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 cut into it. A corporation was formed to help with the development of 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 July 4, 1875. The Atlantic Hotel originally was owned by the Atlantic Hotel Company, but eventually Charles W. Purnell 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, Ocean City Beach Patrol was formed in order to better protect the bathers that 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. The inlet separated what is now Ocean City from
Assateague Island. Another hurricane the following month widened the inlet from about wide to over wide. 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, as it offered 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 has undergone a fairly rapid expansion that took place 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. 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 and gave birth 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==