By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Dec. 27, 2018) The Ocean Pines Association turned 50 this year, while the Town of Berlin celebrated its 150th anniversary.

Each community celebrated in its own way, as the association held several events throughout the year, while the town’s observance was a low-key celebration during an Oktoberfest event on Oct. 13.

Ocean Pines’ slate of semicentennial events began on Jan. 9 with the unveiling of a new 50th anniversary entrance sign on Cathell Road.

The sign featured a new logo created by resident Lisa Perez, who won an association-wide design contest held the previous June.

Jennifer Cropper-Rines, chairwoman of the 50th Anniversary Committee, opened the ceremony by thanking event chairpersons for planning, public works staff for installing signs at all three community entranceways, and the board of directors and staff for their support.

She said Boise Cascade created the community in 1968.

“From what I understand, they were boating people over here from Ocean City, driving people over here from Ocean City, and they really had a vision,” Cropper-Rines said. “They dug the canals, they built the amenities, and it’s really turned into a wonderful place that houses 12,000 year-round residents and 8,000 summer people.

“I don’t know if they ever anticipated we could be that big,” she added.

Association President Doug Parks said it was a wonderful experience to be part of such an event. He credited volunteers with helping realize plans for the anniversary.

“That’s what it takes to get events like this to happen … people taking their time who care about the community, who want to contribute,” he said. “Hopefully, throughout the year we’ll have successes in running all these events.”

General Manager John Bailey closed the ceremony with a speech.

“Congratulations, Ocean Pines,” he said. “Fiftieth anniversaries are celebratory times that provide the opportunity to do three things: one, to give thanks and to remember; two, to celebrate, congratulate and to party; and three, to encourage and instill hope.”

Bailey thanked staff, founding residents, board and committee members and volunteers who served “during our first 50 years.”

“Congratulations to those who make Ocean Pines what it is – a great place to live, a great place to work, a great place to work in and around, and a great place to play,” he said. “And congratulations as well to the county and the state, for Ocean Pines is indeed an asset to the larger community around us.

“And here’s to the future. May it be said 50 years from now that we here today were responsible for recommitting ourselves to a vision of being the best place to live on the Eastern Shore,” he added.

Additional anniversary events included a parade and community day, golf tournament, beach bash, racquet sports tournament, cocktail party, and the winter gala at the yacht club.

Perhaps the lone bump in the road was the planned unveiling of a time capsule that turned out to be, well, lost in time.

Cropper-Rines, on Aug. 11, addressed a crowd by saying there was good news and bad news about the capsule, reportedly buried in Ocean Pines 30 years ago.

“The good news is, we do know where all the power lines and utilities are in the area of the southeast corner of the admin building,” she said. “The bad news is, we can’t find the time capsule.”

Cropper-Rines said the capsule was buried in 1988 to mark the occasion of Ocean Pines’ 20th anniversary. A monument to it stands near the southeast corner of the administration building.

“The first thing we did was dig where the monument was – and there was no time capsule there,” she said.

Next, members of the 50th anniversary committee tried everything from metal detectors to divining rods to find the elusive memorial.

Cropper-Rines said she even tracked down the chairman of the 20th anniversary committee and examined photos he had taken some 30 years ago,

“We looked at the photos and realized they’d obtained the monument several months after they buried the time capsule, so the pictures made it look like it was in a completely different place.”

Holes dug in the capsule quest were large – some as much as four or five feet deep, she said.

“There was one hole we saw water in,” she said. “The public works guys were wonderful. It was like a treasure hunt – everybody wanted to find the thing, but we didn’t find it.”

Executive Assistant Michelle Bennett tracked down an old press release, “so we do have an idea of what was in [the capsule],” Cropper-Rines said. That apparently included photographs from various Ocean Pine clubs, a 20th anniversary parade videotape, and an audiotape of an original song about Ocean Pines.

“To make a long story short, we’re going to do another time capsule this year,” Cropper-Rines said. “And we’re going to come up with something slightly more clever than putting it in the ground, I think, which appears not to have been a good idea.”

She added a capsule buried 10 years ago was found and would be relocated.

“We are not going to look at the contents, because we’re not supposed to for 20 more years,” she said.

“That’s it. It’s kind of a bummer, but … it was a little bit of an adventure,” she added.

Anniversary events in concluded on Dec. 14 with an old-fashioned sock hop held at the community center.

“Every one of them served a different purpose,” 50th anniversary committee member Cheryl Jacobs said. “We tried to reach as many people in the community as possible and give them different opportunities to come out and celebrate. I think they all have been extremely successful.”

Committee member Sharyn O’Hare said anniversary events have been “the one thing to bring people together this year, which we desperately needed to do.” She said the anniversary helped spread community pride and positivity.

“We live in such a fabulous place and we exposed so many parts of the community when we featured them,” she said. “For example, the golf tournament showed off the beautiful golf course. That was sold out in January for a June golf tournament.

“And the yacht club did an outstanding job at the gala,” O’Hare continued. “That was probably the best party we’ve ever had in Ocean Pines. And the tennis club hosted a tennis tournament that did very well. So, every facility has pretty much been featured with events.”

She said events were all volunteer-run and paid for by sponsorships.

“It hasn’t cost Ocean Pines any money at all to do this,” she said.

O’Hare, who organized the yacht club gala, said that was her probably favorite event of the year.

“I also thought the parade was a great event and the family fun [community day] at the Veteran’s Memorial Park was awesome,” she said. “There was just a lot of fun things.”

Cropper-Rines agreed, “The gala was spectacular.

“I think it was top-notch and it was really, really just the bomb,” she said. “I also thought the history panel [in July] was very well attended for what it was, and the community day – so many people came out for that and the parade. The beach bash was also really fun, and the cocktail party was on my birthday!”

Cropper-Rines said a final wrap of financials would be done and a new time capsule would be put together in January.

“It think [overall] it’s been excellent,” she said. “We achieved the goal of having something for everyone, and I think all of the events were well attended, well received and enjoyed. Everybody seems to have gotten involved and enjoyed it all, and I think it’s been really good.”

Throughout all of the events, O’Hare, who organized the 35th anniversary, said Cropper-Rines “has been amazing” as a leader.

“She made it all come together, juggling a lot of different hats in the air,” O’Hare said. “And Denise Sawyer, [the marketing and public relations director] at Ocean Pines, has kept all the volunteers from jumping off a bridge all our event events. Denise has just been wonderful through the whole thing. It’s been a great, all-around event.”

Meanwhile, in Berlin, Mayor Gee Williams delivered a speech on Artisan’s Green during the annual Oktoberfest held throughout the downtown area.

Williams’ roots in the town go back three generations. His grandfather, W. G. Williams Sr., grew up in southern Sussex County and moved to Berlin during the late 1920s.

1987. G. Williams Sr. opened Williams Tavern during the 1930s in Berlin and sold the business to his son in 1969, who then operated it until he passed away in 1987. Williams said his mother held onto the tavern until the mid 1990s.

William Gee Williams III began his local career as a journalist and newspaper publisher. He was elected to the Town Council in 2003 and became acting mayor in 2008 when then-Mayor Thomas Cardinale passed away in office.

Williams was elected mayor in 2008, 2012 and in 2016.

“There are so many stories and so many families – the Phillips family, the Harrison family, the Esham family, the Moore family, as well as the Ayres, Hall, Purnell and Whaley families, and many, many others that have deep, deep roots easily into the 1800s – if not even later,” Williams said. “Like most small towns, every generation has had to stumble to create opportunities for the next generation, but here at least we’ve always kept these core families that have been able to plant their roots here.

“That has created the core that has now made it possible for people from all kinds of background with all kinds of diversity – who share our values – to come here and succeed. And it’s more about shared values than who your family is,” Williams said.

The story of the Town of Berlin today is a story of success. During the last five or so years, national publications almost weekly have named the small town of just 4,000-5,000 people one of the best in the country for its shopping, its robust event schedule, and its historical charm.

“It’s an unexpected pleasure, which I think also sums up a lot of peoples’ experience when they first come to Berlin,” Williams said. “Certainly, I never expected this to happen during my lifetime, and certainly not during my public trusteeship as mayor of the town.

“It’s been very gratifying, not only as mayor but as a lifelong resident, to see what a small community can do when everybody gets involved,” he continued. “Everybody doesn’t have to do everything, but I think most people have to do something to support the folks who are trying to get things done.”

Just prior to delivering his speech, Williams welcomed residents and guests to what he said was a joyous occasion.

“As anyone who is familiar with Berlin’s history, our community has several different years that can all be properly termed the origins of today’s Berlin,” he said.

“So, whether you point to the 300-acre land grant that dates to 1677, known as the Burley tract, the development of the Burley Plantation and opening of the plantation’s Burleigh Inn guest house and tavern in 1683, or the many other historic markers that have endured the test of time, we see an enduring story line of an innovative, resilient, community that in good times and bad has always successfully adapted to changing times.

“Although our community’s beginning is largely owed to the creation of a successful classic southern plantation, the first major test of our endurance and determination to overcome adversity, came immediately after the end of the Civil War.

“With the plantation system gone, residents of this community determined their future rested with the creation of an incorporated town.

“After the opening of Town Hall in 1867, in less than year the Town of Berlin was formerly chartered in 1868.

“Within a generation, Berlin built upon its agricultural heritage with the opening of Harrisons Nurseries. In just a few years, Harrisons Nurseries grew into what was the largest employer in town and for several decades the largest grower of fruit trees in the world.

“This first revitalization of our town’s economy soon led to the opening of the Calvin B. Taylor Bank in Berlin, today the largest locally owned bank in Worcester County.

“Berlin became a hub of commerce and trade through the early years of the 20th Century until the Great Depression of the early 1930s, when once again Berlin’s economy was challenged to its foundations.

“Like thousands and thousands of towns throughout America, Berlin endured the double impact of the Great Depression, which included both the national financial crisis and the mass migration of populations from rural areas to cities across America.

“There were committed efforts to modernize in many ways, including the popular belief after World War II, that to be a modern, vibrant community, it was very important to remove, or cover over, the architecture of earlier times.

“Berlin energetically went about covering over our downtown buildings with either Form Stone – tin – or other coatings considered more contemporary in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Even the Atlantic Hotel, which had fallen on very hard times, was blocked out of sight by a more modern commercial building.

“But it did not take long for community leaders and citizens of all stripes to soon realize that in our well-intended efforts to modernize, we had lost much of our historical and architectural heritage.

“There was an understanding that the more our town tried to be like the rest of the country, the less we became Berlin.

“With typical Berlin determination some Main Street property owners started restoring downtown buildings to their original, authentic architecture. The initial momentum created by the restoration, of what is known today as Renaissance Plaza, was shortly followed by effort to save the Atlantic Hotel.

“Embracing National Historic standards, a group of 10 local investors, all longtime local families, unselfishly and with great foresight, came forward to save the historic Atlantic Hotel from being demolished.

“The belief of these Berlin families, motivated not for profit but for what would be best for Berlin, became the tipping point in the revitalization of our town.

“This important investment in our town’s future created a momentum and movement towards the rediscovery of Berlin’s historic architectural and cultural heritage that continues today.

“The continuing story of Berlin overcoming not only change, but adversity, is very much a part of our community’s DNA.

“It is clearly evident that this can-do spirit of not only overcoming challenges brought on by change, but also the commitment to not give up our history, culture or appreciation for our natural environment, are the foundation of our Town of Berlin’s ongoing legacy, as we pass the torch from one generation to another.

“Berlin is not backward, but we are most certainly resilient.

“In the early years of the 21st Century, we have embraced a transition where we willingly share our community with people of all backgrounds and origins who also share our traditional All-American values.

“These values are based on mutual respect, tolerance and a belief that we can build a better community together than we ever could solely as individuals.

“We have a wonderful melting pot where your importance to our Berlin today – and tomorrow – is not based on how long you have lived here, but on how much you share in our common commitment to be actively involved in not only making out town a great place to live and work today, but for the generations that will follow.

“Such a commitment is often associated with traditional families, but with the complexity and speed of change in contemporary American life, our extended family of Berlin is becoming a community that is welcoming, diverse, optimistic and yes, in these early years of the 21st Century, even younger.

“Our values have influenced not only our endurance, but also by the potential for our future.

“In Berlin – we honor our past, but we don’t live in it.

“In Berlin – as long as you are not annoying anyone, or breaking the law, we will tolerate almost anything – except intolerance.

“In Berlin – we understand that just because we choose to live in a small town, does not mean we choose to live in a small world.

“In Berlin – we realize that just because we are a small town, we are never too small to lead by example.

“Looking forward to our 200th Anniversary – 50 years from now – we can truly say, based on our past and our present, with optimism and confidence, that for our Berlin, ‘The Best is Yet to Come!’”