To: Mrs. L. S. Hall…
Vintage Cape May Postcards
Among our collection of old postcards of Cape May, we came across four postcards addressed to the same woman for four consecutive years. We don’t know who the addressee is and there’s very little information on the cards to clue us in on the relationship between the senders and Mrs. L. S. Hall. One person, K (K.D.S., Katie) sent three of them. The fourth was sent by “Anna.” In all instances, the postcards have no street addresses, an indication of population size at the time.
The earliest card addressed to Mrs. L. S. Hall is from July 11, 1905. It’s signed under “The Coming Wave” picture by K.D.S. The address is simply Clayton, NJ. Sent from Cape May at 4PM on July 10, it was forwarded to Clayton from Philadelphia at 8PM, forwarded again to Glassboro and received on July 11th.
In 1906 Mrs. L. S. Hall was sent a sailboat postcard signed on the front by “Anna” and addressed to Mrs. Hall at Hotel Clarendon in Ocean Grove, NJ. It was posted on August 28th from Eldredge, NJ (now West Cape May). It was re-addressed to Hotel Devon, Cape May City, and re-sent from Ocean Grove on August 29th. It was received in Cape May on August 30th.
The postcard made the trip from West Cape May over 100 miles up the coast to Ocean Grove where it was then returned 100 miles to Cape May, within three days, all for one cent. Apparently, Anna didn’t realize Mrs. Hall was a short walk away in Cape May when she posted the card in Eldredge.
In February 1907, six months after the 1906 card was mailed, “K” addressed the Atlantic Terrace card to Mrs. L. S. Hall in Clayton NJ. It was sent from Cape May in the dead of winter at 7AM on February 27. If the postmarks are to be believed (and why wouldn’t they?) it was received in Clayton three hours and 61 miles later at 10AM.
Judging by the handwriting of the address, “K” was “K.D.S.” the person who mailed a card to Mrs. Hall in 1905. This time K simply says “will be delighted to see you. Lovingly, K”
The last of these four remarkable postcards was mailed to Mrs. L. S. Hall from Cape May on September 14, 1908. Addressed to Pitman Grove (c/o W. H. Michael) it appears that the “Lawn of the Snare Residence” card was then delivered to Clayton, about six miles away, on the same day it was received.
How four different postcards addressed to the same person ended up in the same place (Cape Publishing’s office) in Cape May is certainly curious, since we acquired them one at a time over the period more than a year. We’d love to know who Mrs. Hall and Katie D.S. are. Maybe if another one turns up dated 1909, we’ll have the clues we need. ■
