“Former Post Mistress Recalls The Early Days”
The Daily Times, Salisbury, MD, May 15th, 1975
OCEAN CITY - Intimate glimpses into life in this resort city over half a century ago can be provided by Mrs. E. Showell Strohecker, 79.
Active in the business life of the community since 1919 when she became the town’s first post mistress, Mrs. Strohecker recalls interesting sidelights of the past. These include riding out hurricanes, watching part of the town go up in smoke as fire destroyed one hotel after another, and personal asides on different facits of life in Ocean City.
Now living on 5th St. at the Berkley Apts., which is a rooming house for “Young Ladies Only.” Mrs. Strohecker also has an active part in managing other Showell family properties in town. These include the theater and bath house, boardwalk-front real estate at North Division St. and summer rental units.
As the dean of Ocean City’s matrons, she recalls just enjoying life until she was 19 years old. At that time (1919) she took the job of post mistress. By virtue of her position, the young lady then became a one-person Chamber of Commerce information center, convention bureau office and central news - gathering agency.
Located in the Mt. Vernon Inn on Talbot St., the post office was the first stop for traveling salesmen. Here they picked up information on what the “hot items” was as well as pin-pointed the whereabouts of the men they had to call on.
RUNNING THE post office entailed more than just selling stamps and talking to people. Trains had to be met, one at 4 a. m. every day.
Mrs. Strohecker recalls having one of the first crank-cancelling machines on the shore. Visiting post office VIPs who vacationed in Ocean City saw that she got the latest equipment.
A delivery service was instituted during her reign as post mistress - and it was unpopular. Resort residents were used to coming to the post office daily to pick up their mail and catch up on all the latest news. With mail being delivered to them, they lost this chance to visit the town’s social center and they didn’t like it.
First mail carrier in town was Will Rounds. His wife [Susie Amanda Rounds] ran the Majestic Hotel for awhile and in 1920-21 operated the Avondale boarding house which was right next to the post office. The post mistress would get the mail ready for delivery and call out the window to get the carrier. He then came over, put the bag on his back and proceeded up the Boardwalk delivering the mail.
During the 1919 flu epidemic, Mrs. Strohecker never became ill. She decided to keep her contact with people coming into the post office at a minimum so she purchased a bottle of ill-smelling fluid. When people approached the post office door, she said she would shake the stuff up and the bad smell would permeate the air around the service window. As a result, folks never tarried long and she never got the flu, the former post mistress remembers.
Memories of resort life of decades ago include that of closing the post office to see the first airplane that visited Ocean City land on the beach.
A casino on the south side of the pier burned down in the 1920’s along with the Atlantic. There was a movie house in the casino.
When the Plimhimmon burned and wind was carrying the flames her way, Mrs. Strohecker recalls being packed up and ready to leave. She and others patrolled the streets, extinguishing falling burning embers that could ignite their structures.
This fire and one hurricane are the only times Mrs. Strohecker has been ready to evacuate the island to which she came in 1897 when one year old. After riding out one hurricane in a school auditorium on the mainland, she reached the conclusion that storms were just as bad there as in Ocean City.
In the old days people were taken off the island in railroad hand cars. Water was so high that fires under the boilers in the steam engines would have been extinguished.
The best thing in Ocean City is the volunteer fire department, Mrs. Strohecker maintains. Prior to 1930, it would take close figuring to determine whether fires or hurricanes were most destructive of resort property.
“Rolling chairs” on the boardwalk were as popular in times gone by as the train is now, the longtime resident remembers. Dr. Francis Townsend rented out the units, mostly doubles, along with a boy who did the pushing. Nothing more than wicker chairs on wheels. They were popular with vacationers who had themselves ferried up and down the boardwalk.
“THERE were no foreclosures during the poor years 1929-32 in Ocean City. Business was good and we didn’t feel bad times until after the depression was over, “the resort businesswoman continued.
“Originally, most of the money that was invested here came from Berlin and Salisbury. It was many years before outside funds started coming in. Then Florida-Style wildcatting developed with the resulting rash of foreclosures that you are seeing today,” Mrs. Strohecker observed.
The first swimming pool in Ocean City was built by the Showells on their boardwalk property at North Division Street. Water for it was pumped in from the ocean. A storm broke it up and it was never rebuilt. The pool occupied the space now taken by Candy Kitchen and the Whirapaint Concessions.”