Cape May’s new ‘Victorian’ promenade arches: What to love, what not to love

CAPE MAY — The City of Cape May’s cause was noble. “They tried,” said one woman walking along the promenade under the patriotically draped new arches the other day. She didn’t want to give her name.

Others are more appreciative. “I love the way they are bunted,” said Mark Wiedorfer, visiting from Rehoboth Beach. “Some people don’t like anything.”

“I like anything retro,” said his friend, Lori Hitchings.

The six promenade arches, a re-creation of the ornate wooden arches that graced a then-wooden boardwalk in Cape May a century (or so) ago, have stirred the pot in this Victorian jewel of a beach town at the bottom of the Jersey Shore.

Cape May has long been lauded for its allegiance to its Victorian past, but this attempt at re-creating a historic legacy that may (or may not) have been done in by a hurricane was far from universally hailed.

Facebook has been brutal, but people are coming around.

Mayor Zack Mullock says people love them now. The judging and complaints started when the arches were just square metal beams, he points out. Now look at them. (The holiday bunting will stay up another week or so.)

For those still not thrilled, brace yourselves for more to come.

The six arches were funded through the Fund for Cape May at about $25,000 each, and on July 18, architect John Boecker will go back to City Council with a plan for 16 more, eight on either side of the six that are there now.

The fund has raised about $500,000 for the arches, says hotelier Curtis Bashaw, president of the fund’s board.

Bashaw has no time for the haters. “I’m thrilled with how they turned out,” he said. “I think they look exactly like the photographs from historic time. "

OK then. Here’s what to love, and what not to love, about Cape May’s Promenade Arches.

LOVE ❤️ : The project meant that the city took down overhead wires and telephone poles, and ran them under the promenade, a great improvement.

The new lighting is “dark sky friendly,” says Mayor Mullock. That’s good for birds, who famously make Cape May a major flyway in their migration. The effect at night is very pretty.

NOT LOVE 😠 The bulbs, at 2700 Kelvin, a very warm white, were selected for a “magical” effect. Eh. The lighting seemed a bit garish, and during the day, the bulbs just don’t look that great.

The bulbs are frosted, unlike the originals. Some arches had the under lights on during the day, others did not, a timing issue that will be adjusted, Boecker said.

LOVE ❤️: The city and its designers set out to faithfully re-create the design, proportion, and spacing of the original arches from 1910 photographs.

Boecker said one difference is the new archway uses the arc of a circle, whereas the original ones used the slightly more graceful arc of an ellipses.

The promenade in this section is wider than in other sections. Do these little design tweaks matter? Kind of?

“I think it brings back the old,” said Eric Christiansen, 65, a public works employee who works as a beach tag checker during the summer and who walks the arches every day. “They were a part of history.”

NOT LOVE 😠: Azek anyone?

OK, I get it, the popular synthetic material designed to mimic wood is much easier to maintain, makes sense near the beach, everyone’s using it (except on Cape May’s original historic homes, where Azek is not allowed), but it screams (to me at least) synthetic vinyl from a parking spot across the street.

Let’s be honest, there’s nothing authentic about Azek. Boecker acknowledges the wood-vs.-Azek debate was “contentious.”

Noted Christiansen: “The people who own historic homes don’t like it because they’re not allowed to use it.” Fair?

LOVE ❤️: Any upgrade to this oddly unsatisfying asphalt “promenade,” is welcome. A Victorian town with a cement walkway is like a brilliant smile with a tooth missing.

Mullock says the walkway has now been painted with a cooling surface, and widened. Everyone agreed that some updating of the promenade was long overdue, and getting rid of the unsightly wires, regardless of one’s opinion of the arches, was a great start.

NOT LOVE 😠: Time for a wooden boardwalk again? Not anytime soon, says the mayor. He’s advocating resiliency in addition to beautification (See above, Azek).

Some have pointed out that the original arches are arguably not that Victorian at all (a point on which Mayor Mullock agrees). And there is some dispute over their demise. Bashaw and others have been saying they were destroyed in the Hurricane of 1944.

But Ben Miller of the Cool Cape May Facebook page, and author of The First Resort, a history of Cape May, says the history of the originals has been “grossly misrepresented.”

He posted on July 1 that the arches never made it anywhere near 1944, survived a blizzard that took out a portion of the boardwalk, and were in fact demolished by city leaders who were perhaps tired of paying for the electricity and maintenance.

Like the current arches, Miller points out, the 20th-century arches were a well-meaning gift (he says from the railroad that constructed the Stockton Hotel).