By Jackson Gingrich
I first met Frank Draper shortly after I moved to Slaughter Beach in the Fall of 2009, when Frank was Mayor, and as a new citizen started attending the monthly Town meetings. It was clear to me from the start that Frank’s knowledge of Slaughter Beach included a wealth of family and Town history that few people knew. Frank had a gift of story-telling and on various occasions he shared many of them with me.
When I was asked to be on the Town Council, I came to understand how Frank worked behind the scenes to promote the Town interests through his vast network of State and County officials. And I certainly heard many of Frank’s recollections on the history of Slaughter Beach. When Frank retired as Mayor about a year later, I realized that Frank was far more than a former Mayor, but was a legend about Town, who imparted history and advice to everyone in Town who he met. In addition, he freely promoted Slaughter Beach to people he met in Milford at places he frequented, such as the West Side Diner, the Mispillion Fitness Center, and the Milford Diner (of which he was a co-owner).
The Dance Hall and the Draper Residence
Once, while visiting Frank at home, I noticed the ceiling timbers that came from the original dance hall, after it was cut in two, and placed on lot numbers 1 (Draper’s) and 2 (Reverend Hugh Miller’s). They were both put on the beachfront, but not on pilons. Later, about 1981, after Frank had inherited the house from his father, he had the house elevated on pilons. The pilons were driven just north of the house’s original location by Paynter Sharp (a local pilon driver), but it was a daunting task using rollers, jacks, and human labor to situate the house in exactly the right place. The whole project cost $5,000, which was a tidy sum in those days.
The Reverend Miller house remained on a concrete pad and is still standing in nearly its original condition. The Miller house was sold jointly to the Bohls and Loeffler families. However, a dispute between the two owners ensued, leaving just the Bohls family as Frank’s neighbors. Mr. Bohls often complained about Frank’s Great Dane dogs barking along the 4-foot-high fence between the properties, so Frank installed a 6-foot fence. The Bohls family sued on the grounds that it was against Town code. However, Frank won the suit, and the Bohls house was sold and has since seen a succession of owners.
The Pier and Pavillion
Frank also spoke admiringly of two prominent early owners, Drs. Sam and “Wid” (aka William) Marshall, who by 1885 already owned beachfront property just north of where today’s Pavilion site. Sadly, Dr. Sam M.D. Marshall’s house burned to the ground, as did his neighbor’s, in 1940 so that land eventually became the site of today’s Memorial Fire Station. As an aside, Frank noted that the Marshall family established the original Milford Hospital, a major progressive move for Milford’s development.
The pier, as it appears in photos, likely extended 100-150 feet into the Bay from the Town boardwalk, which ran from 247 Bay Ave. to 443 Bay Ave. Although meant to be a crabbing and fishing pier, Frank recalled that during high tides, he and his buddies would dive straight off the end of the pier into the Bay, which flowed under the pier’s support pilings. The original pavilion was located slightly north of its current position. It was torn down after the 1962 nor’easter, but parts of the structure were used to build the Anzolut house (just north of the Draper house), and the roof was saved and bought by Mark Wells (this confirmed by Amelia Anzolut). So nothing was wasted in those times.
The Beach Hotel
There were numerous other stories about the original Slaughter Beach Hotel from 1868 (first known as the Willow Grove Hotel), which was purchased by Frank’s Father, George, about 1924, from the Slaughter Beach Corporation. The hotel prospered as a resort hotel for upscale clientele from Philadelphia and surrounding areas, as well as hunters and fishermen in the off-season. And this prosperity continued until WWII. The Hotel was given to his brother, Dick, to run and maintain during the prewar period.
However, shortly after WWII began, it lost all its customers, and Dick Draper let it deteriorate, much to his father’s disappointment. Only a handful of customers returned post-war, and the hotel began a steady decline with only a few local characters who remained. Among the characters who rented at the old hotel post WWII included Tiptoe Calloway and Riz Passwaters. They would crab from the pier by day, and drink until soused by nightfall. They would sell their crab catches to any beach residents, but if no one was home, they would just leave the bushels of crabs on various homes’ porches and collect the fees whenever they got to it.
George Draper was unhappy with the local vagrants who hung out at the hotel, getting drunk and rowdy virtually every night, and disturbing his enjoyment of the tranquility of the beach. When the hotel was severely damaged in the Storm of ’62 George had it burned down by the Memorial Fire Company and buried onsite under what became our fire company’s main parking lot across from the Fire Station.
Frank also had interesting stories about the Town pier and pavilion. The pier, as it appears in photos, likely extended 100-150 feet into the Bay from the Town boardwalk, which ran from 247 Bay Ave. to 443 Bay Ave. Although meant to be a crabbing and fishing pier, Frank recalled that during high tides, he and his buddies would dive straight off the end of the pier into the Bay, which flowed under the pier’s support pilons. The original pavilion was located slightly north of its current position. It was torn down after the 1962 nor’easter, but parts of the structure were used to build the Anzolut house (just north of the Draper house), and the roof was saved and bought by Mark Wells (this confirmed by Amelia Anzolut). So nothing was wasted in those times.
Frank also related that during WWII, a sentry was posted at the pavilion 24 hours a day, keeping a lookout for German U-boats. However, the U.S. military planes would periodically strafe the pavilion with to “keep the sentries on their toes.”
Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge
George Draper’s neighbors to the south were Vinal Carey, father of George Carey, a well-known legislative representative from the 36th District. Part of Carey’s and other farmers’ lands were bought by the Federal Government to become part of Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge. All were promised they would retain grazing rights throughout their lifetimes, though this proved to be untrue. The marshy areas close to the beach produced large quantities of cordgrass, which in the early years were cut by Vinal Carey and George Draper, rolled in bundles, and used as animal bedding or a form of excelsior used as packing material.
Inlets, Creeks, Immigrants, and Legacies
During Frank’s childhood years (the late 1930s) all inlets to the Bay, including Slaughter Creek, Cedar Creek, and the Mispillion River, exited directly into the Bay. However, storms impacted on the old inlets, and inlets were therefore periodically reopened and later closed. At one point, the two halves (north and south Bay Ave.) had to be reconnected between Harrison and Bridgeham Avenues with a corduroy-style log bridge, which eventually was razed and paved.
George Henry Draper Sr. (Frank’s grandfather), built (ca.1880) the family vegetable cannery along what is today’s Draper Rd., intersecting with Bakerfield Rd. near what would later become the Blessings’ family composting site. The cannery would subsequently be expanded and improved by Frank’s father (George Henry Draper Jr.). Frank’s old concrete block office and the original radio tower for Draper Media (run by cousin Tom Draper) is still located near that intersection. Vegetables canned at the Draper Cannery included sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and asparagus.
At first, local white and black workers operated the Draper Cannery and picked the crops. However, the cannery and associated farmland grew rapidly over a long period from 1933 to when Frank’s tenure ensued in 1981 but was closed by the early 1990s. At its peak operational seasons, the cannery employed about 350 workers. After World War II, many of the cannery’s seasonal workers did not return, and the cannery needed new workers.
The Draper family summered annually in Florida with Frank and Dick in tow, so part of the trip involved hiring new cannery workers, usually immigrants. George Draper first hired many Puerto Ricans to become pickers at the vegetable farm. Accordingly, over several years, a large contingent of Puerto Ricans from Florida moved to Delaware to work as hourly pickers. A labor camp was built for these workers on the southeast corner of what is today Rte. 30 near the juncture of Pine Haven Rd. and Benson Rd, which was then called Mason’s Farm at Slaughter Neck (quote from Laurie Carter Draper).
The next ethnic group hired were Cubans, presumably in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As the story goes, the Cuban workers wanted paid by the piece, not by the hour (a piece was defined as a bucket or a bushel). This became problematic because to maximize their income, these workers usually picked the largest, and therefore most overripe, fruits and vegetables, which was a poor outcome for the cannery.
At this point, the Cubans were sent to work inside the cannery. A smaller group of liberated German POWs, who after WWII settled in the area rather than return to Germany were hired, and as they were excellent mechanics, they worked on the machinery and kept the cannery humming. There are still German descendants in the Milford.
Although George Draper was largely responsible for the legacies of Draper Canneries, Draper Farms, and the initial Slaughter Beach Water Company, Frank had many legacies of his own. These included replacing the badly degraded pavilion with a new pavilion (just north of the original location) that added bathhouses, donation and installation of Town tennis and basketball courts, and a much greatly expanded and improved Town water company to serve hundreds of new customers.
History Preserved
Frank had many lifelong friends from the Town, the State, as well as Milford. Frank recalled Roger Swain, who took many black and white photos of the beach. Frank’s wife, Marilyn, had a decades long project of collecting historic photos of the beach, its homes, and anything of historic note. It is likely that many of the Swain photos were acquired by Marilyn Draper and became part and parcel of her quest to document the Town history.
Cousin Tom Draper was very interested in family genealogy. He had a handsome brick residence and barn located on Thirteen Curves Road near Fowler Beach. One year, at a family reunion, an interior wall of the barn was graced with a family tree displayed on a huge canvas mounted on his barn wall for display.
P.S. If I have succeeded in broadening our view that Frank Draper was a major force in driving the progress and development of Slaughter Beach, I am satisfied. Sadly, Frank passed away in December, 2023, but his accomplishments and those of his family forever appreciated in our Town.