A Piece of the Boardwalk, Framed

Local artist and fabricator Geoff Charvat gave weathered Ocean City boards a second life, transforming them into a frame that holds more than a painting. It holds a piece of the town’s history.

Ocean City’s Boardwalk has never been just a way to travel from one block to the next. For generations, it has been the place where vacation days begin, summer nights stretch a little longer and millions of footsteps become part of the town’s collective story.

Officially known as Atlantic Avenue, the first Boardwalk was constructed in 1902 by a group of oceanfront hotel owners who wanted to create a more convenient walkway for their guests. That early wooden path was temporary, rolled up at high tide and stored on hotel porches. A permanent promenade followed around 1910, eventually expanding north as Ocean City grew. After the storm of March 1962 destroyed much of it, the Boardwalk was rebuilt to its present 2.5-mile length.

The boards themselves have always been part of its character. Sun-bleached, salt-worn and marked by decades of use, they quietly record the life of the resort.

In 2016, local artist and fabricator Geoff Charvat salvaged boards that had been removed from the section of Boardwalk in front of the historic Beach Plaza Hotel. Rather than sanding away their age or disguising their imperfections, he allowed the wood to remain exactly what it was.

“I moved to Ocean City in fifth grade, and walking those boards became part of every summer as I grew up here,” Charvat says. “Now I walk the Boardwalk with my wife and our children. Using the old boards for the frame gave them a new purpose while preserving a small piece of a place that has been part of my life for so long.”

He used the boards to create a substantial, hand-built frame for one of his original paintings, a brightly colored and expressive fish set against a vivid blue background.

The playful artwork immediately catches the eye, but the longer you look, the more the frame begins to tell its own story.

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Deep grooves run through the wood. Original nail holes remain visible. The edges are worn and uneven in places, and small cracks trace the grain where years of sun, wind, sand and saltwater left their mark. Even the variations in color reveal how differently each section weathered while serving as part of the Boardwalk.

The broad frame gives the painting a rugged coastal presence, but it also creates a physical connection to Ocean City’s past. The boards once sat beneath countless visitors walking in sandals, pushing strollers, carrying beach chairs and heading toward the hotels, arcades and ocean beyond. Now, they surround a piece of local art and preserve part of that history in a new form.

The frame reflects Charvat’s work as both an artist and fabricator. It combines color and imagination with an appreciation for materials, construction and history. Nothing about it feels overly polished or mass-produced. The mitered corners retain their handmade quality, while the weathered surface gives the finished piece a depth that new lumber could never replicate.

The fish draws attention first, with its oversized eye, bright orange body and spiked fins. But the frame invites a closer look at the nail holes, deep grain and sections worn smooth by a life that began long before the boards became part of the artwork.