The Henry Hotel

Officials and supporters this week unveiled a new mural celebrating the Henry Hotel, its owners and its history. On Tuesday, representatives with the Henry Hotel Foundation and Beach to Bay Heritage Area, alongside officials with various nonprofits and government agencies, cut the ribbon on a new mural, located next to the historic Henry Hotel in downtown Ocean City.

Funded by the Maryland Department of Commerce and the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, the installation not only celebrates the building’s legacy, but pays tribute to all African Americans who worked in Ocean City and helped make the resort town a successful tourist destination.

OCEAN CITY, Md. — A local non-profit is looking for grant funding to help restore the Henry Hotel to its former glory. The Henry Hotel Foundation is looking for $250,000 to begin the restoration process.

Up until the mid 1960’s, the Henry Hotel was one of the few places in Ocean City where Black people were allowed to stay. The building serves as a reminder to the towns dark history and now, it is in need of repair.

Modern-day stewards of Ocean City’s historic Henry Hotel plan to use new grant funding to track down former guests who stayed at the property in the mid-tolate 20th Century. In an era of segregation, the hotel on the corner of South Division Street and Baltimore Avenue famously was one of the few establishments in Ocean City that provided rooms for Black guests.

Now, using old guestbooks once owned by longtime proprietor Pearl Bonner, the Henry Hotel Foundation now hopes to find lodgers from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. They’ll put to use a $27,000 state grant for heritage tourism organizations to conduct the search, according to foundation board member Nancy Howard.

To look at this three-story brown building across from Trimper’s Rides in Ocean City, you can’t see the deep and rich history held inside.

The Henry’s Hotel looks like a house but this 20-room building played a major role in Black History.

Decades ago, the town only allowed Blacks to vacation at certain times of the year.

“They were called ‘Negro Excursion Days’ and they allowed that to happen at Labor Day. After Labor Day, Ocean City as it was, was just kind of rolled up. But the Maryland people and Delaware people were allowed a day after Labor Day.”, says local historian, Gregory Purnell.