Then and Now: Hotel Cape May, 1919

People have been visiting Cape May, “the nation’s oldest seashore resort,” for longer than America has been a country. That makes Cape May the perfect place to look back on over 100 years ago and from today — then and now.

A bit of Hotel Cape May history: The Christian Admiral, formerly Admiral Hotel and Hotel Cape May, was a luxury beachfront hotel located in Cape May, New Jersey. Opened in 1908, as the Hotel Cape May, the ornate hotel was abandoned five years later due to bankruptcy. It was then sold at a Sheriff’s sale. The hotel was leased by the War Department as a hospital from 1918-1919 during WWI. Afterwards, it was again abandoned. In 1932, the Admiral Hotel company purchased it and renamed it the Admiral Hotel. They too went bankrupt in 1940. The military returned for WWII from 1941 to 1945 and afterwards it was once more sold at Sheriff’s sale. It opened and closed multiple times before being abandoned again in the 1950s. Reverend McIntire saved it from demolition in 1963, and operated it until his organization too, went bankrupt. The Christian Admiral never made a profit for any of its owners and was the cause of six bankruptcies. Nonetheless, it was a gorgeous hotel and one of the most recognizable and beloved buildings in Cape May. The people who liquidated McIntire’s organization shopped the hotel around, but it was deemed too far gone to save. Engineer estimates were $20 million and above, just to make it structurally sound and from $60-$80 million to restore it. The hotel was razed in 1996.

Hotel Cape May (THEN): The Christian Admiral Hotel, originally known as the Hotel Cape May, was erected in the Beaux-Arts style between 1905 and 1908. When opened on April 11, 1908, it was the world’s largest hotel. Completed behind schedule and over budget, Hotel Cape May was part of a development project intended to bring wealthy visitors to the city and rival East Coast resorts such as Newport, Rhode Island. During its existence it would undergo five bankruptcies and ownership changes.

Edgar was a partner with his brother Lewis Reed, in Reed Brothers Dodge. During WWI, Edgar served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from February 1918 to August 1919 and had been posted to GENERAL HOSPITAL NO. 11 in CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY. The spirit of patriotic service which swept the country prompted many persons to offer their properties to the War Department for hospital purposes. These offers included buildings of every conceivable kind, such as department stores, private establishments, hospitals, and properties in large cities. It was found that many of these could be obtained and converted into hospitals much more expeditiously than barrack hospitals could be constructed, and at less cost.

The Surgeon General recommended that the War Department authorize the leasing of the Hotel Cape May for use as a general hospital on December 18, 1917. The Hotel Cape May was located on the Ocean Drive, at the eastern end of the city, and within 100 feet of the beach of the Atlantic Ocean. Opened first as GENERAL HOSPITAL NO. 16, the designation was changed to GENERAL HOSPITAL NO. 11, March 14, 1918. The enlisted personnel were quartered in tents which were located to the rear of the building.

Hotel Cape May as it looked in 1919. Photo by Lewis Reed.

The Christian Admiral Hotel (NOW): In 1991, the hotel was closed by Cape May City officials. The hotel was demolished in 1996 and the site was reused for a development of single family homes. The demolition of the hotel placed the city’s National Historic Landmark status at risk.

The Christian Admiral Hotel, late 1970s. Closed by Cape May City Officials, 1991 for want of tens of millions of dollars to bring up to modern codes. Destroyed: Feb, 1996.