Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum

Yesteryears at Ocean City

Visit City Hall at 301 Baltimore Avenue to see "Yesteryears at Ocean City" exhibit in its entirety

An Ocean City Hero
Levin J. Bunting, Jr. was awarded the highly coveted Gold Life-Saving Medal for “rescuing a woman and a young girl from the perils of the sea” in 1924.
The award was presented at the Atlantic Hotel during August of 1928.

Collection of Annie Spencer Bunting

Collection of Sally D. Bunting

Debris from the violent explosion of the world’s largest airship, the USS Akron,
off the coast of New Jersey, littered the beach of Ocean City on April 4, 1933.
Joshua Bunting of Ocean City recovered and saved this piece of the outside cover of the Akron.
It is a very rare artifact from a monumental event that occurred on the East Coast of the United States.

Collection of the United States Navy
The USS Akron, the “flying aircraft carrier,” was a frequent visitor to the skies over the Eastern Shore
and everyone in Ocean City was sentimental about the airship, and disturbed by her loss.

An Ocean City Hero
Elisha Victor Bunting was Ocean City’s first recipient of the Gold Life-Saving Medal.
The award was presented in August of 1926, after Bunting had rescued four men from drowning
when their fishing boat had overturned in a rough and dangerous sea. Life-saving medals are bestowed
only upon those who risk their lives above and beyond the call of duty.

Collection of Lilly Bunting Farlow

Collection of Edwin J. Wyatt

In 1929 Harriett B. McCabe, wife of Mayor William W. McCabe, presented 300 tire covers to the Town of Ocean City for advertising purposes.
“On the tire cover is a beautiful picture of an Ocean City girl and the words ‘Meet Me at Ocean City’.” We will never know how lovely the lady on the tire cover was,
as someone had cut out her face for a souvenir before this photograph was taken. Mrs. McCabe was the only mayor's wife who ever reached into her own pocket
to pay for advertising for the town. The tire covers were still popular in 1933 as evidenced in this photograph of a car sitting on a flooded street after the 1933 storm.
Quote: Democratic Messenger, May 25, 1929

Collection of Captain William E. West, USCG, Ret.
The Ocean City Beach Patrol is pictured here in 1939. Front row, left to right: Emory (Huck) Savage, Toby Field, Captain Edward Lee Carey, Franklyn (Cutie) Savage. Roger Ewing, William Tutton. Back row, left to right: Nash Strudwick, Jack Horner, William West, Collins Elliott, Assistant Captain Robert Craig, Milton Conner and Jim Parker.

By 1930, many of the large hotels were being built north of 1st Street and people swimming in front of those hotels had little or no protection from drowning.
The city fathers thought it necessary and with some urgency to form the Ocean City Beach Patrol. They hired two young men, Edward Lee Carey and John Laws,
to patrol the beach from the Atlantic Hotel to 10th Street on weekends. Later during that summer, they would rethink the situation and hire a total of six men to
guard the swimmers on a daily basis. The rescue equipment provided was a bottle of smelling salts, a bottle of iodine and a 30 inch buoy.

Collection of the Ocean City Museum Society

The Herring Creek Bridge is located two miles outside of Ocean City. In 1926, all traffic to and from the resort had to travel over this narrow, concrete road.
The traffic was so intense that passing on the two lane road was nearly impossible for much of the two hundred-mile trip to Ocean City.
In those days, traveling by automobile to the resort was perilous and extremely time consuming.

Collection of Betty and Robert Leaverton

Heading home! The Leaverton family sits on Baltimore Avenue, packed and ready to leave.
They will soon begin the long and tiresome journey to Baltimore.
Their trip would take them through many small Eastern Shore towns. They traveled westward, and then up around the top of the Chesapeake Bay
taking at least two days. Cruising speed in their Chevrolet sedan was probably around 40 mph. This photograph is dated August 1918.

Collection of John B. Lynch

An Ocean City Hero

Ralph R. Dennis was an organizational member of the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company, serving as its first assistant chief in 1905.
He was the first male Principal of the Ocean City School system and mentor to many of the town’s young, successful adults.
He also served in the Maryland House of Delegates. Mr. Dennis was the first Ocean City fireman to die in the line of duty.
His death occurred fighting a fire at the George Washington Hotel in 1937.

Collection of Gennette B. McCabe

This Douglas ‘Devastator’ dive bomber crashed on the beach just north of the pier in the early years of World War II.
The plane was on submarine patrol along the coast. The aircraft was repaired, and then pulled onto the brand new Route 50 bridge,
which the pilot used as a runway and took off.

Collection of Violet Cropper Davis

The schooner John W. Hall, which wrecked March 12, 1912 at Ocean City, lies stranded in the surf. The cargo of lumber is to the left in the photograph.
Her crew of seven men were rescued and housed at the Ocean City Life-Saving Station.
Of the 34 lives saved on the Eastern Shore that year, twenty-seven were rescued by the surfmen at the Ocean City station.
Young children, such as those pictured here, used the vessel as a temporary playground.