Still Standing

Exploring any beach town, it is easy to make this observation: there are so many houses, mostly the new builds, the lavish modern homes, countless double- and triple-decker vacation rentals, and even new homes designed to appear old. They are packed in tighter and tighter, with new construction sites at every turn. Vintage beach cottages are becoming extinct, but some remain, if you take the time to notice. They have withstood the test of time, historic storms, and modern development by the sea.

To personify a house, imagine an elderly local character who lived year-round their entire lives. Their current caregivers are dedicated to preservation, holdouts to development, stewards ensuring that their elders thrive, the colorful personalities of a town. Imagine the local woman who is always out tending her garden and loves a good chat, or that colorful yet seasoned salty fisherman who is always there with new stories when you return each season; at times a little worse for wear but still standing.

Photographer Jim Walsh set out on a personifying portrait shoot to immortalize a sampling of old beach cottages on the islands of Cape May County, from northernmost Ocean City and “following the gull” down Ocean Drive to Cape May Point.

Ocean City

“Ain’t that America? Home of the free, Little pink houses for you and me.” -John Mellencamp, “Pink Houses”

Strathmere

“Shhhhhhhhhhh!” -Strathmere’s Unofficial Slogan

Sea Isle City

“Old houses mended, cost little less than new before they’re ended.” -Colley Cibber

Avalon

“It was a mistake to think of houses, old houses, as being empty. They were filled with memories, with the faded echoes of voices. Drops of tears, drops of blood, the ring of laughter, the edge of tempers that has ebbed and flowed between the walls, into the walls, over the years.”-Nora Roberts from Key of Knowledge

Stone Harbor

“I like old people when they have aged well. And old houses with an accumulation of sweet honest living in them are good.” -M.F.K. Fisher

The Wildwoods

“The Jersey Shore is the kind of place where the policeman has a little cottage that might have been in the family for years.” -Bruce Springsteen

Cape May City

“Houses are like people – some you like and some you don’t like – and once in a while there is one you love.” -L.M. Montgomery, Emily Climbs

Cape May Point

“I love my seashell of a house. I wish I could live in it always.” -Anne Morrow Lindberg from Gifts From the Sea

Well-seasoned and well-loved beach houses conjure memories of “the old days.” These buildings are bursting with memories, ghosts of vacations, and sepia summers spent with friends and relatives. Taking the time to notice and document them with portraits is a way to pay homage to their age and the character that adds personality to their towns, while they’re still standing.