Angel of the Sea Bed & Breakfast

Welcome to the Angel of the Sea, Victorian Cape May's most elegant bed & breakfast. Located one half block from the beach in the quiet East end of town, the Angel offers the discriminating traveler a chance to experience the charm of a bygone era while enjoying an array of modern amenities.

Each of the 27 guestrooms at the Angel, is uniquely furnished in Victorian style and each room has its own private bath. About a quarter of our rooms have ocean views, but all guests have access to common porches and balconies that wrap around the front of our twin houses. Every room at the Angel has cable television and wireless internet access is offered to all of our guests. Books and magazines are available in our common areas, as well as a selection of board games.

Our professional and friendly staff is ready to assist you in any way they can, whether it's making dinner reservations at one of the wonderful area restaurants or mapping out a bicycle excursion of town. We can tell you where to pick up a bottle of wine and where to buy tickets for a whale watch or trolley tour.

So whether you come in the warmer months to enjoy the pristine beaches of the Jersey Cape or in the off-season to experience the historic charm of the country's only National Historic Landmark city, we hope you will choose to stay at the Angel of the Sea, where lifetime memories are made.

Awards & Accolades

2011 "Most Affordable Luxury"
2009 Silver Award, "Best Bed & Breakfast", AC Press Readers' Choice
2009 "Most Romantic Place to Stay". South Jersey Magazine
"Best Bed & Breakfast" MyFoxPhilly Hot List, Jersey Shore Edition
"Best Bed & Breakfast", "Best Victorian Building"
"Best Service (Bed & Breakfast)" Readers' Choice Award Capemay.com
"Best of the Best" Bed & Breakfast by South Jersey Magazine
"Best Bed & Breakfast" Readers' Choice Award Capemay.com
Voted Best Bed & Breakfast at the Jersey Shore by Atlantic City Magazine

The day starts early for Sayoka, our cook. When she arrives at 6:30 am, she relieves the overnight auditor and sets up the early coffee in the parlor. Our guests are very diverse -- and there's no telling when they will get up. So we serve breakfast from 8 am to 10 am and guests may come down anytime they wish. (It's so great to get up early and take a walk down the beach before breakfast.) Start with a buffet of fresh-cut fruits, hot muffins, coffee cake, cereals, and a variety of juices, coffee, and tea. When you're ready, Chet or Mark will ask you to choose from our ever-changing selection of daily entrees like Mushroom Encrusted Quiche, Tomato Bacon Puff, Cream Cheese-filled Cinnamon Swirl French Toast, or Eggs Benedict. We try to prepare foods from our cookbook for you to try daily. Portions are large and you may have all you want.

After breakfast, retire to the parlor for coffee and conversation, and plan your daily events with our helpful staff. We can make reservations, arrange for tickets, and direct you to tours and activities. You can drive, walk, or use our complimentary bicycles to get around our quaint town. The Angel is located half a block from the Atlantic Ocean, and in the warmer months, we provide beach chairs, towels and umbrellas. There are facilities at the beach, lifeguards, boogie board rentals, and a hot dog vendor. We have it all!

Cape May has hundreds of Victorian structures, historical sites, and tours. We also have a very unique pedestrian mall where you might find that "one of a kind" gift for yourself or a friend.

Back at the Angel, we serve afternoon tea and sweets at 4 pm. A mouth-watering selection of cakes, cookies, pastries, scones, and sinfully sweet treats are baked fresh daily. (Now is a good time to look through all the menus for local restaurants. We will gladly give our recommendations and make your reservations for you.)

A break for a nap, sun on the verandah with cold lemonade, or bike ride to work off the teatime calories. Later, its wine and cheese time at 5:30 pm. Enjoy a selection of wines and cheeses along with lots of crackers and snacks to get you ready for dinner. Off to dinner at one of Cape May's other fine restaurants, out for some nightlife or retire to your romantic guestroom.

The Angel of the Sea was built around 1850 as a "summer cottage" for William Weightman, Sr., a Philadelphia chemist who, as managing partner of Powers & Weightman, introduced quinine to the United States as an anti-malarial drug. Built as a single structure, the house originally stood on the corner of Franklin and Washington Streets where the Cape May Post Office now stands. In 1881, Mr. Weightman decided that an ocean view from the broad porches of his "cottage" would be appreciated by family, friends and guests. To accomplish this goal, he hired a number of local farmers to move the house to a piece of property on the corner of Ocean and Beach Avenues, near where the Marquis de Lafayette now stands.

The farmers discovered the house was too large to move as one unit. Not wanting to lose the winter work, they decided to cut the house in half, move it in sections and then reconnect it after the move. Their task took all winter long, pulling the sections on rolling tree trunks with mule and horse power! Unfortunately, after both halves of the house were moved to the new location, the farmers discovered that, although their mules and horses were quite adequate for "pulling" the house, they proved totally ineffective in "pushing" it back together.

Summer was close upon them, and Mr. Weightman would soon be returning to Cape May. The farmers enclosed the sides where the cut had been made, renovated as best they could and hurried back to their farming chores. The results of their efforts are the two buildings as they stand today. The house remained in the Weightman family until Mr. Weightman's death in 1905. During the next 50 or so years the Weightman Cottage, as it was called, was used as a hotel, guest house and, during one period, a restaurant.

In 1962 a powerful Nor'easter ripped through New Jersey and devastated the city of Cape May. Referred to by many as the Storm of the Century, it destroyed much of the town including Convention Hall and the boardwalk. Miraculously the Angel survived, but not without considerable damage. The massive rebuilding that followed the storm cleanup called for the two houses to be torn down to make room for a parking lot. They were saved from this fate when they were purchased by the Reverend Carl McIntire and moved (this time on flatbed trucks) to their present location on Trenton Avenue. From 1962 to 1981, the houses were used as a dormitory for students from Shelton College and to board employees from several nearby inns. During this time they received very little maintenance and in 1981 they were declared uninhabitable. Virtually unwanted, this once magnificent structure was left abandoned to vandals and the elements until December of 1988.

About that time, John Girton, a builder and developer, and his wife Barbara crawled through a window to check out the soundness of the buildings. Although all of the windows were broken out, walls had collapsed and many of the porches and stairways had rotted, it appeared the houses could be saved! Based on what they found, the Girtons purchased the property and began renovations in January, 1989. Time was money and John Girton led his crews seven days a week around the clock to put the Angel back together. At times, as many as 75 people were working on the site during a 24 hour period. At the end of one shift, one painting crew would get off the scaffolding and another would get on it.

A trailer set up in the backyard housed a fully functional cabinet-making shop. There artisans and carpenters would find bits and pieces of the original building and piece them together. They then recreated on-site all the gingerbread detail, wall brackets and windows, copying the original designs they found. The first of the two buildings opened in July of 1989, only six short months after renovations had begun! One year later, the most complete Victorian restoration in New Jersey was completed. The total project cost approximately $3.5 million and was done with over 103,000 man hours of labor. After its first two successful seasons as a bed and breakfast, the Angel of the Sea was acknowledged as one of the Top Ten B & Bs in the United States by two national bed and breakfast organizations. It also won the Historic Preservation Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC for renovation to historic specifications.

In the fall of 1995, John and Barbara sold the Angel to their oldest daughter, Lorie Whissell. Since then, Lorie has made numerous additions and upgrades to the inn, refurbishing many of the guestrooms and adding additional guest services. A new interlocking brick patio was created in the rear of the inn and the landscaping was extensively redesigned and brand new deck was installed on the first floor porch. Flat screen TVs have been placed in many of the rooms and the Angel now offers guests wireless internet access.

200 of the most-loved and requested recipes from the Angel's kitchen. Includes breakfast entrees, teatime goodies, baked fruit and much more. Easy to follow recipes. Spiral bound to lay flat.
Price: $14.95 (S&H $5 for 1 cookbook. NJ residents 7% sales tax.)
To order by phone call: 1-800-848-3369 (All major credit cards accepted.)

• Mini Cherub Cheesecakes
• Seafood Cream Cheese Quiche
• Rum Cake
• Angel Puff
• Angelic Bananas
• Peanut Butter Brownie Pizza
• Crunchy Baked Bananas
• Chocolate Heaven Cake

                                               
1 Cookbook - $14.95 + $5.00 S/H = $19.95
         
                Number of cookbooks ____ x $19.95 = ______

            New Jersey residents add 7% sales tax = ______

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If ordering by mail, make check payable to The Angel of Cape May.
Mail to:
The Angel of the Sea
5-7 Trenton Avenue
Cape May, New Jersey 08204

Information (609) 884-3369, Order Only (800) 848-3369

The Angel of the Sea is located in Cape May, at the southern end of the Garden State Parkway. When entering town, turn left at Sidney Street, left again at Washington Street and right at the traffic island. Follow Pittsburgh Avenue to Beach Drive. Turn right, and turn right again at the next street. Look for The Angel on the right.

APPROXIMATE DRIVING TIMES

• Atlantic City 45 minutes
• Wilmington DE 1-3/4 hours
• Philadelphia, PA 1-3/4 hours
• New York City 3 hours
• Baltimore, MD 3 hours
• Washington, D.C. 4 hours