The Mini House: Caring for the Oldest Building in Wildwood

By Cathy Nesbitt Smith

The Holly Beach Schoolhouse -- or the Mini House, as some people call it -- was built by the Wildwood Beach Improvement Company in 1883 at Taylor and Ocean avenues. This one-room, 200 sq. ft. building served many purposes: originally as the sales office and Borough Hall for Holly Beach and for religious services on Sundays. In 1885, it began service as Holly Beach School. Mary Van Valen, the daughter of Holly Beach’s first mayor, was only 15 when she became the first teacher in the wooded seaside village that would one day become Wildwood. She taught 10 pupils, all children of settlers who worked in seafood industries. 

This tiny structure was moved several times to save it from storms, most notably the Storm of 1890 which washed most of Holly Beach out to sea. In the 1970s, city historian George Boyer, who founded the Wildwood Historical Society, found the Mini House on West Taylor Ave being used as a tool shed. He got a group of dedicated locals together -- including Ridgway Moyers, owner of the shed -- and they moved it to its present location, Holly Beach Park, which itself once served as the site of Holly Beach Public School. This beautifully preserved park in Wildwood also houses the original bell and maypole from the school.

Over the years, the park fell into neglect and vandalization, and that’s when Partners In Preservation began caring for the building and park. As stewards, we painted the Mini House several times, planted flowers, cleaned benches, and washed the vintage Fisherman’s Memorial. In 2018, the City of Wildwood got a Green Acres Grant to restore the park, and Partners In Preservation, who started renting the Mini House, erected a sign telling the history of the park.  

In 2019, the city began an annual tradition of decorating the park in lights for a free event called Winter Wonderland. It is a wonderful creation with a light show that the public really enjoys,  but PIP would like the event to emphasize the history of the park. The Mini House gets made up as Santa’s Workshop, making it difficult for visitors to learn the park’s history. This history is important because it shows us how far we’ve come since this community was settled in the 1880s. PIP wants to be part of the Winter Wonderland event, where the history of the Holly Beach School House is respected. After all, it’s the one time of year hundreds of people can look into the house, imagining how 10 students went to school here and where our history started.

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