Researched and compiled by Diane McFaul Hindman, SBHS.  Many thanks to Alan and Katie Sitar who shared photos and paperwork during interviews during the summer of 2021.

The Development of Cedar Beach Annex in 1960s:

The Sitar family cottage is a good example of the beginning of development which began in the 1930s in the Cedar Beach annex on the north end of Slaughter Beach, north of Bridgham Ave.  By 1970, there was a paved road, and 79 lots had been laid out in the Cedar Beach area, but only 13 of them had houses on them.  The 1967 Sitar cottage was among the first. 

Alan’s parents were Joe and Bette Sitar, who had 3 children Alan, Diane and Terry. Photo below shows the family on  a vacation in May 1967. 

Joe Sitar began building their cottage himself in 1967. At that time, it was Lot 10 Cedar Beach, which is now 529 Bay Ave. Son Alan shared some saved paperwork, including a newspaper clipping of the ad for the Slaughter Beach lot (cost $895), and also invoices for building supplies to be delivered to the “house with a blue panel truck” because no street address was yet available.  See photos below showing Joe at the house with his truck in driveway. Also notice the storm fence along the dunes, erected by the town for storm protection. 

Sadly, Joe died in 1968, leaving Bette to raise the family on her own.  The family kept the cottage, but Bette’s caveat was it must remain the way Joe built it.  Only a few necessary changes were made over 50 years, so it remains very similar, as a summer home only. No air conditioning or heat.  See 2021 photos below of a bedroom with no insulation.  Joe worked in HVAC, and the shower was made of leftover tiles from a construction project in his neighborhood in Stanton, DE, which Joe took great pains to arrange artistically. New Sitar generations were also artistic: granddaughter Emily painted the water heater, and son Alan has crafted many things using driftwood collected on the beach.

Photos from the family album below show the results from a storm in 1974, that did much damage to the beach in this area.  See Alan in Dec 1974, where it looks like the cottage held, but water surrounded, creating a low spot in the yard on road side. The next photos were dated Aug ‘76, showing one of the large beach replenishments on the bay side, and how it improved the beach in front of the cottage.  Alan remembers finding fossils and petrified wood dredged up during the project.  He also says that when the equipment operators came across nests of terrapin eggs, they would carefully dig them up, and move them to another location in hopes of saving them. 

Pictures below of the family eating crabs in kitchen (circa1980s), after a good catch from their pots, which they continue to use today.

Also, a recent photo (2021) of inside of cottage where treasures from the beach can be seen in the net hanging in living room over Alan, his wife Katie and sister Diane.

Looking through Alan’s saved paperwork, the change in their home’s value can be shown over the years:  In 1967 the lot was listed at $895. In 1973, the family received a letter from Marvel Realty offering to sell their lot for $2500-3000. In 1975, a letter from Sussex County notes the appraised value of the home was $16,600.  2024 online real estate shows a current estimate over $400,000 and rising! Not a bad investment which doesn’t even include over 50 years of priceless family fun at Slaughter Beach. 

Above is the Sitar cottage 529 Bay Ave on the right in 2021.  We know the house on the left (531), was not built until after 1976, Because it is not shown in the replenishment pictures above.

Alan remembers their nearest neighbor to the north, the Ernie Fry home (above pic) at the corner of 541 Bay Ave and now Marvel Dr. The Sitars know it was built prior to the Big Storm of March ‘62, because the storm washed it into the Marsh.  In 2022, the new owners from PA met Ernie, who still lives in Milford. He had told them that after the house washed into the marsh in 1962, he hired a local farmer with a tractor to pull out the house, and it was resettled on its lot with pilings.

So now, 50 years later, the beach pioneers who braved the weather and enjoyed their summers in this enclave of small original seasonal cottages at the beginning of north end development are now part of a thriving Slaughter Beach community with access paths across the dunes to the bay, and educational opportunities for students, walkers and nature lovers, including the amazing marsh views at the Marvel Reserve Boardwalk built in 2019. In 2024, those original 79 lots laid out in the Cedar Beach Annex are now almost all filled with a variety of old cottages and much new construction.