Originally known as Campbell’s Road, the road to Slaughter Beach was established as early as the mid-1700s. Initially, the road may have extended from Cedar Creek Village, located at the corner of Cedar Creek and Pine Haven Road, to the beach.
Once a thriving village on King’s Highway, Cedar Creek transported goods from as early as the 1760s to mid-1800s. Milling and transport of shipments of grain and lumber were important industries during that era. This meant that Campbell’s road was a critical artery for goods.
The road would have traveled east toward the Delaware Bay, going through the village of Argo’s Corner until it ended at the Bay. Today, the road where it ends is known as Bay Avenue.
Prior to 1858, this road was called the road to Campbell’s beach because a large portion of the 1,210 acres of the area was owned by the John Campbell family. Some was farmland while other portions were marsh. The Campbell family owned from 1772 until 1858. Originally, this land was part of Alexander Draper’s holdings.
The original road would have been rustic and unpaved. The purpose was not just for travel as it would also be used to divide property. In the will of John Simpson Campbell, Sr., dated 1810, the lane is mentioned which means it existed prior to his death. It was designated a public road in 1811.
In 1902, in letters from a surveyor named Hazzard, to Mary Davis, an adjacent landowner, he mentions that he was “truly convinced that it had never changed in its whole history.”
The first cottages were constructed in Slaughter Berach in 1885, and it is likely the road was in better shape at that point. Frank Rickards leased land in 1885 and three days later, Dr. George W. Marshall signed a lease. Both men constructed cottages on the beach where their families spent the summer months.
