The Sea Mist Beach Resort
Cape May NJ
2008

Cape May is a city and seaside resort at the tip of southern New Jersey’s Cape May Peninsula. It’s known for its grand Victorian houses such as the Emlen Physick Estate, now a museum with a preserved interior from the era. Shops and restaurants line the Washington Street Mall, 3 pedestrianized blocks of Washington Street. The Cape May Lighthouse provides views across the Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean.

https://www.capemaymag.com/home-front/architectural-observations/the-sea-mist/

https://www.capemay.com/blog/2002/09/the-sea-mist/

In a 1996 article, the New York Times called The Sea Mist “the architectural equivalent of a Sousa march.” Fitting if one takes into consideration composition, transition and above all, an era. Built as part of the 1873 Cape May Beach Land Company’s marketing promotion, lots along the beachfront were sold for as little as $1.00 in effort to settle the area. Not far down Beach Avenue, John Philip Sousa was playing his “Congress Hall March” in front of summer guests — visitors enjoying cool sea breezes at the height of a hot summer. Families who might consider owning a summer house as an indispensable retreat.

The Sea Mist today looms large on the Cape May beachfront. Whether viewed from land or sea, this red and white “steamboat-style” building with its unique widow’s walk is one of Cape May’s most photographed houses. Originally two stories tall, and used as a summer house, its subsequent nine owners built upwards and around and behind the building each adding his own “harmonic chord.” One can see the different stages of outside development through its porches and windows and inside still stand one section of the original dove-tailed wooden exterior.

A summer house well into the 1960s, subsequent owners turned the building into efficiencies and apartments delighting guests with ocean front views and summer breezes. Current and tenth owner Fernando Tamilio continues this tradition each year improving and upgrading the building’s efficiencies and apartments and have now turned it into a year-round facility promoting the off-season as well as the summer.

https://www.capemay.com/blog/2007/04/a-glamorous-makeover-for-the-sea-mist/


Built in 1873 as part of a promotion to develop the east end of the island, The Sea Mist will be restored as everyone remembers her, complete with cupola and a red and white exterior.
Sharer, who is the eleventh owner of the Sea Mist, said great pains were taken to look at old pictures of the house and restore The Sea Mist to her original likeness. Well, not exactly original. Most people don’t know this but, the ORIGINAL Sea Mist was not your standard Victorian. It was, for example, only two stories high. The mansard roof, which functions as another floor, and the cupola were all added in 1962 after the March nor’easter by building contractor/owner Fred Morrison.
According to Morrison’s daughter, Susan Morrison Teitelman, “My father was excited about the prospect of turning this once grand house into a business that would allow his family to spend the summers in Cape May. By the following summer, The Sea Mist was open for business.”
Although the interior walls were changed by subsequent owners, Morrison, who died in 1999, is responsible for the look so many of us think of as being quintessential Cape May. The house is, in fact, the most photographed house in Cape May.