Philip and Latimer Baker were successful businessmen in Vineland, New Jersey, and they had enjoyed the sandy beaches, ocean breezes and natural wonders of the Five Mile Beach area on a number of occasions. Because of this they formed the Wildwood Improvement Company with their brother J. Thompson Baker in 1895. This led to the founding of Wildwood Borough, which was named after the forest by the sea where their land was located, and the town grew so rapidly that the brothers Baker decided to develop the land south of the borough, an area consisting of an unspoiled wilderness of sand dunes and dense thickets.  It would become Wildwood Crest.

   Sand dunes were leveled and the first streets in Wildwood Crest were given floral and rustic names. The first house was constructed in 1906. The following year the demand for new houses was so heavy that construction began on a new house every day for  period of two months. The Baker brothers built the Wildwood Crest arch as a fantastic entrance to Wildwood Crest at Cresse and Pacific Avenues in 1907. It was 30 feet tall and was illuminated at night by a so-called “Pompeian Fire.” The community became a borough in 1910,  declared so by New Jersey Governor Wort, and Philip Portius Baker was the first elected mayor of Wildwood Crest. The new borough was then 18 blocks long and six blocks deep.

   The Wildwood Crest borough hall was built in 1911. In a published promotional piece the Baker brothers described their town with these words: “…the bright shining example for many growing resorts elsewhere upon the New Jersey coast”….”…hundreds of handsome homes, big hotels, apartment houses and business blocks. Twenty miles of cement sidewalks; a;; streets graveled and with sanitary sewer system. Trolley line through property. A storm-proof sea wall. Boardwalk along entire beachfront. Gas, electricity, underground telephone system, artesian well, no public debt.”

   This wonderful resort was recommended back in 1910 as supplying recuperative health benefits, so much so that area physicians made testimonials to this fact. The Baker brothers began using these medical testimonials in their advertising literature to promote their coastal resort.

   Philip P. Baker, the man who was the primary champion and developer of Wildwood Crest, died in 1920 at the age of 74. Following World War II Wildwood Crest, like