Congress Hall (Cape May hotel)
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- This article refers to Cape May, New Jersey's Congress Hall. Congress Hall can also refer to other structures. See Congress Hall (disambiguation).
Congress Hall is a historic hotel in Cape May, New Jersey occupying a city block. It is bordered on the south by Beach Drive and on the east by Washington Street Mall.
Congress Hall was constructed in 1816 as a boarding house for guests at the new seaside resort of Cape May, and the proprietor, Thomas H. Hughes, called it "The Big House." In 1828, when Hughes was elected to the House of Representatives, he changed the name of his hotel to Congress Hall. Congress Hall burned to the ground in Cape May's Great Fire of 1878, but within a year, its owners had rebuilt the hotel in brick.
While serving as President of the United States, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Harrison vacationed at Congress Hall, and Harrison made Congress Hall his official summer White House. It thus became the center of state business for several months each year. John Phillip Sousa regularly visited Congress Hall with the U.S. Marine Band and composed the "Congress Hall March," which he conducted on the lawn in the summer of 1882.
During the 20th century the Cape May seafront deteriorated. In 1968 Congress Hall was purchased by the Rev. Carl McIntire and became part of his Cape May Bible Conference. McIntire's possession of the property preserved Congress Hall when many Victorian-era beachfront hotels were demolished for the value of their land.
With the decline of the Bible Conference, Congress Hall fell into a state of disrepair. Restoration was begun in 1995, and today, Congress Hall is again a fully functioning resort hotel.
