White Horse Beach is a village within the jurisdiction of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, United States. It is located on

Cape Cod Bay Cape Cod Bay is a large bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Measuring below a line drawn from Brant Rock in Marshfield to Race Point in Provincetown, Massachusetts, it is enclosed by Cape Cod to the south ...

, 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 northern end of the beach is a rock protruding from the water with an

American flag The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. flag, consists of thirteen horizontal Bar (heraldry), stripes, Variation of the field, alternating red and white, with a blue rectangle in the Canton ( ...

painted on. According to local lore, this act of patriotism was performed to cover a

Nazi swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

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 Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

was bombed in December of that year. 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 northern end of the beach. It has a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

and a

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

. Its ZIP code is 02381. Residents and businesses in this village that are non-

Post Office box A post office box (commonly abbreviated as P.O. box, or also known as a postal box) is a uniquely addressable lockable box located on the premises of a post office. In some regions, particularly in Africa, there is no door-to-door delivery ...

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) and 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 table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that ...

s, and

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

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 An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...

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;Archived a
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"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 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 Eutrophication is a general term describing a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water, resulting in an increased growth of organisms that may deplete the oxygen in the water; ie. the process of too many plants growing on the s ...

pond located inland from White Horse Beach. This pond is fed by Beaver Dam Brook and its outlet flows into

. 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, 1950s and 1960s. 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)

Notes

External links

White Horse Beach
{{authority control Villages in Plymouth, Massachusetts Beaches of Massachusetts Landforms of Plymouth County, Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Villages in Massachusetts

Annual activities

Landmarks and recreation

See also

Notes

External links