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PACT 8

CAPB MAY <X)U!nT TIMES, SEA ISLE CITY, W. J.

Cape May County Rapidly Becoming Nation’s Playground

Development of Its Five Atlantic Coast Resorts In Short Span of Years Now Represents Real Estate Investment of Fifty Million Dollars ; Blessed by Salubrious Climate, Splendid Beaches and Fertile Farms, Its Real Possibilities are Still Untouched

The assessor'! report for the rear of 18S2 showed that Cape May Coantr contained but 20.JM acres of cleared and Improred land. The enUre assessed valuation of the County In that year was *3000. The population was a trifle over 4000 soulr. and the total assets of the County were represented In 16 saw mills, 2* stores, 8 *rist mills, 678 horses. 2073 catUe, owned by 669 householders. Today Cape May County’s real estate is conservatively rauled at over *20,000,000, without the Improvements thereon, which would In all probability add *40,000,000 to the total. A comparison of the Increase In the county’s real estate values In the past seven years shows an Increase of over fifteen r liion dollai.! Within the memory of the County’s older Inhabitants, all the beaches that are today splendid and solid seashore resorts of national and inter-national fame, were Krasins lands for the cattle kept by mainland farmers. The single exception was Cape May City, which as early as 1715 was the only watering place along the New Jersey coast. The total taxes paid in the County last year was well over a million dollars, the net local taxes alone being *749.632.24, to which must be added *39.155.38 State Road Tax; *105,420.44 State School Tax, and *298,294.35 County Tax. Compare these vast amounts with the total tax of *3000 paid less than a century ago! These phenomenal increases In the value of Cape May County real estate points out belter than words Jfthe wisdom of the Investor In securing all the land his means will allow, in any one of the County's resorts or in the rich, fertile fanning section of the county. The str onger, who is not acquainted with Cape May County, naturally asks, "Where does the money go from all this Increase in taxable valuation?'' The answer lies in the County's one hundred and thirty miles of finely tulli roads, as compared with thir-ty-six miles which bad beer, built prior to 0909. The autoisl and the farmer has the finest chain of roadways in any County in the State, sire considered, and every resort city in toe County has its own splendid wide hard streets in addition to the roads maintained by the Kach of the resorts is connected with the State Boulevard by a turnpike leading from the Main Seashore Hold, across the meadow, into the resorts. The cost of building these turnpikes alone has amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the cost of maintenance each year is also borne by the County. New roads and bridges are being added to the County's splendid chain of hit ways each year; large sums are being expended for mosquito extermination work, farm demonstration, advertising and the other thous-and-and-one things that go to make up the cost of maintaining a progressive up-to-the-minute resort county. The sums apportioned to up-to-the-minute constructive property-value-lncroasing work this year Include the following items, taken from the County Budget lor 1919: Bridges, *30,000; Road Maintenance, *100,000; Almshouse. *7,800.00; Public Buildings and Grounds, *5,000.00; New Roads, *20,000.00; Widows' Pensions, *2.000.00; Hospitals, *6,000.00; Vocational School, *2,750.00; County Law Library, *100.00; Mosquito Extermination, *8,000.00; Farm Demonstration. *2,000.00. Some Early History. Cape May County derives Its name from that robust Dutch explorer, Cornelius Jacobus May, who visited the bs. and cape in 1623, for the purposes of colonisation. The boast of the Keystone Stale that all her broad acres were purchased from the aborigines without the spilling ol blood, even though the price was hardly more than the cost of the proverbial "mesa of pottage,'' In glass brsdr, hatchets and nails, finds its parallel in the purchase of East and West Jersey, although at probably not quite so cheap a price. And wherein lies the history of ibe first bona fi«*.e New Jecsey reel estate transaction. In lb3o a section of laud stretching sixteen miles slung th> bay and running sixteen miles Inland was purchased from tlx- Indians Inhabiting Cape May County, and variously id**iiliflxd as the l^-nut-le-uapea or Delawares, a branch of tin- Algonquin races from the North, for a price corrals'.Ing of the l|M|| «t assortment of colored beads, and trinkets of brass and iron, by the Dutch Governor Van TwUler. for two directors of the East India Company, Messrs Goodyu and BWmaert. This traasao-

Waahington Avenue in Cape May City, America's Oldest Seashore Resort. Cape May Boasts of Many Fine Old Trees, and is Noted for Its Hydragea Culture.

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FIGURES THAT TELL THE STORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY. Estimated Number of Annual Visitors, over 2,000,000. Assessed Value of Real Estate, as shown by County Tax Board for year 1918, $39,048,045.00. Nine Banks, With Banking Houses and Fixtures Valued at $300,000. Total Deposits in Cape May County for year 1918, $8,566,011.17. Total Assets of Cape May Coonty’s Banks over $30,000,000. There are 112,465 Acres of Farm land in Cape May County. 56,649 Building Lots, 95% of which are improved with buildings, sewer, water, paved streets and sidewalks, in the County’s nine resort cities. Value of Land without improvements in 1918 wa $21,157,753.00. There are One Hundred and Thirty Miles of Improved Roads in the County , exclusive of the streets within the various municipalities. Twenty-six miles of Atlantic Coast Beach front, all of which is safe and solid for bathing. Four Inlets to the Ocean, all navigable and affording finest boating and fishing.

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• ton brought about very little change in the county'a condition or in Itt development. The early records are hacy in the extreme, yet we And that English settlers came here between 1604 and 1700 from New England and Long Island. The names ol these have a large representation today In the political. aoclal and business life of the county. Such names as Corson. Hand. Ludlam, -Learning. Tathem, Stllle, Townsend. Champion. Conover. State and Way are only a few of the representative names of the county, which from the earliest times have been identified with the vital concerns of this section. Thes ? pioneers engaged in whale fishing, timber cutting. sonic little tanning and punmit of game, all sorts of which could be obtained for the mere killing. The beaches and Inlets teemed with fish, shellfish and wild foal; the heaps of shells dotting the edges of the meadow attesting to the aboriginie’s appreciation of the oyster and clam. A baud of the more hardy pioneers chopped their way through the bewildering morasses of the chain of beautiful Islands skirting the ocean front and pursued the sportive whale which romped and thrashed about the waters of the bay and ocean. In Revolutionary Days daring bands of patriots dashed out of Cold Spring, Turtle Gut, Hereford, Townsend and Coraon's Inleu in great whaleboau manned by from 50 to 100 armed men and preyed on English commerce, as It came and went through the capes on Us way from New Amsterdam to Philadelphia and other settlements on the coast. Many a handsome and saucy English brig struck colors to the dreadod whaleboat atucks from the hardy heroes of Cape May County. Cape May County Founded In 1710. Cape May County was set off from old Gloucester by an act ol Assembly, passed January 10,1710, and is consequently 200 years old. It had and has as an area of but 252 square milea, and Is a typical peninsula in formation. In the early days the hardy settlers were forced to uckle tie primeval forest and dig out a spot which looked as if it had the makings of a homestead. In those days old Cape May City laid claim to the signal honor of being the only watering place on the New Jersey Coast. Briefly quoting an old reference It says: "Cape May Island Beach of the Atlantic Ocean, in Lower Township, 104 miles from Philadelphia by Post (sUge) route. Is a noted and much frequented watering place, the season at which coinueucea about the first of July and continues until the middle of August, or the 1st of Septem ber There are here six boarding bouses, threw of which an- very large; the sea bathing is convenient and excellent, the beach affords pleasant drives and there Is excellent fishing In the adjacent waters There la a post office here.’* Modarn Transportation. It might have been regarded as a slow but extremely picturesque method for the Philadelphia society matron to have bundled her baggage Into the walling stage at Kaigbu's or Cooper's Ferries (Camden), and to the merry crack ol the whip start out on an overland Journey through the trackless pine woods, through Haddonfield. foing-a-Comlng. Blue Anchor to Tuckaboe, or by way of Gloucester. Blackwood Town and Cross Keys to Tuckahoe. a Journey, which, barring accident, occupied the best part of a week and which eventually landed one on Sewell’s Point, which is now represented by the newer portion of Cape May. Another stage route came down through Salem and Cumberland Counties, skirting the l*elaware River, converging at Dennis Creek, near Goshen, where various road- formed a five-pointed star, radiating in as many direct ions. There was a toad paralleling the coast from old t'apa May to Sandy Hook, which is represented lb the present -bore toad ol today, and whltb forms tbe bsckbuns of the present Main sraahtrie . oi.il Tlx vtimiuei seashore visitor also made the trip to t'ape May County in a leisurely sniling trip down the IMnwaie River, if he so liked, but ll either case the inudern tisvalei whirled to the sborr In from ninety minutes to Ocean city. Sea Isle City and Stone Harbor, to loo minute* to Wildwood and other poluta. can only regard the travels of those old time aesshore pioneer# In that Jocular spirit of twentieth century tolaraUun for ancient methods and history. . r i