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Feature articles that have appeared in Cape May Magazine
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Cape May As I Remember It: Part Four
This article is concentrated on Beach Drive as I remember it from the 1930s and 1940s, starting at Madison Avenue heading towards the Cove. The Montreal Motel was originally constructed as a two-story motel; a third and fourth floor were additions. The home two doors away from the motel was […]
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The Summer Place
“We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.” Winston Churchill Houses are built of bricks and mortar. Homes are made of ghosts and memories. For the Dean family, all are inextricably entwined. Last year, when their summer place in Avalon went up for auction, two generations of Deans […]
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Cape May As I Remember It: Part Three
East Cape May to me is all of the land from Madison Avenue to the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center. On Beach Avenue, where the Capri and Ocean Club are currently located, was a carousel and the Cape May Playhouse. I don’t remember the carousel, but I do remember the […]
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Raising the Bar
For seafood lovers in Cape May, the resurrection of Mayer’s Bar & Restaurant was a near-transcendent experience.
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A Walking Architectural Primer, Part Two
In our Spring issue, we featured architecturally significant buildings that were (and in some cases, still are) private homes. In this second walk, we focus on public buildings—gathering places for business, religion, theater and hospitality.
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Beacon of Hope: Saving East Point Light
Nancy Patterson—artist and author—has been falling in love with lighthouses since she was a child. Her earliest memories involve visiting the Cape May Lighthouse, and dreaming about one day climbing to the top. When her granddaughter was three, Nancy retraced her childhood steps. She took little Ella to see the […]
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Under the Rainbow: The story of GABLES
Seldom do I write a feature in which I am a key player. It was a moment of mixed reaction when I was assigned to write a piece on GABLES of Cape May County, a nonprofit LGBT community group celebrating its 23rd year. Having been an active member of GABLES […]
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Past, Present and Future of the Franklin Street School
The history of the Franklin Street School, built in 1928 for the African American grade school children of Cape May.
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Cape May: A Walking Architectural Primer
Cape May earned its National Historic Landmark status in 1976 for its singular large collection of more than 600 late 18th to 19th century frame buildings, many architecturally important. Let’s take a walk and enjoy what makes them special.
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Cape May As I Remember It: Part One
The serialized recollections of a Cape May lifer. From Washington Street where it ends at Ocean Street and the mall all the way to the other end has also changed over the years. At the corner of Ocean and Washington Street, where Victorian Towers now stands was Mecray’s Market, eventually […]
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Wheel’s Up: Getting to know Cape May’s special brand of bike magic
“They rode on in silence, gradually leaving the countryside behind them, along with the mingled smell of hay and honeysuckle, which would soon be replaced by the scent of salty air mixed with coconut oil.” It All Started with a Bicycle In this passage from It All Started With a […]
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Mary O’Hara: Jersey Girl
At the end of the 19th century, Cape May Point was a thriving little community established as a religious retreat by prominent ministers and businessmen. Here, on July 10, 1885, a baby girl was born to the Reverend and Mrs. Reese Alsop. They called their daughter Mary O’Hara, after her […]
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With love from Cape May
So, you want to get married in Cape May, do you? That’s an excellent notion. The quaint beauty and charms of America’s oldest seaside resort provide not just the perfect backdrop for a summer vacation, but also an ideal setting for tying the knot—ask me, I know. I was a […]
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A Prompt for Restoration
A year ago, Ron Goldstein, then president of Cape May’s Chamber of Commerce, knew little about Stephen Smith and the summer home he built on Lafayette Street in 1846. And whenever Goldstein passed it on his way downtown, he could barely see the building behind the shrubs and trees that […]
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Small Town, Big League
The first sign that something unusual was happening on a freezing day in late January, deep into Cape May’s off season, was that there was nowhere to park within blocks of Convention Hall. Outside, latecomers were streaming in twos and threes up the steps, and unlike many events in town […]
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Stephen Smith: Cape May’s Underground Railroad Leader
You’ve probably walked past the unimposing pale yellow house at 645 Lafayette Street many times, and perhaps you read the historical marker out front—the one saying that Stephen Smith was a businessman, philanthropist, abolitionist and founder of Cape May’s AME Church. But what you didn’t know is that Smith, who […]
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A Seismic Shift: Cape May’s Place in the Political Tug-of-War over New Jersey’s Energy Source Future
It could all happen pretty quickly. Believe it or not, by as early as summer of next year, a fleet of ships dragging arrays of super-loud seismic blasting cannons could be trolling the Atlantic Coast waters looking for oil deposits. And, if they’re successful—that is, if it looks like there […]