February 10th, 2013
The Rehoboth Beach Museum is the home of the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society. It is located at 511 Rehoboth Avenue. Winter hours are Monday, Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Regular admission is $5 for adults; $3 for seniors, college students and military; $2 for children ages 13-17. Members and children 12 and under are free. Tel. 302-227-7310. Website? http://www.rehobothbeachmuseum.org.
Having lived at the Delaware Beaches for so many years, visiting the local museums, where you can unlock the past so that you can see where we are going, is a must if you are visiting or living, here at the beach. I know, I know, the beach, restaurants, and shops are probably what you are coming to the beach for…these museums will not take a long time. You never know, you might be retiring to the Delaware Beaches; low property taxes and tax free shopping!!!
The Rehoboth Beach Historical Society’s mission is “to preserve and showcase artifacts that illustrate the development of our beautiful city by the sea”.
Until March 17h, the exhibit currently on display is “WWII: Rehoboth Beach” – In Rehoboth there were Coast Guardsmen on horseback, a Civil Air Patrol airfield…the Civil Air Patrol pilots kept our waters safe from the enemy. There were also blackouts and stage door canteens. You can view at the Museum the artifacts that help tell the story of a beach town during the war. A 1940’s kitchen, listen to the music of the Mills Brothers and the Tommy Dorsey Band. Children visiting the Museum can learn how to send a Morse Code. And you can grab a recipe for creamed chipped beef on toast!!
Thursday, February 14th – Valentine’s Day Stage Door Canteen, a Valentine’s Day Musical Revue. The response has been overwhelming, so, instead of holding it at the Rehoboth Museum, it has been moved to Clear Space Theatre located at 20 Baltimore Avenue in downtown Rehoboth Beach, It will start at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $14 (cash or check only for that night) in honor of the holiday and light refreshments will be served. A cash bar will be available, as well. Please call 302-227-7310 to reserve your seat.
This performance concurs with the WWII exhibit on display at the Rehoboth Museum. Clear Space, http://www.clearspacetheatre.org, will take the audience on a sentimental journey to another era with a presentation of popular wartime songs; Chattanooga Choo-Choo, You’ll Never Know, and I’ll Be Seeing You.
Stage Canteens were special clubs and the guests were the steady stream of GIs headed off to war. Many were leaving home for the first time and the Canteens offered a welcome opportunity to forget their anxieties, if only for a time, with entertainment, fellowship and a little American spirit.
Friday, March 8th – Documentary, “Top Secret Rosies”, in honor of Women’s History Month in March, at the Rehoboth Beach Museum located at 511 Rehoboth Avenue, by the roundabout. The documentary will start at 7:00 p.m. in the museum’s Cooper Gallery. Please note that reservations are required for this event, since the space is limited. All you have to do is call 302-227-7310 and make the reservation. Light refreshments will be served. Free for members of the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society and $5 donation from non-members.
The film was produced and directed by Leann Erickson. The film explores, with four of the “Top Secret Rosies” the importance of their role in the Allied successes. The 4 vastly different women share what it was like as a human computer and how they sometimes worked night, day and night again. It was up to these women to make sure those in the air and on the battle grounds received the accurate calculations needed to achieve success in hitting their targets.
Have a great day!! Talk to you later.
August 1st, 2011
The Rehoboth Beach Museum was opened to the public in 2007. I think that for most of us that love Rehoboth Beach and promote it, the Museum gives us a starting point in order to show our friends and families that visit, what a gem this town has become. A visit to the Museum will show you Rehoboth then; you are already experiencing what it is now. So, why not dive into the local history of our town and see why so many call Rehoboth Beach “The Nation’s Summer Capital”.
Both, the Rehoboth Beach Museum and the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society call home the Old Ice House, which is near the canal. John A. Lingo built the first wooden ice house at that location in 1912. At the time, ice was harvested from Silver Lake, in Rehoboth Beach. While visiting the Rehoboth Beach Museum you will be able to see the Lingo’s Family Bible on display as you come in.
The location for the Museum is 511 Rehoboth Avenue, right by the roundabout, and next to the Rehoboth Beach Chamber of Commerce Visitors’ Center. The tel. is 302-227-7310 and the website is www.rehobothbeachmuseum.org.
The Rehoboth Beach Museum has been busy and these are a few of the upcoming events:
Saturday, August 6th – It is The 6th Annual Rehoboth Museum Beach Ball from 7:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. at Kings Creek Country Club in Rehoboth. There will be great food, silent and live auctions, as well as music by Sol Knopf.
This is a fundraising event to benefit the Rehoboth Beach Museum. The theme for this year’s bash is Surf’s Up! The attire is Surfer Chic. For more info., please call 302-227-7310. You can purchase tickets online by visiting www.rehobothbeachmuseum.org.
Skimming the Surface Exhibit
Wednesday, August 10th – Surf Talk at 6:00 p.m. – A lively panel discussion about surfing off the Delaware Coast in the 1960s and 1970s.
Longtime local surfers Gary Revel and Neil Stevenson will be joined by Eastern Surfer shop owner George Pittman and others who made the Delaware surf scene a lively one. The informal discussion will be moderated by Terry Plowman, publisher of Delaware Beach Life magazine.
Light refreshments will be served. Please call 302-227-7310 to reserve a space. Admission will be $3. Free parking available.
Continuing with the “surfing” theme is the Museum’s newest exhibit “Skimming the Surface: Surfing, Skimboarding and Floating Off the Delaware Coast”. The exhibit is a celebration of the surfing community that was along the Delaware coast during the 1960s and 1970s. Some of these surfers made their mark on the regional surf scene.
I stopped to check it out. You will see surfboards and surfing related items from those years; boards that were used for fun and competition in regional contests by local surfers.
Skimboards from the 1940s through the 1980s help tell the story of the development of skimboarding, particularly in Dewey Beach. Photos, surfing accessories, a vintage inflatable raft, among other items, provide a peek into the past. For more information, please check the website above mentioned.
Besides the Skimming the Surface exhibit, the Museum has a Funland exhibit. If you grew up in Rehoboth Beach, have vacationed here with kids, or have had your kids grow up here, then, I am sure you took them to Funland. Lots of rides, food and games, right on the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk.
Part of the original train is at the exhibit, beautifully preserved.
Information on the Old Ice House is also available. Did you know that before household refrigerators were common, people would store their watermelons at the ice house for 25 cents? They would carve their initials for identification.
The Rehoboth Beach Historical Society celebrates this tradition with the Annual Watermelon Festival, which will take place on Saturday, August 13th in Grove Park from 3 – 6 p.m. Admission is $3 for ages 13 and older, $2 for children 5 to 12. Children 4 and younger are free. Admission to the festival also includes admission to the Rehoboth Beach Museum.
There will music from 3-4 p.m., 4-5 p.m. watermelon eating contests by age and from 5-6 p.m. watermelon seed spitting contests by age. Hula Hooping and Paddle Ball, as well.
The Rehoboth Museum is a very manageable museum. I know you want to be on the beach but I assure you, it will be worth visiting.
Rehoboth Then
Note: Information for this post was taken from the Exhibit itself and from other literature available at the Rehoboth Beach Museum.
Have a good one….talk to you…later…
April 23rd, 2010
Avery's Rest - Archaeological Site
“No research is the end; it is the beginning. New and different questions come up. New areas to explore present themselves.”
With this in mind I went to preview the new exhibit in the Rehoboth Museum called Captain John and Sarah Avery or Avery’s Rest.
The Rehoboth Beach Museum is located at 511 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971. Website is rbhistoricalsociety@verizon.net and the telephone is 302-227-7310. Nancy Alexander is the Director.
Inside the Rehoboth Museum
Until I was invited to this event, I really did not have any idea that there was an archaeological dig in our area. And, that it has been operating for a few years. It does not surprise me. Afterall, in 1682 there were only 59 landowners in this area. What is good about this area is that since it has been mainly farm land, it has only been touched a bit. Once you are below the plowed zone you can start finding artifcacts untouched for 300 years, as is the case with Avery’s Rest.
The exhibit is only about 1% of what the archaeologists have found. They have chosen the ones that will be of most interest, showcasing life in the 17th century.
Through the recovery, survey, excavation and then analysis of materials left behind, we can study the past when there are no written records for historians to study.
It seems that the Avery’s were first in Massachusetts, then Maryland and then Delaware. During his lifetime his activities and appointments would be many. He was considered a wealthy man, being that he was a plantation owner; 800 acres. His wife, Sarah was the first recorded school teacher in the Colony of Maryland.
The artifacts found represent daily life. Others, reveal site specific activities.
Among the findings that caught my attention was a Piece of 8 which was the Spanish dollar. It is a silver coin that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. Only 2 other coins were found in the dig. The Piece of 8 is of particular interest since it has to have come from John Avery himself. There were no coins, really. Tobacco was the means of exchange. But, John Avery was a master of the Sloop “Prosperous”, which was a Somerset County ship sailing from Maryland to the island of Barbados.
Piece of Eight - The Silver Coin behind the key
A key was found in the basement, down the steps. Probably there must have been a door.
John Avery had 2 slaves, but he employed Indians to work for him. There are arrowheads found in the dig; one was made out of glass. Definitely the glass did not come from the Indians.
The well shaft casing was so well constructed. Only a man of means could have ordered that.
The Well
They do not think that the main house is where the dig is at the moment due to the fact that they could not find a source of heat. Definitely needed in those times.
I was asking what was the excitement on the field when someone would discover an artifact. Apparently, it is big. But a lot of work has to be done before it comes out of the dirt. Once that happens, it is totally disturbed. The critical pieces would be artifacts made out of iron. They need to be preserved, so the elements do not destroy them.
Pig Jaw Being Excavated
The site has not been made public in order to be kept undisturbed.
On the left, basement where key was found, Right shows below the plowed line
So many hours. All volunteers.
The two people I spoke to were John Bansch, President of the Sussex County Chapter of the Archaeological Society of Delaware. Website is www.delawarearchaeology.org. Tel. 302-841-9915. E-mail is beach-home@verizon.net.
Even though the work is done by volunteers, donations are needed in order for the conservancy to survive. John will be more than happy to talk to corporate or individuals if you are interested in contributions.
The other person was Daniel R. Griffith of Griffith Archaeology Consulting (Archaeological Survey & Research). Tel. 302-335-4286, cell 302-242-3918 and e-mail addres is danielgriffith@comcast.net.
Mr. Griffith is the principal Archaeologist on the dig and is passionate about his work.
I just cannot imagine living the 17th century. This was a frontier culture. Diverse societies were in transition. It would have been such a harsh life.
The Rehoboth Beach Museum should be so proud to be able to make this exhibit available. And, us, what can I say, we are so lucky to have it.
Word of mouth is a powerful advertising tool, so pass this info. around. Rehoboth Beach is a community with a rich history; it would be such a shame if you would leave our beaches without knowing a little bit of it.
Talk to you later……….
Note: Information for this post was taken from the Rehoboth Museum Press Release, and from http://community-2.webtv.net/coranglais53/averyofdelaware/
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