Last updated April 20, 2025
Just on the south side of the City of Rehoboth Beach, right on the boardwalk, between Brooklyn Avenue and Laurel Street, sits a 9-story structure called Star of the Sea. It has a very interesting and even controversial history.
As you look through this history, please know that the author is not a trained historian or archivist. Many times, this history has been revised with new information. If you have a correction to offer, it will be welcome. Kindly provide the source of your correction, whether it’s your personal knowledge, or some other published source. If you have photos or images to support your correction, or to enhance any correct description below, those will be welcome as well.
1905
The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington purchases a lot on the beach between Laurel and Brooklyn, at the the southernmost point of Rehoboth, from the Rehoboth Beach (Methodist Episcopal) Camp Meeting Association.
Source: Cape Gazette, February 21, 2017 https://www.capegazette.com/article/st-agnes-sea-and-brooklyn-avenue-1930s/126729; and https://www.stedmond.org/parish-history retrieved 20220924
The Diocese constructs a chapel, two cottages, and a rectory. The chapel is soon replaced by a sturdier building for St. Agnes by the Sea, at the corner of Brooklyn and the Boardwalk, which is the church in the photos below. Note however that the front of the church faces the sea. Originally it faced Brooklyn Ave and was closer to the sea, but after damage by a storm in 1914, it was moved a bit farther back and rotated to the position shown in the photo.
In the top of the double postcard below, the church and two cottages appears, with the rectory peeking out behind to the far left. The bottom of the postcard shows the rectory to the left of the church and two cottages.
Source: https://www.stedmond.org/parish-history retrieved 20220924
Prior to the above photos, there was an unpaved road between structures and the boardwalk. This was Surf Avenue, and can be seen in the photo below from the Delaware Public Archives. Note Surf Avenue is on high ground, while the boardwalk is closer to sea level.
Later, the boardwalk was shifted farther away from the ocean, presumably after the same storm damage that affected Saint Agnes by the Sea. The boardwalk was placed on top of Surf Avenue. That was the end of Surf Avenue, though it is sometimes still mentioned in property records today. According to the U.S. Post Office, the Star of the Sea property today is located at 307 South Boardwalk, and not on Surf Avenue.
The nuns in the next photos are thought to be posing next to one of the three buildings to the south of St. Agnes by the Sea. The shape of the roof seems to match the building just to the left of the church, when observed from the beach, though a dormer seems to be missing from the side. A bit of the church is peaking out behind. It may be that these photos were taken before the two cottages were constructed, judging from the position of the camera.
1920
To the south of the property, beyond what is now Philadelphia Street and previously a railway, outside of Rehoboth city limits, is the Thompson family farm. The area to Silver Lake is purchased in the 1920s by Henry Conant, who divides it into 1500 25-foot lots plus a 9-hole golf course, calling it Rehoboth Heights, which Rehoboth Beach annexes in 1926. Now the Star of the Sea site is no longer on the edge of town.
Source: Cape Gazette 12/3/2023.
1940
After constructing St. Edmunds Catholic Church on King Charles Ave, the Diocese deeds title of its plot on the Boardwalk to the Franciscans.
Source: https://www.stedmond.org/parish-history retrieved 20220924
The Franciscans convert the two cottages, between the church and the rectory, into a Summer Home for nuns. Note the building here identified as the rectory, to the left of the wide Summer Home, doesn’t quite match the image of the rectory in previous images.
Source: Cape Gazette, February 21, 2017.
1946
The Franciscans sell the property and buildings to Mrs. Margaret Broeders (grandmother of Jim Wright) and her husband Harry Everett Wright for $50,000. Broeders was an original member of St. Edmunds. They convert the Summer Home into a hotel with a restaurant in the basement. They name it Star of the Sea after a church in Margaret’s native Scotland.
The rectory remains to the left (south); it’s not known how if at all it continues to be used. Note that the second and third floors do not seem to match the configuration of years earlier. Perhaps there was damage and then a remodeling.
From the right side of this next photo, it appears that the church tower has been removed from the church, and a one-story addition has been added to the front. Some theorize this addition might have been a changing room.
Sources: Frank R. Zebley, The Churches of Delaware, Wilmington, Delaware, 1947, p. 284 – 285; https://www.stedmond.org/parish-history retrieved 20220924; 20231102 Jim Wright, Facebook comment; 20231102 Facebook comment Ruth Clancy
1962
In March, the old church building is irreparably damaged in a storm, and razed. The Wrights construct in its place a motel facing Brooklyn, next to their existing hotel and restaurant. In the second photo, on close inspection, a raised “Star of the Sea” sign sits on top of the northwest corner of the motel, facing Brooklyn Ave at a 45 degree angle to the street. The small block building remains where it was placed in front of the old church, perhaps still a changing room but now for the hotel and motel.
Source: https://www.stedmond.org/parish-history retrieved 20220924; and Donna Emmert Vassolotti, as quoted by Libby Stiff, on NextDoor, 202209.
Between 1962 and 1969
A pool was constructed in front of the hotel.
The motel annex is visible to the right of the larger hotel in the photo above. The pool slide is visible to the left in the photo above, with a close-up in the photo below.
1969
The Wrights sell all to developers, led by Paul Curtis Stokes Jr. of Anderson-Stokes. Stokes lived his final years in St. Michaels in Maryland, passing in 1984, according to an obituary in the Washington Post from April 21 of that year.
The motel on Brooklyn is cut into three pieces and moved to a lot by the canal that forms the eastern edge of Rehoboth Beach, becoming the Moonwalk Hotel, then Sand in My Shoes, and finally the Canalside Inn; the next iteration may be demolition and the construction of four rental townhomes. The remaining buildings back on the Boardwalk, including the changing room and the larger hotel, are torn down to clear the lot for development.
Source: Donna Emmert Vassolotti, as quoted by Libby Stiff, on NextDoor, 202209, and Jim Wright in a Facebook comment 2 November 2023. Cape Gazette Feb 8, 2025 “Residential Homes Proposed for Rehoboth’s Canalside Inn” by Chris Flood.
1970
The City of Rehoboth Beach raises its building height limit in commercial areas from 56 to 85 feet. This may have been at the urging of the Star of the Sea’s new owners Anderson-Stokes.
Source: Delaware Beach Life, July 2019.
1971
Star of the Sea Condominiums construction begins. Though the height limit was apparently 85 feet, they somehow were allowed to construct a building of 100 feet, presumably after receiving a variance.
Alarmed by this development, William “Doc” Ehrlich and others form the Rehoboth Beach Homeowners Association, with Wilbur Martin as first president, specifically to oppose tall buildings that shade the beach.
Source: Delaware Beach Life, July 2019.
1975
Perhaps in response to lobbying by the Rehoboth Beach Homeowners Association, the City of Rehoboth Beach lowers its building height limit in commercial areas from 85 back to 42 feet, but allowing embellishments to 50 feet.
Star of the Sea Condominiums is grandfathered.
Source: Delaware Beach Life, July 2019.
COMING SOON…
End of leasehold
New pool
Structural maintenance
Value in 2008
Value in 2024
starofrehoboth.com 