History > Cape May hotels have risen from the ashes several times

Last Updated on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 10:35 am Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, January 04, 2012 01:00 am

The people who came to Cape Island during the first half of the 19th century for visits or permanent residency were often an influence on others to follow them.

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Bizarre History of Cape May > Cape May has hosted the famous and semi-famous alike

Last Updated on Monday, April 16, 2012 04:40 pm Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, December 21, 2011 12:19 pm

The names of famous people who visited Cape Island/Cape May during its prime in the 19th century have been duly recorded in historical accounts during the last two centuries or so, Presidents Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester Arthur and Benjamin Harrison among them.

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History > Vacationers have been coming to Cape May since the Revolution

Last Updated on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 11:00 am Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:58 am

How times have changed at Cape Island that was to be renamed Cape May.

Looking back at its early history one would not find parking meters on its streets or automobiles clogging its narrow roads or the skimpiest of bikinis decorating its beaches.

Instead of Fords and Chevrolets, there were stage coaches and buggies. Free parking was abundant and horrors that anyone should exhibit any part of the body below the head except maybe the big toe.

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History > Local anthem actually written ‘On The Way To Cape May’

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Tuesday, December 06, 2011 05:08 pm

It never won a music award, didn’t even come close to being nominated for one, but a song that was adlibbed in a moving automobile more than a half century ago has survived today in Cape May’s history as a local hit that has overshadowed even the works of Irving Berlin and Barry Manilow.

The writer of this song, which has a fascinating historical mystique, is Maurice “Bud” Nugent, a name you will not find on Tin Pan Alley, simply because he never claimed to be a songwriter. But you can bet your last parking meter quarter that the song he composed, a ditty called “On The Way To Cape May,” has emerged to become the biggest popular musical success here since John Philip Sousa composed “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” Some claim it is the second national anthem of Cape May County.

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History > Cape May no stranger to war thanks to its location

Last Updated on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 12:47 pm Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, November 30, 2011 12:44 pm

Because of its location, the ocean on one side, the river on the other and the bay at its terminus, Cape May was often a point of concern for naval battles from the war of the Revolution through the second of two world wars, so much so that military bases have been built here, the United States Coast Guard still being very much in evidence.

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History > Benjamin Harrison’s Cape May vacation one for the history books

Last Updated on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 05:12 pm Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, November 23, 2011 08:00 am

When he wasn’t defending his wife about a property gift in Cape May Point, and when he wasn’t attending to affairs of state at his summer White House at Congress Hall, President Benjamin Harrison enjoyed riding around the territory and learning more about it. After all, this was his vacation, as much as a vacation that a president could have, so, like most tourists, he wanted to soak up some of the local culture and environment. And besides, he was from Indiana where they had no oceans, so he had an opportunity to dip his toes, if not the rest of his bulky body, in the waters that sometimes roared and other times were as quiet as a defeated politician.

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History > Point cottage sparks presidential scandal

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Tuesday, November 15, 2011 03:59 pm

Tiny Cape May Point is the most unlikely place where one would expect a national political scandal to break out. New York? Atlantic City? Philadelphia? Chicago? Of course. But this small isolated borough where the only noise comes from seagulls? No way at Cape May Point.

No way, that is, until the president of the United States and his wife arrived in town and the dirt really hit the fan.

Republican Benjamin Harrison was elected as the 23rd president of the United States in 1888, defeating Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland, the only New Jersey native to be elected president. Four years later Cleveland was to make a big comeback by upsetting Harrison.

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History > Sousa changed music, and played in Cape May

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, November 09, 2011 05:06 pm

OI all the bands and orchestras that came to Cape Island/Cape May since the early 19th century, the one that outshone the others in international fame and popularity was led by a man with three names.

The military marches of the bands of John Philip Sousa were played with such distinctive verve and enthusiasm that it caused him to say “A march should make a man with a wooden leg step out.”

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History > Music has long been part of Cape May’s appeal

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Wednesday, November 02, 2011 11:22 am

The sound of music has been heard at the seashore long before Julie Andrews sang it in the movie of the same name.

When the ocean turns nasty, when the summer temperatures dip below expected and when night falls on the environment, music is one of the big alternatives to entertain the tourists who come from near and far to spend their vacations. It certainly has been the case in Cape May, nee Cape Island, from the early 19th century until today.

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History > Cape May may not have been at its best during Civil War

Written by Jacob Schaad Jr. Tuesday, October 25, 2011 02:36 pm

In its glory days before the Civil War, a time when the seashore city was welcoming steamboats occupied by thousands of fun-seeking visitors with gold in their pockets, Cape Island was being watched closely by newspaper reporters from near and far. They were not without criticism.

One of those papers, a titan in American journalism at that time, was Philadelphia’s Public Ledger, which published from March of 1836 to January of 1942. It was called a penny paper because it sold for just that while many others had upped the price to five cents. The New York Herald, which also had a coverage interest in Cape Island, later to be renamed Cape May, set the circulation standard by charging a penny a copy also.

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