Editing Bethany Beach, Delaware (section)

===The "Quiet Years"===
[[File:Motorboat Allie May.jpg|upright=1.15|thumb|The [[motorboat]] ''Allie May'', which transported passengers between [[Rehoboth Beach, Delaware|Rehoboth Beach]] and Bethany Beach from 1910 to 1912.<ref name="Meehan, p. 44">{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=44}}</ref>]]
[[File:Motorboat Helen Marie II.jpg|upright=1.15|thumb|The motorboat ''Helen Marie II'', which replaced the ''Allie May'' on the Rehoboth Beach-Bethany Beach run in 1912.<ref name="Meehan, p. 44"/>]]
Longtime residents and regular visitors came to refer to Bethany Beach's history prior to the early 1950s as the "Quiet Years". Despite the plans of the town's founders to build one, no railroad ever came to Bethany Beach<ref name=history/> because traffic was insufficient to make such a railroad profitable,<ref name=morgan20160524/> so visitors typically had to travel by train to [[Baltimore]], Maryland, spend the night there, then travel by boat across the [[Chesapeake Bay]] to the Delmarva Peninsula and by train across the peninsula to Rehoboth Beach. Until 1910, they then had to take the [[Steamboat|steamer]] ''Atlantic'' across [[Rehoboth Bay]] and Indian River Bay to Ocean View, and then travel by horsedrawn carriage to Bethany Beach. On July 8, 1910,<ref name="Meehan, p. 44-45">{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|pages=44–45}}</ref> the Loop Canal was completed in Bethany Beach, allowing the [[motorboat]] ''Allie May''—replaced in 1912 by the motorboat ''Helen Marie II''—to dock at the town itself.<ref name="Meehan, p. 44-45"/> Even with this improvement, however, the trip to Bethany Beach was uncomfortable and exhausting and from anywhere outside Delaware took at least a full day; from Pittsburgh it took two.<ref name="Meehan, p. 41">{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=41}}</ref>

Bethany Beach's remote location meant that most beachgoers preferred to visit Rehoboth Beach to the north or [[Ocean City, Maryland|Ocean City]], Maryland, to the south, both of which they could reach directly by train.  The small population of permanent residents of and regular visitors to Bethany Beach came to know one another well, and the town remained a quiet place that contrasted with the busier and more crowded atmosphere of Rehoboth Beach and Ocean City. Throughout the Quiet Years, it was unusual to find more than 20 people on Bethany Beach's wide beach at any one time.<ref name="Meehan, p. 41"/> Bethany Beach's origin as a Christian community also tended to favor a quieter lifestyle; in its early years, for example, the religious character of Bethany Beach was expressed through the prohibition of non-religious activities on Sunday, although swimming in the ocean was permitted on Sundays between 3:00 and 6:00&nbsp;pm.<ref name="Meehan, p. 127"/> Although Bethany Beach became more and more secular and more developed over the years, it retains its "Quiet Resort" reputation to this day.

Many of the property owners during the Quiet Years were from Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh. Those from Pittsburgh tended to have homes in the northern part of Bethany Beach—at least part of which became known as "Little Pittsburgh"<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=51}}</ref> for a time—while Washingtonians tended to build their houses on properties in the southern part of town.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=30}}</ref>
[[File:Bethany Beach north pre-1920.jpg|upright=1.15|thumb|Northern Bethany Beach in the town's early years, with the lifesaving station in the distance. The dark-colored cottage second from right was destroyed by a storm in 1920.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=50}}</ref>]]

During the Quiet Years, Bethany Beach gradually acquired more and more amenities and its government provided more and more services. The Ocean View Post Office established a branch in Bethany Beach in 1904,<ref name="Meehan, p. 147"/> though it appears that a regular mail route including the town was not available until 1922.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5835617/mail_routes_in_sussex_enlarged/|title=Mail Routes in Sussex Enlarged|last=Staff|date=September 30, 1922|work=[[News J.|The News Journal]]|location=Wilmington, Delaware|page=2|url-access=subscription |access-date=July 9, 2016|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> A town newspaper, the ''Bethany Herald'', began publication in 1904; later renamed the ''Bethany Booster'', its name eventually was switched back to ''Bethany Herald'', and it published until the late 1980s.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=149}}</ref> The boardwalk was reconstructed in 1905,<ref name=history/> a [[United States Lifesaving Service]] station began operations in the town in 1907,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|last1=Meehan|first1=James D.|last2=Dukes|first2=Harold E.|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|year=1998|edition=Fourth Printing|pages=29}}</ref> and the Town of Bethany Beach was incorporated in 1909.<ref name="Meehan, p. 17"/> The Bethany Beach School was established for students in grades one through six; after the sixth grade they had to attend Lord Baltimore School in Ocean View.<ref name=Meehanp62>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=62}}</ref> The boardwalk underwent yet another reconstruction in 1912.<ref name=history/>

When the U.S. Lifesaving Service merged with the [[United States Revenue Cutter Service]] to form the [[United States Coast Guard]] in 1915, the town's lifesaving station became a Coast Guard station. The [[Delaware National Guard]] established a summer training camp just north of town in the early 1920s.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|pages=70, 153}}</ref> The Ringler Theater, which showed movies and hosted dance parties, opened on the boardwalk in 1923; generally considered to be the first commercial enterprise on the boardwalk, it became one of the town's major attractions.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|pages=56, 154}}</ref> A privately owned electric lighting plant began operations in 1924, lighting the town hall and street lamps; in 1926, the town bought the plant and began garbage collection. The town's lone bowling alley opened in 1930 and became a popular social attraction,<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=77}}</ref> The first restaurant on the boardwalk that was not part of a hotel opened in 1933 and stood until destroyed by a fire in 1953.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=156}}</ref> Bethany Beach's first tennis court was completed in the mid-1930s.<ref name="Meehan, p. 41"/> A dirt road between Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach, the first road between the two towns, opened in 1934.<ref name="Meehan, p. 147"/>
[[File:O.D. Witherell aground.jpg|upright=1.1|left|thumb|The ship ''O. D. Witherell'' aground 3½ miles (5.6 kilometers) south of Bethany Beach on April 21, 1911. Built in 1874, she had been on a voyage from New York City to [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=58}}</ref>]]
[[File:Bethany Beach boardwalk pre-1920 with surf.jpg|upright=1.15|thumb|A wave breaks across the original, surface-level boardwalk at Bethany Beach. After the 1920 storm destroyed it, it was replaced by an elevated boardwalk in 1923.<ref name="Meehan, p. 64"/>]]
The Quiet Years were not without dramatic events. Shipwrecks had occurred along the Delaware coast for centuries, and were not uncommon in Bethany Beach's area even in the early 20th century.  A 1920 storm destroyed some beachfront houses<ref name="Meehan, p. 41"/> and the original surface-level boardwalk,<ref name="Meehan, p. 64"/> which soon was replaced by a new, elevated boardwalk.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=65}}</ref> Another damaging storm struck in 1927.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=32}}</ref> The intense [[1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane]] passed through the area in August 1933, causing flooding in Bethany Beach but no deaths anywhere in Delaware.

No church came to Bethany Beach other than that of its founders, the Disciples of Christ, until 1940, when an [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]] church opened in the town.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=133}}</ref> A [[Roman Catholicism|Roman Catholic]] church opened in Bethany Beach in 1956.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=134}}</ref>

====World War II era====
[[World War II]] temporarily interrupted the Quiet Years. The [[United States government]] took an increasing interest in defending the Delaware coast after war broke out in Europe in 1939 and paved the road from Rehoboth Beach to a point south of Bethany Beach in 1940. The impact of the war on the area increased after the United States entered the war in December 1941: the town was blacked out at night beginning in 1942 to reduce the chance of German submarine attacks on ships offshore, and the beach and boardwalk closed at 9:00&nbsp;p.m. to make it easier for military personnel to patrol against landings by enemy agents and saboteurs. Many personnel of the various armed forces were billeted in the town or based nearby, German [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] were held in the area, a radar station was built nearby to the west, and the [[United States Army]] built a gunnery control tower south of town to support the [[Coast Artillery]] guns at [[Fort Miles]] on [[Cape Henlopen]]. Patrol dogs intended for use along the entire [[United States East Coast]] were trained just north of Bethany Beach. Wartime gasoline rationing made frequent short trips to Bethany Beach impractical, and many of the visitors during the war years spent entire summers at Bethany Beach instead.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back|year=1998|publisher=Harold E. Dukes|author=James D. Meehan|edition=Fourth Printing|author2=Harold E. Dukes|page=85}}</ref>

During the war, a destructive storm struck Bethany Beach in mid-September 1944. It destroyed the Ringler Theater, which was not rebuilt, and badly damaged the boardwalk and the town's pavilion.<ref name="Meehan, p. 147"/> The boardwalk was rebuilt later that year.<ref name=history/>

The customary atmosphere of the Quiet Years resumed soon after World War II ended in 1945. By 1946, all Bethany Beach residents received water service.<ref name="Meehan, p. 147"/> In 1948, the all-volunteer Bethany Beach Fire Department was established, and the town acquired property for a fire station in 1949.<ref name="Meehan, p. 126"/>