The hotel is located in the heart of the Historic District, right across the street from the beach and the Washington Street Mall. The Fitness Room is reserved for one guest at a time and is sanitized between sessions. Fitness Center reservations can be made for 45 minutes at a time by calling the Sandpiper Front Desk at (609) 884-6620. at Congress Hall It's a beautiful sight: twelve snow-white igloos and three red-and-white-striped holiday tents set up on the Grand Lawn of Congress Hall, warmed by the glow of our thirty-foot Tannenbaum. Its replacement—larger and more magnificent—underwent a series of expansions, including the addition of one entire wing, and it lasted exactly 60 years, until the Great Fire of 1878 reduced much of central Cape May to a charred pile of rubble. Eventually, however, the Christian Beacon Press, the company that owned Congress Hall and other properties, began to run into rough financial straits. At a minimum, it would require tens of millions of dollars. Click the 'Book Now' button or…” Train rides will be available to guests of Congress Hall and those with dining reservations at one of their restaurants. She got her love of art, architecture and old buildings from her mother, who bought a 200-year-old house in Salem, New Jersey, where Colleen “spent some of my growing-up years,” she says. “A quarter century after the country was founded, this hotel was a watering hole, a gathering spot. The Congress Hall is very romantic and offers great service. Sessions are first-come, first-serve. The Congress Hall is located on 6th Street side which make the whole compound completed with the Old City Hall on the other side of the Independence Hall… And, sporting its characteristic brilliant yellow brick façade, it still commands its premiere position overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the heart of Cape May city. 83,752 were here. “The hauntedness of the place!” he exclaims, when asked what the storied history of Congress Hall means to him. There is a photo album showing images of the upper floor for those not able to climb the stairs to the second floor. Working with a prominent carpet design firm, Colleen experimented time and time again until she felt it was right. This Congress Hall Winter wedding was chic, romantic and so much fun we all forgot it was thirty degrees out! View Activities Calendar. Enjoy classical music, rock & pop concerts, a theater play, a … “We’re probably the biggest private employer in Cape May county,” says Bashaw, whose Cape Resorts, Inc., last year employed 761 people at the height of the summer season. The spacious hall was crammed with the elite of Philadelphia, [with] hundreds of ladies dressed in queenly splendor.”. “Imagine being Thomas Hughes, having built this building you were so proud of, and to have everyone call it Tommy’s Folly, because no one thought it would work,” he says, chatting in a conference room in his office suite just across Perry Street from Congress Hall. “When you go back to 1816, it’s almost the entire history of the country,” says Bashaw. So I think about finding the right protégé who would take it for the next 60 years.” He pauses, and laughs again. I wanted that to shine through.”. That’d be a drag. After a $25 million renovation, Congress Hall finally opened for business again on June 7, 2002. The catch was that they’d decided that they had no choice but to tear down the Admiral, and use the cash that would result from the sale of its oceanfront parcel to kick start financing for Congress Hall’s restoration. Order breakfast, lunch and dinner off a delicious menu from the Blue Pig Tavern and have your meal delivered right to your guest room. The Congress Hall is an exceptional hotel close to shopping. Fitness Center access is included in your stay as a Cape Resorts guest. Now $180 (Was $̶3̶1̶5̶) on Tripadvisor: Congress Hall, Cape May. This hotel is still going strong. It’s a three-foot-wide image of eighty-four members of Congress Hall’s staff—including a laughably distracted tennis pro on the right—assembled on the great lawn. So the question is, Are we going to be a change agent or not? Gilbert Ramagosa and Charlie Sandman. Head downstairs from your guest room to the Blue Pig Tavern, where you'll find hearty breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner favorites made using ingredients sourced three miles away at Beach Plum Farm. In 1790, Congress selected Philadelphia to be the temporary capital of the United States. “So we always knew that the time was coming for us to get at it the right way.” Starting last summer, she began overseeing plans for another top-to-bottom redo of Congress Hall. “McIntire played [an] underappreciated but utterly crucial role in the politicization of conservative people of faith in the latter half of the twentieth century,” writes author Markku Ruotsila, who inscribed a copy of the book for Bashaw. Colleen Bashaw, Curtis’ sister, is an interior design specialist, and she has had her own firm, Colleen Bashaw Designs, for two decades. Venue: Congress Hall Cape May, NJ // Florals: Petal and Paper // […] Congress Hall, Cape May, Cape May, New Jersey. As our guest, you'll have access to Congress Hall's Fitness Room that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Read the latest reviews for Congress Hall in Cape May, NJ on WeddingWire. Filed Under: Cape May News, Congress Hall, coronavirus, Talkers CAPE MAY, N.J. (CBS) — In Cape May, the historic Congress Hall has installed a … “I think it could well be that we’re the oldest functioning hotel in the country,” he says. Dining at Congress Hall As a guest of Congress Hall, you'll be just steps away from some of the most celebrated dining spots in Cape May. Valet Parking is provided. But, for all the work, it retains its magnificent, historic personality and its grand dame charm. Once you're here, our Concierge is a great resource on all things Cape May. America's oldest seaside resort providing hospitality since 1816. After passing through security, walk past Independence Hall to the next small brick building. Cape May celebrates its living history through the preservation— and the clever adaptive reuse—of these grand old buildings. Edward C. Knight and Annie Knight. Love it. And his holdings include the Acme shopping plaza and the retail arcade along Ocean Street. Other owners dabbled in politics too, including Charles W. Sandman, Jr., a New Jersey state senator who bought a stake in Congress Hall in 1958 and who served as a member of Congress from 1967 to 1975, including a run for governor of New Jersey in 1973. For a night of entertainment, this is the place in Lubeck. Entrance is through a security screening area on Chestnut Street, just west of 5th Street. Annie Knight, the owner and proprietor of Congress Hall strolls slowly down the building’s central, dark-paneled hallway, guiding guests and tourists through the two centuries since the building was first erected in 1816. US Congress certifies Joe Biden as next president, Harris as VP. Save the Dates. Jacob F. Cake. “I was in my junior year. You’re always stepping into new territory.”, He’s thinking, he says, about adding another two hundred rooms or so to Cape Resorts current properties. » View All Independence National Historical Park videos » Tags: Congress Hall Independence National Historical Park Independence Square Curtis Bashaw, owner of Congress Hall, in the Blue Pig Tavern which is the restaurant in Congress Hall, which turns 200 in 2016. Browse Venue prices, photos and 46 reviews, with a rating of 4.8 out of 5. It attracts guests and famous actors from all over the world. Congress Hall is also awarded with Tripadvisor's Certificate of Excellence.Voted New Jersey's Best Hotel by Travel + Leisure and its readers. Describing a carnival held in August, 1865, just after the end of the Civil War, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “The appearance of the ballroom beggars description. The Experience. “He was definitely extreme by most people’s standards, philosophically,” admits Bashaw. Please visit our sister properties The Sandpiper and The Star for availability. Like the democratic ideals it once served, Congress Hall is simple but powerful. The Congress Hall allows its guests to renew at is Congress Hall Sea Spa. Explore the home to the U.S. Congress from 1790 to 1800, when Philadelphia served as the temporary capital of the United States. Arriving in Cape May soon after the devastating nor’easter of 1962, McIntire built a mini-empire that included the enormous Christian Admiral Hotel, Shelton College, the Lafayette Cottages, the Colonial Star Villa, the building that’s now the Peter Shields Inn, and Congress Hall. 26K likes. Certainly, it predates some of the grandest old ladies still standing: Boston’s Parker House, built in 1855, and rebuilt in 1927; Chicago’s Palmer House, erected in 1871; and San Diego’s Hotel del Coronado, 1888. That’s because Annie Knight, the proprietor, who owned the place in the early twentieth century, died in 1931. 1,281 Likes, 47 Comments - Congress Hall, Cape May, NJ (@congresshall) on Instagram: “It's another beautiful beach day in Cape May. One day, while still at college—Bashaw spent two years at Shelton College and then went to Wheaton College in Illinois—his grandfather called him up. They’re ghosts now, and they haunt Curtis Bashaw. The walls on both sides of the hallway are lined with scores of photographs, documents, letters and mementos of the historic seaside establishment’s place at the heart of Cape May’s hospitality industry. “We did forty-six strike-offs before we got the result we wanted!” she says. A part of the old Independence Hall (Old Pennsylvania Capitol Building). Asked where he would like to take things now, going forward, Bashaw grows reflective. Choose from the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times. “They wanted to keep their power base,” says Bashaw. Congress Hall is currently closed for a winter refresh and will reopen on March 19th. Plan your trip with our online guides of restaurant recommendations and local points of interest. February 4, 2016. “I imagined that if she had a sense of humor, it would have been pretty dry. The third version—whose builders, the Knights, conspicuously advertised to apprehensive vacationers as having been rebuilt out of fireproof brick, not wood!—went up in 1879. Except Congress Hall. Hotel’s gone. Twice-Daily Housekeeping is included in your stay as a Congress Hall guest. America's oldest seaside resort providing hospitality since 1816. Mount Vernon? There's nothing quite like the simple pleasure of room service during your vacation. By the middle of the 19th century, Congress Hall had earned a reputation as a glittering refuge for the wealthy. “It was going through all of this and figuring out what tells the story best,” she says. “It’s evocative of an old, classic beach house,” she says. It is, according to Bashaw, maybe America’s very oldest hotel. Other than that, there’s nothing that ties Congress Hall to Washington, D.C.—and no, the building doesn’t have a dome like the U.S. Capitol. The tax bills piled up. Amenities are subject to change based on state and local guidelines. In the 1950s, under the bulky Joe Uhler, who’d taken over Congress Hall from the Knights during World War II—when it profited handsomely by hosting military personnel from nearby bases—the stately old edifice saw itself turn tacky, with the color scheme and décor turning to deep red paint and burgundy velour in keeping with the look of, say, a bordello in New Orleans. In 2016, the once-again new Congress Hall is the jewel in the crown of Bashaw’s Cape Resorts empire, including the flagship hotel and its restaurants, the Blue Pig, the Brown Room and the Boiler Room; the Virginia Hotel and Cottages, including the Ebbitt Room; the seaside Beach Shack and the Rusty Nail; the Star Inn; and Beach Plum Farm. View All Congress Hall Dining. If you get too nostalgic about everything staying the same, you lose it all. “We really didn’t have enough money to finish the building the way we wanted to, in 2001-2002,” she says. “We can’t find any other.” And while it’s possible to quibble with that—it depends, in part, on how many rooms you use to define a hotel as opposed to, say, an inn or guest house—it’s not easy to prove him wrong. We kicked off our 2020 Wedding Season at one of our favorite venues, Congress Hall! And, despite his reputation as a tut-tutting moralist, when Bashaw came out as gay, McIntire didn’t reject him. It lived through emancipation, through women’s suffrage.” Not to mention two world wars, a depression, and its fair share of hurricanes and nor’easters. The structure being celebrated for its bicentennial isn’t, of course, the one first constructed by old Tom Hughes. In 2002, after a decade-long struggle, Bashaw presided over the hotel’s grand reopening, which he and his company, Cape Resorts, Inc., now own. In the background is the hotel’s famous soaring colonnade, and at the center is Knight, looking decidedly dour. Please visit the Congress Hall Front Desk for access. The Congress Hall of the early 1990s was a vastly different place from the way it is today. America's oldest seaside resort providing hospitality since 1816. “I mean, I’m still good for another twenty years or so! We'll set you up with complimentary chairs, towels and umbrellas on the beach in front of Congress Hall. But they’ve shared the same journey that I have.”. 83,875 were here. “I came back just in the nick of time,” he says. (The Press of Atlantic City/ Viviana Pernot) Built in 1816, Congress Hall burned down two years later. In a town where history is everywhere, whose sprawling Historic District itself earned the distinction of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Congress Hall stands out as a singular landmark. “Look at the street names around town. Bashaw, along with his cousin Norris Clark, disentangled the mess, and set his sights on integrating the Admiral and Congress Hall with Cape May’s burgeoning Victorian renaissance. In later years, that building became a Howard Johnson’s, and it is now the home of Uncle Bill’s Pancake House. See 1,510 traveler reviews, 876 candid photos, and great deals for Congress Hall, ranked #15 of 37 hotels in Cape May and rated 4 of 5 at Tripadvisor. 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