Rehoboth By the Sea's original cottage to be restored

With the approval by a Dewey Beach board to allow the building of a second floor deck, the process has begun to renovate one the town’s most historic structures.

During a May 13 meeting, the Dewey Beach Board of Adjustment unanimously approved construction of a deck above a porch that falls within the front yard setback at 11 New Orleans St.

The house is one of the original cottages built for the Rehoboth By the Sea development in the mid-1920s.

Property owner Steve Judge, a grandson of the original developers, said he believes the cottage is the oldest structure in Dewey. He said the house has been passed down for generations and the new deck will help restore the house to how it looked when it was first built.

“We’re not adding any square footage,” he said. “We just want to add a three-sided railing.”

Judge said the cottage served as the headquarters for the development as people started coming to Dewey and that many of the leases signed were “created on the little black typewriter in the back.”

He said the roof line changed in the 1980s when a contractor convinced his mother a simple pitched roof would be easier to care for.

In addition to restoring the deck, Judge said the plan is to completely refurbish the house – new flooring, paint, electricity – but the bones of the house will remain the same. He said the house will also be raised a few feet to account for new FEMA flood regulations.

The cottage withstood the Storm of ‘62 and was built when there was no electricity, clay roads and people used outhouses, said Judge.

“This project would be great for New Orleans Street,” he said.

The board hardly discussed the improvement because they were all happy the cottage wasn’t going to be demolished and then replaced by something new.

“I’m just tickled isn’t not being torn down,” said board member Phillip Davenport.