the University of Chicago. Powers supposedly also suggested the name "Bethany Beach," but the committee received Powers' entry two weeks after Atkinson's and thus Atkinson was deemed the winner. Also in 1900, the Disciples of Christ formed the Bethany Beach Improvement Company, which raised the money to purchase the land for the new town from Evans. Marketing the new community aggressively, the company sold 150 lots—mostly to families from Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Scranton—in Bethany Beach. It laid out streets and began the construction of the Tabernacle, an octagonal auditorium which was dedicated on July 24, 1901, while still under construction and would serve as the town's central meeting place and cultural center, hosting both church services and entertainment events. The company also made plans to build cottages on the lots it had sold and to establish a railroad branch line passing through Ocean View and Millville that would connect Bethany Beach with the main line to the west at either Dagsboro or Frankford, Delaware, promising that the railroad would begin operations on July 4, 1901; however, the 1901 season came and went with no railroad in operation. A temporary town government began to operate in 1901. This event is celebrated as the founding of Bethany Beach, although the town would not be incorporated for another eight years. On July 12, 1901, Bethany Beach's inaugural summer season officially began with a crowd at the incomplete Tabernacle singing a song written especially for the occasion and sung to the tune of "Marching Through Georgia." The financial crisis of 1902–1903 Bethany Beach soon encountered financial problems which threatened to bring the planned town to an end almost before it could begin. Bankers in Georgetown, Delaware, hesitated to loan money for the development of Bethany Beach because they had lost money on the development of Rehoboth Beach to the north. Without sufficient financial backing, the Bethany Beach Improvement Company was unable to act on its plans, and little development occurred in Bethany Beach; basic services were lacking, construction stalled, work on the hoped-for railroad never began, and there was little agreement on how to address the new community's problems. In May 1902 the Christian Missionary Society withdrew its endorsement of Bethany Beach. Twenty-three landowners, mostly from the Pittsburgh area, concerned that the value of their Bethany Beach lots would drop, selected a committee to address the situation. The committee studied the problem,