Ocean View is located 1 mile from the Atlantic Ocean in Bethany Beach, 1 mile from the Indian River Bay, and is bordered by the Assawoman Canal and White’s Creek.
Originally called “Middlesex”, the town of Ocean View was founded in 1688 as a 500-acre tract of land given to Matthew Scarborough by Lord Baltimore. Local legend has it that a young man climbed a tree in the area and saw the Atlantic Ocean, and aptly called it “Ocean View.” The name grew in popularity and the city was incorporated with that name in 1899. Ocean View is credited as the birthplace of the broiler chicken industry. In 1923, Cecile Steele raised her first commercial flock of broiler-fryer chickens. Although Ocean View’s business community is largely comprised of service businesses along busy Route 26, the surrounding Sussex County region is now home to the billion-dollar chicken industry producing more than 500 million birds annually and employing more than 20,000 people throughout the county.
Town of Ocean View, Delaware
Demographic Profile of Ocean View, Delaware