Editing Ocean View, Delaware (section)

==History==
Until the late 17th century, European settlers bypassed the area where Ocean View now lies because of the poor quality of its sandy, salty soil and the salt air that blew in from the Atlantic Ocean; they preferred to settle a few miles farther inland, where the land was higher and drier and the soil richer.<ref name="morgan20150407">Morgan, Michael, "Proving the Value of Matthew sScarborough's Land," ''Delaware Wave'', April 7, 2015, p. 40.</ref> Would-be settlers also faced a legal complication in obtaining land in what is now Ocean View, because [[Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore|Lord Baltimore]] claimed the area as part of his [[Province of Maryland|Maryland colony]], while [[William Penn]] asserted that the area belonged to the [[Delaware Colony]]; settlers opted to look elsewhere for land to which they could receive clear title from an undisputed authority.<ref name="morgan20150407"/>

Ocean View traces it origins to 1688, when Lord Baltimore gave a 500-acre (200-hectare) tract of land in what is now Ocean View to its first settler, Matthew Scarborough.<ref name="Meehan, p. 137">Meehan, p. 137.</ref> Scarborough named his land "Middlesex,"<ref name="morgan20150407"/> and the land became known as Middlesex Plantation.<ref name="ReferenceA">[http://www.oceanviewde.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.history Ocean View, Delaware, official Website: Town History]</ref> Although the dispute over control of the land eventually was decided in favor of Penn and the land became part of Delaware, Delaware authorities confirmed Scarborough's title to the land as granted by Lord Baltimore.<ref name="morgan20150407"/>

A few other settlers joined Scarborough around Middlesex Plantation in the years after he settled there.<ref name="morgan20150407"/> After Scarborough died, the land passed into the hands of the Hazzard family,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> and by the late 18th century salt-making crews had begun occasional visits to the area on their way to and from salt ponds located closer to the coast.<ref name="morgan20150407"/>

The Hall family eventually came into possession of the land. W. S. Hall opened a [[general store]] on his farm there shortly after 1800. A village known as Hall's Store &ndash; the future Ocean View &ndash; soon sprang up around the store, and for this reason the members of the Hall family are considered the founders of Ocean View. In 1822 a [[post office]] was established in Hall's Store.<ref name="morgan20150407"/><ref name="Meehan, p. 137"/>

Legend has it that a young man climbed a tree in the area and saw the Atlantic Ocean, hence the name Ocean View. After the [[American Civil War]] (1861–1865) people began to take an interest in visiting the Atlantic [[beach]]es to the east of Hall's Store and it was discovered that the Atlantic Ocean was visible from the second story of some buildings in the village; because of this, Hall's Store was renamed Ocean View.<ref name="oceanviewde.com">Meehan, p. 137, and [http://www.oceanviewde.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.history Ocean View, Delaware, official Website: Town History]</ref> Ocean View was incorporated on April 13, 1889, and held its first town council meeting on April 20, 1889.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

The town was an isolated community for much of the 19th century; the nearest railroad, constructed in 1874, came no closer than [[Dagsboro, Delaware|Dagsboro]], and although the opening of the [[Assawoman Canal]] &ndash; which ran past what had once been Scarborough's Middlesex Plantation &ndash; in the late 19th century improved access to Ocean View, it did little to boost the town's economy.<ref name="morgan20150407"/> Not until the rise of the [[automobile]] in the early 20th century did visitors begin to come to Ocean View in increasing numbers.<ref name="morgan20150407"/>

In 1923, Ocean View became the birthplace of the commercial [[broiler]] industry when Mrs. [[Cecilie Long Steele]] revolutionized the poultry industry by raising the first commercial flock of broiler-[[Fried chicken|fryer]]-sized [[chicken]]s there. Although Ocean View itself is no longer involved in the raising of chickens, the industry went on to become Delaware's most important [[Agriculture|agricultural]] activity.<ref name="morgan20150407"/><ref name="oceanviewde.com"/>

After [[World War II]], interest in land near the Delaware beaches increased exponentially as the [[Delmarva Peninsula]] became ever-more accessible to automobile traffic from large [[Eastern United States|Eastern]] cities. The real estate boom spread to Ocean View, increasing land prices there substantially during the latter half of the 20th century.<ref name="morgan20150407"/>