Author: Jennifer Brownstone Kopp

Award-winning journalist Jennifer Brownstone Kopp has been writing about Cape May’s historic buildings for over a decade. Her numerous articles and columns have appeared in the Cape May Star and Wave, The Herald, The Cape May Gazette and on CapeMay.com.

America’s Best (and only) Lima Bean Festival

Since the first Lima Bean festival in 1985, a queen has been crowned. From age three to upwards of 70, women in various shapes and sizes compete for this ultimate honor.

Three Innkeepers’ Stories…

What if you had the nerve to follow your dream? Memories of sunny, sandy, carefree days stream back and suddenly you remember that wonderful couple who ran that lovely bed and breakfast you visited. Nice people, they were. And they looked so happy! Perhaps you could be, too.

Renovating a Relic

It’s been a long time coming. There were Department of Interior rules and regulations to follow, million-dollar funding to secure, lawsuits to brave, mountains of paperwork to wade through and endless rolls of red tape to unwind. Now, long overdue according to some and beyond belief to others, rehabilitation of Congress Hall has begun.

The Restoration of Congress Hall: History’s Contemporary Challenge

She was just one of many large hotels in the late 1800s that catered to the elite. Massive hotels they were, with broad verandahs and sweeping lawns that faced the ocean. John Philip Sousa wrote two songs for Congress Hall. In fact, he introduced them on her lawn. For she was well-known across the nation… Read more »

The Chalfonte Saga Continues

What began as a simple boarding house soon grew into a reputable hotel under the direction of Colonel Henry Sawyer. He was a local hero — it was said that every man, woman and child in Cape May could recite Sawyer’s “Lottery of Death” story by heart.

The Chalfonte Hotel: The Beginning

A simple carpenter stares death in the eye, and lives to build one of Cape May’s living treasures. A story rooted in American history, the tale of Henry Washington Sawyer is one of courage, strength and pride.

Parking Meters: Are we being ripped off?

Ever put a quarter in the meter and check your watch, just to come back a half an hour later to find a ticket tucked neatly under a windshield wiper? Maybe your watch was running slow? Or perhaps the meter running fast? Eleven-year-old Ellie Lammer of Berkeley, California, was sure Berkeley’s meters were wrong in… Read more »

Fishing Cape May

Yes, fishing fever is here. It’s more like a fishing frenzy in Cape May, a town with eleven commandments — thou shall fish rounding out the bunch. A place where being “seaworthy” is next to Godliness. An island uniquely placed where the Delaware Bay shakes hands with the Atlantic Ocean. PLUS – a recipe for Lemon Beurre Blanc

Another Mansion House…143 Years Later

It was to the Mansion House that U.S. statesman Henry Clay came for recuperation after the death of his son during the Mexican War in 1847. Built in 1832, it was the second grand hotel built on the island. Built on four acres of land, it was the first lathed and plastered hotel — its… Read more »

Hubert & Union Park: Perfect Together

It’s the perfect match. He’s cooked for Julia Child and at the James Beard Foundation. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, he’s worked in four-star restaurants from Philadelphia to Vail, Colorado. For seven years, he operated the Ebbitt Room at the Virginia Hotel in Cape May, leaving early… Read more »

High Tide