Feature articles that have appeared in Cape May Magazine
Many people have seen the movie Twelve Years a Slave, the true story of a free black man from New York, lured to Washington, D.C. by slave traders and sold into bondage in 1841. But few people know that such things happened right here in Cape May. In the years […]
Cape May—in its heyday as the first and most popular seaside resort—attracted all sorts of VIPs. Lured by the restorative powers of the sea and the status of socializing at the beach were United States presidents, southern plantation owners, entrepreneurs, inventors, industrialists, military heroes, architects, artists and—the Quinine King. William […]
In the early part of the 20th century, when the Wildwoods weren’t so wild yet, dreamers came to the shores here with a little money, rolled up their sleeves and built the place we know today. They were men like Sebastian Ramagosa, the “King of the Boardwalk,” who ushered in […]
Forty-two years ago, God visited the Mainstay Inn. Well, it wasn’t actually the Supreme Being, and it wasn’t quite the Mainstay Inn, at least not the one that stands proudly on the intersection of Columbia Avenue and Stockton Place now. But back in the early 1970s, the self-appointed deity of […]
It’s a system of loyalty and trust. Loyalty to those who visit Cape May beaches, and trust among the lifeguards themselves. No occupation seems to embody the all-American summer like that of a well-tanned, able-bodied, vigilant and attentive lifeguard. Lifeguards sit upon their chair, constantly scanning the horizon looking for […]
It was an innovative idea at the time. A first-of-its-kind floating cocktail lounge. Wally Laudeman and his wife Marijane, side by side, opened The Marine Bar in 1954 as a small restaurant primarily specializing in seafood and burgers. A devastating fire in 1964 changed the course of dining in Cape […]
People like to go to the top of things. Don’t ask me why. And it’s no good asking them, either, because they don’t know. Nearly a century ago, a reporter from the New York Times asked George Mallory why he wanted to go to the summit of Mount Everest, and […]
Ed Wuerker likes classic planes so much, he bought one: a vintage TBM Avenger, built in the waning days of World War II. The single-prop torpedo bomber, one of the few that remain from a fleet of 10,000, still flies out of Cape May County Airport.
Seven or eight years ago, two young men who’d met in college at Villanova in 2001 began to fool around with beer-making. From the rooftop of an apartment building in Park Slope in Brooklyn, Ryan Krill filled his bathtub with snow, begged and borrowed some used equipment from local restaurants, […]
“In August of 1892, the religious society and congregation of Colored Baptist[s] living in the City of Cape May met for the purpose of organizing a Colored Baptist Church. These assemblies of believers were recognized by the West New Jersey Association, and on Dec. 23, 1895, the Macedonia Baptist Church […]
Running into Victor Grasso at the grocery store is disconcerting. Remember when you were a little kid and you’d see your teacher someplace out in the world? That’s kind of what it feels like. You think of them as belonging in one place, as one thing, and seeing him or […]
Spring cleaning is all about making the time to refresh and rejuvenate after a long winter. But while most people focus on the home, don’t forget the body. It’s time to clear out the old bath products and look into a few of these handmade varieties from local artisans. When […]
It’s nearly impossible to refute the claim that Cape May is haunted. What spirits might be lurking at our bars?
Like so many legends and myths, the truth about the origin of the Jersey Devil is much more interesting than the make-believe.
After featuring area artists in our Local Talent column for the past year, we decided to take a look at some of their studios and workshop spaces to get a feel for where the magic happens. To that end, we paid a visit to the creative spaces of five artists—three […]
I’m not exactly an actor. Actually, I’m precisely not an actor. Before this year, the entirety of my experience onstage was three and a half decades ago, when I played the role of King Claudius in an amateur production of Hamlet. Although I’m on the board of directors of Cape […]
On an early morning in February, Cold Spring Village is still in hibernation. From the crushed clamshell parking lot you can see a few facades of the 26 buildings that make up this living history museum. As winter ebbs, they look perfectly frozen in time—a still, pastoral picture of the […]
I am a typical 49-year-old man. I have a wife and my two children are in college. I own a business that occupies a lot of my time and energy. A couple of years ago I realized I was carrying more weight than I should. My clothes were tight and […]
The term “painted ladies of Cape May” might seem like a dig at someone who overdid the eyeshadow, but it definitely isn’t off-color when it comes to describing the city’s Victorian homes. Painting the exterior of the home is more than just surface protection, more than presenting a fresh face […]
For anyone who knew George Mesterhazy, not a day goes by that we don’t think about this extraordinary man who left us too soon. It’s inconceivable that four years have passed, because every day it seems like it was yesterday that our collective worlds fell apart, paralyzed by the news […]