Reward: Stolen bathtub. Last seen about five years ago. Very heavy. May have come with its own ghost.
Coastal Point • Submitted
The owners of the Addy Sea are searching for this bathtub.
That about sums up the advertisement the owners of the Addy Sea Bed and Breakfast in Bethany Beach recently decided to run in the Coastal Point to try to retrieve some long-missing property.
The bathtub in question is a vintage Victorian clawfoot model, made entirely of solid copper. It was the personal bathtub of John Addy, the builder in 1902 of the Addy Sea and others of that era’s original Bethany Beach homes.
“John Addy was a plumbing supplier in Pittsburgh, Pa., and when he built the Addy Sea, he shipped many — if not all — of the building supplies by rail, barge and wagon to the building site at Ocean View Parkway and North Atlantic Avenue in Bethany Beach, including the Victorian copper clawfoot bathtub,” said Henry Hensel, who described the missing tub’s history.
The Addy Sea’s Web site describes the house in its early days as “a showplace — not only for its location and stateliness, but for the modem conveniences it offered the early guests, like bathrooms, indoor plumbing and carbide lamps, which were all shipped by railroad from Pittsburgh to Rehoboth Beach and then barged to Bethany Beach via the inland canal system.”
Addy drilled to provide the home and others in the area with fresh water — some of which ended up in his very own bathtub. According to Hensel, the Addy Sea was the only home in Bethany Beach in the early 1900s with indoor plumbing, and Addy’s tub was unique in being made of solid copper.
Solid copper bathtubs are not only very heavy, they’re also highly prized by most of their owners. A modern variation handcrafted by the artisans who refurbished the Statue of Liberty’s torch is now being marketed for some $67,000. One with slightly less of a pedigree can be found for upwards of $3,000, with true antiques bringing a premium price to collectors and restorers of old homes.
And these days, with scrap copper prices near an all-time high, a heavy, solid copper bathtub even might be a tempting target for lesser reasons. People have been driven to steal old copper pipes, copper construction materials and (at the risk of their lives) copper light poles from municipal installations, unoccupied homes and construction sites. Police recently made an arrest in one such widespread case that troubled the Selbyville area.
But some four to five years ago, when the Addy tub disappeared, the value of copper — and the temptation to specifically steal a bathtub made of it for its metal value alone — were less. That’s why Hensel and the Gravatte family — which has owned and operated the Addy Sea as a bed-and-breakfast since 1975 — are hopeful that the tub is still intact, and possibly still in the Bethany Beach area, even though it has been half a decade since they’ve seen it.
Tub went missing during ‘airing out’
Hensel said the tub’s disappearance can be traced to the sale of the Addy Sea in the 1970s and subsequent renovations done in the 1980s.
“At that time, the tub was removed from the inn and stored in the adjacent old dinghy garage for safekeeping,” he explained. “For twenty-some years, it remained there and many of the locals knew it was there. And sometimes the garage doors were left open to air out the winter’s stale moldy air.”
Hensel said it was on one of these “airing out” days that the tub went missing.
“It was thought that some young summer pranksters had taken it and eventually it would show up somewhere in the town,” he said.
But it never did.
“No police report or insurance claim was ever filed, and the tub slowly disappeared into the Addy Sea legends and lore,” Hensel said.
Hensel said that, earlier this year, a discussion took place between a couple of “locals” and the topic of the missing copper tub was brought up. According to rumor, he said, the tub is still in the area and has been seen several times. “But no one is willing to say where it is.”
That led to the decision to run an advertisement seeking information about the whereabouts of the tub, complete with a reward.
“We are offering a reward for its return, and no criminal action will be taken,” Hensel emphasized. “We just want to have the tub returned to the Addy Sea because it has historical lineage to the Addy Sea B&B and the family.”
Pilfered tub, poltergeist included?
Oh, there’s one more thing to consider for whoever might be lounging in a misappropriated copper bathtub full of warm water on a chilly winter’s evening in or near Bethany Beach: the tub may be haunted.
“This old copper bathtub has been known to vibrate violently, and the action is linked to a ghost in the Addy Sea Bed and Breakfast,” reads the caption from a historical photo of the tub in James Meehan’s 1998 book “Bethany Beach Memoirs: A Long Look Back.”
Yes, back when the tub was situated in Room No. 1, which had been restored to the original 1901 appearance, the now-missing bathtub was the site of a reported haunting. Rumors of its continued existence in the area don’t mention whether its current users have noticed a little something extra that came with the historical fixture, or whether it might have walked off on its own.
And even though it’s been gone for more than a few years, ghost-hunting and haunting aficionados still include the tub among the “haunted” features of the B&B when talking about their reasons to visit there. Several of the Addy Sea’s rooms are reported to be the site of mysterious music, disembodied footsteps, errant scents of perfume and sightings of the ghost of a former employee of the Addys.
“Some guests, legend or lore had mentioned that the tub did a little rocking and rolling sometimes, and they thought that was part of the haunting,” Hensel said.
But Hensel himself is a little more skeptical about whether the bathtub itself was demonstrating the presence of a poltergeist or other supernatural bather.
“In reality, it was probably just the plumbing. The plumbing was old. The washers might have been loose. And every time the water was turned on, it would shake,” he explained.
These days, Hensel said, the major mystery surrounding the bathtub is where it went a handful of years ago and whether it will be reunited with its original home.
“If we could find it and solve the mystery of what happened to it, that would be a great story,” he said.
Anyone who has information on the whereabouts of John Addy’s original copper bathtub is being asked to contact the Addy Sea at (302) 539-3707 or by e-mail at addyseabb@aol.com. A reward is being offered for information leading to the bathtub’s recovery.