Qualla: Bethany Beach

Bethany Beach: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Chief Little Owl stands on Garfield Parkway. He is 24 feet tall, carved from a single cedar trunk, and he has presided over the corner of Garfield and Delaware Avenue since 1976. He is not a memorial to anyone who actually lived here; he is a roadside-attraction totem pole carved by sculptor Peter Toth as part of a 74-pole series he produced across all 50 states to honor Native American peoples. The pole in Bethany shows a Nanticoke chief, the Algonquian people who lived on the Delaware coast before European colonization. Pretty much every visitor who drives into Bethany Beach passes him. The town's most photographed object is a memorial to people the town largely displaced.

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Bethany Beach: The Disciples Who Founded It

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Bethany Beach was founded in 1901 by the Christian Missionary Society of the Disciples of Christ, working through the Rev. F.D. Powers of Washington, D.C., who envisioned a religious resort on the Delaware coast where members of the Disciples of Christ could vacation in moral saf...

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Bethany Beach: The Quiet Resorts

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Bethany, with its smaller neighbors South Bethany and Fenwick Island, forms what Delaware tourism brochures call the Quiet Resorts. The label distinguishes them from the louder Delaware beaches further north. Dewey Beach is famous for spring break crowds. Rehoboth is famous for t...

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Bethany Beach: Garfield Parkway

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Garfield Parkway, named for President James A. Garfield, is the town's main commercial street. It runs east from Delaware Route 1 - the Coastal Highway - to the boardwalk at the Atlantic. The few blocks of small storefronts hold ice cream shops, surf-and-tee shirt stores, family ...

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Bethany Beach: The Bandstand and the Boardwalk

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Bethany Beach Bandstand - a brick-and-wood pavilion at the foot of Garfield Parkway, built in 1976 and rebuilt since - hosts free concerts every Friday and Saturday night in summer. Local cover bands, occasional touring acts, the Bethany Beach Concert Band - the lineup is loc...

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Bethany Beach: The Vice President's House

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Joe Biden has owned a beach house near Bethany Beach since 1997, in the unincorporated community of North Shores between Rehoboth and Dewey, about ten miles north of Bethany. During his vice presidency under Obama, and his presidency starting in 2021, the house drew Secret Servic...

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