The smallest shore resort on the New Jersey coast, Cape May Point has more than one million visitors each year! This beautiful book depicts Cape May Point's wonderful gingerbread cottages, Victorian chapels, and bantam bungalows that are turning into plastic palaces. Learn about the grand hotels, the two disastrous fires, President Harrison's scandal, the religious revivals and camp meetings, the Country Club, and, of course, the devastating storms that affected the Point. Take a nostalgic journey to Cape May Point's immediate neighbors: the old Life Saving Station, Sunset Beach, the New Jersey State Park, the former South Cape May, the Lighthouse, and Higbee's Beach. Illustrated with over 200 classic photos and drawings, this book will delight vacationers and residents, and inspire future generations of shore-goers.

Author John Howard-Fusco traces the roots of Cape May's delectable dishes and recipes from long ago to the modern day. Cape May is America's first seaside resort, and with that comes a mouthwatering food history. The New York Times even proclaimed the city "Restaurant Capital of New Jersey." The first settlers, the Kechemeche of the Lenape tribe, feasted on the fish and wild game in the area. The whaling industry briefly brought attention to the island, but Ellis Hughes's 1801 advertisement offering seashore entertainment with "fish, oysters, crabs, and good liquors" gave birth to a beachside haven. From the mint juleps to the Sunny Hall Café and the Chalfonte, culinary creativity thrives on the shore. Modern chefs like Lucas Manteca at the Red Store and Brooke Dodds's Empanada Mamas help keep the unique flair alive.

Few would imagine that the land currently occupied by the Nature Conservancy's Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, or "the Meadows, "? was once the picturesque Jersey Shore town of South Cape May. By the early twentieth century, a striking hotel and homes designed by renowned Victorian-era architects dotted the landscape. Residents and visitors alike spotted rumrunners racing across the beachfront during Prohibition and endured World War II with German submarines lurking just offshore. But by 1954, barely a trace of the town remained except for about twenty of the original houses, which were moved a mile away. Join one of the town's last residents, Joseph Burcher, as he chronicles life in South Cape May before the angry Atlantic swallowed this serene town.

New settlements appeared in the pine wilderness of the mainland and on the uninhabited Atlantic Ocean barrier islands. These changes caused social and political conflicts, and new development assaulted the fragile seashore environment. Fishing and shipbuilding were key industries throughout the early history of Cape May County. In addition, familiar industries such as cranberry harvesting and nearly forgotten endeavors such as goldbeating, sugar refining, and cedar shingle mining played vital roles in the county's economic development. Dorwart also traces the origins of the seashore resort industry through the history of the city of Cape May, with its unique architectural styles and heritage, as well as the founding of Wildwood, Ocean City, and the newer resort towns.