OCEAN CITY, MD – A piece of Ocean City history is coming down as demolition is underway at the Beach Plaza Hotel, a landmark that has stood since 1953.
Once a bustling destination for families and vacationers, the hotel is now reduced to a skeletal frame and piles of rubble. For over 70 years, it provided a place for visitors to create lasting memories.
Local historian Bunk Mann says the Beach Plaza Hotel played a key role in Ocean City’s transformation.
“Some wonderful architecture, a lot of the old hotels were built at the turn of the last century,” Mann said. “This was the first really modern-looking hotel in Ocean City.”
For a time, the hotel was set to become a Margaritaville-branded resort, as evidenced by an image of the late Jimmy Buffett still standing amid the debris. However, Town Manager Terry McGean confirmed that while a site plan for a new hotel has been approved, it is not under the Margaritaville name, and no building permits have been submitted.
Among those watching the demolition today was Laslo Germon, who once worked at the Beach Plaza. He expressed mixed emotions about seeing the landmark disappear, but excitement for the future,
“You think of all the old memories and how much we enjoyed it, and then now creating new memories." Germon sad, "People are gonna have things to think of just like we did from the time before it,” Germon said.
Mann says the hotel was once a symbol of class along the Ocean City Boardwalk. He says its departure is part of an long-term and ongoing transformation of the resort town.
“End of an era really to see this hotel go down,” Mann said. “There won’t be many like it, I don’t think, ever again.”