Bowers Beach: A Party Town Turned Quiet and Charming

Along the Murderkill River in Bowers Beach

In the 1800s, Bowers Beach was one of many popular resorts along the Delaware Bay. While some of the other bayfront resorts began to decline in the late 1800s or early 1900s, Bowers Beach continued to thrive into the first half of the 20th century. Why? It was considered the fishing capital of the Delaware Bay. By the 1940s, over 100 “party boats” offered holiday-seekers a combination of drinking and fishing. An article in Delmarva Now explains that Bowers Beach was “a full-blown party town with bars, hotels, a dance hall, and a casino.”

By the 1960s, however, overfishing ended the party boats and party-town atmosphere, leaving a town that’s friendly and charming. I’ve read that Bowers Beach Maritime Museum is one of the nicest museums on the Delaware Bayshore Byway, but when we visited it was closed. It’s in an adorable 1800s house on Main Street.

Bowers Beach Maritime Museum

It’s normally open Saturdays and Sundays, 2-4 PM, from Memorial Day through Labor Day. When it’s not open, visit its Facebook page. Judy will be happy to answer your questions there. Leigh takes the stunning photos of the town that are posted there, including gorgeous photos of sunrises over the Delaware Bay.

Also on Main Street is Saxton United Methodist Church, a pretty Gothic church built in 1879.

Saxton Methodist Church

Near the church is a striking Queen Anne house, built around 1850.

3335 Main Street in Bowers Beach

Our favorite part of town is the wharves along the Murderkill River (see my post on Magnolia to learn how it got its gruesome-sounding name). While we were there, a crabbing boat passed.

View from Bowers Beach of a crab boat on the Murderkill River and South Bowers

In the above photo, you can see houses on the other side of the Murderkill River. Those are in South Bowers. Unless you’re lucky enough to know someone with a boat who will take you across the river to them, it’s a 14-mile drive to get from Bowers Beach to South Bowers.

J.P.’s on the Wharf, one of Delaware’s legendary seafood restaurants, is on the Murderkill riverfront. Bayside Tavern, the other restaurant in town and full of local character, is a couple of doors inland from J.P's on Hubbard Avenue.

J.P.'s on theWharf in Bowers Beach

There’s still one charter fishing boat here, the Captain’s Lady

The Captain's Lady docked on the Murderkill River, as seen from South Bowers

Like all shoreline towns along the Delaware Bay, Bowers Beach is fighting sea level rise. When we visited, the beach was narrow, and along the tideline there’s the silt we’ve seen at other Delaware Bay beaches that reminds me of peat moss.

The beach of Bowers Beach

But Bowers Beach is fighting not only sea level rise and erosion from storms but also something called land subsidence: a gradual sinking of the land. Flooding is an even bigger problem here than in other Bayshore towns. The Town of Bowers is fighting flooding in part by building dunes and sea grasses, as you can see in the photo below.

Storm fencing and sea grasses on the beach of Bowers Beach

The town is also taking more aggressive steps, including moving its downtown to a less flood-prone street, buying two flood-prone houses and converting the land to a park, and replacing its paved parking lot with permeable material.

Bowers Beach is one of our favorite stops along the Delaware Bayshore Byway. We can’t wait to come back and walk along the beach, visit the Maritime Museum, and eat at J.P.’s.

Some tips about visiting: Bowers Beach has a large parking lot in the middle of town. There are portapotties from May to October. If you visit in May or June, it’s a great place to see horseshoe crabs spawning. If you’re an early riser, sunrises over the Delaware Bay can be stunning. Dogs are not allowed on the beach from May through September.

A number of towns along the Delaware Bayshore Byway have annual events that are a lot of fun. Obviously they were canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic. I've been holding off on mentioning them until they're up and running again. But I'll give an early shout-out here to the Buccaneer Bash, a pirate festival at the museum on Memorial Day weekend, which draws thousands of visitors.

If you’d like to read more about Bowers Beach, I found some fun short articles here and here.

 

 

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