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Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue

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1873 established. Boardwalk frequently rebuilt. Oceanfront
  • Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue (Delaware Postcard Collection, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Del)
  • Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)

The first, 1,000-foot-long boardwalk was installed a year after the initial Methodist settlement. Now a mile long and recalling those on the New Jersey Shore, it has been repeatedly reconstructed, including after a fierce storm in March 1962 that pulverized it and all the buildings directly on the oceanfront. A big sign advertises the shop selling Dolle's Salt Water Taffy, an institution here since 1927 and rebuilt after the storm. As at many East Coast resorts, the entire landscape is artificial; the beach is massively replenished every few years with sand dredged from offshore and smoothed out by tractors. Behind the boardwalk, Rehoboth Avenue retains its old-fashioned boulevard form, lined by shops and terminating in The Oval. Beautification of the avenue (2002–2006, Johnson, Mirmiran and Thompson) included a new gazebo that replaced the bandstand of the 1960s.

Writing Credits

Author: 
W. Barksdale Maynard
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Data

What's Nearby

Anna Hazzard Museum
Mon Plaisir
Henlopen Acres
The Homestead (Peter Marsh House)
The Village at Kings Creek

Citation

W. Barksdale Maynard, "Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue", [Rehoboth Beach, Delaware], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DE-01-ES29.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Delaware

Buildings of Delaware, W. Barksdale Maynard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, 277-277.

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