Bethany Beach is an incorporated town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethany Beach had a population of 954. However, during the summer months some 15,000 more populate the town as vacationers. It is part of the Salisbury, MD-DE Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Bethany Beach, South Bethany and Fenwick Island are popularly known as "The Quiet Resorts". Contributing to Bethany Beach's reputation as a "quiet" place is the presence of Delaware Seashore State Park immediately to the north of the town.

Despite its small size, Bethany Beach contains the usual attractions of a summer seaside resort, including the short Joseph Olson Boardwalk, a broad, sandy beach, motels, restaurants, and vacation homes. Because Bethany Beach does not sit on a barrier island, residential areas continue some distance to the west of the town's limits.

Geography

Bethany Beach is located at (38.5395564, −75.0551807). The town is bordered to the north by the Delaware Seashore State Park and by Salt Pond, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by South Bethany, and to the west by Ocean View.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and (1.71%) is water.

Beaches

The town is bordered to the east completely by free public beaches, all guarded seasonally by professional lifeguards known as the Bethany Beach Patrol (or The Bumblebees). The beach patrol, which consists of 30 members, is on duty daily from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day and on weekends in September. Just south of the town limits, there is a half-mile area of private beachfront owned by Sea Colony.

<gallery widths="180px" heights="120px" >

File:Sandsharkbethanybeach.jpg|Bethany Beach contains many forms of wildlife, including sand sharks

File:Shore of Bethany Beach, Delaware.jpg|A view of the beach in Bethany Beach

</gallery>

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bethany Beach has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.

Communities

  • Cotton Patch Hills

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 903 people, 473 households, and 281 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 2,376 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 97.90% White, 0.78% African American, 0.11% Native American, 0.22% Asian, and 1.00% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.33% of the population.

There were 473 households, out of which 10.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 4.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.4% were non-families. 35.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.91 and the average family size was 2.40.

The age distribution is 10.3% under the age of 18, 3.4% from 18 to 24, 15.6% from 25 to 44, 31.5% from 45 to 64, and 39.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 59 years. For every 100 females, there are 89.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 88.8 males.

The median income for a household in the town is $51,875, and the median income for a family is $67,500. Males have a median income of $41,705 versus $35,909 for females. The per capita income for the town is $41,306. About 2.9% of families and 4.7% of the population are below the poverty line, including 9.6% of those under age 18 and 1.6% of those age 65 or over.

The beach is extremely popular in the summer making it difficult to get a spot on sunny summer days. Bethany Beach is known as a "family beach" as there are not as many bars or other college student attractions.

thumb|right|Garfield Parkway in downtown Bethany Beach

Government

City council and mayor

Bethany Beach is governed by a city council made up of seven resident and non-resident property owners elected to two-year terms. One of them serves as Council President and is considered the mayor of the town. None of the council members are paid. The council tends to err on the side of tradition in governing the town and seeks to maintain Bethany Beach's "Quiet Resort" atmosphere and reputation.

Mayors of Bethany Beach

Also referred to as Council President:

  • 1923–1926 George Townsend
  • 1926–1927 John W. Ellis
  • 1927–1930 Walter S. Ringler
  • 1930–1937 Ebe T. Chandler
  • 1937–1938 Carroll R. Jaggar
  • 1938–1939 William P. Short Sr.
  • 1939–1940 Walter G. Moyle
  • 1940–1945 William P. Short Sr.
  • 1945–1948 William F. Wilgus
  • 1948–1949 James B. Rutter
  • 1949–1953 Horace J. VanAuken
  • 1953–1954 Edison Gray
  • 1954–1956 Charles L. Martin Jr.
  • 1956–1960 James Whaley
  • 1960–1966 James C. Popham
  • 1966–1970 Martin T. Wiegand
  • 1970–1971 Ralph K. Graves
  • 1971–1972 Tilton D. McNeal
  • 1972–1973 William J. Collins
  • 1973–1974 Louis Brilliant
  • 1974–1977 Sidney A. Bennett
  • 1977–1978 Robert C. Maxwell
  • 1978–1981 Vernon H. Dibeler
  • 1981–1982 William J. Collins
  • 1982–1983 Millard P. Rummel
  • 1983–1984 Jesse A. Rawley Jr.
  • 1984–1991 Dr. Robert Parsons
  • 1991–1997 Charles J. Bartlett
  • 1997–2005 Joseph F. McHugh
  • 2005–2006 Jack Walsh
  • 2006–2008 Carol Olmstead
  • 2008–2014 Tony McClenny
  • 2014–present Jack Gordon

Alderman's Court

The town's Alderman's Court consists of two appointed judges. They adjudicate violations of town ordinances.

Police department

thumb|right|Bethany Beach Police Department car

The Bethany Beach Police Department has a staff of nine full-time officers. During the summer, it also employs 15 to 17 seasonal officers, some of them college students in training. The department operates seven cars, five of them patrol cars, and once won a national award from Law and Order magazine for the design of its patrol cars. The police department maintains a low-key but highly visible presence.

In 2024, Police Chief Michael Redmon and Captain Darin Cathell were dismissed after an audit determined that both had stolen a combined $150,000 for overtime shifts that did not exist.

Fire department

thumbnail|The Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Department Company

The Bethany Beach Fire Department is a combination fire department that operates two quints, two engines, a rescue pumper, an aerial unit, a brush truck, three ambulances, and multiple other utility pieces.

The fire department serves the entire area south of Indian River Inlet, east of the Assawoman Canal, and north of the Maryland state line at the southern edge of Fenwick Island, Delaware. It has a fire station in Bethany Beach and a substation in Fenwick Island and offers an emergency medical center, operated for it by the Beebe Medical Center of Lewes, Delaware. It cooperates fully with the fire departments of Dagsboro, Frankford, Millville, Rehoboth Beach, Roxana, and Selbyville, Delaware, and Ocean City, Maryland.

The fire department was formed in June 1948 with ten members. It received its first equipment, a single used pumper, later that summer and answered its first call in September 1948. The town purchased property for its fire station in 1949, and the fire department held its first bingo game in March 1957. Its emergency medical center opened in the early 1980s, and its Fenwick Island substation began operations in July 1987. There are a total of 1,000 public parking spaces in the beach and downtown areas of Bethany Beach, with parking meters in effect or parking permits required between May 15 and September 15. Outside of the public parking spaces, residential parking permits are required on east–west streets between May 15 and September 15; these permits are only available to people who own property in Bethany Beach. Business parking permits are also available for business owners and their employees.

thumb|left|Bethany Beach Trolley

DART First State provides bus service to Bethany Beach in the summer months along Beach Bus Route 208, which heads north to the Rehoboth Beach Park and Ride and the Lewes Transit Center Park and Ride near Lewes to connect to other Beach Bus routes and the Route 305 bus from Wilmington and south to the 144th Street Transit Center in Ocean City, Maryland to connect to Ocean City Transportation's Coastal Highway Beach Bus.

The town operates the Bethany Beach Trolley along two routes between the beach area and the residential western section of the town between Memorial Day weekend and the middle of September. The North Trolley Route runs along Atlantic Avenue and west to the residential areas to the north of Garfield Parkway while the South Trolley Route runs along Atlantic Avenue and west to the residential areas to the south of Garfield Parkway.

Utilities

Delmarva Power, a subsidiary of Exelon, provides electricity to Bethany Beach. Chesapeake Utilities provides natural gas to the town. The Town of Bethany Beach Water Department provides water to the town, operating a water filtration plant and standpipe, six wells, and a distribution system. Sussex County operates the Bethany Beach Sanitary Sewer District, which provides sewer service to the town. The Town of Bethany Beach Public Works Department provides trash and recycling collection to the town.

History

Before 1900

upright=1.2|thumb|A church group from [[Ocean View, Delaware|Ocean View, Delaware, at a fish fry along the uninhabited Atlantic coast east of Ocean View in 1880. Bethany Beach would be founded in this area 21 years later. This may be the first photograph ever taken of what was to become Bethany Beach.]]

There is a lack of evidence of Native American activity in the Bethany Beach area. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in North America, Native American settlements appear to have been limited to the area north of the Indian River, north of what is now Bethany Beach; even after Europeans pushed the Native Americans—mostly Nanticokes—out of their coastal settlements in the mid-17th century, the Native Americans moved west to settle around Oak Orchard, Delaware, and in the Millsboro, Delaware, area rather than south toward what would become Bethany Beach. However, Native Americans are known to have visited the bays and rivers of the Atlantic coast of Delaware during the summer to fish, and it is possible that this included visits to the Bethany Beach area.

Europeans also did not settle the area prior to 1900, probably because Indian River Inlet cut the area off from their settlements to the north and because the town of Ocean View, founded in 1889 and now Bethany Beach's neighbor to the west, did not expand its boundaries eastward toward the coast.

In 1900, the Disciples of Christ held a nationwide contest to name the proposed community, the winner to receive an oceanside lot there. A committee of three men from Scranton, Pennsylvania, was responsible for choosing a name from among the entries; although it considered the names "Wellington" and "Gladmere", it chose the name "Bethany Beach" suggested by H. L. Atkinson of the University of Chicago. Powers supposedly also suggested the name "Bethany Beach", but the committee received Powers' entry two weeks after Atkinson's and thus Atkinson was deemed the winner.

upright=1.2|thumb|The original [[Tabernacle (Methodist)|Tabernacle in its early years. It stood from 1903 to 1961, and served as Bethany Beach's auditorium and religious and cultural center.]]

Also in 1900, the Disciples of Christ formed the Bethany Beach Improvement Company, which raised the money to purchase the land for the new town from Evans. Marketing the new community aggressively, the company sold 150 lots in Bethany Beach, mostly to families from Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Scranton. It laid out streets and began the construction of the Tabernacle, an octagonal auditorium which was dedicated on July 24, 1901, while still under construction and would serve as the town's central meeting place and cultural center, hosting both church services and entertainment events. The company also made plans to build cottages on the lots it had sold and to establish a railroad branch line passing through Ocean View and Millville that would connect Bethany Beach with the main line to the west at either Dagsboro or Frankford, Delaware, promising that the railroad would begin operations on July 4, 1901; however, the 1901 season came and went with no railroad in operation.

A temporary town government began to operate in 1901. This event is celebrated as the founding of Bethany Beach, although the town would not be incorporated for another eight years.

On July 12, 1901, Bethany Beach's inaugural summer season officially began with a crowd at the incomplete Tabernacle singing a song written especially for the occasion and sung to the tune of "Marching Through Georgia".

The financial crisis of 1902–1903

Bethany Beach soon encountered financial problems which threatened to bring the planned town to an end almost before it could begin. Bankers in Georgetown, Delaware, hesitated to loan money for the development of Bethany Beach because they had lost money on the development of Rehoboth Beach to the north. Without sufficient financial backing, the Bethany Beach Improvement Company was unable to act on its plans, and little development occurred in Bethany Beach; basic services were lacking, construction stalled, work on the hoped-for railroad never began, and there was little agreement on how to address the new community's problems. In May 1902 the Christian Missionary Society withdrew its endorsement of Bethany Beach.]]

Twenty-three landowners, mostly from the Pittsburgh area, concerned that the value of their Bethany Beach lots would drop, selected a committee to address the situation. The committee studied the problem, communicated with the Christian Missionary Society, and in September 1902 organized a meeting in Washington, D.C., which led to lengthy negotiations about putting Bethany Beach on a firm financial footing. The negotiations dragged on until 1903, when six Pittsburgh-area investors agreed to buy all of the Bethany Beach Improvement Company's stock, selling three shares to a Delaware resident so that there would be at least some local ownership. This put the company on a firm financial footing and allowed the development of Bethany Beach to resume.]]

The Christian Missionary Society eventually restored its endorsement of Bethany Beach, and summer programs modeled on the Chatauqua movement began in the town, Soon, the Bethany Beach Improvement Company dug a well to provide the town with fresh water.]]

upright=1.15|thumb|The motorboat Helen Marie II, which replaced the Allie May on the Rehoboth Beach-Bethany Beach run in 1912. the Loop Canal was completed in Bethany Beach, allowing the [[motorboat Allie May—replaced in 1912 by the motorboat Helen Marie II—to dock at the town itself.

Bethany Beach's remote location meant that most beachgoers preferred to visit Rehoboth Beach to the north or Ocean City, Maryland, to the south, both of which they could reach directly by train. The small population of permanent residents of and regular visitors to Bethany Beach came to know one another well, and the town remained a quiet place that contrasted with the busier and more crowded atmosphere of Rehoboth Beach and Ocean City. Throughout the Quiet Years, it was unusual to find more than 20 people on Bethany Beach's wide beach at any one time. for a time—while Washingtonians tended to build their houses on properties in the southern part of town.

upright=1.15|thumb|Northern Bethany Beach in the town's early years, with the lifesaving station in the distance. The dark-colored cottage second from right was destroyed by a storm in 1920.

During the Quiet Years, Bethany Beach gradually acquired more and more amenities and its government provided more and more services. The Ocean View Post Office established a branch in Bethany Beach in 1904, A town newspaper, the Bethany Herald, began publication in 1904; later renamed the Bethany Booster, its name eventually was switched back to Bethany Herald, and it published until the late 1980s. The boardwalk was reconstructed in 1905, and the Town of Bethany Beach was incorporated in 1909. The boardwalk underwent yet another reconstruction in 1912. The Ringler Theater, which showed movies and hosted dance parties, opened on the boardwalk in 1923; generally considered to be the first commercial enterprise on the boardwalk, it became one of the town's major attractions. A privately owned electric lighting plant began operations in 1924, lighting the town hall and street lamps; in 1926, the town bought the plant and began garbage collection. The town's lone bowling alley opened in 1930 and became a popular social attraction, The first restaurant on the boardwalk that was not part of a hotel opened in 1933 and stood until destroyed by a fire in 1953. Bethany Beach's first tennis court was completed in the mid-1930s.]]

upright=1.15|thumb|A wave breaks across the original, surface-level boardwalk at Bethany Beach. After the 1920 storm destroyed it, it was replaced by an elevated boardwalk in 1923. Another damaging storm struck in 1927. The intense [[1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane passed through the area in August 1933, causing flooding in Bethany Beach but no deaths anywhere in Delaware.

No church came to Bethany Beach other than that of its founders, the Disciples of Christ, until 1940, when an Episcopalian church opened in the town. A Roman Catholic church opened in Bethany Beach in 1956.

World War II era

World War II temporarily interrupted the Quiet Years. The United States government took an increasing interest in defending the Delaware coast after war broke out in Europe in 1939 and paved the road from Rehoboth Beach to a point south of Bethany Beach in 1940. The impact of the war on the area increased after the United States entered the war in December 1941: the town was blacked out at night beginning in 1942 to reduce the chance of German submarine attacks on ships offshore, and the beach and boardwalk closed at 9:00&nbsp;p.m. to make it easier for military personnel to patrol against landings by enemy agents and saboteurs. Many personnel of the various armed forces were billeted in the town or based nearby, German prisoners of war were held in the area, a radar station was built nearby to the west, and the United States Army built a gunnery control tower south of town to support the Coast Artillery guns at Fort Miles on Cape Henlopen. Patrol dogs intended for use along the entire United States East Coast were trained just north of Bethany Beach. Wartime gasoline rationing made frequent short trips to Bethany Beach impractical, and many of the visitors during the war years spent entire summers at Bethany Beach instead.

During the war, a destructive storm struck Bethany Beach in mid-September 1944. It destroyed the Ringler Theater, which was not rebuilt, and badly damaged the boardwalk and the town's pavilion. banking flourished in the area. The opening of the bridge's second span in 1973 made access even easier and, if anything, accelerated development further. Bethany Beach residents generally opposed the development of the area sparked by the opening of the bridge, and much political fighting occurred over the various real estate projects proposed for the area. Ultimately, economic pressure to develop the area was too great, and the Quiet Years came to end. South of town, the Middlesex Beach community was built in 1958–1959. South Bethany, to the south of Middlesex Beach, considered the first major new development in the area, was built in 1962 and incorporated as a town in its own right in 1969.

The most destructive storm in Bethany Beach's history, the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962, was a surprise nor'easter that struck in March 1962. Created by the combination of what had been two separate storms, the nor'easter arrived on the evening of March 5, with 80-mile-per-hour (129-kilometer-per-hour) winds and 30-foot (9.1-meter) waves. The storm continued through three high tides while the tides were at their monthly peak before abating on March 7. Destruction was widespread; many of the beachfront structures that had stood since Bethany Beach's early decades were destroyed, including the bowling alley and many of the inns and houses, as were the boardwalk and town pavilion. Only one beachfront house in the southern part of town survived. Flood waters penetrated as far inland as Ocean View, and only three houses anywhere in Bethany Beach escaped flooding. Extensive beach erosion occurred, and sand several feet (over a meter) deep buried streets and cars and filled entire rooms in some houses. Damages along the Delmarva Peninsula's Atlantic coastline exceeded $50&nbsp;million (USD). After the storm, the town rebuilt the boardwalk and put new regulations in place requiring that beach houses be built on 30-foot (9.1-meter) pilings. town regulations had been designed to prevent the construction of high-rises within town limits. Opponents of Sea Colony marched in protest and engaged in protracted legal efforts to block construction of the resort, but the property lay outside the town limits and their efforts to block the construction of Sea Colony failed. The Bethany Beach-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce began operations in 1976.

On December 22, 1976, a sculpture (widely but incorrectly referred to as a "totem pole") created by Hungarian sculptor Peter Toth – who donated at least one sculpture to each of the 50 U.S. states as well as to locations in Canada in his "Trail of the Whispering Giants" project, a tribute to Native Americans – was dedicated at the intersection of Delaware Avenue (Route 1) and Garfield Parkway. The installation of the sculpture was controversial; many residents viewed it as irrelevant to Bethany Beach, where no history of Native American activity has been found. Although opponents of the sculpture suggested that its installation at Oak Orchard, the hub of Nanticoke settlement since the mid-17th century, would be much more appropriate, Toth wanted a more visible location and the sculpture was erected in Bethany Beach. Ultimately, Bethany Beach accepted the sale of alcohol, but the town strictly limits the number of bars within town limits, generally limits alcohol sales to restaurants, and permits no sale of alcoholic beverages after 11:30&nbsp;pm.

In the early 1980s, the Bethany Beach Fire Department offered the town's first emergency medical center, operated for the fire department by the Beebe Medical Center of Lewes, Delaware.

In July 1987, the Bethany Beach Fire Department opened a substation in Fenwick Island, Delaware, on the coast a few miles south of Bethany Beach. The remains of Toth's sculpture were removed and donated to the Nanticoke Indian Museum in Millsboro, Delaware.

Since 2000

By 2000, Dennis Beach's 1994 "Chief Little Owl" sculpture had rotted, and it was removed that year. The creator of the original 1976 sculpture, Peter Toth, crafted a third version of the "Chief Little Owl" sculpture in 2001 using red cedar imported from the Pacific Northwest. Designed to last between 50 and 150 years, it was dedicated on July 15, 2002, in a ceremony in which one of Little Owl's descendants blessed the sculpture in traditional Nanticoke fashion with song, prayer, and tobacco. The dunes put in place with the program are controversial because they reach over the height of the boardwalk, blocking most views of the ocean. Much of the criticism of them came from editorials in newspapers such as the local Delaware Wave and Coastal Point, along with Washington, D.C. media outlets.

Remnants of Tropical Storm Ida hit the town in November 2009, destroying most of the dunes, leaving cliffs, making the beach significantly narrower, and revealing old jetties. Losses were estimated to cost the state of Delaware $40&nbsp;million {USD} and repairs were not made until after the 2010 summer beach season.[https://web.archive.org/web/20151211042903/http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100119/DW01/1190303]

By 2011, Bethany Beach had joined a growing number of communities in instituting a smoking ban, covering most of the beach and boardwalk areas.

A nor'easter hit Bethany Beach from October 2 to 4, 2015, and severely eroded the beach and dune and flooded parts of the town, especially in its northern section. A winter storm that struck the town from January 22 to 24, 2016, washed away major sections of what was left of the town's dune and breached it in some places, again causing flooding. In February 2016, officials announced that there was no funding available for replenishment of Bethany Beach's dune and beach during 2016, and that replenishment would not take place until 2017, in accordance with the schedule established before the two storms hit.

Education

Residents are in the Indian River School District.

In "the Quiet Years" Bethany Beach School was established for students in grades one through six; after the sixth grade they had to attend Lord Baltimore School in Ocean View.

References

Further reading

  • Town of Bethany Beach
  • Town Charter