Val Shively, Fred Prinz and James Dean

Val Shively, who owns one of the biggest collections of Rock & Roll records on the planet, Fred Prinz of Ocean City, and friend.

Mack & Manco Pizza

Sam McDowell of the Boardwalk Smuggler's Shop

Chris Montagne - Chris' Restaurant OC NJ

Chris Montagne was an Old Salt Italian fisherman from Sea Isle City who moved to Ocean City to open Chris Restaurant and run a fleet of fishing and touring boats. He married Dr. Marcia Smith and lived with her at their home at 821 Wesley Avenue from the 1930s until he died.

Chris' Restaurant, next to Hogates and the Ocean City - Somers Point Causeway Bridge, was a long time landmark and the first thing you saw when driving into Ocean City.

One of the boats Chris ran was the Flying Saucer, a converted World War II era PT boat that he took passengers for rides out the inlet and to the end of the island and back again, every day at 12 noon and 3 pm. When I worked at Mack & Manco's Pizza on the boardwalk you could count on Chris going by like clockwork. The boat rides lasted for many years, and you could be sure to get wet from the spray he kicked up - but that only made Chris laugh. The Flying Saucer rides only ended when Chris got pretty old and the boat sank at the dock one afternoon.

Chris was an alltime fascinating character. Even after he retired he continued to fish regularly. When I lived in Sea Isle City and drove down Ocean Drive I'd see him every morning emptying his minnow nets in the south end marshes. My brother Leo went fishing with him all the time, and took the picture at the top of Chris out on the bay in his boat with the big parrot Leo took care of for awhile.

When Chris retired, he sold the restaurant for a reported $1 million, but not to someone who would maintain the place as the living landmark that gave public access to the bay. Instead the city mistakenly allowed them to change the use of the property and convert it to condos, which made it private property and no public access. And the location, next to the noisy bridge and highway, was no conducive to living comfortably there, but somebody made a lot of money.

Chris Montagne - Chris' Restaurant Ocean City NJ

Dr. Marcia V. Smith - Ocean City's first women physician

Dr. Marcia V. Smith 1898 – 1995

Dr. Smith and Chris (far right) at a event at the Ocean City Youth Center on 6th Street (no longer there). Can you identify any of the other people in this photo? If so contact me: billkelly3@gmail.com

A permanent granite marker was placed at the park between 5th and 6th streets in Ocean City that reads: “Marcia V. Smith, MD – Citizen – October 9, 1960.”

I don’t know if it is still there, but there’s a picture of it in Fred Miller’s book on Ocean City.

But Dr. Smith was more than just a citizen. She was the first women physician in Ocean City and widely recognized as a humanitarian, a patron of the arts and a good friend and neighbor.

Born in Petersburg in Upper Township, Cape May County, N.J. on May 28, 1898, Marcia Van Gilder was the daughter of a retired seaman turned businessman and member of the Upper Township Board of Education. He was said to be a strong believer in the freedom of choice and encouraged her to develop her abilities as far as she could go.

Marcia graduated from Tuckahoe High School in 1916, obtained a degree from Temple University and received her medical degree in 1922 from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (now part of the University of Pennsylvania). Returning to Ocean City she became a general practitioner and family doctor, a practice that she began in 1924 and continued until she retired on November 8, 1973. As the first women physician in Ocean City she specialized in delivering babies and caring for the sick.

She met her husband Chris Montagna while taking care of his mother. Born in Italy, the Sea Isle City fisherman relocated to Ocean City where he opened Chris’ Seafood restaurant on the bay at 9th street.

From when they were married in 1933, Dr. Smith and Chris lived in a large, cedar shingled house at 821 Wesley Avenue, where Dr. Smith worked out of an office on the first floor. (Dr. Townsend lived in the house next door at 823 Wesley).

No one was ever turned away from Dr. Smith’s door as she cared for everyone who came to her would regard to their ability to pay for her services. While Dr. Smith carried on her medical work, much of it for charity, her husband became a successful businessman as the owner and operator of Chris’ Restaurant, a lone-time landmark at the foot of the 9th street causeway bridge, where he also ran a line of fishing and touring boats.

Taking inspiration from Albert Schweitzer, the philosopher, musician and African missionary doctor – his bust sat on her desk, Dr. Smith supported many humanitarian activities and traveled widely throughout the world, making trips to Canada, Japan and China and maintaining correspondence with those she met until she died.

An early benefactor of Shore Memorial Hospital, she assisted those who conducted cancer research, initiated the first boardwalk art show (with Jim Penlyn) and was an early supporter of the fledgling state of Israel.

She was honored with a special “Marcia Smith Week” in October, 1960 when the park monument was dedicated and she was the guest of honor at a testimonial dinner at the Flanders Hotel where James G. McDonald, the first US Ambassador to Israel praised her for her humanitarian work here and abroad.

The monument, dedicated on October 9, 1960, weighs 400 pounds and was brought to American from Israel because of her early support of Israel and “the brotherhood of man.” She received the highest award presented to a non-Israelite. Then Mayor Nathaniel Smith said Dr. Smith, “has been quite an asset to the community and has always been willing to come to the aid of those needing her help without a minute’s hesitation.”

A newspaper editorialized: “All of us in Ocean City can take a large measure of pride in the exceptional achievements of Dr. Marcia V. Smith, who last week received the unusual distinction of having a week set aside in her horror by the Mayor. Dr. Smith deserved it.”

“First as a physician she has made herself available to take care of as many people who otherwise would have been without expert medical attention. This service she has performed quietly with no attempt to gain personal recognition.”

“Her work in the Bonds for Israel campaign is another example of the way she goes about helping causes in which she is interested. So unusual was her concern for the development of a friend country where the people are not even of her own faith that the Israeli government saw fit to honor her with a monument which last week was dedicated at the city park.”

“Finally, Saturday night she was the guest of honor at a “Marcia V. Smith Banquet” at the Flanders Hotel and received high tribute from many civic leaders for her work.”

When she retired from medical practice she said, “I have always found it wonderful to think my own thoughts and not care whether I am popular with other people. If a person cares too much what other people think, then they become slaves to what isn’t worthwhile.”

Since the death of her husband, Dr. Smith lived at the Luthern Home in Ocean View, where she died on March 23, 1995 at age of 96.

The 6th Street monument is a lasting testament to Dr. Marchia Smith, who was more than just a fellow citizen.

As her next door neighbor for many years (1967-1995), I got to know Dr. Smith and Chris really well.

The first time I met her was the first week we moved to 819 Wesley Avenue and my brother's dog got into a dog fight with Quickie's dog on the other side of the back alley. Quickie, like my father, was a former Camden policeman who had a rooming house next to Kazmark's motel across from the post office. We stayed at Quickie's guest house a few times, as well as Brown's Guest houses on Moorlyn Terrace before my family bought 819 Wesley, at my instigation.

When we first moved in Leo's dog ran out of the yard and across the alley and was fighting with Quickie's dog, and I got bit on my hand while pulling them apart. Quickie also got bit pretty bad, so we went over to Dr. Smith's office on the ground floor of her house and she took us in and bandaged us up. She was pretty old then but she kept her doctor's door open for quite awhile before she was forced to retire.

After Chris died and she had to move to a nursing home, they had a professional auction company come in and auction off all the contents of the house, and I still have some items that I either bought for a few dollars or got at the end that were just left over and nobody wanted - including a green reading chair, the bust of Albert Schweitzer, an antique wood Majong game she got in China, a stash of old photos and an album of newspaper clippings that mention her and her work from over the years.

Dry Ocean City Founded at Somers Point Tavern

Dry Ocean City Founded at Somers Point Tavern

The Dolphin House - on Shore Road between New York and Brighton Avenues, was a hotel, tavern and restaurant where the Lake family met to name the main streets of Ocean City in February 1880.

Photo is from the collection of Bill Carr, who is said to be related to Braddock, the owner of the Dolphin House.

The Dolphin House

“Somers Point served as the port of entry for Great Egg Harbor for many years, with a custom's House located there from 1791 until 1912. In 1834, the town consisted of several farmhouses, a tavern and boarding house. By 1850 there were at least two hotels run by Richard L. Somers and Constantine Somers, [2] increased to three by 1872, with W. E. Braddock as the proprietor of the Dolphin House.”

Today there is a street behind Somers Mansion called Braddock Avenue and the island closest to Somers Point on the bay by Rainbow Channel is Braddock Island.

From History of Ocean City New Jersey by Harold Lee

“According to family legend, the patriarch of the family, the Honorable Simon Lake, agreed to place a $10.000 mortgage on his Pleasantville farm and orchard to provide working capital to start the undertaking….The two principal covenants were a hard and fast rule against the sale, manufacture or keeping for sale of alcoholic beverages, and a prohibition against commercialism on the Sabbath. These restrictions have passed down to all deeds currently held by property owners.”

“The first annual report of the founders sounded a clarion call to maintain the observance of Christian ideals on the island, as follows: ‘We cannot pander to vile appetites or propensities, or seek to advance our interests by any questionable proceedings…Let us not falter. A perfect Sabbath must be maintained…. To secure lasting prosperity and preeminent success this place must be run in the interests of our Holy Christianity.’”

“While these preliminary business matters were being organized, work also was proceeding to obtain title to beach properly. The title situation on the northerly part of the island was fairly clear, as all of the land from Oil Creek to Great Egg Harbor Inlet, with the exception of the Parker Miller property, was owned by members of the Somers family. This land was not for sale, but Simon Lake was able to persuade the family to part with their holdings. Title deeds to all of the Somers tract had passed to the Ocean City Association or its agents before the end of February, 1880….”

“When winter weather came the survey work was halted, but it was resumed in February of 1880. At that time the founding fathers came here with the surveyors and fixed a course for the four principal longitudinal streets. Their names were chosen on February 10 around a dinner table in the Dolphin House hotel at Somers Point. Mrs. Harriot Lake, wife of Simon Lake, named the most easterly as Wesley Avenue; Simon named Central Avenue; J.E. Lake named Asbury Avenue, and surveyor William Lake named West Avenue, appropriately, as it was the most westerly thoroughfare laid out at that time.”

Memories of the PAL House on the Sea Isle City Boardwalk

Reminiscences of the PAL House on the Sea Isle City Boardwalk

The first Jersey Shore resort I remember is Sea Isle City in the Fifties and early Sixties when my family took week long vacations to the PAL House on the Sea Isle City boardwalk.

Of course there is no Sea Isle City boardwalk anymore – and no PAL House for that matter, as both were destroyed in the storm of 1964, though I remember my father saying that they moved the PAL House around the corner to a side-street and it may still stand today. The boardwalk however, was replaced with a concrete and blacktop promenade that also acts as a protective barrier against storms.

The Camden Police Athletic League (PAL) house was huge, though I was small at the time and it may have just seemed very large to a small boy.

You came in the front door off the boardwalk over a smaller boardwalk, and entered a large community room. While there were rooms upstairs, we stayed in a small room with two or three beds that was off to the side of the community room on the first floor. In the back of the large general area were a few large tables and a kitchen where there was always something cooking.

Above the front door there was a spy glass – similar to the ones pirates and ship captains used at sea that extended out and folded up.

Among the things that I remember doing include hanging out under the boardwalk with Charlie Kocher, a friend from Camden whose father, like mine was a policeman, and Charles himself later became a policeman. His dad was in the Navy during the war so we wore Navy hats he had given us.

One day my dad bought a kite and I remember running along the beach trying to get it flying, and once we had it going it really went well. We cut little holes in the bottom of plastic cups and sent them up the kite string and tied the string to the boardwalk railing in front of the PAL House.

Just down the boardwalk was an amusement hall with a carousel that had rings you reached out for and grabbed and then threw at the open mouth of a large clown against a wall. I kept many of the rings, but was required to return them before leaving town.

One year there was a baby parade, and I guess I must have been five or six years old, old enough to remember them putting me in a little red wagon and surrounding me with boxes of cookies and candy and being pulled down the boardwalk by one of the young girls who was my babysitter. There’s a photo and a 8mm movie of this parade somewhere.

Things got a little chaotic when it rained because everybody hung out in the community room where I remember playing pickup sticks for the first time on the table back by the kitchen. They also had a handy supply of Lincoln Logs, Lagos, puzzles and card games that kept us kids occupied.

I can also recall getting dressed up to go to Church, just around the corner and down the street, an old wood clapboard church across the street from Raffa’s Deli.

Then there was the Storm of ’64. I don’t think it was a hurricane that had a name, but rather it was a 3 day ‘nor’easter and pretty much destroyed the Jersey Shore.

A day or two after it was over my dad let me come along when he drove down to check out the damage and it was pretty severe. I remember houses in the middle of the street.

If they moved the PAL House to another lot, they didn’t keep using it as they had built a small two bedroom rancher down town, near the ACME, where there were acres of clear ground that turtles over ran on their migratory egg laying expeditions. There were no houses from the main drag to the bay, which you could see from half mile away. Now it is all built up.

Since I was a little older I remember a little more, and specifically going into town – now twenty or more blocks away – to get fudge – Copper Kettle – and see a movie, which was located right next to the boardwalk just down from Braca’s Café. The movie theater itself might have been called the Braca. And I can date all of this now because that was the summer we saw the John Wayne African safari African safari movie Hatari.

Years later I sent one winter in Sea Isle – a winter rental in the same neighborhood as the second PAL house, and got to know it a little better.