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 Wildwood Historical Museum 

SHOULDER SEASON HOURS
April to Memorial Day, and Labor Day to Halloween: 
Fridays and Saturdays 10 am - 3 pm; Sundays 12-5 pm
Closed Easter Sunday
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SUMMER HOURS
Memorial Day to Labor Day
Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 
10 am - 3 pm; Sundays 12-5 pm. Closed Tuesdays
Closed on Memorial Day and Labor Day
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CLOSED IN THE WINTER
We open seasonally. We close every year from November to March.


Museum Minutes

Street Sign Auction Updates

Early this summer we auctioned off about 80 street signs from Pacific Avenue intersections. It was our most profitable auction yet, netting about $14,000 for the nonprofit Wildwood Historical Society. We are incredibly grateful to the City of Wildwood Public Works department for their generosity in donating old signs to us.

For the past few years, the city has been replacing worn out old street signs with new, more visible ones and donating the old ones to us. Previously, in 2021, black-and-white street signs from streets like Hudson and Arctic brought in about $11,000, and in 2020, signs from New Jersey and Atlantic totaled around $12,000. Our auctions were so popular that towns like Wildwood Crest and Sea Isle City recently sold their old signs as fundraisers rather than throwing them away. 

We will have another eBay auction in 2023 with streets like Susquehanna, Lake and more from the bayside. Don’t miss out! Check wildwoodhistoricalmuseum.com in early April/May 2023 for dates, times and starting bids. Our auctions generally last from mid-May to mid-June, so don’t forget to check our website early!

Open House honoring board members

Past and present board members Al Brannen, Larry Lillo, Bob Scully and Anne Vinci will be honored at a free fall open house, date to be announced but likely in either September or October. We hope you will check WildwoodHistoricalMuseum.com or facebook.com/wwhistoricalsociety in August for the date announcement. Friends, family and fans are welcome to join in celebration while learning how the four contributed to the historical society. Refreshments will be served.

We Need Volunteers

Join the Wildwood Historical Society volunteer team and experience our museum from a new angle! We are seeking volunteers to help out on day to day projects like greeting and guiding visitors, organizing and cleaning, and more. If you have skills in organization, building care and maintenance, day-to-day cleaning, clerical work, customer service, or retail, or if you have interest in joining our digital preservation team, we want you! You choose how many hours and what hours you’d like to work; extremely flexible to schedule.

Whether you’re local or seasonal, we welcome you. To inquire, call 609-523-0277, email wildwoodhistoricalsociety@hotmail.com or drop in at 3907 Pacific Ave in Wildwood. For hours, visit wildwoodhistoricalmuseum.com

Seeking Stories from Veterans’ Families  

Wildwood Historical Society is looking for short biographies about the Wildwoods’ veterans in all branches and in all wars. We are putting together a comprehensive collection for the museum, so if you are a veteran or you have/had a veteran in your family, please send any photos plus 1-2 paragraphs about their life to wildwoodhistoricalsociety@hotmail.com. We thank you for your help and to all veterans for their service. 

New Products

All of these new products are available in our gift shop at 3907 Pacific Ave, Wildwood NJ during our hours of operation. They can be purchased online and shipped anytime of year at wildwoodhistoricalmuseum.com/shop.

Castle Dracula Employee Handbook: Illustrated 

Hundreds of visitors passed through the museum August 13 for the Castle Dracula Reunion and Celebration! Mike Jasorka signed about 70 copies of his new Castle Dracula Employee Handbook: Illustrated ($25.) Angelo Nickels, founder of Nickel’s Midway Pier who built Castle Dracula, also signed autographs and recounted stories of the castle. Michael Yannette provided a 20th Anniversary Castle Dracula backdrop and sold dark ride prints (now available in our gift shop!) Keith Shepherd brought his artwork and a real griffin from the castle. Jim Paula brought a link from the drawbridge chain. Mr. Nickels autographed both artifacts.  Al Brannen brought a Dracula figure from the Shamrock Cafe and Kirk Hastings brought a replica of the yellow and red flags that adorned the castle. Thank you to everyone who made this event a success. 

Motels of Wildwood: Postwar to Present release party a success

Thanks to everyone who supported Jackson Betz’s April 30 book release party for his new definitive release Motels of Wildwood: Postwar to Present! Betz is a board member with the historical society and we are proud of his comprehensive work. The book’s cover price is $25. We quickly sold out of our first 70 autographed copies and had to order more! Get yours today. 

Architectural Coloring Book

Preserving the Wildwoods: A Community Alliance’ new Historic Architectural Styles of the Wildwoods coloring book for all ages is available for just $5. Featuring sketches of Victorian, Craftsman, Spanish Mission and more styles throughout the Wildwoods. Proceeds are shared with the historical society. Your purchase benefits two nonprofits!

Doo Wop City Calendar

This 2023 calendar is also a 1967 calendar! Full of photos and stories of Wildwoods landmarks featuring midcentury model Stella Star. Makes a great gift! The collectible 2022/1966 calendar is also available. $15.

Local Historical Fiction by Laura Quinn

A limited number of signed paperbacks of this new novel are now available for purchase at our gift shop and on our website. Best described as “Titanic meets Boardwalk Empire,” Thicker Than Water is the first novel in a historical fiction trilogy set in Wildwood and Cape May, at the onset of World War One.

Readers are also treated to such endearing Gilded Age Philadelphia locales as Shibe Park, Boathouse Row, Reading Terminal Market, the Bellevue-Stratford hotel, and John Wanamaker’s. Grab your copy today! $20.99.

Stay in touch all year long

There are so many more announcements and thank yous that we couldn’t fit here. Follow us on facebook.com/wwhistoricalsociety, instagram.com/wildwoodhistoricalsociety and twitter.com/wwhistoricalsoc for updates on donations, events, gift shop additions and more. Subscribe to our free monthly e-newsletter at https://pst.cr/eGw5r. Thank you to all our generous supporters and followers.

The Sad Morning

By Rob Ascough, Treasurer



Despite the frantic nature of the moment, it’s a joyous one – the conversation with the owners covering what everyone did during the winter months, the unloading of the car stuffed to the near-breaking point of the windows, and the unpacking of its contents into motel room drawers, cabinets, and closets. It’s the day when you first make eye contact with your neighbors – the people you’ll pass countless times, nodding at with friendly smiles as they sit outside their rooms either reading, drinking, or staring calmly into some point in the distance. If you’re like me who’s yet to establish some sort of island residency, the downside to time spent in The Wildwood is the eventual end to time to spent in The Wildwoods.
All good things must come to an end, which implies the arrival of The Sad Morning.
In shoe boxes somewhere, perhaps in my parents’ basement or maybe even my own, exist photographic memories of these summer vacations. I know there are quite a few having been taken of me on the last day – my mother’s way of documenting my vertical growth across the years? In many of the photos, I’m standing in front of the door to our Cape Cod Inn motel room, and more often than not there is a red puffiness to my eyes – no doubt the result of earlier tears spilled over the thought of our vacation time coming to an end. The temporary nature of it – you know we’ll come back next year, my father would always reassure – wasn’t much comfort when staring down a 51-week absence from my favorite place in the world.
One of the great things about being an adult is being able to do as one pleases (within reason, of course) and these days one thing that pleases me a great deal is visiting The Wildwoods quite often. No longer do I have to wait for the second week of July to come around for time there to become tangible (serving as treasurer for the Wildwood Historical Society and having “official business” at the museum conveniently doubles as an excuse to make regular treks down the Garden State Parkway.) Yet despite The Wildwoods being more a part of my life than I could have ever dreamed as a child, there remains the unpleasant sting of time always having to come to an end.
Everything that got unpacked gets packed up once again, and the trunk of the car becomes filled with luggage, leftover bottles of water, and beach chairs, leaving little room for anything else purchased from boardwalk shops or an evening jaunt to Cape May. Walking past neighbors engaging in the same lame dance ritual of moving out of motel rooms, the friendly nods become tainted with regretful frowns – the lament of another vacation having come and gone with unspoken-but-understood words. The motel’s owner handing over the ten dollars for the key deposit provides absolutely no relief in the moment – there is no escaping The Sad Morning.
This Months Picture Collage.......
Arcades
This Months Featured Video
Cheese steak
 

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