The History of Sea Isle City

The small island town of Sea Isle City is located in New Jersey's Cape May County, and it's considered a part of the Ocean City Metropolis Statistical Area. The city itself is situated on the northern half of Ludlam Island, which is also home to a small township called Dennis. The island stretches alongside the eastern portion of Cape May County.

In 1692, English settler Joseph Ludlam bought the New Jersey island that now bears his name from a local Native American tribe led by a chief known as "King Nummy," who lived off of the plentiful seafood around the island. Ludlam immediately set about using the island as grazing land for his cattle and sheep. Apart from a few mainland residents who visited the island during their leisure time, Ludlam Island remained practically free of inhabitants for nearly 200 years. People generally viewed the island as an agricultural reserve.

It was not until 1880 that wealthy citizen Charles K. Landis decided to purchase Ludlam Island, inspired by the similarities he saw between the New Jersey shore and a recent trip to Venice. Landis believed that the island would afford him the perfect opportunity to create his own European-style beach community in the United States. Now known as the official founder, Landis named his new island Sea Isle City and was intent on transforming it into a vacation destination. He saw to it that a railway was built to connect the new city to mainland New Jersey, with Atlantic City just on the other side. During the last two decades of the 19th century, a number of tourist attractions--including hotels, boardwalks, a promenade and main street retail area--were built.

Though Sea Isle City experienced a time of great financial distress during the first few decades of the 20th century, particularly during the Great Depression, the seaside vacation town and island blossomed nonetheless. The city suffered through numerous coastal storms, but it repeatedly bounced back as people returned to their homes or vacation residences to pick up the pieces. As of the 2000 census, about 2,835 people reported living in Sea Isle City in 1,370 households.

From the 1890s onward, the towns along the New Jersey coast suffered through several major storms and hurricanes, and Sea Isle City was not spared. Storms during the1920s and the1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane were some of the most devastating natural disasters in the area, and they revealed the need for more environmentally stable construction on the island. Perhaps the worst of these storms, the Ash Wednesday Storm, took place in 1962. It lasted for three entire days and wreaked havoc on nearly all the beach-front property in town. Fortunately, the majority of the city's residents and vacationers were able to escape via the causeway connecting Ludlam Island to the mainland, while others were rescued by helicopter.