FLANDERS history

From this time through the 1950’s, amidst this new wave of motels, the Flanders’s existed as the resort’s prominent hotel.

In 1954 the Flanders Hotel was home to the Diamond Jubilee Water Show.

Recovery really didn’t begin until a few years after World War II. The city began moving in this direction, with the Fountview motel opening in 1955 which was followed by no fewer than eight other motels.

With the assistance of Marguerite Olney, who became curator of the collection at Middlebury, Flanders continued to add to the archive of field recordings until 1958.

The Flanders’ most direct competition opened on May 22, 1966.

Due to increasing maintenance costs, the Flanders’ large pools closed for good on Labor Day 1978.

Mayor Knight and Ocean City Officials were eventually sued by FBC, stating that their actions violated the “Fair Housing Amendment Act of 1988”.

In the early 1990’s a developer installed a small amusement park in that space.

The year 1991 proved to be the Flanders’ worst financial year in its history.

In February of 1993 a sheriff sale was held to raise funds to pay some of the bills that were out of control.

Craig Harbison, The Mirror of the Artist: Northern Renaissance Art in its Historical Context (New York, 1995)

On Labor Day weekend in 1997 the Flanders re-opened with the Drifters and Coasters as the entertainment acts.

Starting in 2001, the 20,000 square foot banquet center, the partially built penthouses and the large parking lot across the street all went into foreclosure.

Nancy-Jean Ballard Seigel, “Granny Was a Songcatcher: Researching the Life and Work of Helen Hartness Flanders.” Audio tape, M-345 (2002), Vermont Historical Society library.

In 2003 the adjacent small parking lot went into foreclosure and the larger parking lot across the street was sold for 6.2 million dollars.

James Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575 (2nd ed.;New York, 2005)

Susie Nash, Northern Renaissance Art (Oxford, 2008)

After almost two years in the making, at a presentation in Trenton, NJ on November 20th, 2009, the Flanders by a unanimous vote was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Craig Harbison, Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism (2nd ed.; London, 2012)