High Tide

The CapeMay.com blog

VICTORIAN WEEK evolves into a ‘Big Deal’

In the summer of 1973 Bruce Minnix, founding member of the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC), Cape May’s leader in heritage and cultural tourism, was speaking to a group of reporters about the organization’s plans for the future. At the time, MAC was in the early stages of development and consisted only of volunteer… Read more »

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.

Desalination: Cape May Leads the Northeastern U.S.

“Water, water, everywhere —nor any drop to drink…”* Cape May’s Desalination Plant’s no Albatross! *Apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his legendary poem “Ryme of the Ancient Mariner” There can be no debate, water is the sustenance of life. As the world’s population and demands increase, natural resources deplete. Today’s worldwide water crisis has forced… Read more »

St. Mary’s by the Sea

A woman sits in a chair on the covered porch, taking in the salty sea breeze as I approach. Soon I am introduced in the retreat’s lobby to Sister Ann Raymond, director of St. Mary’s-by-the-Sea.   A piano rests near a statue of Saint Joseph, the carpenter. The main sitting room, a library with a variety… Read more »

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.

For the love of the game

The sport of fishing is one that includes both luck and talent. Fate plays a big hand, as does Mother Nature. Being in the right place at the right time and knowing how to hook the “big one” – well, that’s what it’s all about. As the daughter of a sport fisherman, I watched from… Read more »

The Road Not Taken: An Excerpt from “The Summer City by the Sea”

A contemporary description of the 1878 pre-fire Cape May skyline, observed from the deck of a passing sailboat, spoke of the “flashing lines of festival lights connecting the continuous row of monstrous four-floored buildings, seeming to touch each other…”

These lights were anchored on each end by railroad properties, the Sea Breeze Excursion House on the western end of the city and the great Stockton on the east. Although both of these hotels survived the inferno, the “continuous row of monstrous buildings” between them was now reduced to ashes.

Farming’s Roots in West Cape May

People have been vacationing on Cape Island for more than 200 years and residents have been farming the acreage here for much longer than that. In fact it was the availability of fresh food that was imperative to Cape May’s growth as a resort community.