Community Corner
Historical Images: Redman Hall at Eighth and Haven
Our weekly feature includes photographs from the Ocean City Historical Museum collection and from the modern era.
This week's "Then and Now" features the building located at the corner of Eighth Street and Haven Avenue. The building was known as Redman Hall when it was built in the early 1920s and has served a variety of uses through the years. It was was the resort's most popular fraternal, social and sports center and held basketball games, dances and meetings. It was later home the Sentinel-Ledger and converted to its current business use in the early 1960s.
Redman Hall was built for the Kalmia Tribe #220 by William H. Smith-Builder at a cost of $75,000. Smith was a past sachem of the Kalmia Tribe.
An article ran in the Nov. 22, 1923 edition of the Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger about the grand opening ceremony to be held on Nov. 24, 1923. It was to be the largest gathering of the Big Chief & Allied Tribes in this part of the country and included a "parade through the main thoroughfares".
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Here is an excerpt of the article that describes the building:
The new hall rests upon one of the finest foundations laid in this
city, thirty feet piling with concrete reinforced by huge steel bars. The
main structure is built of steel, and will be completed completely
sheathed with asbestos shingles.
The ground floor measures 150x50 feet, and lends itself admirably for
uses as a convention hall or as an athletic arena. The second floor
contains two splendid lodge rooms, and a banqueting room.
The two lodge rooms are nicely furnished and will eventually contain all
the paraphernalia of work for which they were built.
The hall is steam heated with first-class appointments and all
sanitary conveniences. The work has been pushed forward with all
possible speed by the contractor William H. Smith, in anticipation of
the grand opening on Saturday.
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The first photo shows Redman Hall under construction and is dated Nov. 13, 1923.
The second image shows the building as it was being clad in vinyl siding in 2004.
The third photo shows the building as it appears today with the windows covered.
To see more historical photos of Ocean City, visit the Ocean City Historical Museum in the at 1735 Simpson Ave.
