Horn’s Pavilion destroyed by 1914 storm

Horn’s Pavilion was a popular ocean pier at the end of Rehoboth Avenue in Rehoboth Beach from 1899 to 1914. The complex, founded by Charles Solomon Horn, included a photography studio, drugstore, restaurant, billiards room, candy counter, cigar and tobacco counter, souvenir section, fancy goods counter with jewelry and china, and a large ballroom for dancing, meetings and roller skating.

The pavilion stood in Rehoboth until a devastating nor’easter in December 1914. According to the Dec. 7 edition of the Evening Journal, “Rehoboth has been hit so hard and damaged so greatly by the storm that it will be a long time recovering from it. Surf Avenue is cut away. The Boardwalk for most of its length along the oceanfront has been washed away. The wind at Rehoboth has been blowing at the rate of 50 mph and this has caused the ocean to sweep inshore with mighty force, carrying away the new bulkhead, washing away the earth along Surf Avenue and practically undermining cottages that line the avenue. Part of Horn’s Pavilion, with its stock, already has been carried away.”

Another article in the same edition provided an update on the situation.

“Surf Avenue at one time was 200 feet wide. It is the street between the line of the oceanfront cottages and the Boardwalk. Battering of the storm practically has cut away this street, which in places was 12 feet above the level of the strand, and was protected in front in many places by bulkheads of pilings. These bulkheads have been snapped off like they were reeds by the hammering of the ocean, and each wave as it washed in carried part of the avenue away with it. While the ocean end of Horn’s Pavilion was carried away yesterday, the end connecting with the Boardwalk was undermined this morning and fell into the ocean. At the time, C.A. Horn, who owns the pavilion, which is the only public pier the town has, was preparing to move the stock of goods from his stores on the structure, but all will be lost, entailing a damage of several thousand dollars in stockade from the value of the pier.”