This getting old business isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And that’s pretty much what happened to Cape May’s Washington Street Mall: the pavement cracked, paint peeled, trees lost their gracefulness, water lines aged and Father Time, not to mention Old Man Winter, the summer sun and millions of footfalls, all contributed to turn the ingénue mall of the early 1970s into an aging dowager 30 plus years later.

Now, after 200,000 brick pavers and months of construction, the Mall has an exciting new look -- a face lift that has erased the ravages of time with new walkways, lighting, fountains, trees, flags, benches and planters. The process, like all beautification programs, was not without pain, a few disappointments and some aggravation – and, of course, money – lots of it.

But, the winter of discontent has been replaced with a summer of anticipation, enthusiasm and celebration as the whole community prepares to open the refurbished Washington Street Mall. The re-dedication and blue ribbon cutting will be Saturday, June 21 at 10 a.m. near Our Lady Star of the Sea Church at the Ocean Street end of the Mall. Activities for the official Mall opening will last through the day and into the evening.

As the nation’s first seaside resort, vacationers have flocked to Cape May since the 1800s – and perhaps earlier - by steamboat and later by train. The popularity of this seaside town lasted through the Victorian era and well into the early part of the 20th century. By the late 1960s, however, the huge Victorian homes - many vacant or subdivided into rooming houses and apartments – had fallen into disrepair and reflected the diminishing fortunes of the resort.

Elected officials, looking for ways to rejuvenate the town’s economy, talked
about closing several blocks of Washington Street, an idea not embraced by
business people and many of the residents. Despite the misgivings, the mayor
and others moved ahead and the by the summer of 1971 the Washington Street
Mall opened between Ocean and Perry streets with park benches, flowers,
shrubs – but no traffic, only pedestrians.

From the get go, the Mall was a success and was followed quickly by a
renaissance throughout the town – the MidAtlantic Center for the Arts was
established to save the Emlen Physick estate and in 1976 the entire town was
designated a National Historic Landmark District. And, as the old saying,
the rest is history.

Two businesses on the Mall were landmarks in town long before anybody even
thought about this idea of a Mall. Dellas Five and Dime has been in
business since 1947on the corner of Decatur Street, providing all the things
that 5 & 10-cent stores have offered customers for decades. The store was
refurbished last year with a look reminiscent of the 1940s and 50s - a soda
fountain, stainless steel stools and a red and white-checkered floor. The
Ugly Mug, on the other hand, hasn’t changed all that much. Hundreds of mugs
still hang from the ceiling - the mugs that face toward the ocean represent
deceased members of the drinking club; the ones facing west, or away from
the ocean, belong to those people who still frequent the Mug for a beer,
sandwich or just a fun evening with friends.

Both sides of the three-block Mall are lined with bookstores, art galleries,
clothing stores, jewelry stores, gift shops and a variety of restaurants
with inside and outside dining areas. More shops stretch along Carpenter’s
Lane behind the Mall plus along Liberty Way. New stores are expected to
open this season, including a fish market and the newly-constructed Lynn
Arden Children’s Shop. The Mall also hosts sidewalk sales, art shows and
holiday hospitality evenings in December.

The banner weekend to welcome summer and celebrate the Mall includes the
resort’s first Harbor Fest that begins, appropriately, with a Summer
Solstice Bonfire Friday evening along Cape May Harbor. Festivities continue
Saturday with events at the Cape May Nature Center on Delaware Avenue that
will feature top chefs going head-to-head with a scallop cook off, a kayak
and a canoe regatta, a street fair with food vendors and a beer tent, Coast
Guard demonstrations, a blessing of the commercial fishing fleet and a
wreath laying at the Fisherman’s Memorial. A water taxi will link various
harbor venues and trolleys will transport people from the Washington Street
Mall to the Cape May Harbor and back to enjoy all the activities from one
end of town to the other.

Cape May, proud and protective of its past, still has an eye to its future.
The next project in this resort is a new convention hall on the beach front.
The current hall, built as a temporary structure after the March storm of
1962 devastated the entire town and destroyed the ornate and historic
Convention Hall, will be replaced with a new state of the art, $10 million
facility that is expected to open by summer of 2010.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Harbor Fest is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May For
information call 609.884.5508 or online at capemaychamber.com