Oak Orchard was the place to be on Big Thursday
Oak Orchard has been in the news lately, as a developer is proposing to build 123 homes on a 57-acre lot off River Road. While Oak Orchard is a quiet enclave off Indian River Bay today, it was once the site of a popular boardwalk and public beach, which became packed every August in the 1920s and 1930s when the Big Thursday event was held. The boardwalk was built by the state about 1920; it ran from the Indian River Hotel west to Riverdale. According to a 1972 article in the Delmarva News, there were two dance halls in Oak Orchard, as well as a merry-go-round, which is shown here. A 1982 article claims one of the dance halls and an adjacent store were casualties of the Storm of ’62.
Big Thursday was created in 1852, when the state Legislature made it unlawful for any person to take or catch oysters in any creek or pond in the state between May 1 and Aug. 10. The law remained in place until 1877, but Big Thursday was created to annually celebrate the reopening of the oyster-catching season. In years when the reopening did not fall on a Thursday, it was celebrated on the second Thursday of the month. There are some historians who believe Big Thursday was held in August because it was between the planting and harvesting seasons.
