May 16th
1894 – R. H. Thorn was Ocean City’s postmaster that year. He came to Ocean City in 1885 and opened a store at Eighth and Asbury selling hardware and furniture. In 1887, he purchased two adjacent lots and built stores at 803 and 805 Asbury Avenue. In addition to providing furniture for most of the resorts hotels and cottages, his buildings served as offices for William Lake, Surveyor and Conveyancer, the Ocean City Sentinel, the Ocean City Daily Reporter and the Ocean City Guild Book.
May 17th
1694 – A law was passed making Great Egg Harbor Township part of Gloucester County, West Jersey. At that time, the Township included all the land that is now Atlantic County. Atlantic County wasn’t established until 1837.
May 18th
1964 – Anglers were dropping their lines off Ocean City’s 5th Street jetty and referring to it as “Gillian’s Fishing Deck.” Public Works Director Roy Gillian came up with the idea to create a concrete fishing deck on the jetty that was originally built to offset beach erosion. At the time, Gillian and his brother owned Gillian’s Fun Deck at Plymouth Place. Wonderland Pier was built in 1965.
May 19th
1934 – Ocean City’s airport was under construction. Officials purchased 124 acres of land between 22nd and 28th Streets in 1929 a week before the Wall Street Crash. The land was untouched until January of 1934 when the city received a grant from the Civil Works Administration to construct the airport. The project provided much needed work for about 400 people. The airport opened in 1937 and is the only airport on a New Jersey barrier island.
May 20th
2004 – Former Ocean City mayor John H. “Jack” Bittner (1942 – 2004) died at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia. Born in Philadelphia, Bittner moved to Ocean City in 1970 and owned the Sandaway Inn on 8th Street for 16 years. He was president of the Hotel and Motel Association and served on the school board before serving as mayor from 1982 – 1986. He later moved to Somers Point and owned Schooners Restaurant and Lounge for 16 years.
May 21st
1914 – Officers of Ocean City Automobile Bridge Company suspended tolls for members of Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce and their auto parade during Atlantic City’s carnival. This was considered a wise move as it brought hundreds more to Ocean City that weekend.
May 22nd
1974 – Hundreds watched as Atlantic City’s oldest hotel, the Breakers, was demolished. The 79-year-old, 12 story hotel occupied a city block and was the last of the boardwalk hotels to feature salt-water baths in all its rooms. The Breakers occupied an entire city block, catered to Jewish clientele, and was known as the “Aristocrat of Kosher hotels.” Showboat now occupies this land.
May 23rd
1854 – Dr. Jonathan Pitney of Absecon who would later be known as the Father of Atlantic City was working hard to bring about two projects. For the past decade, Pitney worked to obtain support from the government to build a lighthouse on Absecon Island and for the past two years, he worked with investors to establish a health resort there. Now as the result of an April storm that brought about the greatest loss of life and shipwrecks on local beaches, officials in Washington were listening. In July of that year, Atlantic City opened for its first season and in December, Congress provided $35,000 to finally build the Absecon Lighthouse.
May 24th
1964 – Thousands of young people flooded Ocean City that Memorial Day Weekend in sports cars and jalopies. That week’s Sentinel described them as “as wide-awake at two am as at noon.” Many of them attempted to drink in Somers Point resulting in the town’s biggest municipal court sessions in five years.
May 25th
1944 – Ocean City beaches were scheduled to open that Saturday with lifeguards stationed at 2nd, 10th, 12th, and 14th Streets. City officials announced that unlike previous summers when it was difficult to get guards since most men were serving in the military, this year there were plenty of applicants. They were, of course, all under age 18, but were prominent high school or prep school swimmers.
May 26th
1914 – The hard work of volunteers paid off when Ocean City’s first library opened in the Bourse Building at Eighth Street and Asbury Avenue. There were 875 books available on opening day and it was hoped that a thousand books would be available that summer. Maud M. Flouds was the resort’s first librarian.
May 27th
1904 – There was talk of building a trestle bridge across the Great Egg Harbor Bay into Ocean City. At the time, Pennsylvanians took a train to Somers Point then hopped a ferry to the island. The Shore Fast Line, an electric interurban railroad that ran from Atlantic City to Ocean City wasn’t built until 1907. It ran until 1948.
May 28th
2004 – Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Petra Nemcoya helped Mayor Henry “Bud” Knight turn the key to unlock the ocean during Ocean City’s first annual Business Swim. Nemcoya arrived late for the event because, as was customary in those days, a drawbridge was stuck.