White Horse Beach, Massachusetts

Village in Massachusetts, United States

White Horse Beach is a village of Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on Cape Cod Bay, south of Priscilla Beach. Much of the southern end of the beach, which is also known as Taylor Avenue Beach, south of the outflow of Bartlett Pond, either has cottages on it or has a fenced off conservation area to protect the dunes and fragile plant life.

At the north end of the beach is a rock sticking out of the water with an American flag painted on. According to local lore, this act of patriotism was performed to cover a Nazi swastika painted on the rock. In the summer of 1941 local teenagers painted the first flag and went on to join the armed forces after Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941. The harsh winter storms washed the flag thin so the swastika showed through. The next Fourth of July the tradition of re-painting the flag was born.

There is a small business district just beyond the north end of the beach. It has a general store and a Post Office. Its ZIP code is 02381. Residents and businesses in this village that are non-Post Office box holders use Plymouth's ZIP code of 02360. Further inland was St. Catherine's Chapel (which had fallen into disrepair, was sold to an individual with local ties who razed the structure and directed the landscaping of the property with grass and trees to serve as a small park.) White Horse Cemetery, which dates back to the early 18th century. The Post Office, originally inside the General Store, leases a space in the former White Horse Bowling Alley that included pool tables, and pinball machines. Pin setting was done manually by "Pin Spotters" who had to move fast to keep up with the Bowlers. Two hotels were located on White Horse Beach, the Mayflower and the White Horse Hotel. The Mayflower has since burned and the area developed into Condos. White Horse Hotel was torn down in the sixties to make way for a parking lot.

Annual activities

White Horse Beach is widely known for its Independence Day celebrations, which are held on July 3 annually. This early celebration of Independence Day extends back to the 1800s, when residents burned scrap and driftwood on the beach. Tradition would dictate that these bonfires be extinguished by the rising tide. Depending on the phase of the moon, festivities would go late into the evening. In recent years, the town fire department has begun to request permits for bonfires (non-permitted bonfires are sometimes removed by the fire department). Historically, town officials have requested that these fires be extinguished no earlier than midnight. Also in recent years, the celebrations have experienced a soft "crackdown by police and fire departments" to deter the historically massive bonfires and fireworks;^[1] "NO Public Parking or Restroom Facilities" are officially advertised on location for this event to deter non-residents from attending.

Landmarks and recreation

White Horse Beach is also in close proximity to the Priscilla Beach Theatre, a professional center for drama education and performance dating back to the 1930s. It is also the location of Bartlett Pond, which is a shallow eutrophic pond located inland from White Horse Beach. This pond is fed by Beaver Dam Brook and its outlet flows into Cape Cod Bay. White Horse was known as part of the "Irish Riviera" due to the large population of Irish descendants from Dorchester, Somerville, and South Boston who would vacation there in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. It was the typical summer community that one would find on the South Shore and Cape Cod. Many cottages from that era still stand to this day, though some have been destroyed by storms and a great many have been renovated to year-round homes, partly due to the Boston real estate market. This infusion of year-round residents had a dramatic effect on the local economy as White Horse Beach transitioned from a seasonal community of vacationers to a bedroom community of greater Boston.

White Horse Beach landmarks include:

Located atop Manomet Point is a small monument marking the location of the Manomet Point Life-Saving Station. Starting in 1874 the Station and its Surfmen kept a watchful eye on vessels seeking the calmer waters closer to land along the South Shore. The monument commemorates the Surfmen who served this community and those that made the supreme sacrifice in an attempt to rescue crew members of a floundering vessel (Robert E. Lee).
White Horse General Store
White Horse Rock (AKA Flag Rock)