SEA ISLE CITY – Dalrymple’s Card & Gift Shoppe, right by the beach at the end of John F. Kennedy Blvd. in Sea Isle City, has remained open seven days a week, nine hours a day, for 60 years – they closed only during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and for a brief stint of road repair that rendered the store inaccessible.
The Dalrymple family runs the shop to this day, and they do so with infectious joy. Angel Dalrymple, who works year-round at the store as a bookkeeper, checkout clerk, and all-around handyperson, said that the store was her “mother and father’s dream.”
Her grandparents – Italian immigrants – moved to Cape May County in 1901. They discovered the charming peninsula as they traveled the country; they were trying to escape the grief that came with the death of their child.
The couple opened several businesses across Sea Isle City in the early 20th century. They opened a bar, a movie theater, boardwalk stores, and the “Bracas Newspaper Agency,” the employees of which would hop aboard a train line that ran in front of the shop to peddle newspapers and hot peanuts to travelers.
Angel laughed at the memory: “The conductor would yell, ‘Get those Bracas kids off my train!’”
Those businesses were ravaged by the great Nor’easter of 1962. The movie theater was literally whisked away to sea. Any business that remains open from that time had to reckon with that mighty storm. But from the ashes of destruction, Dalrymple’s Card & Gift Shoppe was born – it opened in 1963, and Angels’ mother, Angela Braca Dalrymple, insisted that the location stand on higher ground than the family’s previous endeavors.
A great number of the extended family has worked to keep the store alive in the intervening decades.
Valerie Gaughen, who was once a Dalrymple but changed her name by marriage, said “we were raised in this store.”
Her brother Chuck and his wife Barbara serve as the store’s owners. Valerie and Angel were quick to give them most of the credit, but it was clear that every family member plays a vital role here.
The store is a Hallmark Gold Crown-certified location, a title that was deeply coveted by Hallmark vendors during the 20th century.
Barbara explained: “A representative from Hallmark used to come in once a month to make sure their products were properly displayed.” Her husband Chuck said that they had to take out a $40,000 loan in the late 1980s to buy shelving displays that could properly display Hallmark products.
For decades, the status of Hallmark Gold Crown eluded the Dalrymples because they could not place Hallmark products at the very front of the store. That space was reserved for beach chairs and summer supplies, their best-selling items.
Dalrymple’s Card & Gift Shoppe was finally granted that Gold Crown status in 2018 as Hallmark loosened its standards. “We are the only Gold Crown Hallmark store in the county,” Barbara said.
Sixty years on, the Dalrymple family still calls the store home. Angel lives in an apartment building just next door, originally built by her father. As many as eight different family members help run the store on a sweltering Sea Isle summer day.
“It’s all very serious to us,” Valerie told the Herald during a huddled interview at the back of the store. “This is a true family business,” Angel chimed in, a smile on her face. And through this business, the hard-working spirit of their Italian grandparents lives on.
Visit Dalrymple’s Card & Gift Shoppe in Sea Isle seven days a week. They can be found on 20 John F Kennedy Blvd in Sea Isle City.
