Memorial Day is approaching, a reminder that it’s time to travel “down the shore.”
Heading to the beaches in summer is a treasured tradition stretching back centuries before the arrival of the first Europeans, but it wasn’t until after the American Revolution that tourism at the shore began to develop into a thriving business.
On Sunday at 3 p.m., the Harrison Township Historical Society will welcome Historic Cold Spring Village’s John Ryan, who will explore the factors contributing to the growth of this industry at Cape May, America’s first seashore resort.
The beauty and bounty of the Jersey Cape was noted by the early explorers, but it was its accessibility that spurred Cape May’s development as a popular tourist destination. Sloops and steamboats, stagecoaches and trains made the city by the sea a summertime mecca in the 19th century, further enhanced by the automobile in the 20th and to the present day.
Ryan is the COO of Historic Cold Spring Village with a special knowledge of history and the sea. A retired chief petty officer in the Coast Guard, he holds degrees in history from the University of Maryland and Southern New Hampshire University. He has
worked at the village since 2017.
Historic Cold Spring Village is located on the mainland minutes from Cape May City. It is New Jersey’s largest open-air museum, consisting of 27 buildings dating from the 17th to 19th centuries from Cape May County. Through interpreters and hands-on experiences visitors learn about the residents whose work both contrasted with and supplied the nearby resorts.
Ryan’s lecture, “Transportation and Tourism: Creating Cape May, America’s First Seashore Resort,” explores the beginning of America’s love affair with the Jersey Shore. The program takes place at Richwood Academy Cultural Center, 836 Lambs Road in Richwood. It will also be livestreamed and archived on the historical society’s Facebook page.
Visitors should allow time before the lecture to see the historical society’s new exhibition, “Hometown Revolutionaries: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” at Old Town Hall Museum in Mullica Hill. The newly opened installation explores the lives of generations in Gloucester County who’ve done revolutionary and pioneering things from 1776 to the present.
The museum is located at 62 South Main St. and is open Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. through June 13. Admission is free to both the museum and the lecture and is supported in part by the county Cultural and Heritage Commission at Rowan College of South Jersey, in partnership with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts-Department of State, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey Historical Commission-Department of State.
Information is available at harrisonhistorical.com, by email at hthsmhnj@gmail.com and by phone at (856) 478-4949.
