The opening of the Atlantic Hotel in 1875 marked the beginning of Ocean City as a resort town. A smattering of other facilities opened in the years that followed, but the place was still barely off the ground as a travel destination when the big-city New York Daily Herald decided to let its readers in on the secret.
Here are few excerpts from a long article the paper published on July 11, 1879.
• “A few years ago Ocean City was sand and air. Before 1875 the long strip of Maryland seashore known as Synepuxent Beach was given over to the seagulls and Mother Cary’s chickens, save when a sporting party from … Baltimore or Philadelphia awakened [and] it echoes with the shotgun.”
• “… Except Rehoboth, near the Delaware Breakwater, and Cobb’s Island, below Chincoteague, it is the only regular summer resort of first class character on the long line of coast between Cape Henlopen and Cape Charles.”
• “The [resort’s] first hotel, The Atlantic, is built almost upon the verge of the breakers and is surrounded with wide porches and verandas, over which the sea breeze blows strong enough whisk away one’s hat. It is conducted by John Tracy, a veteran hotel man. … ”
• “One of the features of the Atlantic is a terrapin pen which is constantly filled with these luscious amphibious creatures. … The pen is always a curiosity with visitors, to whom the sight of the crawling hundreds of terrapin is not only a promise of delight to the inner man, but an attractive study in natural history.”
• “The second largest hotel is the Seaside House, conducted by Messrs. Massey and Koons. It is a little nearer the railway station. A striking feature of this house is the collection of fly fans in the dining room, of which there are two to every table. When they are all in motion at any meal, they give the apartment the appearance of a floor in a machinery-filled factory.”
• “Some regret is naturally felt that the founders of Ocean City did not retain something of the old Indian name of Synepuxent in giving the place a title. The “Ocean” is all well enough, but the term “city” rather ridicules the small collection of hotels and buildings.”
• “…The buildings are generally painted a pale green, and as the eaves are bordered in drab or brown, the collection makes quite a picturesque scene.”
• “The newness of the whole place is refreshing and inviting to the pleasure seeker, who cannot help contrasting its clean, bright woodwork, the shining bedroom furniture, and clean walls of its hotels and their cheerful dining rooms, with the dilapidated buildings and musty apartments of older resorts. Ocean City is, in short, a pretty mushroom.”
• “Its patrons are in ecstasies with [Ocean City], and show their fealty by coming down perennially from Washington and Baltimore. The beach is the great attraction. … [The] bathing is safe and enjoyable at almost any stage of the tide. … Men, women, and children bathe in the surf as fearlessly as in a swimming school.”
No, that is not a typo. The writer really did describe Ocean City as “a pretty mushroom.”
–posted in April 2026 by Jim Duffy for Secrets of the Eastern Shore/Whimbrel Creations LLC. Thank you for reading!
AFTERNOTE: I came across the photo here in a book by Gordon E. Katz titled 102 Gentlemen & A Lady: The Story of the Atlantic Hotel Company in Ocean City, Md. More info on the book here:
https://amzn.to/3fHmYJe
