Rehoboth Beach, DE
Rehoboth Beach has been long known as the Nation’s Summer Capital but now is a year-round destination and is only a few hours away from both Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and their surrounding areas, and is Delaware’s largest beach resort. It is known for its boardwalk, beach, amusements, concerts on its bandstand, and spectacular restaurants.
The town was founded in 1873 as the Rehoboth Beach Camp Meeting Association by the Rev. Robert W. Todd, of St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church of Wilmington, Delaware, as a site for Methodist (Methodist Episcopal Church) camp meetings in the spirit of similar resorts further north on the New Jersey shore, such as Ocean Grove. The Camp Meeting Association disbanded in 1881, and in 1891, the location was incorporated by the General Assembly of Delaware (state legislature) as “Cape Henlopen City”. In 1893, it was renamed to Rehoboth Beach.[12]
The first boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach was constructed in 1873 and has seen changes in configuration from weather and storms over the years.[14] The Junction and Breakwater Railroad constructed a line from Lewes south to Rehoboth Beach in 1878, running down the center of today’s Rehoboth Avenue. The arrival of the railroad allowed visitors to come in from northern Delaware and Pennsylvania and its cities and towns, leading to the beginning of Rehoboth Beach as a tourist destination.[15] After the railroad came to Rehoboth Beach, the center of camp meetings and city life moved to nearby Baltimore Avenue. The original Henlopen Hotel opened in 1879, being replaced with another hotel of the same name on the current site. A paved highway was built by the state between Georgetown and Rehoboth Beach in 1925, which helped bring in travelers from the west in the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C., Baltimore and other parts of Maryland and northern Virginia.[14]
From 1942 to 1943, Rehoboth Beach Airport served as a base, designated as Coastal Patrol Base 2, for volunteers with the Civil Air Patrol, who flew aerial patrols using civilian aircraft in support of Army and Navy anti-submarine operations during the Battle of the Atlantic. Two CAP airmen, Captain Hugh R. Sharp of Greenville, Delaware and First Lieutenant Edmond Edwards of Newark Delaware, would go on to be the first civilians to receive the Air Medal after a search and rescue mission on 21 July, 1942 where they rescued one crewmember of another CAP aircraft which crashed at sea.[16] Rehoboth Beach Airport shut down in 1987 and Rehoboth Shores Estates Community now stands on the former grounds.[17] The Delaware Public Archives placed a historical marker on the site of the former airport commemorating Coastal Patrol Base 2 in 2006.[18]
