of which are large and of admirable design. The First Methodist church, dedicated in 1857, has been enlarged and renovated. There are also St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal church, built in 1898; the Central Methodist Episcopal church, built in 1896; Christ Methodist Protestant church and Trinity Methodist Protestant church. The Presbyterian churches are three in number. The one at the corner of Pacific and Pennsylvania avenues was erected in 1856, enlarged some years later, and was very much improved in the spring of 1887. The German Presbyterian church was dedicated in 1884 and enlarged in 1896. The Olivet Presbyterian church at Pacific and Tennessee avenues was dedicated March 27, 1898. St. Nicholas Roman Catholic church was built in 1856 on Atlantic avenue near Tennessee avenue. In the spring of 1887 the building was removed to its present location on Pacific avenue near Tennessee avenue. Many changes and improvements were made, and it is now a large and very comfortable church edifice. St. Mary's church edifice (Roman Catholic), at the corner of Atlantic and Texas avenues, was dedicated in 1897. This church was formerly known as St. Monica's, and was destroyed by fire December 2, 1896. St. James' Protestant Episcopal church was enlarged in 1874. The Church of the Ascension, also Protestant Episcopal, originally a frame building, was completed in 1879, and stood on Pacific avenue, below Michigan avenue, but was removed in 1886 to its present location on Kentucky avenue, at the corner of Pacific avenue. The present brick edifice was completed in 1893. The Baptist church on Pacific avenue was completed in July, 1882, and enlarged and improved in 1893. It is a neat structure, capable of seating about five hundred people. The seats are arranged in amphitheatre style. Bethany Baptist church, in the lower part of the city, was organized in 1900. St. Andrew's Evangelical Lutheran church (English) is at the corner of Michigan and Pacific avenues. The society was organized in June, [887, by the Rev. William Ashmead Schaeffer, D. D., of Philadelphia. The first service was held in the upper room of a building on Atlantic avenue above Tennessee avenue. The congregation afterwards bought the Philopatrian Hall, on New York avenue, and changed the name to St. Andrew's Hall. In 1892 it bought the lot at Michigan and Pacific avenues and built the present edifice thereon. The Friends' meeting house was built in 1872, and a Hebrew synagogue was erected in 1892.

There are four national banks where letters of credit may be made payable the Atlantic City National Bank, the Second National Bank, the Union National Bank and the Chelsea National Bank. There are also two trust companies—the Atlantic Safe Deposit and Trust Company and the Guarantee Trust Company.

The newspapers are the "Daily Union," daily except Sunday, and the

"Times-Democrat and Star-Gazette," weekly, both owned by the Daily Union Printing Company, and the "Atlantic City Daily Press," daily; the "Atlantic Review," daily except Sunday, and weekly; the "Sunday Gazette," published on Sunday only; and the "Atlantic City Freie Presse," a German weekly.

A careful statistician has shown that the amount of capital invested in hotel property in the United States is second only to that invested in railroads. In no other town on the continent do the hotel interests so predominate as in Atlantic City. For about fifteen years prior to railroads entering the city, one tavern on the beach supplied the wants of the few people who came from the great cities to pass a brief season in fishing, hunting and boating. With the opening of railways half a dozen larger houses came into existence, also the noted United States Hotel, the yet larger Surf House, the Mansion and Congress Hall, which attracted thousands of summer visitors. At the present time the hotels and well kept boarding houses are fully five hundred in number, and represent a value of not less than ten million dollars.

The Hotel Windsor, perhaps the most modern hotel on the Atlantic coast, occupies a ground space of six hundred and eighty by one hundred and fifty feet, and cost $325,000. The ground floor contains a Moorish room and a ball room and reception room of large dimensions. A portion of the basement is fitted as a cafe, to represent a cabin with port holes, mast tables and other shiplike appurtenances. This hotel has a central French courtyard, the first of the kind in Atlantic City, and it was also the first to provide a regular orchestra for the entertainment of guests.

The Hotel Rudolph has for one of its beautiful adornments a grotto in which are given splendid concerts by a large and well trained orchestra. This cavernlike retreat, when illuminated at night with its myriad variagated incandescent lights, presents a marvelously beautiful spectacle.

Many other hotels present special attractions peculiarly their own. Among these having a capacity of two hundred or more guests each are the Traymore, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Dennis, Haddon Hall and the Grand Atlantic, five hundred guests each; the Luray, the Iroquois and the Islesworth, four hundred guests each; and the Shelburne, the Chalfonte, the Pennhurst. the Waverly, the Morton, the Irvington, the Berkeley, the De Ville, the Little Brighton, the Strand, the Runnymede, the Kuehnle, the Cedarcroft and the Richmond, two hundred guests or more each.

One of the most luxurious residence mansions on the coast may be taken as representative of numerous others somewhat approaching it, at various points. This was built in 1900 by J. C. Coatsworth, recently of Buffalo, New York, and was occupied by Charles M. Schaub, president of

the United States Steel Corporation, during the season of 1902. The building is forty-six feet in frontage, sixty-five feet in depth, and is three stories in height. It is of red brick, with stone trimmings, the work mortared in white. The design is colonial inside and out. The interior furnishings are lavishly rich. The library contains mirrors and furniture from an Italian palace in Florence: candelabra in cut glass and bronze, and an inlaid marquetry table from Holland; and antique sacristy lamps and incense burners from Rome.

Several charitable institutions are maintained with great liberality, and provide for the necessities of various classes of suffering humanity. The Atlantic City Hospital had its beginning in 1892, when a number of ladies and gentlemen organized what was then known as the "Atlantic City Hospital Association," and collected a fund of about $1,200. After a time most of those identified with the movement lost interest in it, and finally the fund was turned over to a private sanitarium, and applied toward the founding of a free bed in it. Through the efforts of Mayor Franklin P. Stoy the city contracted with the institution referred to, known as the Atlantic City Sanitarium, of which J. J. Rochford was superintendent, and for a few years all sick or injured persons, who became charges upon the city, were therein provided for.

The present hospital corporation was formed in February, 1897, when it was decided to select a board of nine governors, and Franklin P. Stoy. Stewart R. McShea, M. A. Devine, John F. Hall, M. V. B. Scull, H. S. Scull, J. Leonard Baier, Jr., Lewis Evans and A. M. Heston were chosen. At a subsequent meeting this board was enlarged to fifteen members.

The Woman's Auxiliary was organized at the Hotel Dennis, on November 27, 1897, and the money collected by the ladies, amounting to $616.71, was set aside toward the furnishing of the hospital, when built. The officers were: President, Mrs. John F. Hall; recording secretary, Miss Caroline M. Giltinan; financial secretary, Mrs. James D. Southwick; treasurer, Mrs. M. A. Devine.

The property on Ohio avenue near Pacific avenue was purchased of Henry J. White, of New York, on August 20, 1898. The purchase price was $16,000, on account of which the Board of Governors paid $2,000 in cash, and executed a second mortgage of $6,000. The property was purchased subject to a first mortgage of $8,000. It included a frame building containing ten rooms.

The formal opening of this temporary hospital building took place on November 30, 1898, on which occasion there were many visitors, and a generous welcome was extended to all friends of the institution.

In the early part of April, 1899, Miss Elizabeth C. Boice, of Absecon, signified her desire to erect a brick annex to the hospital building, as a memorial to her father, Henry Boice. and her generous offer was accepted by the Board of Governors.

It was suggested that the proposed building be known as the Boice Annex, and that it be constructed of brick, with stone trimmings, to which she readily assented. The building being finally completed, at a cost of nearly $10,000, announcement was made of the formal opening on Thanksgiving day. November 30th, exactly one year after the opening of what is now known as the main building, but which will be razed or moved at some future time to make room for an imposing building, thoroughly modern in appointments and architecturally in keeping with the Boice Annex.

In May, 1901, the Board of Governors purchased additional lands, fronting fifty feet on Pacific avenue and extending to the other lot, a distance of one hundred and fifty feet. This L-shaped lot is now valued at $40,000, without the improvements. When the requisite funds are in hand a main hospital building will be erected on the lot, facing on Pacific

avenue.

The Children's Seashore House was opened in its present location, at the end of Ohio avenue, occupying what is now the main building, in 1883. Fourteen smaller buildings have since been erected within the grounds by visitors at the different hotels, each bearing the name of the house by which it was erected. There are now accommodations for over one hundred children and about thirty mothers. The object of the corporation is to maintain at the seashore an institution in which children of the poorer classes, suffering from non-contageous diseases, or from debility, incident to the hot weather and a crowded city, may have good nursing and medical care, without regard to creed, color or nationality.

The Mercer Memorial Home provides a place where invalid women of moderate means may spend a few weeks at the seashore, and have not only the comforts of a home, but also good nursing and the care of a physician at a price which they are able to pay, but much below the actual cost. It differs from other seaside institutions for women in that it is intended lor invalids only, and in this respect it meets a want which has often been felt by those who come in contact with the masses of workingwomen in our large cities.

In 1884 the building at the corner of Ohio and Pacific avenues was erected, largely through the munificence of the late Mrs. J. C. Mercer, of Philadelphia, who gave $40,000 for the purpose. An addition to the east wing of the building, finished in 1894. increased its capacity about