“Well Broken Chincoteague Pony For Sale”

Date Posted: Thursday, August 28th, 2014

Katie Hall, reference archivist

While searching old beach newspapers for Labor Day-related articles, this full-page advertisement for an auction of lots in the Heights section of Rehoboth Beach in the August 31, 1934, edition of the Delaware Coast Press caught our eyes.

The auction took place on Labor Day weekend “on the premises near the ocean in the heights.” Henry Conant, a developer from Chincoteague, had initially acquired the 150 acres that would make up the Rehoboth Heights section of Rehoboth in 1923 from Col. Robert Hinckley. By 1934, The Heights section contained the areas made up by Philadelphia Avenue to the North, the Atlantic Ocean to the East, Silver Lake to the South, and the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal to the West. The Rehoboth Beach Country Club golf course was in the western part of The Heights until it moved in 1966. The Heights later became part of South Rehoboth—one of the last sections annexed into the city. This 1938 map of Rehoboth shows the location of The Heights just a few years after the Labor Day auction.

The lots “with all their natural beauty, adorned with lovely big oaks and pines, high land and near the boardwalk” would have been extremely desirable. To sweeten the pot further, Mr. Conant offered anyone who bought a lot an entry in a drawing to win a Chincoteague pony, along with a bridle and saddle! An item in the Coast Press from September 7, 1934, called the auction a success, with all 25 lots selling at a “reasonable price.” A Miss Nancy Ingram was the lucky winner of “Mick,” the Chincoteague pony. The pony got to live in the garage, while the family’s car “remains in the rain.”

All must not have been rosy between Mick and Miss Ingram. A notice in the September 21 Coast Press advertised a “Well Broken Chincoteague Pony including a bridle and saddle” for sale. Interested parties were to contact Nancy Ingram.

Related Topics:  auction, Chincoteague Pony