Preservation success story: Storybook cottage on West Surf Road

By BARBARA SCHMIDT and MARYANN PIONEGRO-SMITH
Originally in Ocean City Sentinel

OCEAN CITY – As you drive into the resort via the Ocean City-Longport Bridge, you’ll pass a charming home, with its pointy roof and decorative wooden trim, that resembles an enchanted cottage in an antique children’s storybook.

The “Storybook” house, located behind a picket fence and mature holly trees at 533 West Surf Road, was owned by Nancy McCutcheon for the past 27 years. To her, the 1920s home was a dream fulfilled. Her parents stopped to admire it during Sunday drives in the 1940-1950s. (From the 1950s to 1980s, the home belonged to Gertrude Muller, who rode the famous diving horses at Atlantic City’s Steel Pier.)

In the late 1990s, one year after losing her husband to Parkinson’s, Nancy saw a “for sale” sign on the gate and jokingly told her daughters, “If I buy a house in O.C., you’ll visit me more!” Later on, she bought it, and told them, more seriously, “This is my gift to you!” 

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