Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk in the 1930s
The sesquicentennial of Rehoboth Beach’s origins was May 1, the day in 1873 that a lot selection event was held for the yet-to-be-formed city’s original lots.
Prior to being surveyed and subdivided, Rehoboth’s land was the farm of Lorenzo Dow Martin. Rehoboth was incorporated in 1891, so the sesquicentennial for that notable event will be 2041.
The evolution of Rehoboth from a popular fishing village for Native Americans to a farm to a Methodist camp meeting association to the Nation’s Summer Capital has been well documented in historic writings, newspapers, photographs and postcards such as this one.
This image shows what the Boardwalk would’ve looked like in the 1930s. The raised Boardwalk looks like something one would see at a New Jersey beach. Nowadays, the beach features an engineered dune to protect the valuable real estate just a short distance west.
Replenishment projects, like what’s occurring now in the city, restore the dune and widen the beach every few years to fend off the Atlantic Ocean. While Rehoboth in this image may look like a completely different place, one thing has never changed: It’s always been a popular place to visit and live.
