Frank Preston, Oak Haven, Jean Wellwood, and the Prestwood Pines

Oak Haven Tourist camp was another one of the hospitality businesses on the south side of Delmar on old Rt13.  Oak Haven was run by Frank B. Preston (1892-1940) and his wife Jean.  Frank was born in Kentucky and moved to New York where he would meet and marry Jean Wellwood from Ontario Canada.  They would manage an apartment building in the Bronx until they moved to Delmar.  About 1934 he would buy a strip of land close to Roseland on what was known as the Delmar Road (BiState Blvd) and put a gas station on it.  Later he would put a dance hall next to the gas station and about 1937 he would add tourist cabins.   He suffered from heart problems and in 1940 he died of a heart attack.  He is buried in Parsons Cemetery in Salisbury.  His wife sold the business and in 1941 S. L. Jones and A. L. Oliphant were running the business.  

Possibly S. L. Jones was Samuel Lee Jones of Eden Maryland and A. L. Oliphant was Arthur L. Oliphant of Delmar. 

Jean Wellwood Preston (1892-1978) stayed in the area.  She purchased a tourist camp south of Fruitland, Maryland.  The south end of Fruitland at that time (1930s to 1970) was in the same shape as the south end of Delmar for having beer joints and tourist camps along what was old Rt13.  Names such as the Silver Dollar, Prestwood Pines, Circle Bar, Pines Bar, Blue Lantern etc all are memories of those who were around in the 1940s and 1950s.  In Fruitland the road was  called Old Princess Anne Road.  Jean had her sister, Clara Alice Wellwood (1887-1962), come stay with her and help manage the tourist camp.  She called the tourist camp “Pinecrest.”  Jean and Clara were the daughters of Robert Wellwood (1845-1916) and Janette Brydon Amos Wellwood.  Photographs of what  Pinecrest looked like are not available at this time.  Below however are a couple of photos of tourist camps in the area of Fruitland about this time.

above the Temple Hill Cabins in Eden or Fruitland. 

above Prestwood Pines

I have no documentation that shows the legal connection between “Prestwood Pines” and Jean Wellwood Preston.  Pinecrest tourist camp and the Prestwood Pines  were close physically on the same road.  One cannot help but think that Prestwood is a combination of Jean’s names of Preston and Wellwood or perhap a partnership of Jean Preston and her sister Clara Wellwood.  The person most associated with “Prestwood Pines” is Frank Hallock.  Frank Hallock came from Syracuse, NY about 1936 to run the “Prestwood Pines” south of Fruitland.  He would die in 1952. 

above grave marker for Clara Wellwood from find - A - Grave. 

Clara Alice Wellwood would die in 1962 and is buried in Wicomico Memorial Park Salisbury, Maryland.  Jean Wellwood Preston would die in 1978 in the Shangri-La Nursing home in Delmar, Delaware and is buried at Melson Cemetery in Melson, Maryland.