Evening star., 1938-07-31
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

Mrs. Emma baltimore, 90 years
young, resident of the District for 81
years and one of the earliest summer
sojourners at Bethany Beach, Del,
has watched Bethany's transforma ton
from place of purely religious con-
vocation into the rapidly growing sea-
side resort that it is today.
From picturesque eight-sided wood
en- tabernacle, still standing against
its background of pine trees and
still in use as a religious edifice-to
Gen. Hugh Johnson's recently built
trim Dutch Colonial cottage facing
the broad Atlantic's sweep-has been
its architectural cycle from 1900 until
the present.
Much" she comments, "is said
OF the gay ways and days of the
people of the COS. not enough of their
spiritual strivings and their efforts to
realize them. The founding of Beth
any Beach, in which number of
Washingtonians and PENNSYLVANIA
were prominent, was definitely the re-
suit of the latter"
One of its most outstanding SIM
porters as religious mecca for the
disciples Of the Christian Church at
the turn of the goth century was.
we learned. the Rev. Frederick D.
Power, pastor of the Vermont Avenue
Christian Church. which has since
been replaced by the magnificent edi-
nee known today as the National
City Christian Church and is pre-
SIDED over by the Rev. R. H. Miller,
Something That Just Happens.
AS We sat upon the breeze-swept
veranda Of Mrs. Lattimore's own Beth
any Beach cottage. which goes back
to the very earliest of its tabernacle
days, We were told, Then I hadn't
planned to be 60 It's something that
just happens to you when you have
lived long enough, Forty years ago
when was leading a missionary So
ciety group, I selected the approxi-
mate site of this cottage by stick
ing pin in map being shown of the
possibilities OF. this place as a sum-
mer mecca for disciples of the Chris
tan Church all over the United States,
as Ocean Grove, N. j., is for the
Methodists or Chautauqua, N. Y. for
general spiritual and cultural enlight-
enment."
Recruits in support of the enter
prise were enlisted in WASHINGTON.
Delaware, Maryland. Virginia, Penn
sylvanla and rs far west as Ohio
Indiana. Missouri and Kansas. AS the
center of its development they Sc
lected site on the Atlantis seacoast,
l3 miles below Rehoboth, Del, which
they designated Bethany after the
olohcal town which is in Palestine.
IL Acres Set Aside.
Upon what has since become the
seacoast road from Rehoboth to Beth
any the general holding company in
charge thereupon set aside specifically
for the spiritual activities of the
project a tract of some II acres, with
the provision that it was to revert to
the syndicate at any time that it was
not maintained for its original pur-
pose.
In the center of this Gods acre
age spacious octagonal auditorium
--0 SAA~AA SASSVCA' 0NolSIcu Uy Ed
win Davis, senior member of the pres
ent Washington architectural firm of
Davis, Wick, Rosengarten Co., Inc, it
is Of pleasing proportions and so ar
ranged that each of its eight sides
slides back so as to constitute an
entrance way, which also commands
a vista Of sea and sky and open coun-
tryside.
Its present accessibility by motor
transportation over good roads would
have seemed an incredible miracle to
us early pioneers" Mrs. baltimore
emphasizes in unison with her sum-
mertime friends and neighbors, Mr.. |
and Mrs. w. R. Errett, who are the
only living members of the Pitts
burgh group that took over the man
agement of the syndicates financial
affairs when difficulties loomed large. |
I'VE had to come" they explained. |
"by train to Baltimore, then by boat
to Love Point, where horse drawn We
hicles transported us through the
woods to the canal landing back of