1012 Ocean Ave

I am a summer cottage built for Clarence Sill of Lansdale, PA in 1908. I am a two story structure that was balloon framed using rough sawn local cedar for all framing, sheathing and plaster lath. The siding is a combination of cedar lap siding below the first floor window sills and cedar shakes on the remainder of the house including the original roof. Lighting was originally provided by gas lamps in every room.



I have four bedrooms upstairs and one off the kitchen downstairs. The downstairs bedroom had a private outside entrance and was used for many years by the housekeeper who would accompany the family to Ocean City for the summer. The family would spend the entire summer in the comfort of Ocean City and would be joined by Clarence on weekends. Clarence would make the trip from the Philadelphia area by train. I have porches front and rear. The front and rear upstairs porches are accessible from the two south bed rooms.



I was the first house in this area of Ocean City and was happy to finally have a new neighbor when the Flanders Hotel was built in 1923.



In 1945 my ownership was transferred from Clarence to his relatives Ruth Engle and Hannah Bond.



In 1951 Hannah Bond transferred her half to Ruth.



In 1961 upon the death of Ruth, ownership passed to her daughter Emma P. Engle.



In 1998 I was sold to Samuel H. Boston III and his wife Faith and William L. Boston and his wife Barbara Davis.



Now this was not the first time that I had met the Boston family as they had been visiting me for two weeks every summer since the mid 1960’s. The goal of the Boston family was to preserve me so that future generations could experience the type of lifestyle of a bygone era. The first year I got an updated kitchen, ceiling fans and updated electric and a fresh coat of paint inside. In subsequent years my plumbing was updated, I got a new bathroom off the downstairs bedroom, a new shower / change room on the back porch and all new cedar shakes and siding. I think that I look as good as I did 100 years ago.