South Bethany is an incorporated town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. As of the 2020 census, South Bethany had a population of 451. It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area.
South Bethany is popularly considered one of "The Quiet Resorts", along with its direct neighbor to the north, Bethany Beach, and its neighbor to the south, Fenwick Island. This is in contradistinction to the crowded atmosphere of the more popular Dewey Beach and the cosmopolitan bustle of nearby Rehoboth Beach. Assisting South Bethany's reputation as a "quiet" place is the presence of Delaware Seashore State Park – a six-mile-long barrier island providing a substantial buffer from Dewey Beach's noise – to the north of Bethany Beach, as well as the relative quiet provided by a large unincorporated area of private condominiums and multimillion-dollar beach homes between the park and Bethany Beach. To the south, South Bethany is insulated from busy Ocean City, Maryland, by Fenwick Island State Park and Fenwick Island itself.
Unlike Bethany Beach and neighboring Fenwick Island, South Bethany is almost exclusively residential. It refers to itself as "The Best Little Beach in Delaware." Geography South Bethany is located at (38.5165008, –75.0529585).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which nearly the full is land and 1.89% is water. The views and landscapes of the area are very popular with the locals and vacationers.
As the community is located on the local barrier islands, it is subject to tides, which can fluctuate up to multiple feet per day.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 492 people, 253 households, and 170 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 1,137 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 99.19% White, 0.20% Asian, and 0.61% from two or more races.
There were 253 households, out of which 9.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.9% were married couples living together, 3.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.8% were non-families. 29.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.94 and the average family size was 2.32.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 8.7% under the age of 18, 2.0% from 18 to 24, 14.0% from 25 to 44, 40.0% from 45 to 64, and 35.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 60 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.2 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $67,125, and the median income for a family was $89,666. Males had a median income of $61,250 versus $37,500 for females. The per capita income for the town was $53,624. None of the families and 1.6% of the population were living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and 3.1% of those over 64.
Government
South Bethany has a town manager form of government. In addition to an elected mayor, the town has a six-member elected town council. It has a local police department as well as a beach patrol.
Mayors James Cleveland (1969–1972) (became mayor when the community was founded) Harold B. Barber (1972–1973) Walter J. Scott (1973–1974) John C. Williamson (1974–1975) Robert S. Terrill (1975–1976) Robert J. McCarthy (1976–1977) Ronald L. Steen (1977–1980) Margaret C. Gassinger (1980–1986) Herbert "Joe" Schaefer (1986–1988) Mary Jane Lindblad (1988–1989) Harry Woodruff (1989–1990) Herbert "Joe" Schaefer (1990–2000) Theodore J. Marcucilli (2000–2001) Sal V. Aiello (2001–2002) Donald H. Beck (2002–2004) Gary L. Jayne (2004–2010) Jay Headman (2010–2012) Kathy Jankowski (2012–2014) Pat Voveris (2014–2018) Tim Saxton (2018–2024) Edith Dondero (2024–Present)
Infrastructure Transportation
Delaware Route 1 (Coastal Highway) serves as the main north–south road in South Bethany, heading north along the coast to Bethany Beach, Dewey Beach, and Rehoboth Beach and south along the coast to Fenwick Island and Ocean City, Maryland. Parking permits are required along selected streets in South Bethany between May 15 and September 15. DART First State provides bus service to South Bethany in the summer months along Beach Bus Route 208, which heads north to the Rehoboth Beach Park and Ride and the Lewes Transit Center Park and Ride near Lewes to connect to other Beach Bus routes and the Route 305 bus from Wilmington and south to the 144th Street Transit Center in Ocean City, Maryland to connect to Ocean City Transportation's Coastal Highway Beach Bus.
Utilities Delmarva Power, a subsidiary of Exelon, provides electricity to South Bethany. Chesapeake Utilities provides natural gas to the town. Artesian Water Company, a subsidiary of Artesian Resources, provides water to South Bethany. Sussex County operates the South Bethany Sanitary Sewer District, which provides sewer service to the town. Trash and recycling collection in South Bethany is provided by Republic Services.
History
Early history There is no record of Native American activity in what is now South Bethany, but Native Americans are known to have visited the bays and rivers of the Atlantic coast of Delaware during the summer to fish, and it is possible that this included visits to the South Bethany area.Walter, Laura, "Past," The Story of South Bethany, Delaware, Ocean View, Delaware: Coastal Point LLC, 2015, p. 13.
The portion of Delaware in which South Bethany lies was subject to a lengthy legal dispute, Penn vs. Baltimore, that broke out in 1683, as to whether the land belonged to the Province of Maryland or the Province of Pennsylvania. While it dragged on, William Penn granted the Delaware Colony its own legislature in 1701, establishing it as a separate colony. The dispute over the boundaries of the three colonies was not resolved until 1759, when the parties to the dispute agreed that the area where South Bethany now lies was part of Delaware.
Outside of Penn vs. Baltimore, recorded European interest in the land that was to become South Bethany dates to at least 1687, when an Englishman, Matthew Scarborough, had much of the area of what are now Bethany Beach and South Bethany surveyed, the surveyed in the northern part of the area becoming known as "Scarborough's Adventure," while a parcel to its south became known as "Middlesex." He "took up" – i.e., took possession of – the two parcels of land in 1688, and they were renamed "North Petherton" and "South Petherton." The part of the area that would become South Bethany was included in a portion of South Petherton at the head of Little Assawoman Bay about south of what is now Bethany Beach granted to Scarborough under a Maryland land patent in 1695.Walter, Laura, "Past," The Story of South Bethany, Delaware, Ocean View, Delaware: Coastal Point LLC, 2015, pp. 12-13.
English settlers established farms in parts of what is now South Bethany. In 1741, Englishman William Evans was granted a land patent under a survey that combined North and South Petherton into a single parcel of land.
In 1926, George McClellan of Long Island, New York, bought four adjoining tracts of land in what is now South Bethany covering a combined . McLellan conveyed the land to the Delaware Shore Land Corporation.
Founding of South Bethany
In 1952, the first span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge opened, greatly improving access to the Delmarva Peninsula from Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., and spurring a great deal of growth and new investment in the Bethany Beach area. That year, Richard Hall and Elizabeth "Iggie" Hall purchased about of marsh land and old farm land from the Delaware Shore Land Corporation. Doing business as the South Bethany Corporation, the Halls sold 50-by-100-foot (15.2-by-30.5-meter) lots to people wishing to build vacation houses on the Delaware coast and named the new community "South Bethany" in order to exploit the popularity among vacationers of Bethany Beach, just to the north. The Halls conceived of South Bethany as strictly residential, with no businesses of any kind within its boundaries. For the next 10 years, the South Bethany Corporation worked to drain and raise marshland to allow additional buildable lots and dug of canals in the community to ensure that people who purchased a lot in South Bethany would have either direct access to the beach along the Atlantic Ocean – where the community provided no lifeguard service, its only safety measure being a torpedo-style life preserver hanging from a post on the beach – or would reside along a canal offering access to inland bays and rivers by boat. By 1959, when a lot cost $1,050 and required a $200 down payment, they had sold 500 lots in South Bethany.Walter, Laura, "We Present To You...South Bethany," The Story of South Bethany, Delaware, Ocean View, Delaware: Coastal Point LLC, 2015, p. 3.Walter, Laura, "Past," The Story of South Bethany, Delaware, Ocean View, Delaware: Coastal Point LLC, 2015, pp. 13, 16, 18, 21.
Access to the community was via Delaware Route 14, known as Coastal Highway, a paved two-lane road with no shoulders. As the community grew, Route 14 became inadequate for the automobile traffic South Bethany generated, and in 1958 Route 14 was expanded into a four-lane divided highway; it was redesignated as a portion of Delaware Route 1 in the 1970s.Walter, Laura, "Past," The Story of South Bethany, Delaware, Ocean View, Delaware: Coastal Point LLC, 2015, p. 24. At the time, the Delaware Army National Guard would drive its tracked self-propelled anti-aircraft guns from its barracks north of Bethany Beach down Coastal Highway through Bethany Beach and South Bethany to its training grounds just south of South Bethany, where it would engage in antiaircraft training, firing at target drones flying over the Atlantic.Walter, Laura, "Past," The Story of South Bethany, Delaware, Ocean View, Delaware: Coastal Point LLC, 2015; pp. 25-26.
Incorporation and expansion 1960s through 1990s Although Iggie Hall of the South Bethany Corporation tried to have South Bethany incorporated as a town even in its early years in order to improve services in the community, she had no success. Meanwhile, a group of South Bethany residents formed the South Bethany Association to address community services and needs.Walter, Laura, "Past," The Story of South Bethany, Delaware, Ocean View, Delaware: Coastal Point LLC, 2015, p. 22.