Ocean City Travelogue, part four

The Hive is back up, for now. Thanks very much to everyone who's checked in; I think we've got this problem licked at last. Here's the rest of the travelogue:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Interlude

Below is the Bayberry Inn, Wesley Avenue.

The building is in the Ocean City Historic District, and as such the owners submit any exterior renovation plans to a committee. The idea is to preserve the character of the neighborhood as nearly as possible; besides the cars there's little to distinguish much of the center of the town from pictures of fifty or ninety years ago.

Many of the newer buildings (condos and such) are towards the south end. Realtors sell them as multi-family homes, one floor at a time. Closer to the center of town, and toward the boardwalk, a few of the homes have been converted so the ground levels have separate entry and can be rented as a suite, without disturbing the overall character of the dwelling - it seems from what I saw that the committee is reasonably flexible. The oddest example is below.


The former owner planted the bamboo in the front yard, but the house is boarded up now. I was told that the old gentleman had passed and his family haven't decided on either moving in or selling.


Inside the Bayberry, the owners have kept much more closely to the spirit of Victorian decor. Much of the furniture is like this, bought at consignment shops and yard sales, restored, and put back into service. The bureaus have locks on each drawer. The one nod to the new was a fascinating clock: on the hour, the face actually split into three parts, revealing an system of moving silhouettes set to music.


In this case, the music was the Bach figures that formed the basis of Whiter Shade of Pale.


All this, and breakfast too. They really go out of their way; no mere bagel/Sanka party, this, but homemade omelettes with fresh fruit and yogurt cups. You'd think this guy here would be happier.


After breakfast on Sunday, there are options for any brand name of church. This particularly fetching brick and slate building is the fittingly-named St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church. During the summer they add masses to accommodate all the visitors to Ocean City, and a lot of the same faces behind the counters at the shops and stores are in the pews for the earlier services.

They have separation of church and town hall - by about six blocks.


For a resort town, this seems like an awfully large building. They also have an annex across the side street and a separate police substation along the boardwalk.


This is Music Pier, taken at low tide from the ocean side of the buiding, a shot that would require a boat at high tide. It hosts a lot of the nighttime and weekend festivals - arts and crafts fairs, free concerts, and the occasional fish fry.

Downtown, the buildings show a lot of variety. I'm not quite sure what's going on up top here.


Secret missle silo? Terrific Man's resort headquarters, from which he issues at night to fight crime?

Across from each other on one corner are two local banks. I love Fortress Financial, here. It stares across at the larger edifice of Crown Bank, on guard against merger pirates.


I wouldn't put anything past this building. Look at those electronic doodads ringing the roof... and what's with the extra two columns on the right? It looks like the building is halfway through budding a branch office. This is the First Bank of Borg (member FDIC).


And that's all I've got on Ocean City, New Jersey. There are a million photos on the Jersey Shore, and this was some of them.