Mary Ann Getsinger-Holman Opens Her Door to Guests and Wildwood’s Future

WILDWOOD – A snapshot in time, gilded in black-and-white, tells the story of seven young women and of one in particular. Born when the Charleston was still new and Ford Motor Company was the driving force of America, Mary Ann Getsinger Holman was welcomed by her parents in 1928 and into the world of innkeepers.
The stately home at 400 E. Maple Ave. has weathered storms, good times and bad, and borne silent witness to a community in constant change. Tides, both coastal and cultural, have shaped Wildwood into the city of today.
Residents have come and gone, sweethearts danced under full, summer moons, and generations of guests have come to enjoy the undisputed magic that is the Wildwoods.
Holman continues to rent rooms and apartments to those shell-seekers and sun-chasers, and her door is open to the future and to the past.
Perhaps it’s the salt air, yet Holman, 87, still smiles as brightly as she must have in 1944 when she was crowned queen of the Wildwood Baby Parade. Holman showed a variety of photographs of the long float on which she and her court rode during the parade.
“It was a lovely time,” Holman said with a smile. At 16, Holman exemplified the tradition of the Wildwood Baby Parade, hosted by the Wildwood Civic Club.
Holman’s mother was a member of the Civic Club at the time, thus opening the door for her to be chosen as queen. “There was no competition,” Holman explained.
Holman also posed for a picture taken near a large Wildwood sign on Rio Grande Avenue. “We are hitch-hiking to Wildwood!” Holman explained the pose she and other girls made. Helen Kay, a civic volunteer from North Wildwood, had asked if she and the other girls would like to be in the picture. The snapshot served as advertising for Wildwood for many years.
She went on to describe how the “city fathers” questioned her father for building so close to the beach in 1922. “My father was only 27 at the time,” Holman reminisced.
However, her father did build the rooming house as he intended. With changes in the beach, city leaders worried that the ocean would return – in fact, the Civic Club headquarters was once truly oceanfront property only 10 years earlier in 1912. “And here we are!” Holman laughed.
Holman graduated from Wildwood High School in 1945, the year the Second World War ended. America entered a new era of prosperity and a time when many truly seemed carefree. Holman attended college in Swedesboro, and through mutual friends met her husband Mike Holman.
Yet, according to Holman, getting used to inland summers took some time. “From noon to 4 I would lie on my bed and feel absolutely awful,” Holman said. However, a doctor allayed her fears and said she was simply not used to the heat. 
Both Mike and Mary Ann taught in public schools in Swedesboro and later in the Mt. Royal and Clarksburg area. Holman taught music, instrumental and vocal for 35 years to elementary and high school students while Mike taught math and chemistry in high school. Mike also served as a principal, dean of community services at a community college, and president of Kingsway during his career. “I loved it!” Holman said.
When asked about changes in the educational system, Holman answered, “you have to change with the times.” Holman quoted a teacher she had in college: “You have to get them in the palm of your hand.” Holman said that music, and any other subject, should “be fun.”
Tides of personal change turned for Holman when her father passed in 1960.
“I came down to help my mother. Mrs. Getsinger was an excellent hostess yet “wasn’t used to being a business woman.” “I’ve been an innkeeper ever since,” Holman said with a twinkle in her eye.
From teaching music, to taking students to see the orchestra at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and to carrying on her parents’ legacy, Holman keeps her door open not only to guests but also the future.
In her gracious home with curtains that dance gently in the breeze, past, present, and the future live together. With three daughters who help during the summers and talented grandchildren, Holman’s world is complete.
“This was a wonderful place to grow up,” Holman summarized her childhood and youth. Although her teaching dreams and married life led her far, tides of life drew her back again.
To contact Rachel Rogish, email rrogish@cmcherald.com.