Congress Hall Hotel, established in 1816 by Thomas H. Hughes, is perhaps Cape May's oldest and best-known hotel. Known as "Tommy's Folly" for its size, the hotel was expanded in the 1850s and burned in 1878 along with much of the city. After the fire, the hotel was rebuilt, but smaller; Congress Place now runs through the back of the old property and over the ruined rear wing of the old hotel. The laundry wing and furnace was added in around the 1890s. The hotel itself operated almost exclusively during the summertime. In the early 1960s, Rev. Carl McIntire, the noted Fundamentalist Christian minister, bought Congress Hall (as well as the now-demolished Hotel Cape May/Christian Admiral, a few blocks down the beach) and reopened them. As time passed, however, both hotels had to be renovated-Congress Hall lost its gardens to parking lots and a pancake restaurant-and, in the late 1980s or early 1990s, closed. Funds from the sale (and subsequent demolition) of the Christian Admiral were used to begin the renovation process, which was completed in or around 2002. The hotel has reopened and rated four stars; the exterior has been restored to (approximately) its original paint scheme, and the room number has been halved, as two 1878-sized rooms have been combined for the 21st century.This model has been made as accurate as possible, based on the HABS/HAER resources #1816 #1878 #19th #arson #bay #beach #building #cape #century #conservative #demolish #demolition #destroy #destruction #fire #fundamentalist #getaway #holiday #hotel #inn #jersey #luxury #may #motel #new #nineteenth #ocean #philadelphia #religion #religious #resort #revival #sea #seaside #side #structure #travel #trip #vacation #victorian
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