Now a community of 1,000 people and growing, the territory known as Ocean View was founded in 1688 as a 500-acre tract of land given to Matthew Scarborough by Lord Baltimore. In the 1800s, Ocean View became known as Hall's Store after the store opened by W.S. Hall on his farm near White's Creek.

The town was eventually incorporated as Ocean View on April 13, 1889 with the first town meeting on April 20, 1889. Sea Captain George W. West was elected the first town council president. He was later replaced by Captain W. Tunnell.

Legend has it that a young man climbed a tree in town one day soon after the Civil War and claimed that he could see the ocean. True or not, it's a nice story for how the town got its name even though it's a mile away from the ocean in Bethany Beach.

A ship yard provided work in the 1800s. Called Pennewell's Landing, it was located at the end of the Assawoman Canal leading into White's Creek. A post office was established on Central Avenue in June 1833. Not much later, the area began to evolve into a village of farmers, watermen, seafarers and families.

Businesses listed in the Sussex County Farm Directory of 1875-1877 in Ocean View included J.M. Steel (blacksmith), Holt & Townsend (lumber), Js. F. Holt, G.W. Tunnell, McNeal & Williams (merchants), Miss M. Townsend (Milliner), Jas. B. Davis (shoemaker), Lemuel H. Derrickson and Geo. H. West (vessel captains), and John W. Evans, James A. Firman, Joseph E. Hall, James F. Holt, William H. Hudson, Benton Mitchell, Jacob Pusey, Nathaniel F. Quillen, Thomas H. Richards, John Taylor, Peter Townsend and John M. Turner (farmers and fruit growers).

A map of 1890, drawn by John T. West, showed 44 residential properties, four stores, and the Ocean View Presbyterian Church and Mariner's Bethel Methodist Church. Common names during that time were Betts, Burbage, Daisey, Evans, Rickards, Tunnell and West.

By 1895, the area's population was listed at 350 in the Sussex County Farm Directory of 1895-97. Land was valued at $100 per acre and was said to be good for producing grain and fruit trees. Sailors, life savers, masons, shopkeepers, carpenters, fishermen, mill operators and farmers were among the occupations then.

Ocean View became the birthplace of the broiler chicken industry in 1923 when Cecile Steele raised the first commercial flock of broiler-fryer chickens. Poultry is now one of Sussex County's largest industries. The industry produces 500 million birds and employs more than 20,000 people throughout the county. Also during this period, the Ocean View area was the largest strawberry producing region in the country.

Ocean View held an annual Homecoming in the early 1900s with bands, ice cream, lemonade, cracker jack, governors and senators. The final of 32 homecomings was held in 1940. Crowds at the annual gathering reached 5,000 before it was determined that it should be ended due to the impact of the phone and automobile on people's ability to get together more often.

The town drew large crowds again in 1989 when it celebrated its Centennial from June 12-15 with a major festival featuring food, music and activities. The town also hosted the 41st annual Delmarva Chicken Festival during the Centennial celebration.

Largely a town of chicken houses and farms during the World War II era, Ocean View began to evolve into a year-round family town after World War II as farms were gradually replaced by homes and chicken houses were abandoned.

Ocean View began to evolve again in the late 1980s, this time into a community of retirees. That evolution is in full force now, as evidenced by the 2000 census.