Sea Isle City Reflects Founder’s Love of Italy

SEA ISLE CITY – Sea Isle City Historical Society presented a lecture Aug. 3 by its new president, Michael J. McHale, a retired school teacher and former Sea Isle City mayor, commissioner and councilman. He vacationed here since 1950 and made the city his permanent residence in 1976.
McHale used a wealth of slides which brought to life the island’s appearance as early as 20,000 years ago during the Ice Age. A map reconstructing that time shows the ocean 60-100 miles further west of where it is today and no indication of Delaware Bay, which did not then exist.
McHale moved on to the first known settlers of Sea Isle City, the Lenni Lenape, who “lived in the area for the same reasons we do today, the abundant natural resources and cooler weather in the summer,” explained McHale.
The Lenape were known as peaceful and helpful to the “intruders” from the Old World. These Native Americans even sold to the English for a nominal exchange the land they had lived on for centuries, not realizing that the English settlers considered them trespassers when they wanted to continue to hunt and fish on their former territory.
Nummy Remained
By 1735 the Lenape for the most part left Cape May County although Chief Nummy stayed behind to care for his deceased daughter’s children whom she had borne with her English husband.
Pirate Capt. Kidd
The next important phase of Sea Isle City’s history was that of the pirate epoch. One of the most famous of these pirates was Capt. William Kidd who started his “career” on the high seas as a legally-protected privateer.
Privateers were seamen who had formal and official authorization from a government, in Kidd’s case from England, to prey on and seize booty from any enemy ship.
The expectation was that those spoils would revert to the authorizing government and the privateer would receive a commission. Impatient and seeking more, Kidd converted his operation to one of piracy and eventually was caught and then hanged in England in 1699.
“The West Jersey government which was the ruling government at the time had to step in and warn Cape May County farmers to cease trading with Kidd and other pirates even though it was a lucrative business,” said McHale. 
Whaling Industry
Mentioned as well as a significant period in Sea Isle City’s history was that of the whaling industry which in the early 1700s was the region’s most important industry.
Sea Isle’s whaling trade was led by Joseph Ludlum, originally from Long Island. Until 1777 when the last whaling lease for Sea Isle City was issued, whaling served as a lucrative business. But its success also proved its undoing as whalers over-harvested the whale population until there were none remaining off the Cape May County coast.
Quaker Townsend Banished
Living about the same time frame as Ludlum was John Townsend, a Quaker who was banished from Long Island because of his crime: harboring other Quakers.
Townsend had a grist mill on the mainland where Magnolia Lake on Route 9 currently can be seen and whose house in that area is the oldest in the county. At that time, the identifying name of Townsend’s Inlet covered a wide swath of geography, delineating the area from Seaville to Court House and from the ocean to many miles inland.
Landis’ Importance
The most influential character related to Sea Isle City’s development was Charles K. Landis who developed Hammonton in 1857 and then Vineland in 1861, all before he turned 30.
As Landis’ real estate empire grew, so did his vision to create a “health resort” operating winter and summer along the seaside. Covenants written into deeds of sale made it obligatory to contain waste and garbage which was transported off the island.
In this way, Landis’ foresight avoided the disease epidemics that plagued Philadelphia during this time.
Landis sent his agents up and down the coast to research and investigate the ideal location for his health resort. He rejected Peck’s Beach since it was being developed by the Methodist Lake brothers into Ocean City and Holly Beach already taken by another developer that would become Wildwood as well as the present day Avalon since it had too many inlets and creeks.
In 1881 he finally settled on the area now known as Sea Isle City and began selling lots and advertising to visitors having laid the infrastructure of bridge, road way and finally train.
A Venice-like Resort
Having spent 10 months in Europe in 1874 and being entranced with Italy, especially Venice, Landis used that place as the inspiration for his “health resort” vision.
He brought Italian statuary to his burgeoning development and placed statues of Neptune and other gods of Roman myth at the entrance to “Venetian Road.” He called his resort Venetian Park; creating “lagoons” along the bay so that he could sell more lots after all the beach-front locations were taken.
It was not until 1927 that the name was changed to Sea Isle Crest and finally years later Sea Isle City.
Marital Misfortune
“Landis was a man of great intelligence and vision,” said McHale, “but he did have bad luck when considering his marriage.” Landis’ wife, whom he later divorced, suffered from mental illness and a newspaper editor in Vineland, Yuri Carruth, regularly wrote articles about her condition.
Finally Landis had had enough, waited for Carruth in his office and when he returned shot him in the head. Amazingly, Carruth did not die at that time, refusing Landis’ princely settlement offer of $5,000 saying he wanted nothing from or to do with Landis ever.
However, seven months later Carruth died from his head wound and Landis was charged with his murder. After several hung juries, the final verdict was not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.
Landis’ Legacy
“Landis left a great legacy and his son, Charles K. Landis, Jr. inherited his father’s gift for visionary projects. Both can be considered the Donald Trumps of their time. Landis, Jr. was instrumental in having the space between Philadelphia’s Art Museum and City Hall turned into an “Avenue of the Arts” as the Benjamin Franklin Parkway has now become. And so the contributions of both live on.”
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.