Holiday tour showcases Ocean City’s historic gems

Tom and Misty Boris had their hearts set on buying an old home when they were house hunting in Ocean City in 2018.

Not only did they find the type of old home that they wanted, but it also turned out to be one that is historically significant.

According to their research, their Folk Victorian-style house at 705 Central Avenue was built in 1891 by John Parker Miller, who was considered to be the first permanent resident of Ocean City. It is believed that Miller built the house as a wedding gift for his daughter, Elizabeth.

Visitors got a glimpse of the home’s late-1800’s charm when it was included on a holiday tour of historic houses and businesses in Ocean City on the night of Dec. 6.

Altogether, the three-hour, self-guided tour hosted by the community group Friends of OCNJ History & Culture showcased 18 of the city’s historic and architectural gems that date back to the Victorian and Edwardian eras, as well as the Roaring Twenties.

The three-story, 11-room Folk Victorian owned by Tom and Misty Boris was one of the older houses featured in the tour.

“Everyone is saying that it seems very homey,” Misty Boris said while welcoming a steady stream of guests.

    Misty and Tom Boris show off the Christmas tree in the living room of their Folk Victorian home.
  

Among the decorations, the front of the house sparkled with multi-colored lights. Inside, it was adorned with Christmas stockings hanging from the living room fireplace, garland strung above the dining room, wreaths on the walls and toy soldier figurines from “The Nutcracker.”

“I think it’s great getting a look inside the old homes like this one. It’s charming,” Ocean City resident Steve Lesser said while touring the Boris residence.

Tom Boris noted that the old house was generally in good shape when he and Misty bought it, but it did require some TLC. The married couple split their time 50/50 in Ocean City and at their other home in Palmyra, N.J.

“We were looking for an old house,” Tom Boris said, recalling when he and Misty bought the Ocean City home.

Their research on the home revealed the ties to John Parker Miller, an insurance agent who first came to Ocean City to investigate the spate of shipwrecks occurring along the coast in the late-1800s.

“He liked it so much that he decided to stay here,” Tom Boris said of Miller, who is listed in historic records as being the first non-native permanent resident of Ocean City.

Although fancy and modern vacation homes are in vogue in Ocean City these days, the resort town also has a large number of historic houses.

A stroll along the tree-lined streets of Ocean City’s Historic District reveals a collection of alluring homes from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Among them are Folk Victorian, Queen Anne, Dutch Colonial Revival, Italianate and Second Empire houses reflecting the architectural styles popular in the Victorian and Edwardian eras that bookended Ocean City’s founding by a group of Methodist ministers in 1879 as a religious seaside resort.

One of the reasons that the community group Friends of OCNJ History & Culture has hosted the holiday home tour for three straight years is to make people more aware of the city’s historic beauties.

Sne Avichal, a founding board member of the Friends of OCNJ History & Culture group and innkeeper at the historic Scarborough Inn, said the typical reaction of visitors on the tour is one of surprise.

“Almost everybody, even people who are born and raised here, said they had no idea that Ocean City had this many homes that were historic,” Avichal said. “There's a mythology that Ocean City used to have old homes, but they're all mostly demolished and gone now.”

There are more than 1,300 homes in Ocean City that are at least 100 years old, he noted.

    Sne Avichal, innkeeper at the historic Scarborough Inn, stands in front of the hotel's festively decorated fireplace.
  

The historic home tour proved immensely popular from the start and could easily have reached 2,000 tickets, but it is capped at 400 tickets each year because several of the houses are too small to accommodate larger crowds, he explained

The Victorian-style Scarborough Inn, where Avichal oversees operations as innkeeper, was one of businesses on the tour. It dates to 1895 and is considered Ocean City’s oldest surviving hotel. Other hotels from the 1800s succumbed to fires, destructive storms and the wrecking ball to make way for new construction.

Avichal said visitors typically are surprised to learn that the Scarborough Inn, at 720 Ocean Avenue, remains in such beautiful condition when they see it for the first time.

Scarborough Inn is one of the properties located in the city’s Historic District, which roughly stretches from Third to Eighth streets and includes Wesley, Ocean, and Central avenues within those borders.

However, Ocean City also has old homes that fall outside the Historic District. One intriguing enclave of older homes is along Wovern Place on “Dollhouse Row,” a name inspired by the tiny size of the quaint houses there.

Two Dollhouse Row homes were featured on the holiday historic home tour, one at 1428 Wovern Place and the other at 1432 Wovern Place. Each one dates to the 1920s.

    Ginny Chappell is the owner of the quaint home at 1428 Wovern Place on Dollhouse Row.
  

Ginny Chappell, 56, the owner of the house at 1428 Wovern Place, joyfully recalled when she bought her home for $510,000 on April 14, 2021.

“That date is special to me,” she said. “I had wanted one of these Dollhouse Row homes since I was in my 20s. It definitely was a dream of mine.”

“First of all, I have a love affair with older, historic homes,” she continued. “I fell in love with this street.”

Her two-story house includes two bedrooms and one bathroom within 800 square feet of living space. It dates to 1927.

Chappell has meticulously furnished and decorated the house. It was dressed up for the holiday tour with an assortment of outdoor lights, a Christmas tree and other decorations.

“There isn’t a thing in this house that hasn’t been agonizingly thought out,” Chappell said.

Next door at 1432 Wovern Place, owner Elaine Hepkin was welcoming tour takers to her comfy, Dutch Colonial-inspired Dollhouse Row cottage built in 1927.

Hepkin bought the 800-square-foot home in 2019 for $338,000, beating the surge in shore home prices that followed the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

“When I bought it in 2019, I totally gutted this house from top to bottom,” she explained of the extensive renovations.

    Christmas wreaths and white lights decorate the front of the Dollhouse Row home at 1432 Wovern Place.
  

The tour brought plenty of admirers to Hepkin’s house, including Kate Federico and her mother, Kathleen Federico.

Kate Federico, of Corbin City, said Hepkin’s house was her favorite among all of the historic homes she toured in Ocean City.

“I’ve always loved small spaces, and this home is exquisite,” Federico said as her mother shook her head in agreement. “It’s intimate, it’s interesting and it’s inspirational.”

    The Boris residence glows in green and red Christmas lights for the holiday tour.
  

    From left, tour visitors Jean Pendergraft and Jennifer Palermo speak with Misty Boris about her historic home.
  

    Christmas stockings adorn the festively decorated fireplace at the Boris residence at 705 Central Avenue.
  

    Tom Boris shows the historic records tying his 1891 home to John Parker Miller, who was considered the first permanent resident of Ocean City.
  

    Elaine Hepkin, right, owner of the Dollhouse Row home at 1432 Wovern Place, greets visitors Kathleen and Kate Federico during the tour.
  

    Visitors are greeted by Christmas trees decorated with white lights at the Dollhouse Row home at 1428 Wovern Place.
  

    A flyer lists the locations of the 18 historic homes and businesses featured in the holiday tour.