OCEAN CITY — The local chapter of the Questers donated $2,000 to the Ocean City Historical Museum for the restoration of an original vellum map of Peck’s Beach from 1874.
The map of Peck’s Beach, which also shows different land features, is an artifact that predated the founding of Ocean City. It was deteriorating and through the grant was preserved for display at the museum.
“I had been pushing to get it restored for years and years and years and finally it came about,” said John Loeper, president of the Historical Museum.
“It’s fabulous that it’s been done because it’s so unique and it’s our earliest history in the way of maps,” Loeper said. “We believe it was the first time the Lake brothers had any involvement in Ocean City.”
Three brothers — Ezra B. Lake, James Lake and S. Wesley Lake — and William Burrell, all Methodist ministers, purchased Peck’s Beach in 1879 to create a Christian seaside resort.
The restored map was dated five years before that.
The Richard Somers Chapter 1148 of Questers received a $1,000 grant from Questers International and matched that with $1,000 for the $2,000 donation to the museum. Chapter members said there were only five grants from the international organization this year because of reduced funds, and three went to chapters in the state of New Jersey.
This chapter was one of the recipients, according to Suzanne Hampton, a past president of the chapter and project chairwoman for the map restoration project.
“That was huge,” she noted.
Carol Dotts, president of the Questers chapter and treasurer of the Historical Museum, said the international organization was founded by Jessie Elizabeth “Bess” Bardens in 1944.
“What we do is preserve history,” Dotts said.
“We’re interested in studying history and raising funds for restoration and preservation for historic artifacts, museums, historical homes,” Hampton said, noting there are 16 Questers chapters in New Jersey.
According to the Questers website, questers1944.org, the purpose of the organization is to “preserve the past for the future,” promote education in the fields of historical preservation and restoration and supply grants for preservation and restoration of historical artifacts, buildings, memorials and landmarks.
Members of the Richard Somers Chapter 1148 are from local communities including Ocean City, Marmora, Somers Point and Egg Harbor Township, Hampton said.
The group meets nine times a year at various members’ houses and goes on trips to historical sites. Anyone is welcome to join. Contact Dotts at (609) 432-3748.
The map is not the first project the chapter has undertaken.
The chapter donated funding for three artifacts for Lifesaving Station No. 30 on Fourth Street — items that Loeper found. Those donations also were through grants from Questers International.
One of the main projects the Richard Somers Chapter has done, spearheaded by former treasurer Margaret Schock, was preserving a large map from early Ocean City published by J.D. Scott in 1896.
It is now hanging in the museum. That was preserved via a $6,000 donation from the Questers.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
