Augustine Beach: One of Delaware's Earliest Resorts
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| Augustine Beach looking south |
In the 1800s, travel was difficult and expensive. For ordinary people in Philadelphia and Wilmington looking for a summertime getaway, their best option was to take a boat down the Delaware River to a riverside or bayside beach resort (see, for example, my blog posts on Collins Beach and Woodland Beach). Many of these resorts had boardwalks, dance halls, and other amusements. Some had hotels.
Augustine Beach, just south of Port Penn, was one of these beach resorts. The Augustine Beach Hotel was built around 1814, which makes it one of the oldest resorts on the river. A hundred bath houses were added in 1867, and the resort was most popular between 1870 and 1920. Vacationers reached it by taking a steamer from Philadelphia or Wilmington.
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| Augustine Beach Hotel, now Augustine Inn Seafood & Chop House |
The beach, across the street from the hotel, is very clean and pleasant.
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| Augustine Beach looking north |
The view is sadly marred by the Salem nuclear power plant directly across the river.
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| View from Augustine Beach across the Delaware River to New Jersey |
By the 1920s, automobiles made it possible for people to go elsewhere for holidays and vacations. Most of the Delaware River beach resorts closed, and today most of the hotels, boardwalks, and other structures are gone. It’s remarkable that the Augustine Beach Hotel, one of the oldest hotels, has survived. Today it’s a restaurant: the Augustine Inn Seafood & Chop House.
Augustine Beach was named after Augustine Herman (sometimes spelled Hermann), a well-educated immigrant from Bohemia.
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| Augustine Herman (Source: FindAGrave.com) |
In the mid-1600s, Herman offered to help resolve a dispute between English and Dutch claims to Maryland by drawing a map of the area—and he drew a remarkably accurate map of the Chesapeake Bay.
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| Map of the Chesapeake Bay and vicinity by Augustine Herman |
In return for this map, Herman was granted land in Cecil County, Maryland, where his descendants lived for hundreds of years. One of his sons, Casparus Herman, owned the land around what is now Augustine Beach and named it Augustine. He built a manor house on the site where the Augustine Beach Hotel was later constructed. After Casparus’s older brother died, Casparus inherited Bohemia Manor, his father’s estate in Cecil County, and moved there to spend the rest of his life, dying at the age of 41. In his somewhat short lifetime, Casparus had three wives; their stories are here.
Delaware Today has a good article on Augustine Beach and four other vanished Delaware resorts.
UPDATE 10/25/2020
Robert Biddle shared with me via Facebook several old photos and postcards of Augustine Beach. Thank you, Robert! The photo below is undated but, based on the mutton-sleeved dresses, appears to be from the late 1800s.
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| Augustine Beach, with steamer in the background |
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| A steamer, perhaps the Thomas Clyde, at the Augustine Beach pier |
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| Augustine Beach dancing pavilion, date unknown |
The photo below is undated but, based on the fashions both foreground and background, it appears to be from the second quarter of the 20th century.
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| Augustine Beach |
The photo below, from 1962, and the newspaper headline below it show how dramatic beach erosion has been. There's no way thousands of people could fit on Augustine Beach today.
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| Augustine Beach, July 9, 1962 |
Based on the headline's font, I'd guess this headline is from the 1960s or early 1970s.
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| Undated headline |
Hi where was that pavilion at...near the water or by the hotel?
ReplyDeleteI don't know! I haven't seen a good map or overall view of Augustine Beach. If anyone else knows, please let us know!
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