Barons of the Boardwalk: Rehoboth Beach
By Paul D. Lovett
Almost immediately after the establishment of the Christian Seaside Resort by the Methodist Church in 1873, beach front properties at Rehoboth began to be populated by tycoons of industry from Wilmington, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. These property owners would contribute both their time and their funding to the successful development of the town of Rehoboth Beach. And by 1891, these “barons of industry” would wrestle control of the community from its religious founders. While there are too many barons to report on each one, this article will acquaint you with the most influential of those early Rehoboth citizens.
The “Boardwalk Barons” lived on a street called Surf Avenue, which lay in front of their cottages. At that time, the boardwalk, which even then was the town’s primary attraction, was between Surf Avenue and the beach.
Photo 01, 1890s Rehoboth Beach’s First Boardwalk
(Delaware Archives, Purnell Collection)
At the time of the town’s establishment in 1873, the Camp Meeting Association built Rehoboth Beach’s first boardwalk. It was 8’ wide, a mile long, and lay directly on the sand dunes. From the time it was first installed, folks have enjoyed the sight and sound of the ocean waves. For a cottage on the beachfront, the view was filled with sailing ships and steamships of every size and variety, plying the ocean waters, with goods of every sort, bound for the port cities on the Delaware River and up the estuary rivers of Delaware. And the stream of light from the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse beamed across the ocean, enjoyed by all who strolled the boardwalk in the evenings.
Reverend Todd, the religious leader in charge in 1973, had the city laid out and surveyed in 1873. He used a lottery system to determine the order by which the newly laid out lots of Rehoboth would be selected. The public selection event was held on May 1, 1873 from the back of a horse drawn wagon on the grounds of what was, and still is, known as Martin’s Lawn, in Rehoboth Beach. The lots that fronted the ocean along Surf Avenue were the first to be selected in the lottery.
Photo 02, Virtually All Beachfront Lots were Selected on Lottery Day
(Original Survey Map of Rehoboth Beach, Annotated by Paul Lovett)
To accommodate the expected onslaught of visitors coming to that first summer’s religious retreat, the Surf House was constructed at the north end of the boardwalk. A major contributor to construction of the Surf House was Jethro J. McCullough, the first of the “Boardwalk Barons”.
Photo 03, Jethro McCullough
(ancestry.com, Annotations by Paul Lovett)
Jethro McCullough came from Wilmington, and was the heir to the McCullough Iron Company. The company was a major employer and owned several plants in the Middle Atlantic region. Like the rest of the Boardwalk Barons to be chronicled in this essay, McCullough was incredibly wealthy.
McCullough started construction of his Rehoboth beach-front cottage on the boardwalk (Surf Avenue) during the summer of 1873. It was at the north end of the boardwalk by the Surf House. McCullough was apparently an investor in the Surf House and in the Henlopen Hotel that replaced the Surf House after the latter burned to the ground in 1888.
Photo 04, McCullough Cottage c.1918
(Delaware Archives Photo, trimmed and annotated by Paul Lovett)
After the storm of 1920 destroyed the boardwalk for the fourth time, the McCullough cottage was moved to the northwest corner of 1st and Virginia Avenue. It survives there today.
James A. Hooper was another of the earliest builders of a cottage on Surf Avenue. His beachfront cottage was on the south side of Maryland Avenue. Hooper visited Rehoboth from Baltimore. He was the heir to the family fortunes derived from production of duck cloth. Duck cloth was used for the sails on wind driven vessels of the late 1800s, and for artist’s canvases. It is said that Hooper’s father would take a small boat out into the harbor to meet large sailing vessels coming into Baltimore harbor. In that way, he would secure the repair and replacement sail cloth work before the ship even docked.
The Hooper family was quite prominent. The family residence in Baltimore, built in the 1800s, is today a museum and historic landmark in the city.
Photo 05, James A. Hooper
(Internet Photo, Annotations by Paul Lovett)
Hooper built his cottage on Rehoboth’s boardwalk in 1873. In 1882, the Hooper cottage was described by the Wilmington newspapers as “having no rival in elegance and comfort. Hooper’s wealth and taste produce this seaside box. The exterior is finished in olive with trimming, two stories and gables. He has a bowling alley attached, to which friends resort for pleasure and from which all daylight hours issue the sounds of rolling balls and clicking pins, an agreeable diversion from the monotone sounds of the ocean waves.”
Photo 06, Hooper Cottage in Rehoboth at Maryland and Surf Avenue
(Rehoboth Beach Museum Photo, trimmed and annotated by Paul Lovett)
Using his own funds, in 1880 James Hooper built a non-denominational church for the Rehoboth community. It was located at 20 Baltimore Avenue, just where the ClearSpace theater does its productions today. Hooper named the church Scott’s Chapel to commemorate a highly regarded early preacher in Rehoboth. The chapel was not only used for church services, but also for community meetings. Scott’s Chapel burned down in 1913. Later that same year, Epworth Church, which then was located where Cultured Pearl is today (Rehoboth Avenue and Lake Street), was moved to the location where Scott’s Chapel had been (20 Baltimore Avenue) just a few months before. Local lore is that the move used logs for rollers with the structure being dragged by horses. It happened over the weekend. Sunday service was held in the middle of Rehoboth Avenue with the church on rollers.
Photo 07, Scott’s Chapel
(Rehoboth Beach Museum Photo, trimmed and annotated by Paul Lovett)
James Hooper would serve as a city commissioner for the town of Rehoboth for over a decade, from 1891 to ~1901. He was involved in overseeing property assessments and tax collection, hiring the city’s first constable (Edward Hill) and the lamplighter (Thomas ?Henry Roach;, and had many other projects.
William Bright was a real estate magnate with large holdings in Wilmington and throughout Delaware. In 1874, William Bright built a hotel at 10 Surf Avenue on the Boardwalk. He was an original member of the religious community that established Rehoboth as a “Camp Meeting Location and Christian Seaside resort”. But it would soon be evident that his primary focus was making his Rehoboth investment successful. That would mean that he abrogated his early position with the church in favor of the “sinners” who were more in favor of developing a community tolerant of the amusement activity that was otherwise prohibited by church doctrine.
Photo 08, William Bright
(Internet Photo, Annotations by Paul Lovett)
Bright’s Hotel was built in the exact location that Funland on the boardwalk is today. Bill Bright would allow card playing and dancing in his hotel, much to the chagrin of his intolerant religious partners. His position would be hotly contested in the Wilmington newspapers. The ensuing debate was described in the Wilmington newspapers as the fight between “The Saints vs. the Sinners” in Rehoboth.
Bright was highly influential in the development of the Rehoboth Beach community. He was the primary person that inspired the railroad to be extended from Lewes to Rehoboth in 1878, and then in extending its track up the center of Rehoboth Avenue, almost to the beach, in 1884.
Photo 09, Bright House Hotel
(Rehoboth Beach Museum Photo)
Bill Bright would become one of the “Boardwalk Barons” who officially took over management of the city in 1891. He would be the only person to serve as president of both the religious camp meeting association (~1878) and president of the Rehoboth Beach commissioners when they took over the town (~ 1891).
In 1892 Bill Bright would sell his Bright House hotel. Two years later, in 1894, the building would burn to the ground in what was described as a spectacular fire. Bright himself would die by 1896, perhaps having been smote by the almighty for his transgressions. It seems poetic justice that the location his hotel occupied in 1874 is still being used today for pleasure and amusement, Funland!
John Wood Hall built his cottage on the south end of Surf Avenue in about 1875. Hall owned the largest shipping company in Delaware, transporting wood, produce, grains, and fertilizer throughout the world. His hometown was Frederica, Delaware.
Photo 10, John W. Hall
(Internet photo, annotations by Paul Lovett)
Active in Delaware State politics, John Hall would become governor of Delaware from 1879 to 1892. He served in the state senate both before and after his governorship. And he would be one f the barons of industry that joined together to take over control of the town of Rehoboth in 1891.
Hall’s position on tolerance for amusements in the city was evident by his words printed in the August 10, 1880 Wilmington Morning News where he is quoted as saying, “The meanest chicken thieves would not commit acts as dishonorable and despicable than has been done and attempted to be done by this association towards lot holders and others.” The statement was made all the more creditable because it was made while he was governor.
Henry C. McLear, a Wilmington-based carriage maker, built his cottage on the north end of the boardwalk above where the Henlopen Hotel is today. When he bult his cottage ~1876, the Hotel occupying that location was the original Surf House Hotel built by the Rehoboth Camp Meeting Associations in 1873. That hotel would burn down in 1878. McLear became one of the seven gentlemen that would take over town management in 1891. He would serve as a town commissioner for several years.
Photo 11, Henry C. McLear
(Internet photo, annotations by Paul Lovett)
John Morton Poole built his “cottage” on Surf Avenue about 1880. His beachfront cottage was on the boardwalk at Baltimore Avenue. Poole came from Wilmington and achieved his wealth in the machine tooling industry.
Photo 12, J Morton Poole Cottage
(Rehoboth Beach Museum Photo)
Although extremely wealthy, Poole himself was not a major factor in the takeover of the town by the other “Boardwalk Barons”. Poole’s primary interest was in providing a seaside location for his family to reside during the summer. Like most families, the Poole family matriarch, and the family children, most likely resided in Rehoboth for the entire summer, visited by father Poole each weekend. Transportation to Rehoboth from Wilmington was easily accomplished by a regularly scheduled train between the two locations.
The Poole cottage’s most notable resident was Howard Pyle, who married Morton Poole’s daughter, Anne, in April 1881. Pyle would thereafter spend his summers in Rehoboth at the Poole house.
Photo 13, Howard Pyle
(Internet photo, annotations by Paul Lovett)
Pyle became a famous illustrator and story writer. Howard Pyle wrote the most well-known version of the book Robin Hood. He was the founder of the Wilmington School of Illustration. His students included NC Wyeth who did the illustrations for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and other novels.
Richard T. Waters built his regal “cottage” on the northeast corner of Surf and Rehoboth Avenue. That is the location where the Dolle’s sign was prominently positioned for 65 years from the mid-1960s until it was moved to the Rehoboth Beach Museum in 2022.
R. T. Waters came to Rehoboth from Baltimore. His wealth was derived from his father’s lumber business. Family holdings were said to have included vast pine forests in the Carolina’s and Virginia. The company owned several lumber mills.
Waters did not participate in any significant way in Rehoboth town politics. He built his cottage as a place at which he could lavishly entertain favored guests. Wilmington and Rehoboth newspapers would frequently carry articles identifying his prominent guests, a common practice in those days. The Water’s cottage dominated such a visible position at the top of Rehoboth Avenue that it was widely photographed. A horse pasture and barn occupied the property just behind the house along Rehoboth Avenue, approximately where Thrashers French Fries, Kohr Brothers Ice Cream, and other store fronts are located today.
Photo 14, R T Waters Cottage
(Rehoboth Beach Museum Photo)
The Waters gifted their cottage and Rehoboth property to the YWCA in 1905. After that year, pictures show the building with a YWCA sign hanging over the front door. The Waters cottage survived multiple major storms, but after the storm of 1920, which once again resulted in the destruction of the boardwalk, the house was moved back off beachfront to the land then occupied by the pasture. And at an even later date, the two primary wings of the house were separated and rearranged on the “pasture” property. Today the two peaks of the house survive and can be seen from the current Rehoboth Beach bandstand by looking from there toward the north side of Rehoboth Avenue.
Commodore Shock, as he is best known, built his beach front cottage on the north side of Olive Avenue. At the end of his naval career, William H. Shock established residency in Washington, DC, the location where he had been stationed for many years during his naval career.
Photo 15, Commodore Shock in Civilian Clothes
(Internet photo, annotations by Paul Lovett)
Shock had several notable achievements during his years with the navy, but is most prominently remembered for his work leading the installation of the steam boiler system of the Monitor during the Civil War. The Monitor fought against the Merrimac at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in what became known as the “Battle of the Ironsclads”. Although the engagement was inconsequential to the Civil war, it is considered to be the turning point by which navies throughout the world transitioned from power by sails to power by steam.
Retired from the navy in the early 1880s, Shock traveled to the seaside resort at Rehoboth Beach, About 1885, he built a cottage on Surf Avenue, where he summered for the rest of his life.
Photo 16, Commodore Shock Cottage
(Rehoboth Beach Museum Photo)
In Rehoboth Shock was generally referred to as the Commodore. The Commodore’s lifelong partner and wife died just as the cottage was built. That left him free to dedicate his remaining life to the management and improvement of the town of Rehoboth Beach.
Shock was one of the seven individuals that assumed control of the city in 1891 and then served as a town commissioner for over a decade. He would attend up to fifteen commissioner meetings per year, many of which were held in his own parlor overlooking the ocean.
One of Shock’s first achievements as a commissioner was to get approval for, and then oversee the project to establish a stockade built at the west end of Olive Avenue by Lake Gerar. The stockade was to corral livestock found roaming free about the town. Residents would be charged a fee to recover their livestock. Shock himself was compensated $10 for his expenses getting an existing shed to the corral location. Other infrastructure projects he was involved in included removing obstructions and fences that infringed on Rehoboth’s streets and avenues and closing up places that were used for illegal purposes, such as the “cave up in the woods”. He also would lead the effort to require vaudeville theaters to purchase permits issued by the city commissioners. Vaudeville was a form of entertainment that Shock found objectionable.
At the start of the Spanish-American War in 1898 (famous for the cry “Remember the Maine”), Commodore Shock applied for re-commissioning in the navy. He was declined...perhaps because he was 77 years old. In an extensive obituary prepared by a fellow admiral, Shock’s time, and even existence, in Rehoboth was not even mentioned.
Besides those Boardwalk Barons described above, there were several other notable individuals that constituted the group identified in this article as the “Boardwalk Barons”. They included Charles Jefferis from Wilmington, who built his beachfront cottage next to that of Commodore Shock. Jefferis was one of the seven persons identified in the legislative action by which the Boardwalk Barons took over the city. He served several years as a Rehoboth commissioner. Thomas Ruddell, whose cottage was on the very south end of the Boardwalk (which then terminated at Laurel Street). Ruddell was a criminal lawyer from Baltimore. He did not serve as a Rehoboth commissioner, but was otherwise active in Sussex County politics.
And there were several others with significant residences built on the boardwalk during the 1880s.Some notable influential 1880s Rehoboth Beach summer cottage owners had residences that were not beachfront, but rather on the Avenues within a block of the beach. They included Elijah Morris, owner of a variety of mercantile businesses, who hailed from nearby Lewes. His cottage at 27 Baltimore Avenue was used as a rooming house during the town’s first camp meeting in 1873.
Another non-beachfront owner was Clarence Beebe, a hotel owner in Lewes whose family also operated paddleboats from Lewes to Philadelphia. Beebe was the first to lease the pavilion over the beach at the head of Rehoboth Avenue. He used the pavilion as a store and meeting location, and some commissioner elections were held there. Beebe was more notably the father of Richard and James Beebe who founded Beebe hospital. The Beebe cottage at 15 Rehoboth Avenue was used by Richard and James as a base for their Rehoboth medical clinic in the 1910s.
The Takeover
After multiple years of discontent, in 1891 seven of the “Boardwalk Barons” banded together to take over managerial control of the town of Rehoboth Beach. The action required congressional legislative action by the state of Delaware in Dover. The primary reason given for the action was mis-management of stock certificates and lot ownership records by the original Rehoboth Beach Camp Meeting Association.
Seven individuals were identified in the Delaware state legislature’s statute as the newly appointed commissioners of the town. At least two of the seven, Bill Bright and Elijah Morris, were part of the original Methodist camp meeting group that founded the town in 1873.
Photo 17, Legislative Statute by Which the New Commissioners of Rehoboth are Designated
(Rehoboth Beach Commissioner Meeting Notes, 1892 )
The legislative action concurrently re-named the town Cape Henlopen City. That name only lasted for two years before the name was changed back to Rehoboth Beach.
Over the next decade, the “Takeover Group” took action on a variety of reforms including:
· Condemning the properties, and taking other necessary actions, to get the railroad extended (by a track spur) from Rehoboth Avenue to Laurel Street. That spur happened to bring folks to within a half a block of the Bright House.
· Rebuilding the boardwalk (multiple times).
· Upgrading the streets and sidewalks; and, the pilings on the beach, which were meant to be protective, but were not effective.
· Evaluating possible trolley lines to be run parallel to the beach, where 1st Street is today. Such a trolley system, of course, never materialized.
· Leasing the pavilion on the beach at the head of Rehoboth Avenue to Charles S. Horn i~1899. Horn would enlarge the structure and the boardwalk platform on which it stood. It would become a version of today’s mall, including an ice cream parlor, a photography studio, a drug store, a dance hall, a theater, a meeting place, and serve as a polling place for the few male landowners that were allowed to vote. A merry-go-round would be added to the platform about 1908.
· Commissioners provided approval for Charles Horn to add a fishing pier that would extend more than 100 feet out over the ocean.
· Evaluating the installation of a sewage system, a project that was not executed until the 1930s.
These actions by the Boardwalk Barons may best be described as bringing law and order to a town that would otherwise have been an “old west” style cowboy railroad town. By about 1905, the original “Takeover” group would be largely gone. While they had built a town that would endure, Rehoboth would, shortly thereafter, be devasted by enormous fires and raging storms. Horn’s Pavilion would be separated from the boardwalk in 1914. It was at that time that Surf Avenue was abandoned and the boardwalk was moved to the storefront location where it is positioned today. The automobile took over from the trains and horses that had been the primary means of travel to and within the city during the Boardwalk Baron era of Rehoboth.
But the town the Barons helped bring under control has survived for another 120 years. It is known today as “Rehoboth’s Summer Capital”, often identified as one of the finest beach resorts in the world. And still, folks are coming to Rehoboth from the same cities that were the primary residences of the Boardwalk Barons, Wilmington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Lewes, Milton, Dover, and Denton.
This essay was prepared by Paul Lovett (Rehoboth Beach Historian), creator of the “Golden Age of Rehoboth Beach, The Railroad Era” diorama, now on display in Rehoboth. Contact Paul Lovett at 302-893-9391 or paul@pdlovett.com to arrange a visit. Paul maintains the website “www.goldenageofrehoboth.com” to capture his endeavors about Rehoboth Beach history.
The photographs included in this narrative are from collections at:
· Rehoboth Beach Historical Society Museum
· Delaware Archives in Dover, DE
· Private collections shared with Paul Lovett
Reference sources for the narrative include:
· Newspapers.com
· Rehoboth Beach Tittle Tattle, Vol 1 (#1), June 1, 1912, article by William Tremper Tappan
· Oral histories available at the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society Museum
· Ancestry.com
· Hand written minutes from of the Rehoboth Beach City Commissioner’s Meetings from 1891 to 1920
· Private interviews by Paul Lovett with “locals.”