An Explorer's Paradise in Delaware's First Town

LEWES, Del. -- If Rehoboth Beach is the self-styled "Nation's Summer Capital," then Lewes, five miles up Coastal Highway, past the tangle of tax-free, strip-mall outlet shopping, is well prepared to handle the overflow.

Lewes, where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean, about 120 miles due east of RFK Stadium, is attracting newcomers from Washington -- and they're showing up to do more than ride the well-known Cape May-Lewes Ferry.

In many cases, residents are moving to Lewes to flee the Washington area's traffic congestion and rising taxes. Lewes's seaside location is an explorer's paradise, with five miles of ocean beach, an 80-foot sand dune and a rare saltwater lagoon. At the same time, it's close enough to take in a show at Wolf Trap and return home the same night. The city has a year-round population of 3,000, which swells to 8,000 in the summer.

The seaside atmosphere drew Ron Massengill. In 2003, after more than 27 years as a federal worker, Massengill decided to fulfill his dream of living at the beach. So he took an early out from his job as a financial-management analyst at the Pentagon.

The rowhouse in the Shaw section of Northwest Washington for which he had paid $180,000 years earlier brought him $595,000 after he sold it.

"There's a peaceful, non-party atmosphere here," said Massengill, 50. "Dewey [Beach] is the party town. There are no chain stores. And you can drive on the beaches if you have a surf-fishing permit."

Although Massengill likes the ocean, he keeps close ties to Washington, returning a few times a month to a condominium he owns in Montgomery County. If he times his departures right, Route 404, the preferred way to and from the southern Delaware shore, is smooth sailing, he said.

The flip side, Massengill acknowledged, is that there are certain parts of life in Washington that can't be replicated. He misses browsing the Smithsonian museums and taking in the performing arts.

"That's what you're really lacking here," he said. But he said he can get his fill in Washington before he heads back over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to his single-family house two miles from the Atlantic.

Lewes, which calls itself "the First Town in the First State," has been marking its 375th anniversary this year.

The centerpiece of the celebration is a sweeping, $3 million infrastructure-improvement project along Second Street, the city's main commercial zone. With its quaint smattering of boutiques, book stores and fine restaurants, Second Street resembles a miniature Georgetown.

The project, which took seven months, featured the installation and upgrade of underground utilities, said Tom Wontorek, the city's public works boss. In addition, he said, wider sidewalks were added to meet the requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act. "And street lights, traffic-control signs, parking meters, trash receptacles are now all of the same design," he said. "The merchants were very supportive, knowing that there may be disruption."