By Julia Train
Friends of OCNJ History and Culture hosted their first Historic Homes Garden Tour to promote historic homes in Ocean City and create interest in renovating them, instead of tearing them down.
“We thought this was a way to get people out and about walking around, looking at them and showcasing some of the gardens that we’ve all worked hard on,” said Nancy Notaro, a board member.
The tour featured 11 homes throughout the island that were built before 1957.
Friends of OCNJ History and Culture is a nonprofit consisting of historic home owners and history enthusiasts dedicated to educating and inspiring people to save and preserve the old homes and buildings.
“We want to not just promote history, but the culture of Ocean City,” said Notaro.
At the nonprofit’s launch on Aug. 2, they gave away 10 free tickets to see “Grease” at the Ocean City Music Pier.
Notaro is a gardener herself and has lived on the island for 40 years. She likes to visit other towns and tour gardens and thought it would be a good idea to host one in hers.
“I grew up in an old home, and now I own and live in an old home. I just have always had an interest in history, and I really appreciate the history of Ocean City and [it] being a dry town founded by the Methodist ministers and the tabernacle here,” Notaro said. “All of that is just important to me, and why I fell in love with the town, and why a lot of other people fall in love with the town.”
On the free tour, there are two paths– the Purple and Green Routes.
The Purple Route had five gardens and ran along 11th Street from Central Avenue to Bay Avenue at 10th Street. The Green Route featured six homes and ran from 4th and Central to Ocean Road, then to East Atlantic to First Street.
1101 Central Ave.
“Pollinators’ Paradise”
Gardener: Nancy F Notaro
It took Notaro 12 years to sift through stones using a kitchen colander and replace them with dirt, flowers and trees at her almost-100-year-old home.
The hydrangeas and daylilies featured in her garden were saved and transplanted from tear-down homes. There are also wildflowers that reseed themselves.
There’s a ceiling fan turned into a flower, “Jack in the Beanstalk” climbing the tree above a purple bike and a bowling ball with eyelashes.
In her driveway, there’s a garden in an old soapstone sink from the cellar of Ocean City’s First Presbyterian Church Manse.
1114 Central Ave.
“Railway Garden”
Gardeners: Bob and Patti Haigh
This house is the center of the three cottages, built in 1894 for Mr. Burleigh’s three daughters. Purchased in 1993, the small garden was a patch of half-dead grass.
Among a plethora of flowers, there are five train tracks and a lighthouse.
1113 Simpson Ave.
“Nostalgia In Bloom”
Gardener: Patti Schauffele
This home, built in 1903, was voted “Best in Show” for the Purple Route.
The eclectic cottage garden includes 22 different types of flowers, a few varieties of trees and bushes and a spruce pine that is between 65 and 100 years old.
Among the dense variety of plants, the garden also holds bits of old dishes, tea cups, bird houses and shells.
There are also lace-decorated stepping stones and solar-powered water features.
4 E. 11th St.
“Hidden Oasis Tropical Garden”
Gardener: Holly Kisby
This row home was built in 1942.
In the last five years, Kisby has tried lots of different types of flowers, but has come to love cannas, elephant ears and banana trees. She has a plumeria tree from her parent’s home, both who passed away in 2021.
“The garden is definitely a nod to my parents. They loved coming over to see my flowers, especially since they worked so hard to remove the weeds and vines,” Kisby wrote in the home’s description on the map provided to Garden Tour attendees.
10 West 10th St.
“Blossoms of Glen Cove Lagoon”
Gardener: Beverly Neal
This home was built in 1900, originally located where the coal barges docked to deliver their coal but moved to where it is now before 1925.
Neal purchased the house 40 years ago and began building the garden, which includes a freshwater pond, bird house and bird feeder. It has high grasses and shrubs, as well as a colorful variety of flowers.
Two red crepe myrtles are on each side of the home and morning glories climb up the posts to frame the porch.
408-10 Central Ave.
“PermaLifeStyle Garden”
Gardener: Helen Plourde- McSweeny
Everything in the PermaLifeStyle garden is impermanent, continuously shifting like the tides and the seasons.
There’s a wide variety of flowers, including sunflowers that reach the top of her second-floor porch.
122 Ocean Ave.
“Madelyn’s Courtyard”
Gardener: Sandy Simpson
This home, built in 1928, features pinks, peaches, yellows, purples and whites.
22 Ocean Road
“Sage Whale Cottage”
Gardener: Gail Thompson
Built sometime in the 1920s, this house has plant-filled window boxes, rose-covered arbors, cottage beds and a concrete whale. Also featured are old fashioned four o’ clocks and irises.
105 East Atlantic Blvd
“Sandy Haven Homestead”
Gardener: Amy Havens
Built in 1929, this home was voted “Best in Show” for the green route.
Its front lawn is covered in green. The garden encircles a concrete ring installed by Harold Sandberg. There’s a wooden longboat bed, built from dumpster scraps, a steel and stainless dancer, flagstones and numerous perennials.
There are two hydrangeas and a rose, daylilies and hostas.
This garden features both flowers and produce, with the curb strip recently depaved for peach and apple trees, underplanted with perennial herbs and flowers, and cover-cropped with alfalfa.
On the upstairs deck, there are watermelons, sweet potatoes, luffa, cotton, sunflowers and tulsi.
123 East Atlantic Blvd
“My Happy Place”
Gardener: Judith Schalk
This 104-year-old Colonial Revival features a front garden covered with sedum, in lieu of a fence. There are lavender and orange lilacs and lilies and lavender plants in the beds along with other perennials.
The back garden has the same perennials as the front as well as mint and several statues.
843A 1st St.
“Miss Rosie’s Gardens”
Gardener: Dawn Buckley
Built in the early 1900s, Miss Rosie’s Garden transformed from three tattered shrubs in front of the porch to a colorful perennial garden of rose trees, roses, daylilies, lavender, different colors and phases of hydrangea and occasionally hibiscus.
