Part of the fun is learning of its history serving as a residence, tavern and even a speakeasy. “During Prohibition, Lucy was kind of a bad girl we like to tell people.” Lafferty explains bootleggers would supposedly signal red and green lights through the portholes of the elephant’s eyes. “If green, rum runners would bring everything up into the tummy.” The Margate History Museum, meanwhile, has recently washed up Prohibition whiskey bottles that rum runners threw overboard when police approached their boats. It’s interesting to note the municipalities and small villages that make up the South Jersey Shore communities, including Atlantic City and Cape May, are all situated on barrier islands. From Margate, I cross a bridge to Ocean City and pass row after row of beach houses with similar architecture—two and three stories, painted in cool and muted pastel-like hues with white-fenced balconies on each level. Ocean City has a 2.5-mile boardwalk with restaurants, shops, and game and ride arcades. I cross another bridge to the small beachside community of Strathmere and then on to Sea Isle City with its Promenade, a paved 1.5-mile walkway along the beach. The main thoroughfare is lined with typical summer vacation businesses—pizzerias, ice cream parlors, eateries, and shops. The next beach community south is Avalon, but its narrow half-mile boardwalk is only for walking with just a few commercial businesses. Adjacent Stone Harbor is more of an upscale community with boutiques, high-end dining and spotless, protected beaches. Before arriving in Cape May, I stop in Wildwood to walk the 2.5-mile boardwalk, densely packed with neon-lit amusements—water parks, giant roller coasters, and carnival games. A whaling and farming community in the 17th- and early 18th-centuries, charming Cape May today is all about its Victorian architecture and is noted as the country’s oldest seaside resort town started with the rush of 19th-century tourists. “They came from Philadelphia to get away from the heat of the city,” says Heim. The boom in Victorian home building took place between the 1860s and 1890s, and for that reason the city was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1976. More than 600 well-preserved homes line city neighborhoods sporting Italianate, Queen Anne and Gothic Revival styles. “The city is very committed
Washed up bottles of Prohibition whiskey bottles in the Margate History Museum
Steel Pier’s Ferris wheel is extended from the Atlantic City Boardwalk
Businesses alongside the Atlantic City Boardwalk
EXPLORING THE SOUTH JERSEY SHORE
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SUMMER 2026 | 22
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