The "The Jersey Shore: Something Sound Fishy To You, Too!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting in our Ocean City, New Jersey rental on Pennlyn Ave. reading about a few of the other shore points on the Jersey coastline.  To the South of Ocean City is a small town known as Sea Isle City where Carol and I took our young children on vacation along with our babysitters, my parents.  We had a great time until the kids realized there were bigger rides on a huge boardwalk in Ocean City.  The following year we moved north to Ocean City.  To the south of Sea Isle City is another town known as Avalon.  Another town without a large boardwalk, but still an upscale town to visit as well as spend your vacation time for a week.

Construction of the Hotel Peermont. Click images to enlarge.

At one time there stood a very large hotel between 33rd and 34th Streets by the name of Hotel Peermont.  It was a wide, three-story Victorian structure on the beach that had a neat wrap-around porch to catch the cool ocean breezes in the summertime.  If you climbed the two tall widow's peaks you could see north to Sea Isle and perhaps Ocean City and south to Stone Harbor and Cape May.  

The Hotel Peermont was a grand building. At the time there were very few houses and even fewer hotels along the seashore.  Hotel Peermont was constructed in the summer of 1889 and drew many tourists from Philadelphia who wanted to escape the streets and buildings of the city.  

The dress of the hotel guests can be seen in this photo.

The fashion of the period that was displayed on the wrap-around porch was dress suits with derbies for the men and long dresses and fancy hats for the ladies.  Shorts and t-shirt would draw stares if you could even find something like that at a store.  

Map of Avalon.  Click
to enlarge it. 

And, bathing suits covered even more than casual clothes cover today.  The part of the island on which the hotel sat from Townsends Inlet to 25th Street was known as Avalon and from 25th to 37th Streets was called Peermont.  There was even a wharf at the end of 25th Street, a casino, train station and volunteer fire company.  The Peermont Hotel cost $12,453 to build on a tract that was 220 feet. by 360 feet.  The main entrance was on 34th Street with a pavilion and bath houses on the beach near 33rd Street.  Construction began on May 1 and by May 29th weather boarding applied.  It opened for business, fully furnished, by July 16th.  Colonel Henry Sawyer, a Civil War hero, was the manager of the hotel.   The nearby new railroad station made the Peermont Hotel a perfect place to stay.  Shortly a boardwalk was constructed which started in front of the hotel and extended south.  There was space for 100 guests at $2.50 a day with special rates by the week.  The place was lit by gas and eventually the porches were enclosed with glass and heated by steam to make it a first-class winter destination.  Beach erosion was a constant problem.  In September of the first year a storm washed out the railroad bridge and rail service was curtailed, cutting access to the hotel.  It also washed out the hotel's bath house and pavilion as well as the boardwalk.  The boardwalk was replaced in 1891 and a new railroad bridge was under construction.  But, financial problems plagued the hotel and on May 20, 1892 a sheriff's sale was held and the hotel was sold.  

The Hotel Avalon.

And, then in 1896 it burnt to the ground.  Sound fishy to you?  Well, there was another hotel in town known as The Hotel Avalon which was moved in 1893 from an area where there was constant beach erosion to the northwest side of First Ave.  It too was a remarkable piece of architecture for a young town on the Jersey shore.  The history of all the Jersey shore points is not only entertaining, but interesting.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.