Henry Sawyer's Chalfonte Hotel rises in front of you. The National Park Service calls it the "Oldest and most ornate large hotel in Cape May," and it still holds the distinction of being the oldest facility in the city to continually operate as a lodging facility. Henry Sawyer built the hotel from 1875-1876 and opened it as a boarding house.
That long habit of hospitality drew visitors and even ballplayers: in 1888 the Philadelphia Phillies stayed here while they practiced and played at the Cape May Athletic Park behind the hotel, between Sewell and Benton Streets; the Phillies returned to Cape May in 1891 and 1898 but lodged at the Aldine Hotel on Decatur Street below Washington on those visits. Generations of staff kept the kitchens running, Helen Dickerson worked here for 77 years and rose to director of the hotel's kitchen before her death, and her daughter Lucille Thompson worked at the Chalfonte for at least 80 years, since about 1936, also heading the kitchen. Anne de Luc owned the hotel until 2008, when she sold it to Robert Mullock.
This building is a contributing property in the Cape May Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 29, 1970. Picture the Phillies practicing behind the hotel in 1888, and Helen Dickerson running its kitchen for 77 years, a legacy her daughter Lucille Thompson carried on for decades.