Ocean City is a resort city in Worcester County, Maryland, United States, along the Atlantic coast of the United States. The population was 6,844 in the 2020 U.S. census, although during summer weekends the city hosts between 320,000 and 345,000 vacationers, and up to eight million visitors annually. During the summer, Ocean City becomes the second most populated municipality in Maryland, after Baltimore. It is part of the Salisbury metropolitan area as defined by the United States Census Bureau.
During peak vacation season, the city gains over 1,000 seasonal police officers, along with additional firefighters and other workers. Numerous events take place within the town during the shoulder-season, including Sunfest, Springfest, Bike Week, Cruisin' Weekend, Winterfest of Lights, and Reach the Beach, which take place on the Boardwalk and the Roland E. Powell Convention Center. Ocean City is also home to the annual Maryland State Firefighters Convention, a week-long event in June that honors the state's firefighters.
History
19th century Before the European colonization of what is now Maryland in the 17th century, the shoreline of the Delmarva Peninsula had been populated for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples, including the Algonquian-speaking Assateague and Nanticoke peoples. The land on which the city was built and much of the surrounding area was obtained by Thomas Fenwick, an Englishman, from the Indigenous peoples of the region. In 1869, businessman Isaac Coffin built the first beach-front cottage to receive paying guests. During those days, guests arrived by stagecoach and ferry.
Soon after, other simple boarding houses were built on the strip of sand, with the activity attracting prominent businessmen from the Maryland Eastern Shore, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Wilmington, Delaware. They came not so much to visit as to survey the spit. A decision was made to develop it, and 250 lots were carved out. A corporation was formed to help develop the land. The corporation’s stock of 4,000 shares sold for $25 each.
Before 1870, what is now Ocean City was known as "The Ladies' Resort to the Ocean".
The Atlantic Hotel, the first major hotel in the town, opened on July 4, 1875. The Atlantic Hotel was originally owned by the Atlantic Hotel Company, but Charles W. Purnell eventually bought it in 1923. , it is still owned and operated by the Purnell family. Besides the beach and ocean, it offered dancing and billiard rooms to the visitors of its more than 400 rooms, and for years it was the northernmost attraction in Ocean City. By 1878, tourists could come by the Wicomico & Pocomoke Railroad from Berlin to the shores of Sinepuxent Bay across from the town. By 1881, a line was completed from across Sinepuxent Bay to the shore, bringing rail passengers on the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railroad directly into the town to a train station and returning to larger city markets with locally caught fish from Ocean City.
20th century
In 1930, the Ocean City Beach Patrol was formed in order to better protect the bathers who frequented the shoreline. It was done in collaboration with Mayor William W. McCabe and Coast Guard Captain William Purnell.
The Ocean City Inlet was formed during a significant hurricane in August 1933, which also destroyed the train tracks across the Sinepuxent Bay."Vacationists Flee As 30-Foot Waves Flood Ocean City". The Baltimore Sun. August 24, 1933. p. 1."Town Wanted Inlet; Hurricane Digs Two". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. August 25, 1933. p. 20. The inlet separated what is now Ocean City from Assateague Island. Another hurricane the following month widened the inlet from about to over ."Latest Storm Widens Inlet: Wit Minor Damages, Ocean City May Have Benefit in Disguise". Evening Journal (Wilmington, Delaware). September 18, 1933. p. 4. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took advantage of nature's intervention and made the inlet permanent at the south end of Ocean City. The inlet eventually helped establish Ocean City as an important mid-Atlantic fishing port by providing easy access to the Atlantic Ocean fishing grounds.
In the late 1930s, the Army Corps of Engineers dredged a new channel on the bayside of Ocean City to allow larger boats to have access to Sinepuxent Bay. The dredge was pumped back onto the western shore of Ocean City allowing the creation of Chicago Avenue and St. Louis Avenue, leading to new development where previously only marshland had been.
Ocean City underwent a fairly rapid expansion during the post-World War II boom. In 1952, with the completion of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Ocean City became easily accessible to people in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area."Ex-Governor Lane Sees Bridge Dream Come True: Chesapeake Bay Bridge Opens New Era In East-West Travel". The Easton Star-Democrat. August 1, 1952. p. 1. In 1964, with the completion of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, another pathway to the south was opened. This tunnel connects Northampton County on the Delmarva Peninsula to Southeast Virginia. These two events helped Ocean City become one of the largest vacation areas on the East Coast.
By the 1970s, big business flourished, leading to the construction of more than 15,000 condominium units. However, throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, the width of the beach began to shrink, prompting the first of a series of beach replenishment projects.
A fire during the annual Sunfest destroyed five boardwalk businesses in 1994. There was a small water park and giant walk-through haunted house with live actors near the end of the pier and a New Orleans-style Hollywood in Wax Museum on the boardwalk side. In the mid 1990s, the wax museum closed and was turned into a Photon laser tag arena. The building now houses the Ripley's Believe it or Not! museum.
21st century
In 2002, Ocean City undertook a multi-million dollar beach restoration program in an attempt to slow the westward migration of its beaches. The program pumped tons of sand from offshore and deposited it onto the beach. A dune line was also re-established in front of Ocean City's building line. Another similar project began after the 2006 tourist season closed.
In 2006, the city erected the Ocean City Firefighter's Memorial to honor local firefighters as well as firefighters who died in the September 11 attacks. In addition to a statue of a firefighter, the monument incorporates a piece of steel beam from one of the towers destroyed at the World Trade Center.
The resort area was visited by approximately 8 million visitors in 2011.
In 2022, the Town of Ocean City announced the Oceans Calling Festival, a four-day music event drawing major artists such as the Dave Matthews Band, Cyndi Lauper, The Lumineers, and Alanis Morissette. However, Hurricane Ian forced the event to be rescheduled for fall 2023.
Ocean City continues to sprawl westward across the bay, toward Berlin and Ocean Pines. It was part of the Ocean Pines micropolitan statistical area until that was subsumed by the Salisbury metropolitan area.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water.
Ocean City is located on Fenwick Island, a barrier spit which encompasses Ocean City, as well as South Bethany and Fenwick Island, Delaware. Ocean City's southern point is an inlet formed by the 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane. Rainfall and tides swelled the rivers and bays surrounding Ocean City until the overflowing water cut a 50-foot crevasse from the bay to the ocean. Ocean City businessmen had long sought funding to create an inlet to support a harbor, so residents seized the opportunity and built jetties to ensure the city's land remained divided from what is now Assateague Island.
Climate According to the Köppen climate classification system, Ocean City, Maryland, has a humid subtropical (Köppen: Cfa) or oceanic with long, warm to hot and humid summers, cool winters, and year-round precipitation. Ocean City receives 2300 hours of sunshine annually (higher than the US average). Temperatures are moderate in Ocean City due to its location on the Atlantic coast. During the summer months, a cooling afternoon sea breeze is present on most days, with an average of only 10 days annually reaching . However, in 2010, the temperature rose to , which was the hottest air temperature on record, and episodes of extreme heat combined with tropical humidity can occur with heat index values ≥ .
The geographic location of Ocean City places it just north of where Atlantic tropical cyclones turn out to sea along the East Coast, so direct hits from tropical storms and hurricanes are rare, although they sometimes brush the area. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30, peaking sharply from late August through September.
During the winter months, Ocean City has cool weather with an average high of 45°F (7.5°C); however, periods of mild temperatures in the 50 to 60°F range are common. The air temperature fails to rise above freezing 5.8 days on average and the plant hardiness zone is 7b with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of . On rare occasion, episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with wind chill values under . The coldest temperature on record was . The average seasonal (Dec-Mar) snowfall is quite low in Ocean City, averaging , and several years may pass with no snowfall at all.
Demographics
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Ocean City had a population of 6,844. The population density was 1,510.5 inhabitants per square mile. The median age was 56.3 years. 9.3% of residents were under the age of 18 and 33.9% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 99.5 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 99.4 males age 18 and over.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 3,820 households in Ocean City, of which 11.2% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 34.0% were married-couple households, 27.4% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 31.6% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 46.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 21.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 30,028 housing units, including 3,820 occupied year-round and 26,208 vacant units. Of all housing units, 87.3% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 4.3% and the rental vacancy rate was 45.4%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 5,994 87.6% Black or African American 140 2.0% American Indian and Alaska Native 21 0.3% Asian 124 1.8% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 2 0.0% Some other race 169 2.5% Two or more races 394 5.8% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 409 6.0%
2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 7,102 people, 3,852 households, and 1,784 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 30,119 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 92.2% White, 2.7% African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.3% Asian, 2.2% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.9% of the population.
There were 3,852 households, of which 11.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.8% were married couples living together, 6.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 53.7% were non-families. 42.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.84, and the average family size was 2.41.