Rehoboth’s lot selection event took place 150 years ago May 1
While Rehoboth Beach was incorporated as a municipality March 19, 1891, another important day in its history is May 1, 1873, when a lot selection event was held for the yet-to-be-formed city’s original lots. This Monday marks the 150th anniversary of that event.
A Wilmington-based Methodist Episcopal minister named Robert W. Todd purchased the triangular-shaped farm of Lorenzo Dow Martin in early 1873, said Rehoboth Beach historian Paul Lovett. That farm was surveyed, divided into several hundred lots, then a few months later, May 1, the lot selection event took place, he said.
“It’s a significant event in the founding of Rehoboth,” said Lovett, adding that Dow Martin’s farmhouse and the house that Todd built still exist in Rehoboth – Dow Martin’s house is on the corner of Christian Street and Scarborough Avenue; the Todd house is on Brooklyn Avenue.
Todd officiated over a lot selection event from the back of a horse-drawn wagon on Dow Martin’s front lawn, said Lovett, who for years has been painstakingly building a diorama of what Rehoboth Avenue looked like in 1910. The first lot sold was 23 Surf Ave., where the Atlantic Sands Hotel stands now, he said.
Several hundred people attended the lot selection event, having taken early morning trains to Lewes from Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Wilmington, and smaller Delaware towns, said Lovett. From Lewes, attendees loaded onto carriages for the six-mile trip to Rehoboth, he said.
That day’s events, and the activities leading up to it, were covered in detail in the Wilmington newspapers. Lovett has done the research and provided examples.
In one article from the May 3, 1873 edition of the Delaware State Journal, the day was described as sunny, but pleasantly warm, “so that the fresh sea breeze was welcome and the party in excellent spirits, and the six miles ride was a merry one.”
This article described the area as being 386 acres, having 1.3 miles of ocean frontage, having a natural bluff that sits 10 to 15 feet above the high-water mark, and as having a small natural lake of freshwater in the middle.
Another article, from the Jan. 23, 1873 edition of the Wilmington Daily Commercial, is essentially a press release from the Rehoboth Beach Camp Meeting Association announcing the future sale. The notice talks of the area’s freshwater lake, good water, an oak grove and other strong selling points. Even then, they were selling the beach.
“This beach affords one of the finest of drives and is said to be far superior, for this purpose at least, to Cape May,” said the article.
The Rehoboth Beach Museum hosted a brief event in January at Grove Park commemorating the 150th anniversary. Looking forward, the museum’s summer exhibit opens Friday, May 26, with “150 years of Rehoboth Beach history in 50 panels.”
Until Memorial Day, the museum is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Fridays; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. For more information on the exhibit or to contact the museum, 511 Rehoboth Ave., call 302-227-7310, go to rehobothmuseum.org or email info@rehobothbeachmuseum.org.
Lovett’s diorama is available to view by appointment at the Rehoboth Beach Main Street building next to the museum. For more information, go to goldenageofrehoboth.com, email paul@pdlovett.com or call 302-893-9391.
