Cape May's Congress Hall resort celebrates 200 years

The Congress Hall lobby boasts a working fireplace and several cozy seating areas.

The Blue Pig Tavern, the Congress Hall’s main restaurant, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with many items using produce, eggs and meats from Cape Resorts’ nearby Beach Plum Farm.

The Brown Room –– situated in the same location as Congress Hall’s first legitimate bar, after Prohibition –– regularly features live music.

The hotel’s former Boiler Room has been converted into a casual pizza restaurant that morphs into a dance club after 9 p.m.

The hallway connecting the main lobby to the Sea Spa serves as a de facto museum, with photographs and memorabilia capturing the Congress Hall’s 200 years of history.

Tommy’s Folly, a boutique selling clothing and accessories, is one of several shops located within Congress Hall. Other stores sell housewares, including dishes with the hotel’s signature pattern, and sundries.

A junior suite exemplifies the hotel’s casual “beach chic style.” The pattern on the rugs is taken from traditional rag rugs used in an earlier era.

Bathrooms combine repurposed pedestal sinks and bathtubs from a 1920s renovation with modern stall showers.

The larger of the two pools is for children, reflecting Congress Hall’s draw for families.

Congress Hall guests can reserve their own beach tent, complete with a picnic lunch.

An undated photo from the early 19th century shows the original Congress Hall, which was destroyed by a major fire in 1878.

A postcard from 1879 depicts the newly rebuilt Congress Hall, which reopened a year after a major fire leveled its original structure, as well as 35 surrounding acres.

The Congress Hall’s staff poses during the summer of 1928, when the hotel was owned by Annie Knight, who installed indoor plumbing in the guest rooms.

The 62-acre Beach Plum Farm, located about two miles from Congress Hall, supplies much of the produce and meats, and is open to the public.

The Emlen Physick Estate, which was completed in 1879, is the only official house-museum in Cape May, and the headquarters for the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities, which sponsors tours and events celebrating the resort’s Victorian heritage.

Victorian-era homes still line a portion of the beach in Cape May, which received federal designation for its historic district in 1976.

The Cape May Historic District is comprised of some 600 buildings, and is one of the biggest collections of 19th-century frame buildings in the U.S., according to the National Park Service.

The George Allen House, a Civil War-era Italianate villa, is one of many grand homes now being operated as bed-and-breakfast-style inns.

The Chalfonte Hotel, another Cape May landmark that dates to 1876, is known for its Southern-style cuisine and hospitality.