By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Bill Comly and his sister, Helen Weiss, smiled as they looked at a yellowed piece of paper that is dated Oct. 1, 1925, and bears the signatures of their grandparents, Edward and Kathryn Comly.
For the Comly family, this is the treasured agreement of sale for the house at 115 45th St. bought by the grandparents for $3,600.
Remarkably, in a town where so many old homes have succumbed to countless coastal storms or been demolished to make way for construction of lavish shore vacation palaces, the modest, two-story house that has been part of the Comly family for nearly a century has survived.
“It’s a simple, rectangular house,” Bill Comly said. “I call it a row house without the row. It is a very simple house.”
Actually, the house was part of Sea Isle City even long before it was purchased by Edward and Kathryn Comly. A plaque on the front porch reveals its age: Circa 1887. That means it is nearly as old as Sea Isle itself, a seaside resort founded in 1882 by visionary real estate developer Charles K. Landis.
The gray Comly house is sandwiched between two other historic homes on 45th Street, one from 1887 and the other from 1898. Together, they comprise a miniature historic district of sorts giving a glimpse at Sea Isle’s long-ago past.
For Bill Comly, 61, Helen Weiss, 79, and their sister, Pat Murray, 75, the old house is filled with memories of their childhood, their parents and their grandparents.
“There’s been generations of Comlys raised in this house. There’s a lot of family history here,” said Pat Murray, who, along with her husband, Bud, visits Sea Isle for summer vacations from their home in Linn Valley, Kansas.
Murray vividly remembers her childhood summer vacations at the old house when her grandmother was still alive.
“When we were kids, my sister and I spent our summers here,” Murray said.
Among other memories, Helen Weiss recalled the old stove that was once in the house.
“We used to stand there in our dresses, with our grandmother, to get warm,” she said of the stove, which was removed in the 1950s.
Weiss now lives in the house full time with her 46-year-old daughter, Lynn. She plans to stay in the home for the rest of her life.
“Our parents wanted us to keep it in the family. That’s why they left it to the children in the will,” Weiss said in an interview during a tour of the house Sunday.
Their late parents, Emma and William Comly, also lived in the house and modernized much of the interior in the 1970s. Still, much of the home’s original construction remains, including the attic, the steps to the attic, the railing on the stairway, the window trim and the walls.
“A lot of the walls are still the old plaster. We didn’t tear out a lot of the old walls,” Bill Comly said.
The old house, believed to be in the Folk Victorian style, still retains much of its original look on the outside. A new front porch was built in the 1980s, but is similar in style to the home’s original porch. The porch still has its original ceiling.
In the 1980s, the family changed the color of the house from white to gray. It has remained gray since then.
The house was the setting for countless family events over the years. Helen Weiss pointed to an old black-and-white picture of her as a child, dressed in an elaborate white dress for her first Holy Communion.
She also recalled that her grandfather’s funeral in 1953 was held inside the house. His coffin was placed in the living room.
Bill Comly, the youngest of the three children, smiled while looking at a photo of him with his two sisters in the 1960s when he was about 8 years old.
He became emotional when talking about his mother, who helped him get through a difficult time following his divorce. He and his children lived in the house with his mother from 1996 to 2002.
“My mother …” he said, pausing to choke back his emotions while he recalled her love and generosity. “She helped me with the kids after I got divorced.”
Comly lives in Sea Isle full time now on 86th Street, but the old house at 115 45th St. still remains the center of the family. The Comly family has no intention of selling it.
Altogether, there are eight rooms, including three bedrooms on the second floor. Other members of the Comly family have enjoyed the house over the years.
“There were always cousins here. My aunts and uncles were here a lot,” Helen Weiss said. “But for me, my dream was to come here and stay. This is what I always wanted.”
