Exhibit Traces Cape May from Shabby Houses to a B&B Industry

CAPE MAY — In 1972 Richard Nixon visited China, the Godfather was in movie theaters, M*A*S*H premiered on television and America’s “A Horse With No Name,” was on the record charts.
Cape May was a town in decline with a number of old houses that looked like something from a Tim Burton movie but was about to be saved by an election and a group of people interested in preserving the town’s Victorian buildings.
Tom Carroll, former owner of the Mainstay Inn, long time member of Cape May’s Historic Preservation Commission and consultant with his wife Sue to the Bed and Breakfast Inn industry, moved to the city to be a training officer at Coast Guard Training Center in 1969.
He said in the early 1970s, Cape May looked very sad and neglected. Carroll said the town was “forgotten” and most of the buildings needed paint and repairs.
There were no beautification programs from the city. Cape May Stage and East Lynne Theatre Company had yet to arrive. Restaurant choices and activities were few, he said.
The Emlen Physick Estate would have been a suitable location to film an Addams Family movie.
“The back door was knocked down so you could wander into it, which Sue and I freely did, and we found it littered with trash, beer cans and cigarette butts,” said Carroll.
The house stood empty for more than 20 years with many items stolen from the home and later recovered. Carroll said he helped return pieces to the house that were found in motels in Wildwood, a home in Rio Grande and a second floor apartment on what was to become the Washington Street Mall.
Chandeliers from the Physick Estate found their way to Arizona.
In Cape May in the early 70s, there were two points of view. One was to follow the success of Wildwood, tear down old houses and build motels.
“When we moved to Cape May, most of the town was zoned for seven-story motels from the beachfront all the way back to Columbia Avenue,” said Carroll.
The city’s arts community and cottagers saw the old buildings as charming and wonderful and pondered how to restore the structures, he said.
In the 60’s, America was in love with the automobile and expected parking spaces near to their every destination. When the Washington Street Mall was created, old houses were sacrificed to create side streets such as Carpenters and Lyle lanes, said Carroll.
“Different pressures were pushing in every different direction,” he said, which led up to the preservation movement that put Bruce Minnix and Jerry Inderwies in office and anchored the town to be moving in a preservation direction.
After Minnix was elected in 1972, the city accepted a federal grant to purchase the Physick Estate which it then leased to Mid Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC) for $1 per year.
Fundraising events to restore the estate drew visitors to Cape May and extended the tourist season, said Carroll.
In the early 70’s, old properties in Cape May were dirt cheap. Carroll said the Carroll Villa Hotel was for sale for $40,000, a Victorian house in West Cape May was listed for $10,000, what was to become the Duke of Windsor Bed and Breakfast Inn priced near $40,000 and the Windward House for $38,000.
Few buildings had serious structural problem. The buildings suffered more from a lack of upgrades in heating, wiring, roofs, gutters and paint, said Carroll.
Tom and Sue Carroll opened the first Bed and Breakfast (B&B) in Cape May following a trip to Europe where the inns were already popular. Within a few years a half dozen B&B’s in Cape May grew to 80, he said.
Homes were also restored as guest houses and whole house rentals.
“The remains of an old rooming house industry changed rapidly into a sophisticated collection of B&Bs, boutique hotels, quality summer rentals, some mixed with restaurants or shops or other professional uses, mostly there to service the tourist economy,” said Carroll.
The creation of the Washington Street Mall and installation of the Rotary Park Bandstand encouraged more restoration from the mid 70s into the late 1990s, he said.
Major projects in that time included restoration of the Southern Mansion and Congress Hall.
Carroll said Cape May has 30-35 B&Bs remaining. He said running a B&B as a small hotel is very labor intensive. A B&B becomes the owner’s “business, passion, recreation and social life,” he said.
Is Cape May safe from future generations deciding out with the old and in with the new?
Carroll said the generation now becoming adults does not seem to have as much interest in history as his generation. He said many people still like the pedestrian character of Cape May and the beauty of the old buildings.
Carroll contributed items to MAC’s spring exhibit entitled “’Cape May’s 20th Century Renaissance: From the Pages of The First Resort.” The story of Cape May’s 20th century renaissance was chronicled in the book “The First Resort” by author Ben Miller.
Carroll said the exhibit contains a number of before and after photos to help people understand the shabbiness of old properties and the need for reinvestment from public and private sources.
The exhibit features case by case stories of people who restored properties to B&B’s. Carroll said the development of the restaurant industry in Cape May is also covered in the exhibit.
Chuck and Hillary Pritchard are depicted taking an old appliance store and creating the Whale’s Tale on the mall.
The exhibit opens April 27 at 7 p.m. in the Carriage House Gallery.