Cape Island • Cape May • Weather

    There have been hundreds of hurricane watches and warnings throughout the centuries yet Cape Island has never felt the truth wrath of a full-fledged hurricane. Northeastern Atlantic coastal storms, however, locally known as ‘nor’easters’ have wreaked havoc on her coast for centuries. Above is South Cape May photographed around 1917.

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    The Chalfonte Saga Continues

    Text by | Published August 1st, 2000 in Architecture • Cape Island • Cape May • Historic Figures • Hotels

    What began as a simple boarding house soon grew into a reputable hotel under the direction of Colonel Henry Sawyer. He was a local hero — it was said that every man, woman and child in Cape May could recite Sawyer’s “Lottery of Death” story by heart.

  12. An engraving of Henry Sawyer

    The Chalfonte Hotel: The Beginning

    Text by | Published July 1st, 2000 in Cape Island • Cape May • Historic Figures • Hotels

    A simple carpenter stares death in the eye, and lives to build one of Cape May’s living treasures. A story rooted in American history, the tale of Henry Washington Sawyer is one of courage, strength and pride.

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    The March King in Cape May

    Text by | Published June 1st, 2000 in Cape Island • Cape May

    During his Cape May visit, Sousa, later dubbed “The March King,” left behind one composition and a noteworthy concert that formed the seeds of what later would be the greatest example of military marches written in America. His most rousing compositions “Stars and Stripes Forever,” “El Capitan” and “Semper Fidelis” were yet to be written.

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    A Feeling of Community Revisited: Cape Island’s African-American Heritage

    Text by | Published February 1st, 2000 in Cape Island • Cape May • Historic Figures

    People and events which go beyond tales of Victoriana and visiting presidents. Ancestry dating to colonial days. Remembrances of community life during the last century. Stories of life, love and loss — stories that never made the history books.

    This is Cape Island’s African-American heritage… A legacy now being understood, preserved and celebrated today through oral history, photographs and mementos in an exhibit titled “A Feeling of Community Revisited: Cape Island’s African-American Heritage.”

  15. Wear and decay from years of neglect are as obvious on the outside as they are on the inside of the circa 1859 Sawyer homestead.

    Searching for Henry Sawyer, the Past Comes Alive

    Text by | Published October 1st, 1999 in Cape Island • Cape May • Cape May County • Ghosts and Spirits

    Through the years rumors of sightings have persisted. Donlin knows a man claiming to have seen Sawyer himself 27 years ago standing at the top of the stair case. The man was 13 years old at the time, and never forgot the encounter.

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    Watching History Go Away: The Christian Admiral Hotel

    Text by | Published July 1st, 1998 in Architecture • Cape Island • Cape May • Hotels

    In a town whose very existence depends on its historic buildings, the loss of one from fire, much less demolition, is felt intensely. The Christian Admiral Hotel was like a living, breathing member of the community and her passing was mourned as such.