South Cape May was a

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

that existed in

Cape May County Cape May County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Much of the county is located on the Cape May peninsula, bound by the Delaware Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and east. Adjacent to the Atlantic ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, United States, from 1894 to 1945. The borough was formed on August 27, 1894, from portions of

Lower Township Lower Township is a township in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township, and all of Cape May County, is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, and is part of the Philadelphia- Wilmington- Camden, PA-NJ- D ...

, based on the results of a referendum held six days earlier.Snyder, John P
''The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968''
Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 115. Accessed October 16, 2012. The borough was heavily wrecked after the 1936

Nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below) is a large-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. Typically, such storms originate as a low ...

, and was ultimately destroyed by the 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane, which hit in September of that year. After the hurricane, the borough was dissolved as of April 30, 1945, and returned to Lower Township. The remaining land not underwater is part of a bird sanctuary (South Cape May Meadows Preserve).South Cape May Meadows

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in ...

. Accessed September 12, 2019. "Situated at the southwest tip of the Cape May peninsula, the South Cape May Meadows Preserve includes more than 200 acres of critical habitat in the globally renowned birding hot-spot of Cape May, New Jersey.... Established in the 1840s, South Cape May was once a Victorian resort town boasting modest vacation cottages until a storm surge washed much of the town away during the 1950s. Today, remnants of the town lie offshore, scattered on the ocean floor."

History

In 1840, a man named Mark Devine bought 89 acres of land. Devine continuously bought parcels of land, eventually owning 225 acres of land stretching from Paterson Avenue in

Cape May Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Th ...

to Cape May Point. In 1882, Theodore M. Reger, an entrepreneur, formed an investment group known as The Cape May City Land Company, where they bought Devine's tract south of Broadway. Reger sought to develop the land, with the goal of

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

seawall A seawall (or sea wall) is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation, ...

construction,

wharves A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( ...

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s, and

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

s. In 1885, Reger built a

Lucy Lucy is an English language, English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings ar ...

-type elephant called the Light of Asia, which housed his real estate office, concessions, and a sightseeing platform. People called the elephant "Jumbo" because of its size, as well as the fact that

Barnum & Bailey Circus The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling, is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth ...

had an elephant named

Jumbo Jumbo (December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and then tr ...

. Due to low visitation, the structure was demolished in 1900. In the 1887, the New Mount Vernon Hotel began construction in order to replace the original Mount Vernon Hotel, which burnt down in 1856 during construction, and would have been the largest hotel in the world. The new hotel was to be smaller than the original, but the plan included cottages that stretched 14 beachfront blocks and 69 blocks all the way to the Cape May Turnpike (currently Sunset Boulevard) in a gridiron pattern. In 1887, a mural of the new hotel was painted on the side of the Light of Asia elephant to advertise it. By 1888, South Cape May consisted of one hotel, 8 cottages, bathhouses, and a two-story pavilion. In 1894, Reger withdrew the tract of land from

to form the borough of South Cape May. Shortly after, Reger and his business partner, James Henry Edmunds, formed another company, the West Cape May Improvement Company, in order to develop the lots and streets within the borough. Between 1892 and 1918, an electric

trolley car A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segment ...

ran through South Cape May to connect it to Cape May. By 1910, the beachfront properties had to be moved inland by a block so they would face the railroad tracks on Mount Vernon Avenue, rather than the ocean. A three-story

boarding house A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...

opened around this time, but most of the land remained a

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

. In 1925, Sunset Boulevard was paved over the gravel Cape May Turnpike due to talks about a

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

forming between Cape May Point and

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

. This led to an influx of development in the area, although the ferry wasn't built until 20 years later in

North Cape May North Cape May is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Lower Township in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2010 United ...

. That same year, several Spanish-villa style cottages were built in South Cape May. There were roughly 50 in the borough, although this only consisted of 5% of the land in the borough. In 1936, a

destroyed many of the cottages in the borough. Finally, the 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane dealt the final blow to the borough. Floodwater went all the way past Sunset Boulevard, leaving any structures either destroyed or uninhabitable. The borough then declared bankruptcy as they had no properties to tax, with the borough being receded back to Lower Township. Later, in 1950, a fierce tidal wave swept through the area, reaching as far as 6th Avenue in West Cape May, ultimately destroying any remaining structures in the former South Cape May, returning the area into the meadow it was prior to development. Today, the remaining land is now home to a

bird sanctuary An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and to be protected for the rest of their lives. In addition, sanctuaries are an experimental staging ground for transformative human–animal relations. There are five types of ...

known as South Cape Meadows, which is adjacent to

Cape May Point State Park Cape May Point State Park is a state park located in Lower Township, New Jersey, with a Cape May Point, New Jersey, Cape May Point postal address. The park offers walking, hiking and nature trails as well as beaches, an exhibit gallery, a range ...

References

Lower Township, New Jersey Geography of Cape May County, New Jersey Former boroughs in New Jersey Ghost towns in New Jersey {{NewJersey-stub