Ash Wednesday Storm: More memories

I received a piece of clarification on one of the photos used with yesterday's retrospective of the Ash Wednesday Storm that I found interesting.

As one reader remembers it, the "motel" shown above was perhaps a forebear of the condominium towers that arose from the beaches of Ocean City in the 1970s. As the article pointed out, the storm helped clear the way (literally) for towering development over the following decades.

Writes Neal Haynie of Reisterstown:

Just wanted to thank you for the article in today's SUN - and to identify the photo on page 8. The "motel" was actually the Ocean Side Apartments.  It was built by Alger "Tiny" Abbott and wife Ann, local well-known denizens of O.C.  The two cottages behind the right side of the destroyed complex were their first two ventures (on 36th St.) as Ocean City was rapidly expanding northward in the 1950s.  My parents, sister, and I enjoyed many summers there - and the great ocean-front view.  Obviously, the "motel" which had probably just been built before the storm, killed the view, but saved the cottages in the process!  It was repaired and continued in service until even taller resorts obliterated the quiet landscape.

Thanks, Neal.

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