Stories: History

A Magical Land

Cape May is the end. The southernmost tip of New Jersey’s 130-mile coastline. Travelers don’t come here as a stopover en route to somewhere else —there is nowhere else other...

Cape May Versus Sag Harbor

Cape May Sag Harbor History Baron's Cove

Though they share an ocean, and geographical proximity, it’s hard to imagine two summer resort communities less alike than the Jersey Shore and the Hamptons...

The Past Informs The Present

Fundraiser History Fund For Cape May Ice Ball

On a Friday night in February of 2015, around 300 people headed for Congress Hall, with a brisk southwest wind shaving a few more degrees off what was officially recorded...

Happy Anniversary, Virginia

cape may the virginia history

A Letter from Curtis Bashaw June 2, 2019 I have been checking guests in and out of hotel rooms for half of my life. It was 30 years ago, on June 2, 1989, that we opened The Virginia, beginning what...

The Gift to Come

Cape May Music History

“Ukuele” translates to become the phrase “The gift to come.” This four-stringed, tiny guitar has become as synonymous with the sound of the Hawaiian Islands...

A Fowl Tradition

History Thanksgiving Cape May Ebbitt Room Food

In millions of households across America this Thanksgiving, a similar scene will play out. It may be some sort of modern rendition of Norman Rockwell’s Freedom From Want, with a family gathered around the dinner table, waiting for a matriarch...

A Message to the Future

Congress Hall History cape may

We didn’t always know about Congress Hall’s history. Its hard to imagine now; the walls are filled with old photos dating back to the 1840s. There are books with pages of comprehensive facts, colorful illustrations, and definitive dates that put...

Cape Mayflowers

Cape May History

In the month of November, the walls of nearly every American elementary school are covered with construction paper turkeys, headdresses, and Puritan pilgrim hats. Second graders from California to New York don costumes made from grocery bags and wait anxiously...

Presidential Vacations

Cape May History Congress Hall

To those who weathered the cold winter months this past year, summertime means one thing: vacation. From little tykes finishing their first year of school, to the President of the United States, everyone is looking forward to a well-deserved break...

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