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Cape May As I Remember It: Part Six
The Colonial Hotel, Congress Hall, and the Chalfonte Hotel are three of the oldest structures in the city.
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Feature articles that have appeared in Cape May Magazine
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Cape May As I Remember It: Part Five
Schellenger’s Landing is the area between Cape May Canal and the small bridge entering Cape May. In the 1930s, that bridge was a drawbridge. The boats that were docked on the northwest side of Route 9—now Route 109—had to use the drawbridge in order to reach the Atlantic Ocean via […]
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Family Folly
An extended family of 17 checks into Franny’s Folly for an unforgettable vacation.
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The Tip of the Funnel
I have a new birding friend from Cape May; we will call him Jim for this article. Jim is recently retired, has lived in Cape May for most of his life, raised a family of wonderful kids who are now wonderful adults, and is plugged into the cultural scene in […]
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A Sea Change: The challenge of rising oceans to Cape May’s future
Less than a year after Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coast in 2012, wreaking $50 billion in destruction across the New York-New Jersey region, the Rutgers Climate Institute issued its State of the Climate Report 2013. Its sobering conclusion, in a nutshell: that Sandy was a warning, and […]
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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 […]