The 1923 Ocean City landmark is home to 'Emily,' a young woman in white seen dancing in the lobby and corridors — a portrait of her, commissioned from staff descriptions, hangs on the second floor.
719 E 11th St, Ocean City, NJ 08226
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Room rates vary by season; see flandershotel.com for current pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Full-service hotel with elevator access; historic 1923 building at boardwalk and 11th Street
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1923 · New Jersey Register of Historic Places · WWI Memorial Architecture · Ocean City Resort Era · Boardwalk Landmark
The Flanders Hotel opened in 1923 at the intersection of 11th Street and the Ocean City Boardwalk, its name honoring the fields of Flanders, Belgium, where American and Allied soldiers fell during World War I. The hotel's promoters intended the name as a memorial gesture in the immediate postwar era, when Flanders carried deep cultural weight in the English-speaking world.
The building became the social anchor of Ocean City through the 1920s and 1930s, hosting conventions, dances, and public gatherings during the height of the Jersey Shore resort era. Ocean City itself is a dry town — alcohol sales have been prohibited since its founding by Methodist ministers in 1879 — making the Flanders a center of social life rather than a bar scene, which shaped the hotel's long-term character.
The hotel fell into decline in the latter half of the twentieth century along with much of the Ocean City boardwalk district. It was placed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural and cultural significance. After a period of dormancy, the Flanders was restored and reopened as a full-service hotel and condominiums.
The building is a surviving example of 1920s resort-era architecture on the Jersey Shore — an eight-story brick structure that anchors the boardwalk at 11th Street and remains one of the taller buildings in Ocean City's otherwise low-slung resort landscape.
Sources
Staff at the Flanders have described a recurring apparition they call Emily: a young woman who appears to be in her early twenties, with long brown hair, wearing a white gown. She has been seen dancing and laughing in the lobby, on the second and fourth floors, and in hallways where she disappears around corners before witnesses can get a clear look.
The physical phenomena associated with Emily's presence include doors swinging open or closed without apparent cause and light bulbs found unscrewed from their sockets in otherwise intact fixtures — the kind of mechanical interference that staff would notice during routine operations.
The Flanders management eventually commissioned a formal portrait of Emily based on the accumulated descriptions of staff members and guests who reported seeing her. That portrait hangs on the second floor. It is an unusual institutional response: the hotel did not dismiss the accounts but formalized them into something permanent.
Weird NJ, which documented the Emily story in detail, notes that the identity of Emily has never been established from historical records. No death at the hotel matching her description has been located in the public record. The ghost appears to be attached to the building rather than to any documented event within it.
Notable Entities
The Flanders operates as a full-service hotel on the Ocean City Boardwalk at 11th Street. Staff have reported swinging doors, unscrewed light bulbs, and glimpses of a young woman in white on the second and fourth floors — particularly in corridors where Emily has been seen disappearing around corners. A commissioned portrait of Emily based on collective staff and guest descriptions hangs on the second floor.
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